“I’m sorry for all that you’ve lost. The house must have held many items that were precious to you,” said Will. He noticed that Tiny gave him a look of approval as he said it.
“Things we can replace,” said the baroness, looking around the table gratefully at her family. “We saved everything that was important to us.” She noticed that her younger daughter was fidgeting, so she asked, “Is there something you wanted to say, Tabitha?”
Tabitha grinned, then winked at Will. “Just that I think it’s terribly unfair that Selene found William first and married him without giving anyone else a chance.” She glanced at her sister. “Don’t you think that was terrible of her, Laina?”
Will almost had a spoonful of peas to his mouth, but he was so startled that he missed, and the peas scattered across his plate. Laina glared and her hand moved suddenly to one side, knocking the gravy boat onto Tabitha’s lap. “Oh! I am so sorry, Tabby! I’m so clumsy today,” apologized the older sister.
Tabitha’s eyes could have burned a hole through Laina. “You did that on purpose!”
“Why would I do that?” asked Laina in mock innocence.
“This is the only dress I have left! You’ve ruined it.”
Agnes’ voice cut through the brewing storm. “Girls!”
Will took the chaos as an opportunity and stood up, pushing his chair back. “If you’ll excuse me, I have some things to attend to.” He gave Tiny an emphatic look, and the big man rose from his seat as well. A few minutes later, they were standing outside the back door, but before they could leave, Mark Nerrow stepped out.
“William, before you leave…”
Will turned back. He also had a few things he wanted to say. “I don’t mind you staying here,” he told his father, “but I’m not sure you’ll be safe. They’ve already broken in once when I wasn’t here.”
The older man frowned. “I wanted to say thanks once again. I’m not sure there’s anywhere safer that we could be. With you, me, Laina, not to mention Darla, Blake, and your giant friend here”—he nodded appreciatively at Tiny—“I’m not sure how better we could be protected.”
“I’m not sure where I will be tonight,” said Will honestly. “I wasn’t watching your home the night it burned either, so I’m worried about what will happen tonight.”
“Then stay here,” suggested his father. “I realize you may bear some ill will after what I said to you—”
“I do,” Will interrupted, “but that has nothing to do with my concern for the people in that house. Their safety is important to me and not just because they’re under my roof.”
“Then it makes sense that we concentrate our strength here.”
Will shook his head. “What about the rest of the college, the rest of the city? I caught over a hundred of them in a warehouse that night, feeding on a friend of mine. They went wild and some of them escaped. From what I understand any new vampires created need strict control and supervision to keep them from running wild during the beginning of their undead existence. They’ve lost control, and if lots of people have gone missing then it means we’re only a day or two away from the entire city being turned upside down.”
“Which is the king’s problem,” countered Mark. “He has the resources, the power, the authority, and the men to deal with it. Right now, my only job is to keep my family safe.”
He grimaced. “As you pointed out so bluntly a few days ago, it’s your family, not mine. I’ll do everything I can, but I’m only one person, and I’m not counting on the king to save the city. Before I commit to hiding here with you, I’ll be doing everything I can to get ahead of this problem. I’ll only be here tonight if I fail to find a better answer.”
“Aren’t you the arrogant one?” said his father snidely. “Don’t you think it’s a bit presumptuous to think that you’re the only one that can save the city? What power do you have that makes you so confident and prideful? You aren’t even a sorcerer—you’re too good for that—yet you think you can rid Cerria of this plague? What hubris!”
“Two nights ago, I slew over a hundred of them,” snapped Will, “but that wasn’t good enough, and my friends are still paying the price for my weakness.” Reaching up, he jabbed his index finger into Mark Nerrow’s chest. “You want to hunker down in a hole with your family? Fine. I applaud you. I’m glad you did, since I care about them too. But don’t expect me to hide in the hole with you. As you pointed out, I’m not family, so it doesn’t really matter if something happens to me, does it? I’ll be out there doing as much as I can, and if I get killed for my hubris it’s none of your concern.”
The baron looked down at the finger that had stabbed into him. “I’ve half a mind to teach you some humility, lad.”
“Try it,” spat Will. “I’m a little overdue for some fatherly discipline.”
Mark snapped, but he didn’t fight stupidly. He faked a punch, then sent a source-link at Will when he thought the young man would be distracted. Unfortunately for him, neither attack had a chance of working. A point-defense shield stopped the fist painfully in mid-swing, while the source-link dissipated the moment it touched Will’s turyn-absorbing outer boundary.
With a thought, Will sent his own line out, catching his father and paralyzing the man almost instantly. He felt the older man’s will struggling for a moment, then he separated his father’s will from his source. Using one hand, he gripped the baron’s coat to keep him from falling, then pushed him back and braced him against the wall of the house.
Three elementals manifested around him, swelling as they took physical form. Will ignored them, his eyes locked onto Mark Nerrow’s panicked gaze. “This is just a lesson, but if you want to make it into something tragic, then by all means, threaten me with the elementals. It won’t change a thing.”
Before anything else could happen, Will released the link to his father and turned away. Tiny was still watching silently, but he could see an unhappy look in the big warrior’s eyes. “Let’s go,” said Will, and together the two of them started walking.
“William,” called the baron, still trying to regain his composure.
He kept walking.
“It does matter if something happens to you.”
His face twisted, but he refused to look back. Goddamn it, just let me hate you! he thought. Don’t make it complicated for me.
***
Halfway across the campus, Tiny finally said something. “So, you and the baron have some personal issues, huh?”