Red specks appeared in Andrei’s irises. Oh well, in for a penny.
“If we do win these games, you’re going to ask the Council to remove your family from the Book of Beasts, aren’t you?”
It must have been a real shock because it jerked him out of his almost rage-fit. His top lip curled. “They never should have been there in the first place.”
Disputing it would be suicide right now. Instead I pivoted.
“And what comes after they’re removed?” I’d thought about this a lot during my time in Ravenhall. Not Andrei’s situation specifically but my own. What happened now? “What are you going to do with the rest of your very long, immortal life?”
My studies of his family had revealed that Andrei was the last of a line of purebred vampires. He was immortal. I suspected it was part of the reason why he was touched in the head. An eternity of loneliness stretched out in front of him. It was enough to make anyone crazy.
The dark look on his face showed me he wasn’t planning on living for all of eternity. I shook my head. “You don’t strike me as a fall-on-his-sword type of guy.”
I’d cornered him and he didn’t like it. So Andrei came out swinging. “I might not have to once Lucifer breaks free from his containment. I could go out a hero in battle.”
It was a nice try using the prophecy to get to me. Too bad for him I’d heard it all before. “Then you’d better die taking him head-on in front of the whole world,” I said. “Because if he breaks free, glory is the last thing any of us will be thinking about.”
Despite everything, I was feeling rattled. Stepping past him, I made for the door. “You’re not ready,” I told him. “I could raise your family when Michael removes this seal, but you still won’t be able to handle what you’ll get.”
He didn’t follow me out.
The back end of the corridor led to a door that allowed me to exit the lodge. It opened up to a balcony and a staircase. In the sky, the moon was full and fat. That struck me as odd. Only two nights ago, there was a noisy ritual at Ravenhall to celebrate the new moon. I remembered because they’d woken me up with their raucous partying. When I went to tell them off, I was traumatised by a face full of naked, middle-aged sorceress. I rubbed the goosebumps on my arms as I made my way down the stairs.
Over the past two years, I’d become paranoid by osmosis. Maybe now that my powers had been locked away, the human side of me was becoming stronger. Some ancient prey instinct suddenly had its grip around my throat. The only way to muffle it would be to scour every inch of the place to make sure there was nothing hiding in the dark.
The scent of roasting meat billowed from the chimney. It blanketed the air close to the Lodge. Fanning out, I scouted the area as methodically as I could. A dense lawn ringed the Lodge like a green moat. There were no walls or fences that I could discern. The horizon just seemed to go on forever. Spreading out from the back were long borders of herbaceous plants. I let my nose lead me to a patch of night-blooming jasmine. Farther along the same path, there were clumps of lavender, catnip, mint, and then a wall of dense greenery that hit you like a punch. The wolfsbane reached higher than my hip. They were supposed to be low-growing shrubs.
My eyesight wasn’t yet attuned to the darkness but even I could make out the sway of flower tops that stretched out for miles. Like an idiot, I waded farther out.
Now seemed like a good time to drop into the Ley dimension. Not two metres from where I was standing, my Ley sight showed me a glowing silver patch that could hold a herd of elephants.
I sank back into reality and crouched down to peer at what revealed itself to me a snare. I reached out, making sure to keep my palm a good distance away from the actual material of the trap. There was silver thread woven into the fibres. Interesting.
As were the rowan and hawthorn trees that were dotted throughout the gardens. I lugged a good-sized hawthorn branch into the lodge and stashed it under my pillow. Then I did a sweep of the house.
The bathroom didn’t hold anything besides the basics. All of the cupboards in the hallway were useless.
Down in the kitchen I could hear plates and cutlery scraping. My stomach grumbled but I didn’t relish the thought of eating in the company of my fellow competitors. Max found me trying to pry open what appeared to be a storage shed for wood and kindling on the right side of the house.
He wrinkled his nose and didn’t come close. “You stink of wolfsbane.”
“Thanks.”
He just stood there watching me. I almost dislocated my arm trying to lever the metal door open. “What are you doing?” he asked.
“Exploring.”
“You’re going to give yourself a hernia.”
“A little help might be nice.”
He waved me off and broke the door open like it was tissue paper. I cursed my lack of powers again. It was the pits being completely human. It made me certain that if the supernaturals did ever reveal themselves, the human population was going to panic and then things would get cataclysmic. It would make The Purge look like a field trip.
The contents of the shed spilled out. Chains and shackles of various sizes. I would bet they were almost pure iron.
“What the heck is all this?” Max asked.
“Insurance, I think.”
“For what?”
I studied him. All six foot something of him that could kill me with a sneeze. Freshly showered, the blisters on his skin were already healing.
