Page 47 of Secret of the Vampire
“Really?” He seemed genuinely surprised. “Did you know this?” he asked Alex.
“I did,” he said, finally glancing in my direction. But he looked away again just as quickly.
Affronted, the djinn asked, “Well, why didn’t you tell me?”
A flash of anger tightened Alex’s expression, but it was there and gone before I could guess what it meant. “Because you only just told me what you wanted her for on the way here. And because you didn’t ask.”
The djinn waved away his answer. “Technicalities.”
“Look,” I interrupted. “I can’t help you. So there’s no reason for you to keep me here.” I honestly didn’t know what was going on between him and Alex, but I had to worry about myself. And right now, my happy ass wanted nothing more than to get the hell out of there alive and in one piece. I was feeling more alert, and I could tell by the easing up of the prickles on my skin that the sun was setting.
Which meant I could get the hell out of there.
“Except you can’t,” the djinn answered my unspoken thoughts. “I’ve taken precautions against that very thing.”
What precautions?
“Go ahead,” he said. “Try to walk out the door if you need proof to believe me.”
With the two males blocking the entry, and the djinn’s sorcery coiling around me since the moment he walked into the room, I wasn’t about to try to get past them. “I’ll take your word for it.” For now.
“Good. Then let’s talk, shall we?” The djinn went over to the small table and took a seat, indicating that I should do the same.
Not seeing that I had any other choice, I walked over to the table and sat down.
“Thank you,” he told me. “There’s really no reason this needs to be hard on either of us. We can work together and get me what I want, and then you will be free of my service.”
“And free to leave?” I asked. It was stupid to hope it would be that easy, I knew. Or even that he would be telling the truth. But still, I had to ask.
“You will be free of my service,” he repeated.
Which meant I would never be able to come back here to my family. “Wait,” I said as a horrible thought occurred to me. “By ‘free of your service’, does that mean I’ll still be alive? Or do you just plan to ‘free’ me by lopping off my head?”
He seemed slightly surprised by my question. “I see no reason why we can’t part ways amicably.”
Not really a straight answer to my question, but I guess that’s all I was getting for now. “Okay. I guess that’ll have to be good enough for now. But, can I ask, why did you try to kill me before if you need me so much now?”
“That’s simple,” he told me. “That was an experiment that didn’t work out quite the way I’d hoped. However, it all worked out in the end because it wasn’t until after my nephew had healed you that I discovered who you truly are. And let me tell you, I’m so very happy I didn’t kill you as planned.”
He spoke of my death so casually. Like it was nothing at all. “Yeah, me too.”
“As you have no knowledge of your ancestry, I would think you’re dying to know.”
Not really. Once I’d gotten old enough to realize what my so-called “mother” had done, I figured if they didn’t care enough to try to stop her, I didn’t care enough to know them. “Yes. Okay.”
He put his elbow on the table and his chin on his hand. “I’m going to be blunt, because we don’t have a lot of time, and I need you to be on board with this. You may actually be pleasantly surprised by what I’m about to tell you.”
“And what is that?”
“That you are not only a vampire, but you’re a vampire who has the blood of voodoo queens running through your veins.”
I sat back in my chair. “No, I don’t.”
“Ah, but you do. And it’s that blood, combined with your vampirism, that makes you able to do what I need you to do.”
“Raise the dead,” I said.
“Raise the dead,” he confirmed.
