“The fun is in the journey. But seriously, you didn’t give away anything important. Actually, you probably helped us out. I need more information about Ja’s interest in you, and I didn’t want to have to trade information for it. Vlad is basically stalking Charity and her dad because he wants the warrior fae on his side. I assume Ja wants you for the same reasons, but you and I are tied together. You can’t do anything huge without me helping, and the same goes for me in relation to you. So why is she so focused on you while completely ignoring me? There is a game afoot, but damned if I can figure it out. Hopefully Darius will have some ideas.”
“Yeah, she creeps me out. The daily flowers wouldn’t even be nice from you. It’s too much. Stop killing things and then trying to decorate my table with the corpses, you know what I mean?”
His body shook as he chuckled. It was one of those times when he didn’t seem to realize she was being serious. Thankfully, he knew what kinds of gifts she preferred—flowers that could be planted and power stones that seemed like they were living. Those things were much better than cut flowers, in her opinion.
“But Reagan didn’t seem to think Darius should have that information,” Penny said as Reagan and Darius strutted closer, the push and pull of the tango one of Penny’s favorite types of ballroom dancing.
“She would’ve told you to shut it if you were saying something that would negatively affect you, though I’m not totally sure if that rule applies to me.” He paused. “Based on the way he was talking to you, it hasn’t occurred to him that I know you can’t keep secrets, and we wouldn’t have come here if there was something urgent that you couldn’t share. Given his usual insightfulness, I’m guessing he’s incredibly distracted. He basically just clued me in to his anxieties and vulnerabilities. That is valuable info regarding an elder vampire. I can use that to my advantage if I need to.”
“But you won’t.”
“Unless he makes a play to trap you in some way, no. I just like assurances.” His voice softened. “I told you I’d keep you out of vampire hands, Turdswallop. I mean to keep that promise, by any means necessary.”
She fought a smile at the nickname, because even though it was ridiculous and embarrassing, it reminded her of when they’d first met. Of when they first fell in love.
“You’ve gotten really good at politics,” she said. “You’re almost as good as Darius.”
“Survival is a strong motivator.” He squeezed her again, pensive for a moment. “I think Darius is beside himself freaked out about Reagan. My guess is a lot more work is going into hiding her than we see here. He’s wound pretty tightly. This isn’t just a play for an asset… He actually loves her.”
“You knew that.”
He wobbled his hand. “I heard that, but all this time, I mostly thought he was playing a good game. He’s an elder—that’s their whole life, playing a good game to get what they want. But after seeing all this”—he waved at the dancers—“and our talk at dinner, and…” He shrugged. “Hard not to be a believer. Somehow, Reagan made that vampire more of a man than a beast. It should not be possible.”
“Just because people have always said it isn’t? By that logic, a mage, a natural mage, shouldn’t do magic like a witch.”
He looked down on her, the soft light of the ballroom infusing his beautiful blue eyes and softening his ruggedly handsome face. “Touché.”
“What we should be thinking of is how can we get the other vampires to become real boys. And girls.”
His eyes turned shrewd and drifted back up to Darius as he twirled Reagan, a classical song coming over the built-in speakers and prompting them to change things up. “Hmm.”
“You’re going to try to figure that out and leverage it over the vampires, aren’t you?” Penny said.
“No. We are going to figure it out and leverage it. Remember what I said? Anything huge requires both of us. If we can figure this out, it’s big enough that I might be able to wiggle out of my affiliation with Darius so we can completely stand on our own.”
Penny just shrugged. She wasn’t worried about where she stood with Darius. Not with Reagan in the mix, at any rate. Reagan might enjoy shoving Penny into danger, but she had never thrust her into something she couldn’t handle, not without stepping in if things went pear-shaped. Reagan would never allow Darius to corner Penny, or trap her, or hurt her.
Still, pinpointing the reason Darius had found his humanity could make a huge difference for the Brink and the Realm. Penny would help for that reason.