Blood Pact (Darkling Mage 7)

Mason stretched his arms behind him, leaning on the palms of his hands. “Wow. Looks like a whole lot of nothing.”

“Accurate.”

Vanitas cleared his throat. Mason looked over at him, drawn by the glowing garnets set in his scabbard.

“Ahem,” Vanitas repeated.

“Yeah, yeah,” I said out loud. “I heard you the first time.”

Mason turned to me, frowning. “Are you talking to me?”

“No, no. The sword. This is Vanitas. He’s my friend, bodyguard, and not-so-secret weapon. It’s a long story.”

Vanitas rotated, the tip of his scabbard grinding into the stone floor, and I couldn’t tell you how I knew, but it felt like he was glaring at Mason. The two of them stared each other down for a moment.

Mason narrowed his eyes. “Um. Nice to meet you. I’ve never met a sword before.”

Vanitas grunted. “Dipshit.”

Mason looked at me again. “Did he say something just then? His gems started glowing.”

“He said it was nice to meet you,” I offered hurriedly. “Hey V, why don’t you go get some rest? I’ll catch up with you later.”

He didn’t go quietly. Vanitas levitated slowly towards the corridor to our bedroom, grumbling the whole way. I shook my head again.

“You guys are roommates?” Mason asked.

“Yeah. It’s complicated.”

It was Mason’s turn to shake his head. “This is all so new to me, man. Flying swords, vampires, werewolves, whatever Carver is, whatever you are?”

I gave him a tight smile. “A mage,” I said. Just a fire mage, I thought, not without a little glumness. With the Dark Room, I would’ve had more to tell him about being a shadow mage, but yeah. Life was better away from the Dark. “I do fire, the way Herald specializes in ice. Which brings me to my question. What is it that you can do, exactly? You carry around a magical transforming shield or dagger thing?”

“You mean the Vestments,” Mason said, like it was the most natural thing in the world.

“Vestments,” I said. “Like, with a capital V. The way you said it made it sound all important.”

“Yeah. It’s bizarre. The stuff I can conjure, the dagger, the shield? That’s supposed to be part of heaven’s armory. Their Vestments, like physical, actual weapons and armor that you’d see equipped by the celestial host. I can borrow that stuff, use it if I need to, but only for a little while. That’s all I understand of it.”

I gaped at him for a moment. “Wait. So you’ve got like this entire arsenal that you can basically – no, literally pull out of thin air?”

He clasped his hands together, stared at the space between his thumbs, then nodded at me.

“So like swords and spears?”

“I think so.”

“Throwing stars?”

He scratched the back of his head. “Sure, maybe. I haven’t tried.”

“That’s so fucking awesome.”

I could tell Mason was trying really, really hard not to grin at me, but his back did straighten a little, his chest puffing out just the slightest.

“Gotta admit, I’m a little jealous,” I said. “How’d you learn about all that Vestment business, then?”

Mason scratched the end of his nose, then looked away. “A friend told me.”