Janice paled. Will shot to his feet, angry. “I think it’s time for you to clean the dishes,” he snapped coldly. Reaching out, he pushed the bowls toward the manservant, including the one Tiny was still eating from. “Now.”
Blake smirked and gathered the wooden bowls into his hands. Tiny watched him go, his expression forlorn as the half-eaten porridge left the room. “Hey…” He looked back at the others. “I was still hungry.”
Janice addressed him earnestly, “You know nothing inappropriate was going on upstairs, don’t you?”
The big warrior sighed. “Miss Edelman…”
“Janice.”
“Janice,” Tiny corrected himself. “I don’t know you that well yet, but you seem like a very proper lady. I do know Will, however, and it never even crossed my mind to think that he might be trying to do anything of that nature. I do find it amusing how desperately the two of you want to make sure everyone knows that nothing was happening, but to be honest, what I care about most right now is that I’m still famished.”
“I’ll make something,” said Will, feeling guilty.
Janice waggled her finger at him. “You have more important things to be working on, I believe.” She took a deep breath, as though gathering her courage, then looked at Tiny. “Come along, Mister Shaw. I know a stand that sells hot sausages. I’ll make amends for your lost lunch.”
Tiny smiled at her. “I told you, call me Tiny.”
A moment later, the two of them were gone and Will was left alone, feeling mildly annoyed at having been left out. Or am I jealous? He shook his head. That couldn’t be the case. Heading upstairs, he took out his journals and began running through his practice routines. Two hours later and he had gone through everything and was back out behind the house, practicing his force-lance.
As he did, he saw two men walk down the lane and go to the front door. A moment later he heard the door open as Blake let them inside. What’s that about? he wondered. Going in the back door, he walked to the front parlor where he found them talking.
“Let me show you the area I’m talking about,” said Blake as Will entered the room.
“What’s all this?” he asked.
Blake looked over at him. “This is Tom and Brad Gravlin. They’re here to look at the cellar.” The two men dipped their heads, touching their fingers to their brows in a sign of respect.
“I’ll come with you,” said Will.
Blake glanced away, then leaned in. “Begging your pardon, sir, but I’d rather you leave it to me. Trust me. I’ve handled things like this before, and you have other things to occupy your valuable time.”
Will straightened. “Oh.” He watched them leave the parlor, heading back out the front door so Blake could walk them around to the cellar door. “Damn,” he muttered to himself. “Is this what it’s like being a lord?” It was a strange sensation, as though he was unwanted, or perhaps useless.
Since the three men were standing around beside the house, he didn’t feel like going back out to practice in front of them. So instead he took a walk to find a secluded place where he could talk to Arrogan. Once he was sure he was unobserved, he raised a force-dome and checked for presences. He still had no idea whether he could actually see whatever it was they looked like, but he did it anyway. Then he summoned the limnthal. “There weren’t any attacks last night,” he said without preamble.
“No attacks where you were, or no attacks in the city?”
“No attacks where I was, but I didn’t hear about any others either. I have someone looking into it now, so I’ll know more later. Also, I think I’ve got a lead that might help me find the vampires.” He explained Janice’s discovery regarding the white phosphorous buyer.
When he finished, the ring took a moment to digest everything. “None of that sounds good.”
“Except the fact that at least I have somewhere to start looking.”
“That’s nice, but what really worries me is that there hasn’t been a slaughter as I predicted a few days ago.”
Will frowned. “Are you disappointed that a bunch of people haven’t died?”
“No, but I’m more worried that whoever is in charge is obviously smart enough to keep his underlings from nibbling on their fae captive. First, you have to realize that for them, she’s more tempting than a steak to a dog. The inexperienced ones would lose control immediately. That means that either all the vampires that have come to the city are old and wise, or that the one in charge has an incredible degree of control over his underlings.”
“That sounds more dangerous for me,” said Will, “but safer for the city as a whole.”
“Safer for the vampires too. If the public becomes aware of them, the citizens are liable to turn the city upside down ferreting them out. In a panic like that, they’ll get every last one of the vampires and probably kill a lot of innocent people along the way. A mob rarely thinks clearly.”
Will was only listening with half an ear. He knew it was selfish and in the grand scheme of things, unimportant, but all he could think about was his dream of Selene. It had felt intensely real. Without warning, he changed the subject. “Is it possible to travel astrally while asleep?”
“Define travel for me,” said Arrogan cautiously.
“Could I accidentally leave my body and travel to another place, even if I don’t know where it is?”
Although the ring didn’t have lungs, or need to breathe, it released an audible sigh. “Yes, that’s possible and very dangerous.”
“Even though I don’t know where she is?”
“You saw Selene?”
Will’s chest cramped suddenly, as though his heart had tightened into a solid lump. It took him a moment to reply. “I think I did.”
Arrogan must have heard the emotion in his voice, for he answered carefully. “Listen to me, Will. Astral travel while sleeping is dangerous on multiple levels. Obviously you returned safely, so I’ll move on to the less obvious dangers.”
“What are the obvious dangers?”
“Getting lost and dying in your sleep. Can I finish?” Arrogan sounded mildly exasperated. “The big problem is that since you were asleep, you don’t know where the line is between what you observed and what you merely dreamt. Do you understand? Because of your anxiety or fear, you may have seen her but mixed it all together with a nightmare.”
“How do you know I saw something bad?”
“Because you sound like a man who just watched his house burn down.”
“Could it have all been real?”