Page 12 of Simon Says

“Have you thought about applying your talent to something more useful? Something that, perhaps, only you can do?”

Rosie narrowed her eyes. “I’m not coming back on as a tracker. I didn’t like it. It was boring. Anybody could do it.”

Simon laughed out loud. “Anybody could do it? Elora Rose. There are perhaps three people in the world who could do it, counting you and your mother.”

“Well, any witch who was trained and tried hard.”

“Tried hard,” he repeated drily.

“Yeah. Showing up is ninety percent of the, um, I forgot the rest of that, but you know what I mean.”

“I think so. No. I didn’t ask you to come give tracking another try. I have something else in mind.”

She raised her head. “What?”

“Well, if you have time for a story?”

“What are you up to?”

“All good.”

She looked at her watch. “I’ve got time. They’re still serving breakfast in the mess.”

“I’m going to tell you a personal story.”

“Impossible. You don’t have personal stories.”

He chuckled. “You think I sprang into being at this age, in this position, with all this responsibility.” He waved his hand around in the air to demonstrate the mass of the burden that was his.

“Well, as a matter of fact, I did kind of think that.”

“You’re a funny girl.”

“I try.”

“As I was saying, I’m going to tell you some of my history, which is both a story and a problem. Then I’m going to ask if you think you might be some help to me.”

Rosie sat up straighter. “To you?”

“Yes.”

“You mean personally?”

“Yes.”

She looked down at the liquor remaining in her glass and set it down carefully on Simon’s desk. “Listening,” she said.

“I was twenty-three.I’d been a vampire hunter for three years by that time because I graduated a little early. I was attached to a team in London, perhaps the best knights I’ve ever known. One of them had mentored me.

“It’s not generally discussed by other kinds of personnel, but it’s not unusual for knights to be guided and, sometimes protected, by someone on the team who is more experienced. For me that was Sir Sagrimore Wayne. I admired him more than I can say, and when he died, felt regret at never having told him so.”

“Did he die…?”

Simon nodded. “In a vampire incident. Yes. My partner and I were too far away to have made a difference. So I’m not saddled with that sort of guilt. I do wish I’d told him what he meant to me though.” He paused for a moment, lost in thought and sighed. “Anyway, I had three months’ bereavement leave. A lot of guys go home and connect with family and day-to-day life where people think vampire are fiction.”

“But not you.”

“No. I wanted to be alone. I’d been fascinated by the idea of Neolithic sites since I was a child, but had never had the opportunity… No. That’s not true. I’d nevertakenthe opportunity to visit them in person. I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go. Someplace where I could combine being alone with exploring.

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