Shadow Phantoms
Page 16
Though I was loath to admit to the truth of some of what Laucian had said to me, there were few vampires on the Coalition ships who I could rely upon to protect Emma in the same way. In addition to this, Stone had one major advantage over virtually every other vampire I could lay hands on; he could go out during the day.
Exactly why that was, was complicated, and it had certainly surprised me to discover this ability of his. It seemed to do with his gypsy heritage. Vampires and gypsies have a history all their own that stretches back centuries, and that history does, on occasion, throw up abnormalities like Stone.
There was one other reason that Stone was particularly suitable for the task; he owed me a favor. In fact, he owed me his life.
“Tell me more about Emma.” I tried to keep my voice level and my questions professional, but a part of me was straining to know more about her. We had once been so close and now she felt like a link to the life I had left behind, as well as to Bryn and Rowan. It now occurred to me that perhaps I had been pleased that Laucian had given me this excuse to pry into my niece’s life.
“She’s a bright enough girl,” said Stone. “Has some good friends among her peers. And some enemies as well, which I guess is the way of teenagers.” Stone was not that much older than Emma to look at—but he had been turned over a century ago.
“No one trying to hurt her?” I checked.
“Not physically,” replied Stone. “Some bullying, and tormenting. You know what girls are like at that age.”
“Not really,” I shook my head.
“It’s like putting two weasels in a sack together,” explained Stone with a shrug. “But don’t worry about Emma. Like I said, she has friends. An odd pair, but faithful, and you can’t put a price on that.”
“They will not protect her if the Vryloka come.”
Stone raised a finger and gave me that smug look of his again. “Way ahead of you, Sinclair. I found a way to protect her, even when I’m not around.”
He wanted me to be impressed, but I was not going to give him that satisfaction. Not until I knew it was deserved, anyway.
“Now she has a familiar.”
“A familiar?”
“A giant snake—the most fearsome of familiars,” Stone responded with a grin and a quick nod. He was quite pleased with himself.
“Indeed.” Truth be told, I was impressed. That was a good idea.
Stone shook his head. “The Saints alone know how she’s going to carry the thing around though. I might have to give her a bag of carrying.” There was a pause. “Sinclair?”
I had drifted off, ceasing to listen to what he was saying. I looked up again. “Bag of carrying. Yes. Such will save her shoulders and back.”
Stone looked at me, his keen eyes searching my face. “Something wrong?”
I gave him a half-smile. “The last time I saw Emma, her preferred familiar would have been a fluffy bunny or a guinea pig. Something of that description.”
“She’s grown up well,” said Stone.
Of course she had. Bryn had done a good job with her and was no doubt doing a similarly good job with Rowan. I just wished I had been there. I wished I was there still.
“So, no signs of danger?” I refocused on the subject in hand.
“Not so far.”
I nodded, thoughtfully. There was a chance that all this was for nothing and Laucian was dreaming up the danger. Stone’s gypsy blood was no doubt already calling him back to the road; he hated to be settled, even for a matter of weeks. Perhaps I could thank him and let him go on his way…
But something inside me said this matter was not finished yet.
“I am sorry to have to ask you—I know there are places you would rather be than a posh school, nurse-maiding a child—but I want you to stay on.”
“Of course.”
I was surprised, for I was expecting some resistance. “I know it is a lot to ask, but you do owe me.”
“I already said yes.” He gave me that cocky smile. “I am more than happy to keep watching Emma.”
The inflection of his voice caught my attention and I felt my fists tighten. I controlled the anger and smiled back at him. “I am sure she is worth watching. The Wilkins women are all quite enchantingly beautiful.”
Caught off-guard, Stone gave a stupid grin. “Emma certainly is… enchantingly beautiful.”
I kept smiling, but as my gaze met his, my eyes were blue steel. “If you touch her, I kill you.”
Stone’s parents had died when he was a child and he had been raised by an uncle who had beaten him regularly to keep him in line. When he was ten, he ran off and began fending for himself for the rest of his childhood (though you could barely call it a childhood). Stone had seen too much of life at a young age, but it meant that when someone threatened him, he knew when they were serious and when they were bluffing. Right now, I saw the anxiety in his eyes that meant he had understood me in no uncertain terms.
“I… I didn’t mean…” he stuttered.
“Yes, you did,” I said calmly. “I am sure Emma is as beautiful as her mother and aunt and there is no reason for you not to be attracted to her. Except that she is my niece and she is under my protection.”
Stone could be an arrogant son of a bitch—no harm in that, I was quite the same in my youth. Perhaps I still was. But Stone was smart enough to know that if it came to a fight between the two of us, I would barely bruise my knuckles while he would be reduced to a sticky, red smear upon the pavement.
“Get back to the academy before you are missed.”
Stone nodded, not as cocky as he had been a moment ago, and stood to leave.
“Sinclair?”
“Yes?”
“Can I ask…?”
“Ask what?”
“Does this make us even?”
I considered the question. I had saved his life. In return, he was teaching teenagers magic. Hardly a fair trade. But if something came for Emma, then he would be the one putting himself between her and the Vryloka, and I trusted him to do just that. I knew he would do just that.
“Yes, I suppose it does.”
He appeared relieved. “It’s a tough thing to be in debt to a man like you.”
###
Nodding goodnight to the girl on reception as I passed, I made my way back up to my room. When I had met Stone Draper (I was never sure if his surname was real or one he had picked for himself) he was barely out of his teens. His life had been as hard as any, he had fought every day of it and had managed to claw his way up from nothing.
He was also dying.
Fate is sometimes a cruel bitch in that respect; if anyone deserved a break, it was that beaten child, and instead he contracted a terminal illness. Which would not usually have been enough to sway me; humans died everyday in a variety of unfair circumstances and since I could not help them all, I did not help any.
Perhaps it was because Stone had immediately recognized what I was—that gypsy blood again. He did not fawn or beg, he just asked directly if I would turn him. Perhaps I saw something in him. He was very handsome, very clever, fit and strong, smug and self-confident, all the ladies loved him; so perhaps he reminded me of myself so long ago.
But now that I looked back on it, I wondered if I knew even then, that a man like this would one day be useful to me.
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