it led to where you are now.”
As she grasped a machete to shove into her holster, she tossed a miffed look at him. Had he really just brought up her whole “I love my gorgeous, former-superstar mom/I hate my gorgeous, former-superstar mom” thing? Sure, an Eva complex had shaped her life and wigged her out plenty, but she’d learned to cope in her own way. Dawn had competed with Eva for over two decades before her mom had come back from the dead, compliments of the Hollywood Underground.
“Yes, Costin. I’ll get right on doing an Internet search for a therapist who specializes in addressing the pansy side of vamp hunters. I’m sure I’ll get a million hits.”
“Why can’t you understand that I am delicately trying to suggest some anger management?”
Anger?
She’d grown up with it. It’d raised her better than Frank ever had, protected her, kept her going.
She reached into the locker again, this time for a UV grenade. “Are there any other instructions you need to give me before you leave?”
Costin knew that when she was done with a topic, she was done, so he cleared his throat as she went for a second UV grenade and tucked that one into her holster belt, too. In her back pocket, her cell phone vibrated with what was probably another voice mail from Kiko. Before she’d fed Costin, she’d called the psychic and left her own message for him and Natalia to get back to headquarters. Hopefully, he was telling her they were here.
Costin said, “I do have a few important items to discuss with you.” But, first, he scanned her weapons and addressed that instead. “Dawn, you know that the Friends have been on high alert since Claudius arrived.”
“And you know I like to be prepared, even if I’m surrounded by fortified walls. Or are you just thinking that I’m going to be sneaking outside with this stuff and following you Underground, like I did in L.A.?”
“No, Dawn, I don’t think you will do that, mostly because you are aware of the ammunition I bring with me to an Underground. I have complete faith in the Friends. They have never before let me down and they will not now. They have their own ways of fighting, as with the silver flakes they used in the Hollywood Underground.”
“You should believe in them, Costin. And I know you’ve faced the dragon before and come out of it in one piece. Thing is, that’s when you could get out of body.”
He was brooking no argument. “Dawn, you are to wait until sunrise to inform the rest of the team that I am gone. The information detracts from what you will all need to focus on—guarding Claudius throughout the night. Chances are high that the vampire schoolgirls will come for their second master under the cover of darkness. There is no reason for the team to worry about me during this time. I am only telling you because, out of everyone, you would most notice my absence.”
Sure, Dawn thought, closing the locker door. It had nothing at all to do with him distrusting the team because most of them had interfered with Costin’s ultimate attack in Hollywood.
“Can you tell me why we don’t just kill Claudius?” she asked. “If we did, it’d cut those schoolgirls’ vamp powers in two—they would only have the ones they inherited from Mihas.”
“There is more than one reason, but above all, Claudius is our insurance.”
Insurance? She glanced over her shoulder at Costin, who seemed so damned self-assured, even though he’d just revealed that he might not be. Her heart hurt at the thought of him suffering in any way. Stupid heart.
“Are you telling me,” she said, “that you suspect Claudius isn’t being entirely truthful with you about the Underground’s location, even though you read it through your Awareness?”
“Although my misreading him is unlikely, keeping him alive is a wise policy . . . just in case. If he has lied to me and covered it up, it will be on you to extract the true Underground location from him, then carry on
As she grasped a machete to shove into her holster, she tossed a miffed look at him. Had he really just brought up her whole “I love my gorgeous, former-superstar mom/I hate my gorgeous, former-superstar mom” thing? Sure, an Eva complex had shaped her life and wigged her out plenty, but she’d learned to cope in her own way. Dawn had competed with Eva for over two decades before her mom had come back from the dead, compliments of the Hollywood Underground.
“Yes, Costin. I’ll get right on doing an Internet search for a therapist who specializes in addressing the pansy side of vamp hunters. I’m sure I’ll get a million hits.”
“Why can’t you understand that I am delicately trying to suggest some anger management?”
Anger?
She’d grown up with it. It’d raised her better than Frank ever had, protected her, kept her going.
She reached into the locker again, this time for a UV grenade. “Are there any other instructions you need to give me before you leave?”
Costin knew that when she was done with a topic, she was done, so he cleared his throat as she went for a second UV grenade and tucked that one into her holster belt, too. In her back pocket, her cell phone vibrated with what was probably another voice mail from Kiko. Before she’d fed Costin, she’d called the psychic and left her own message for him and Natalia to get back to headquarters. Hopefully, he was telling her they were here.
Costin said, “I do have a few important items to discuss with you.” But, first, he scanned her weapons and addressed that instead. “Dawn, you know that the Friends have been on high alert since Claudius arrived.”
“And you know I like to be prepared, even if I’m surrounded by fortified walls. Or are you just thinking that I’m going to be sneaking outside with this stuff and following you Underground, like I did in L.A.?”
“No, Dawn, I don’t think you will do that, mostly because you are aware of the ammunition I bring with me to an Underground. I have complete faith in the Friends. They have never before let me down and they will not now. They have their own ways of fighting, as with the silver flakes they used in the Hollywood Underground.”
“You should believe in them, Costin. And I know you’ve faced the dragon before and come out of it in one piece. Thing is, that’s when you could get out of body.”
He was brooking no argument. “Dawn, you are to wait until sunrise to inform the rest of the team that I am gone. The information detracts from what you will all need to focus on—guarding Claudius throughout the night. Chances are high that the vampire schoolgirls will come for their second master under the cover of darkness. There is no reason for the team to worry about me during this time. I am only telling you because, out of everyone, you would most notice my absence.”
Sure, Dawn thought, closing the locker door. It had nothing at all to do with him distrusting the team because most of them had interfered with Costin’s ultimate attack in Hollywood.
“Can you tell me why we don’t just kill Claudius?” she asked. “If we did, it’d cut those schoolgirls’ vamp powers in two—they would only have the ones they inherited from Mihas.”
“There is more than one reason, but above all, Claudius is our insurance.”
Insurance? She glanced over her shoulder at Costin, who seemed so damned self-assured, even though he’d just revealed that he might not be. Her heart hurt at the thought of him suffering in any way. Stupid heart.
“Are you telling me,” she said, “that you suspect Claudius isn’t being entirely truthful with you about the Underground’s location, even though you read it through your Awareness?”
“Although my misreading him is unlikely, keeping him alive is a wise policy . . . just in case. If he has lied to me and covered it up, it will be on you to extract the true Underground location from him, then carry on
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