Claimed by Shadow Page 0,8
if someone had given him a hotfoot. "You might have mentioned that earlier, Cassie!" he hissed in an alarmed whisper. "Getting this body skinned alive is not on my daily agenda!”
"Sit down," I told him in irritation. "Tell me how I get rid of this thing.”
"You don't. Take some advice, chica," he said seriously. "Go home to the nice master vampire, beg forgiveness for causing him any inconvenience and do whatever he tells you. You do not want this one angry with you.”
"I've seen Mircea pissed off," I said. That was true, although so far it had never been at me. I nudged Casanova's chair with my foot. "Sit down. People are starting to stare.”
"Yes, they are," Casanova agreed, "which is why I'm going straight to my office, picking up the phone and giving the big boss a call. If you don't want him to find you, I suggest you use the time between now and then to run like hell. Not that it will do you any good.”
"You're afraid of him!”
"Let me think," he said sarcastically. "Yes! As you should be.”
I stared up at him in confusion. The vamp I knew wasn't someone to be trifled with, but I'd never seen him do anything that would explain why an ancient demon would be shaking in his designer shoes. "We're talking about Mircea, right?”
Casanova glanced around, then slid into the seat next to me, looking almost comically grave. “Listen to me, little girl, and pay attention, because I am never saying this again. Mircea is the greatest manipulator I've ever known. There's a reason he's the Senate's chief negotiator-he always gets what he wants. My advice: make it easy on him, and perhaps he'll go easy on you.”
I grabbed his tie to keep him from running for the phone and jerked his face close to mine. I'm not normally the violent type-I saw too much of it growing up to want any part of it-but at the moment I was too mad to care. "You've had your speech, now listen to mine. I know all about manipulation. I haven't lived a day when someone wasn't pulling my strings. Even this whole Pythia gig wasn't my idea. But you know what? It does change things, doesn't it? Mircea doesn't own me, no matter what he thinks. No one does. And anyone who tries to jerk me around from now on is going to find that I make a very bad enemy. Do you get it?”
Casanova pantomimed choking and I released him. He fell back in his chair, looking more amused than frightened. "If you're so powerful, why do you need my help?" he asked archly. "Why not remove the geis yourself, and rain down your wrath on Antonio while you're at it?”
"It doesn't work quite like that," I said dryly. "And what is so damn funny?”
The grin that Casanova had been attempting, unsuccessfully, to restrain broke over his face. "Inside joke," he chortled. "You'd have to be an incubus to understand.”
"Give me the condensed version.”
He looked coy. The expression should have appeared odd on his strong-featured face, but he pulled it off. "Anticipation, you might say. Like looking forward to the next heavyweight championship match. In this corner," he said, his voice taking on the cadence of a veteran ringside announcer, "we have Lord Mircea, never defeated in five hundred years of political and social maneuvering. And in this corner, his opponent, the deceptively sweet-looking Cassandra, newly elevated to the Pythia's throne." He grinned even wider. "You have to understand, Cassie. For an incubus, it doesn't get much better than this. If I wasn't so protective of this body, I'd be wrangling for a ringside seat.”
"You're babbling," I said in disgust. "Tell me something I can use!”
"Why don't you tell me something for a change?" he countered. "What, precisely, do you think you're going to do if you find Tony? He's been around for a long time. He isn't going to be easy to kill. Why not relax and let Mircea handle him? He'll find him sooner or later and then you and I are both-”
"Mircea can't deal with Myra!" I couldn't believe Casanova still didn't get it. "He might be able to protect me in the here and now, but it isn't the present that worries me." Myra had been Agnes' heir until she fell in with some very bad company and was disinherited. But her fall hadn't taken away her abilities, meaning that she could slip into the past