“So I am being given the choice of the lesser of two evils? You do not make much of a case for yourself.”
“Maybe I’m not trying too hard,” I said truthfully. I needed Pritkin. I knew next to nothing about magic on the grand scale, and had no idea where to even start looking for the book. But I didn’t think I could stand another Mac on my conscience. “If you’re smart, you’ll lay low until this is over. Let me fight my own battles. You might get lucky and Myra and I will kill each other off.”
“And why should I not kill both of you myself, and hope the next in line will be better?”
Billy’s eyes got big, and I realized that while I was relatively safe in Augusta’s body, he was still vulnerable in mine. I stepped in front of him. “There is no next in line,” I told Pritkin flatly. “If there were another contender who could do a decent job, I’d have given her the damn power already! But the initiates are all under the control of your Circle, who I don’t trust any more than the Black. I’m not going to hand world-shattering power to someone who can be manipulated, controlled or corrupted!”
Pritkin regarded me narrowly. “You expect me to believe you would give up the power, just like that, if there was a fit receptacle to receive it? You dragged us into Faerie to complete the ritual. Of course you want it.”
“I didn’t drag you anywhere! You volunteered to go.”
“To find the rogue!”
I took a deep breath. Augusta didn’t need it, but I did. “I went into Faerie to get Myra before she could get me. Picking up Tomas was a fluke, and completing the ritual was a bid to stay alive.”
“You told Mac you went after your father.”
“I did. Tony has him, or what’s left of him, and I want him back. But the main goal was always Myra. I had reason to believe that she was with Tony.” It had seemed like killing two birds with one stone, but I should have known better. When was my life ever that simple? “But now she’s here, trying to kill Mircea. If she succeeds, he won’t be around to protect me while I grow up, and I doubt I’ll make it long enough to be a pain in your side, or anyone else’s. If you want to get rid of me, here’s your big chance.”
“Why are you telling me this? I could help Myra destroy you, and your vampire.”
“I know.” And, frankly, it wouldn’t surprise me. I was gambling a lot on Mac’s faith in his buddy, a faith that could very well have been misplaced. But then, is it a gamble if you don’t have a choice? I had Myra and half the European Senate against me. And the only one on my side was a very stressed-out ghost in an all-too-vulnerable body. What was one more enemy?
Pritkin was giving me another of his patented glares. “What do you think you can do alone, against Myra and the Senate?”
So he had overheard my little chat with Myra. I shrugged. “Possibly nothing. In which case, your problem is solved.” I looked down at Billy. “Will you be all right on your own for a while?”
He shrugged. “Sure. Hell, if I die a few more times, I might even get used to it.”
“I am going with you,” Pritkin announced.
“So you’re what? Opting for the lesser of two evils, after all?”
“For the moment.”
It wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement, but it was good enough. “You’re hired.”
Chapter 14
The street was still dark, even to Augusta’s eyes, but I discovered other ways to see. All along the road were people, hidden in the night—in tenements, scurrying along the street or congregating in pubs. Many of them were amorphous, dark-clothed shapes against the night, but all of them had heartbeats, and it was those thousands of living, beating organs that called out to me like a siren song. Beyond the human river were darker spots, just a few streets back, but my skin prickled with awareness of their power. Vampires.
I pulled away so I wouldn’t see Augusta’s features reflected in the dark glass. “There’s a lot of vamps in the area,” I told Pritkin, “maybe a couple dozen.” I had managed the sentence without my voice cracking, but my palms had started to sweat. Even in Augusta’s body, there was no way I could fight those odds, and for all his toys, Pritkin wasn’t likely to do much better.
“How long until they get here?” He sounded far too matter-of-fact for my frazzled nerves.
“What difference does it make?” I fought to keep from screaming it at him. “We need to find Mircea and hide— fast. It’s the only sensible plan.”
Pritkin walked out the stage door and down the steps. I followed him, all the way to the front of the building, where he stopped, looking up and down the frost-covered road. “Humor me,” he said.
“In case you’ve forgotten, the Senate isn’t the only problem, ” I told him, low enough that I hoped no passing vamps would take notice. “I can’t let Myra run
loose—”
“Then don’t. Deal with the rogue. I will handle this.”
“You’ll handle this?” I’d rested my hand on a lamppost and didn’t realize until I tried to pull away that I’d sunk my fingers almost completely through the cast iron. I pulled them out cautiously and leaned the listing post against a building so it didn’t fall over. Getting angry in a vampire body was obviously not a good idea. “A corpse isn’t much of an ally!” I told Pritkin frankly. “Some of these are Senate members. I doubt you could even slow them down. We need to hide.”
“They could track us by scent alone. Hiding isn’t an option.”