I saw it myself.
Not silly vampire tricks or any other kind of tricks.
This was a ghost.
Ghosts don't like vampires." Although this one had stuck around for longer than I'd expected.
"Second, why me?" "I don't know about the ghost," Samuel said.
"But the second question has a multitude of possible answers." "The first one that occurs to me"--Adam was still keeping his eyes down--"is Marsilia.
Suppose she knew immediately what had happened to Andre.
She knows she can't go after you, so she trades favors with Blackwood.
He turns Amber into his go-to girl, and when the opportunity presents itself, he sends her to get you--just as Marsilia dumps Stefan in the middle of your living room.
And once you didn't die--Amber comes and summons you to Spokane.
A few wolves get hurt--" "Mary Jo almost died," I said.
"And it could have been worse." I thought of the snow elf, and said, "A lot worse." "Would Marsilia have cared? Worried about your friends here--and informed that the crossed bones on the door of your shop means that all of your friends are at risk--you take the rope Blackwood has thrown you.
And you follow his bait all the way to Spokane." Samuel shook his head.
"It doesn't quite track," he said.
"Vampires don't cooperate the way the wolves do.
Blackwood doesn't have the reputation of doing anyone favors." "Hey, my pretty," said Adam in a deadpan imitation of a Disney witch, "would you like a taste of something sweet? All you have to do is lure Mercy to Spokane." "No," I said.
"It works on the surface, but not when you really look.
I can ask, but I'd bet the relationship between Amber's husband and Blackwood goes back years, not months.
So he knew them first.
If Marsilia just called him and gave him my name, it would be unlikely that he'd know that Amber knew me--we haven't spoken since I got out of college." I'd had my paranoid moments because of the timing of Amber's request.
But there was simply no way Marsilia had sent Amber, and the likelihood of further Byzantine plots went down from there.
I drew a breath.
"I expect that Blackwood thought I was human, at least until he bit me the first time.
Bran says I smell like a coyote-- doglike unless you know coyotes--but not magic.
Stefan told me Blackwood would know I wasn't human after he tasted me." Both of the werewolves were watching me now.
"Bad luck does just happen," I told them.
"Blackwood doesn't seem to be the kind of person to do favors for another vampire." Samuel's voice sounded almost cheery.
He didn't.
Vampires were evil, territorial, and ...
I thought of something.