We hadn't exactly drawn an audience, but we were getting curious glances.
"Of course," Adriana agreed. She turned her attention my mage. "I still want to know more about you, as well."
Pink lights flashed in her eyes as she pulled on her magic. I thought she was using some sort of sensing spell.
I growled softly, but Nikolai blocked her.
"You seem awfully confident discovery won't cause you problems," Nikolai lowered his voice.
"People know who and what I am." She shrugged. "I'm not worried about discovery. I fight for our rights."
Nikolai shook his head and gestured toward the exit. "If you want to talk, we should leave."
"Where are we going?"
Nikolai glanced at Doc, who shrugged. "Dinner, perhaps."
She nodded acceptance.
It would be dark by now or I would have suggested that we go someplace like a park where there were less likely to be people close enough to overhear our conversation. Though, I supposed, there was a spell for that.
Ed and Allan trailed behind us as we headed out of the museum.
∞ ∞ ∞
Doc made good on his promise to take us to the sixteenth street mall. My luck with restaurants and never having to wait for a seat held and we got seated right away at a restaurant claiming to have the best cheesecake. They certainly had a wide variety, and I debated skipping dinner and going straight to the dessert.
I ended up ordering pasta. Doc ordered the same thing though he and Nikolai had a lengthy discussion about various dishes which Adriana watched with interest as it became quite clear the Russian was not familiar with most of the stuff on the menu. We sat on either side of Doc. Ed sat on my other side and Allan sat next to Nikolai. Adriana sat between the two werewolves.
She acted at ease, but I noticed her shoot uneasy glances at the two werewolves now and again. They had put us in a corner of the restaurant and Nikolai discreetly cast a spell that would muffle our words to anyone not at the table or standing right next to us so we could talk freely if we wanted to. Adriana watched him with interest, but didn't otherwise comment.
Once we ordered food, we fell into an uneasy silence. She seemed to be waiting for us, and I knew we were waiting on her.
Finally, once our drinks arrived, she took a drink and leaned back in her chair, head tilted slightly, almost regal in her demeanor as if she viewed supplicants.
"We want to help you, you know. The Andersons have needed handling for a long time now."
"Then why do you not handle them?" Nikolai grumbled.
"The demon, of course. They have not yet done anything worth risking other mage lives over."
Doc's water glass shattered in his hand and his growl vibrated through me. Blood dripped through his clenched fist, mingling with the spilled water on the table. Adriana's eyes went wide as she jumped in her seat. Either she had discounted what they had attempted to do to me, or didn't consider it that important.
Both Ed and Allan glared at her.
Nikolai quickly cast another spell and the spilled water, blood and broken glass vanished. Then he made a show of casting a healing spell over Doc's already closing wounds, before he put his hand over Doc's wrist. I pressed up against the vampire's other side.
Nikolai's magic tugged at me, though we had managed to get some of our reaction to the resonance between us under control, my stomach still tightened and I had to concentrate on my anger to keep from losing my focus.
My mage glanced at me, winking before he turned his attention back to Adriana.
Doc was so pissed off that he didn't even react, though he had to have felt it just as I did.
"Perhaps you are unaware of what they've been up to recently?" Nikolai said voice low.
"We keep some watch on them, but we only have so many resources," Adriana replied defensively.
"They wanted Sofia to host a greater demon," Doc growled through clenched teeth. "Nearly succeeded, too."
Adriana blanched. "How far did they actually get."
We all traded a glance before I shrugged. At this point I didn't think it mattered what she knew.
"Let's just put it this way," I said. "Much of my education came from the greater demon. She was kind enough to leave me alive long enough for Nikolai to figure out how to send her home. Nikolai has taught me the rest of what I know."
Adriana's eyebrows rose. "You were able to release the binding on a greater demon?" She directed that at Nikolai, "and you were able to resist being pushed out of her mind?" The last was said toward me.
"The demon was just as interested in going home as I was in staying alive, so she worked with us. The Andersons didn't think we'd manage it and we tricked them into leaving me with Nikolai while he figured out how to unravel the spell."
"How did you do it?"
Nikolai rolled his eyes. "Unraveled the spell."
"But how?" she repeated.
"You are not skilled enough to do it. No sense in teaching you."
Burn, I thought to myself, fighting a smile.
Her eyebrows really rose at that. "I am one of the more powerful mages in the States."
Nikolai waved his hand dismissively, currently every inch the court mage in posture and attitude. I hadn't seen him act like that in quite some time, so I was certain it was deliberate.
"Where are you from, Nikolai? No one has heard of you."
"Course not." He didn't elaborate.
Adriana clenched her jaw, but her attention strayed to Doc and she tensed.
I ran my hand up his forearm, before folding my hand over his clenched one. He took a deep breath and relaxed marginally.
The food arrived, interrupting our conversation. We ate for a while in silence before Ed finally broke it. "Did you follow us just to tell us again how you couldn't help us?"
Adriana shook her head. "Nikolai seemed certain that he could take their
