"No, we can't. What did you find?"

"Fuck all." Mikar sighed. He'd called the extensive contact list he'd amassed over the years, and most had only heard about Diana in passing. Those who knew her described a nice lady who didn't get on anyone's bad side. A far cry from what he'd seen at dawn. "Everyone says she's nice, and likes to stay out of vampire business. She stays in one place for a decade, maybe two, only interacting with regulars, and then she moves on."

"Hm." Levi scratched the stubble on his jaw. He'd shaved a couple of days ago, as he did about once a year. Vampire hair grew increasingly slower as they aged. No one quite understood the mechanics of how. Mikar preferred to remain clean shaven, and he only had to shave every other month to remain that way.

"What?" Mikar had known Levi for long enough to see when he had something in mind.

"That's actually common enough, for those who do prefer the company of humans. They leave after ten, fifteen years, when everyone they grew close to gets older."

"To avoid seeing them age and die," he gleaned.

Levi nodded. "It's a sign of empathy. The vampires who stick to regulars like this tend to be those who shy away from the realities of our world. The violence, the deaths."

That most definitely didn't fit with the image of the woman he'd fought. She'd been fire wrapped in wrath. "Something doesn't add up. She would have bitten my head off if she could."

"Oh?" Levi laughed. "And I suppose you were all nice and welcoming to her, when you thought she might want to breach the walls?"

His grimace was telling.

"That's what I thought." Levi shook his head. "Just because she might prefer to live a peaceful life doesn't mean she's soft or weak. Diana is Alexius's age—at that point a couple of years doesn't make much of a difference. That makes her an ancient, just like us. And while she was a sickly kid, her mother did train her when she felt all right."

Mikar remembered as much. They'd all felt concerned for Diana on the hill. Born vampires were rare, and precious to their kind. Everyone had hoped she would pull through, living long enough to be turned. Feeling protective of her had been entirely natural. Most of the time, the kid had been closed up in her bedroom with healers and witches, overseen by the redoubtable Solene Helsing. When all their treatment had finally worked its magic, she ran laps up and down the hill, and practiced sword and hand-to-hand fighting, like any other vampire child. Only, she'd been doing it alone with her mother, who didn't let anyone close to her. Solene had screamed so loud the rest of the hill heard it, the few times Diana had snuck out. They'd ended up helping out, bringing her back to her doorstep just so they didn't have to risk a burst eardrum. Poor kid.

It was hard to reconcile his vision of the child he still felt violently protective over with the woman he would have gladly bitten.

"Doesn't it seem strange to you that she's come all of a sudden?"

"No," Levi said. "Alexius told me his sister would be back when he broke his curse, once, when he was plastered. That was always the plan. If I'm not mistaken, it could be one of the reasons why he was so desperate to get away from Oldcrest." He paused. "Solene and Vincel did a number on both of their children. They downright ignored one, and suffocated the other. I think they both have unresolved issues about it. By extension, they have unresolved issues about all of us, and Oldcrest too. I don't think Diana is a threat. Not yet. But I believe she could easily become one."

Mikar considered Levi's words for a moment. That might just be the link he was missing, between the person whom his acquaintances said Diana was, and the one he'd met. Unresolved issues with Oldcrest. Anxiety about being here at all.

"I suppose my welcome didn’t help matters," he hazarded.

Levi laughed. "No, I suppose not."

"Should we have her watched? See if she's up to anything?"

Levi walked to his desk, and started to set up his workstation. "Definitely not. For one, she'd sense it. And she hasn't given us any reason to mistrust her yet."

Mikar didn't like it at all. "It's a risk. What if she does end up being an enemy? She'd be right here among us, and we wouldn't know better."

"It is a risk," Levi conceded. "But the potential reward makes it worth it."

Mikar frowned.

"We don't have many allies outside these walls. Particularly not well-liked allies who can defend us against the other side's propaganda. They say we're closing off the hill, taking power by force, in order to secure Chloe's throne. We can nay-say that crap all we like, but none of us has much of a pull with the rest of the world. That queen's biggest strength is that she could rally the entire world against us because of how frightened they are of the Eirikrson's name."

“But the queen is an Eirikrson herself,” Mikar pointed out.

