“A n ex-Hunter,” Nico says shortly.
“A failed Hunter,” Cade adds unnecessarily.
“I beg your pardon?” I say, completely dumbfounded. Christ, between Gustav, the Book, Sebastian, and now Nico, this man is just full of secrets. I wonder if I actually really know him at all.
“Of course, you do,” he says to me sadly, much to everyone else’s confusion.
“Explain.”
“By birthright, Nico is a Hunter. When he left the Academy in Rome at sixteen, it was his unfortunate task to kill a Master Vampire. As are all Hunter tasks, fail at it, and you fail to be a Hunter.”
I turn to Nico as CK stops speaking but before I can accuse him of killing a Master Vampire, CK continues, “It was his misfortune, you see, as they had picked out you for him to kill, when you came to visit me in Rome that week of the…” he trails off and I nod, knowing which week he means.
“Me? You were meant to kill me?” I say to Nico, who just stands there looking as unapologetic and stony-faced as usual.
“Of course, I was never going to let that happen, so when Alessandro brought it to my attention there was a young boy following you, I looked into it further. Luckily for you, or perhaps I overestimated his skill,” he clears his throat as Nico grunts, “he saw you Shift from Lexie to Aefre, as I had asked you to and he hesitated, assuming you weren’t a Vampire after all. Alessandro took him anyway to Ponte for, erm… discussions…”
“And Mr. D’Arcangelo persuaded me it would be better to use my skills for protection instead of destruction,” Nico picks up the story.
It all makes sense now, CK’s change in attitude when I said I wanted Cade to be my Nico. He knew exactly what I meant.
“And you trusted him?” I say, despite myself.
CK looks pointedly at Cade and, well, fair enough.
“Hm, you are just full of secrets aren’t you, my love,” I say with an inadvertent look at Sebastian. He goes on the alert, as does CK, as there must be something on my cursed face to give them warning.
I turn to Cade. “You are not a failed Hunter. Who was it you killed to get your merit badge?”
“Not your concern,” he says. “And before you start judging me, I suggest you look at your own kill sheet first.”
He is not wrong. I have probably killed more of his kind then he has of mine.
“One of Gregor’s,” Nico says, much to Cade’s annoyance.
I turn back to Nico. I wish they were all standing in a line next to each other as I am getting a bit dizzy now. “So, when I came to you at Ponte to find him. You knew exactly who I was talking about. As soon as I said his name, you knew.”
He looks down. “Yes.”
“You wanted to find me?” Cade asks cheerfully.
More spinning. “Yes, after JFK. You had me… intrigued.”
“Ah, the AB Negative thing. You mentioned that.”
“Not just that,” I mutter to myself, remembering how crazy good-looking I thought he was.
To which everyone hears me anyway and there is a lot of glowering going on in my direction, with the exception of Cade, who doesn’t know whether to be pleased or disgusted that I find him attractive.
“How can you do magick then? If you failed, how do you still have the ability?”
“I didn’t fail,” Nico says grimly. This is clearly a sticking point with him, but I don’t bother to point out that I am still alive. “But the magick isn’t ours. It’s the backers.”
“The backers?” I ask and then connect the dots. “A magick bearer that allows you to wield their power through you? Let me guess, Romani?” I refer to a group of very powerful Paranormal creatures that we have had dealings with before. I rescued many of them from Lance’s castle and CK took them under his wing to do… well, I guess, this, with.
“Clever girl,” CK mutters and I preen under his praise.
“You have a backer. I assume you always had one but am guessing now you are putting to use one of Lance’s?” I don’t wait for an answer as I ask Cade, “And you? How come you still have one now that you have crossed sides?” I click my fingers. “You lost yours and now you also have one of Lance’s, courtesy of my secretive sire and his Hunter buddy. I knew you two were looking like you had worked together for years. Clearly, you know each other’s moves.”