Page 44 of Secret of the Vampire
“Please, Alex. I’m not stupid, nor am I gullible. So let’s stop pretending that I am.” He walked closer to me until he was only an arm’s length away. “Let’s get one thing out in the open right now, shall we?”
After a pause, I nodded once.
“If you try to contact your sister or any of your coven through magic or more modern means,” he cast a meaningful glance down at my coat pocket where my hand was still wrapped around my phone, “I will know. Doing any of those things will force me to take more drastic measures to get what I want, and I don’t think either of us would want anything tohappento Alice or any of the others.”
“You wouldn’t hurt Alice.” I called his bluff. “She’s your niece.”
“Yes, she is. But I have found in my observations of her that she’s not nearly the djinn you are.”
His tone told me exactly what he thought of anyone, family or not, who didn’t carry enough of his genes. They were disposable, just like any other human. “She’s a powerful witch,” I said, remembering what he’d told me the first time we’d talked. If he thought she was worthy of keeping alive, perhaps it would remove her from the equation.
“Her powers are limited to simple tricks of nature. Nothing that any witch worth his or her salt couldn’t do.”
He was wrong. Alice was way more than a simple Wiccan. But I quickly forced all thoughts of her from my mind, not wanting him to leach them from my head.
Marcus lowered his chin, his eyes never leaving my face. “Have I made myself absolutely clear?”
“Yeah. Perfectly.”
“Excellent.” He grinned at me and resumed his pacing. “So, here are my terms.”
I pulled my hand from my pocket, crossed my arms over my chest, and waited for him to lay it all out. As he began to talk, my mind raced, thinking of and discarding any and every way I could think of to get Kenya and I out of this mess. But he’d been smart to meet me here, in public, with tourists all around. He knew I wouldn’t do anything to put them in harm’s way or to blow our cover.
In the end, with him always one step ahead, there was nothing I could do. At least, for now. I’d just have to bide my time and wait for the right opportunity.
“As I told you the other day, Alex, I want you to come live with me. I want us to spend time together. Get to know each other. We are family, after all. And no matter how much you try to deny it to yourself, or to others, we are much more alike than you think.”
“You’re wrong,” I told him. “I’m nothing like you.”
He showed no reaction to my argument. In fact, he fucking ignored me completely, continuing his speech as though I hadn’t spoken.
“There are advantages to coming to live with me. Some you might have already thought of. Or perhaps not.” He stopped directly in front of me, raking his eyes from my head to my waterproof boots and back again. “You’re strong, Alex. Your magic is powerful. But it’s not nearly as powerful as it could be if you learned to harness it. To twist it to your will. Tell me, do the spirits talk to you?”
“What?” The dude was crazy. Of course, if he spent his days hearing voices, that kind of explained a lot. “No. No, I don’t fucking hear voices. I’m not crazy.”
“Hmm,” he nodded his head. “You’ve blocked them. Probably figured out how to do it as a child, which not very many djinn can do.” He waved his hand through the air. “That’s all right. We can open you back up to them.”
My entire body was beginning to ache from the constant tension stiffening my muscles all of this time. I had no patience for this shit. But other than attacking him in front of all of these people, people who were even now making their way closer and closer to us as the tour progressed through the cemetery, I had no choice but to stand here and listen to him ramble on about shit that made absolutely no sense, and hope that he’d eventually take me to Kenya.
Besides, I didn’t know that I would win. If I went after him he might just leave, or kill me, and then I’d never find out where she was.
So I stood there like a well-behaved student, listening to him go on and on about spirits and magic and other dimensions and how he could “help” me learn about all of this fucking power I had no intention of tapping into if it meant I would turn into a creature like him. I played along, even though my blood was rushing through my body until I felt lightheaded and there was a constant buzzing in my head obstructing his words.
I stood there, half-listening, letting him talk himself out. The only thing on my mind getting to Kenya and trying to figure out how I could get us both the hell away from him and off of his radar.
Because I wasn’t stupid, either. And I knew there was no way I could take him out if he saw it coming.
However, as his words flowed over me, there was a part of me—a very small part—that was paying attention to everything he was saying. This part of me wondered what it would be like to be as all-powerful as the djinn. To have everyone afraid of me. To not have to live by rules put in place by others. To be able to live how I wanted. To love who I wanted. With no fear of repercussions. This part of me was not afraid. This part of me was open to the seduction.
And it scared me more than the djinn.
“If you agree to my terms,” Marcus went on. “I will take you to the vampire. And you can have her once I’m done with her. IF, and only if, you stay with me. Learn from me. Become my true family. Then, and only then, will I give you my blessing to be with the vampire.”
“Kenya,” I told him. “Her name is Kenya.”
He smiled. “I am well aware of her name.”
“Then why don’t you use it?” I had no idea why I was picking a fight over something so asinine. But I couldn’t seem to stop myself. It was like I needed to have a win here. Just one win. So I didn’t feel so completely powerless.