“No. She's born of Eirikr Primerius, the human. She isn't a vampire-draining monster—and that's how the world sees Chloe. We can tell them she isn't a despot wanting to enslave us all we like. That won't change a thing. With allies like Diana, however…” Levi shrugged. “Her presence here speaks for itself. It’s a huge point in our favor. If she stays a few days, and comes back to visit again, the queen’s narrative becomes weaker. The world knows Diana Helsing would never support a tyrant.”

Mikar began to understand. “That's why you didn't kick Cat out of here either, isn't it?” he guessed. “You were banking on her being on our side, in the end.”

He nodded. “Led by Drusilla, the Stormhales were always going to stand where they have the most to gain—that's not with us. We needed her out of the picture if we didn't want to have to fight the entire clan. Catherine was always the key.”

“Because she's her brother's one weakness, and Seth is the only one who could have taken on Drusilla.” Mikar chuckled. “How calculating are you? Did you offer me a job because you had a plan, too?”

He was only sort-of joking.

After the Eirikrsons' demise, Mikar had considered getting out of Oldcrest, finding a place in the world. Founding a clan, perhaps. But Levi had asked him to stay in his service instead. Knowing how hard it was for a lone vampire—not only because they could be targeted by witches or shifters, but because loneliness could easily set in—he'd taken the offer. He hadn't had a specific plan in mind, and he liked it here. Working as one of Levi's slayers was supposed to be a temporary job until he knew what he wanted to do with his life. He'd stuck with him for five hundred years because there simply wasn't anything else he could think of doing. Anything else he was good at. Mikar was a spy, a tracker, a killer when the need arose, but he wasn't much of a schemer, unlike Levi.

“I didn't have any grand plan at the time, no. But I knew you'd be invaluable. In our world, you were always going to be someone to be reckoned with. I figured I'd prefer having you as an ally rather than an enemy.” One of the things Mikar admired most about Levi was his honesty. “That worked out. I'm hoping I’m right about Diana, too.”

He nodded and closed the laptop in front of him. No one was giving him any dirt on the little Helsing, therefore he was going to have to accept the fact that there was none.

For now.

“Besides, I don't think there's any point worrying about her. She's leaving Monday.”

Mikar's gaze shot to Levi, and he had to stop himself from releasing the growl stuck in his throat. “What?”

The Dark Hall

Diana was a light sleeper, and even at her most exhausted, she rarely ever crashed for more than six hours at a time. Since being turned, in any case. In her childhood, it had seemed all she'd done was rest.

She woke up feeling completely boneless, groggy, and so very fatigued. Grabbing her phone, she blinked in surprise. It was already past three in the afternoon. She must have gone to sleep around six or seven at the latest, which meant that she'd slept for eight full hours.

To be fair, she felt calm here. At peace. The room was cozy. More than cozy. It was perfectly designed to relax her: the wooden panels, dreamcatchers, and thick fluffy rugs were exactly the sort of things she’d picked on the few occasions when she'd had a chance to design a place herself. There was no doubt that Alexius had had it changed to suit her. The bathroom was another delight: the dark room's centerpiece was a pool with crystals, candles, and tons of quirky bubble baths. Strange that after so long, he still seemed to know her.

After sniffing various jars and bottles of vibrant products, she poured a few in the gigantic pool and drew a bath. She was still wrinkling in the fast-cooling water when someone knocked on her door.

She identified Avani's specific scent—something spicy, with a hint of vanilla and something wilder. Something lupine.

"It's open," she called.

Her brother's mate appeared in the door of the bathroom. "Amazing, right?" She grinned. "Alexius let me stay here for a few nights when I got kicked out of the Wolvswoods. I totally borrowed some of your clothes, by the way."

She made air quotes at "borrowed."

"I have clothes?" Diana asked, surprised.

She didn't think any of her old frocks would have survived the passage of time. Not without spells to keep them intact. She didn't see why Alexius would have bothered. Diana's clothing had been functional and simple. She'd never been allowed to attend any form of amusement where an elaborate gown would have been appropriate. She hadn't been particularly attached to her wool and linen dresses then, and she certainly wasn't likely to wear any of them. Maybe she could give them to a museum.

"Yeah, I think Alexius had your closet filled. I bet you'll like it."

Diana smiled. It sounded exactly like something Alexius would do.

"What can I help you with?" she asked Avani.