I ignored the last part of his statement. “Angela is important to me, and even if you didn’t intend to kill her, I’ll never forgive you for hurting her.”
“Then I shall have to work hard for absolution.” Again, that softness entered his gaze as he looked at me, and I didn’t know how to feel about it.
“Why have you been impersonating Nic? What was the point?”
Vasilios casually lifted a shoulder. “I needed an identity so that I could operate in this city undetected, and I wanted to pick someone who would allow me to get to know you better.” Again, there was a flash of softness, almost of humanity in his eyes, but I refused to acknowledge it.
“Tell me where Nic and his parents are,” I demanded coldly.
“They are safe and sound,” Vasilios replied. “Would you like to see them?”
I remained silent as he walked to the double doors that led into the dining room. Vasilios slid a key from his pocket, slotted it in, and unlocked the doors. When he opened them, I gasped. Nic and his parents were frozen at the dinner table. Plates with weeks-old rotting food sat before them, untouched.
“What have you done to them?”
“They’re suspended in a magical slumber. I can wake them at any moment, and they won’t even realise that weeks have passed.”
“I think the rotting food will be a bit of a giveaway,” I said with derision as I covered my nose. Vasilios closed the dining room doors while I continued talking, “The house is surrounded, you know. You should just go. Escape and go back to Oreylia while you still can. If the Guard arrests you, you’ll be convicted and sent to the Prison of Thorns.”
Vasilios feigned a fearful expression. “Oh, no, the Prison of Thorns. How positively terrifying.”
“You should be terrified. No one’s ever escaped from it.”
“I’m sure I’ve dwelled in places far worse than whatever prisons exist on this plane.”
“Your magic would be muted there. The thorns are magical tattoos. Each prisoner is branded with them around the wrists, blocking whatever supernatural abilities they might possess, so there would be no chance of you using your magic to escape.”
For a second, I saw a flicker of apprehension in his eyes. “Well, I won’t be going there, so I don’t need to worry about that.”
Darya, I’ve been speaking with your mother and Rita. We’ve come up with a plan, Peter said, and I did my best not to tip Vasilios off that we were communicating.
“You think you can take over Tribane? You underestimate the lengths people will go to maintain the peace here. Most of them remember the war,” I said, hoping I could keep him talking long enough to speak with Peter.
Okay, tell me the plan.
I told your mother about our telepathy. She thinks there’s a way for the three of us to meld our magic and send it to you through your connection with me. This way, you’ll be able to bind Vasilios and block his magic. After that, the Guard will come in and arrest him.
How do I use the magic to bind him?
The best way is to distract him. Get close enough to wrap your hands around his wrists and channel the magic we send to you to lock him down.
Okay, I’ll try my best, I replied, forcing my attention back to Vasilios.
“There’s no need for war if they surrender willingly.” Dammit, I’d missed the beginning of what he said.
“You’ve been stirring up dissent among the vampires. It’s clear that you want people to start fighting amongst themselves, cause disruption so that you can swoop in and take over.”
“Yes, well, I’ve since learned the error of my ways in that department.” A dark cloud fell over him.
“What do you mean?”
He lifted his gaze to mine. “The vampires who attacked you on your way home that night. I’d been influencing them to begin a campaign against your father, but they decided the best way to weaken him was to kidnap his daughter.”
“So that’s why they attacked us?” I said, remembering the van that had been idling down the street, waiting for me to be bundled into it.
“I was glad that they underestimated your fighting skills, but I was still furious that they’d tried to harm you. Sven and I did away with them after that.”
More murder. Why was I not surprised?
“Killing them might’ve been a little extreme, but if you hadn’t guessed, I have a lot of unresolved trauma when it comes to discrimination against hybrids.”
The magic should reach you in another minute or two, Peter said, keeping me updated while Vasilios said something that I didn’t quite catch.
“Are you listening to me?” he questioned, his voice low and suspicious. A small sense of panic gripped me. I needed to lure him off the scent that I was up to something. There was one sure-fire way of doing that. I wasn’t entirely comfortable with it, but it was a necessary evil.