the way it’s truly supposed to be seen?” He paused and glanced at Whitfield, who had suddenly lost the confidence he had before the sorcerer showed up. All of a sudden, getting his revenge by killing me was no longer his top priority. “I suppose I have you to thank for that, vampire.”
“What do you want with me?” Whitfield demanded, his voice coming out strong and firm. It was clearly a façade because it was obvious even to me that Theodore’s sudden presence had shaken him.
“With you?” Theodore asked. “Why dear governor, I want to kill you of course. You might not yet have heard that I recently ended Pamphrock. Now I only need to take care of you and the city will be mine again.”
I knew Rita was far gone when she didn’t even look at Whitfield. The Rita I knew would murder him as soon as he was within reach for what he did to Noreen, but there wasn’t a single flicker of emotion in her blank face and it made my heart sink.
Angered by Theodore’s words, Whitfield gestured for his men to advance on the sorcerer. They barely got the chance to move an inch before Rita’s hands came up and black waves pulsed out of her palms. The waves halted the vampires in their tracks, leaving them still as stone, unable to move their bodies against her magic.
“Isn’t she just magnificent,” Theodore beamed, his eyes cutting slyly to me, as if to rub it in my face that Rita was now his to use as he saw fit.
Seeing how Rita was holding his vampires captive within their bodies, Whitfield grew desperate. This was clear when he pleaded, “Look, I’m sure we can come to an arrangement. I could simply hand the city over to you and command my people to do your bidding. Look down onto the streets and see how many vampires there are, and that’s only half of them. Why waste what could be a beneficial alliance by killing me, when you could have an army of vampires at your beck and call?”
“When stripped of your bodyguards, you really are spineless,” Ethan quietly fumed, interrupting Whitfield’s ruthless proposal.
Whitfield let out a harsh laugh. “This coming from the man who only a few minutes ago was running away from me like a coward.”
“I ran away like a man who has a brain in his head and knows when he’s been outnumbered. But unlike you, Jeremy, I would never sell my people out to a sorcerer. Do you even realise the gravity of what you have offered? To save your skin you would enslave the very people who look up to you to guide them. If that is not cowardice, then I don’t know what is.”
“Do not talk down to me. I am hundreds of years older than you, Ethan Cristescu. You have no idea what it takes to survive that long.”
Theodore coughed loudly, an amused expression on his face. “I hate to break up this little domestic you vamps are having, but I do believe I’m the one holding all the cards here.”
Whitfield lost the hateful expression he’d been wearing when speaking with Ethan and turned back to Theodore.
Satisfied that the attention was back on him, Theodore went on, “So, if I’m understanding this correctly, you are offering to serve me, and to command your vampires to serve me, too, if I spare your life?
“That is correct, Sorcerer,” Whitfield answered, adopting a supplicating manner.
“Well, I have to say, that is certainly an attractive offer,” Theodore rubbed at his pale chin thoughtfully. “With my magic and the physical prowess of your vampires no one would dare try to overthrow me.”
Well, he certainly changed his tune. Before he’d planned on driving the vampires from the city by starving them of blood.
“It’s true. We vampires are far stronger than any humans,” Whitfield agreed, a little too eagerly. “I promise you would not regret gaining a vampire following.”
Theodore took a moment to study him before motioning him closer with a wave of his hand. “Come with me. We shall discuss this away from prying ears. Daughter, be a dear and make sure that my dear little Treasure and her vampire don’t try to flee.”
Rita didn’t breathe a word, her expressionless face gazing straight ahead. The dark magic streamed from her hands and kept Whitfield’s vampires at bay. I momentarily wondered what would happen if I simply hopped onto Ethan’s back again and told him to run. Would she use