Carpathian 04 - Dark Magic

somewhere between contempt and derision. "I read Gary's memories on the subject. Interesting. Silly, but interesting." He glanced at Gary. "This is your hero?"
    Gary's grin was as mischievous as Savannah's. "Until I met you, Gregori."
    Gregori growled, a low rumble of menace. His two companions just laughed disrespectfully, not in the least intimidated.
    "I'll bet he's a secret Rambo fan," Savannah whispered confidentially.
    Gary nodded. "He probably sneaks into movie theaters for every old showing."
    Savannah was really laughing now, the soft notes dancing in the air, contagious, infectious, beckoning all within hearing to join in.
    Gregori shook his head, pretending to ignore the two of them and their shenanigans. But he couldn't help himself; he felt his heart lighten even as he scanned the hotel from the courtyard and knew they would soon be in another confrontation with dark, compulsion-driven members of the society. He stopped them abruptly, drawing them into the shadows of the building. "Someone is in your room waiting, Gary."
    "You don't even know which is my room," Gary protested. "There's a lot of people staying here. Let's not make a mistake."
    "I do not make mistakes," Gregori said softly, his black-velvet voice very much in evidence. "Would you care to go up alone?"
    That was unnecessary, lifemate , Savannah reprimanded. And beneath you. You like this mortal, and it bothers you that he may be in danger .
    Perhaps it is your easy way with him that bothers me , he suggested silkily. His hand wrapped a length of braid around his fist and gave a tug.
    You'd like me to think that, but I am in your head, reading your growing affection for this man.
    Gregori didn't want to admit she was right. Savannah was bringing him so far into her world, she was making him feel things uncomfortable for him. Mikhail had had a friendship with a human. Gregori had known he felt great affection for the man, yet Gregori had never understood it. Respected it, perhaps, but he did not understand it. Savannah had genuinely cared for Peter. Gregori didn't dwell on that issue too much, but again, he found it hard to comprehend. Yet now, with Gary, in spite of himself, Gregori actually admired the mortal and didn't want anything to happen to him.

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    "Tell me what you want me to do," Gary said almost eagerly. He was sick of bullies pushing him around.
    "You are going to walk in by yourself and fish for as much information as you can get before they try to kill you," Gregori answered.
    " Try . I hope that's the operative word," Gary said nervously. " Try to kill me."
    "You will not have to worry about yourself," Gregori informed him, his voice utterly confident. "But it is necessary that the police do not come looking for you. That means no dead bodies in your room."
    "Right, messy. If I have vampires and nut cases from the society hunting me, we don't need the cops, too," Gary admitted. He was sweating now, his palms so wet he kept rubbing them on his jeans.
    "Do not worry so much." Gregori flashed a smile meant to reassure, the one that left vivid images of open graves. "I will be with you every step of the way. You might even have fun playing Rambo."
    "He had a big gun," Gary pointed out. "I'm going up there with my bare hands. I think it might be pertinent to say I've never won a single fistfight. I've been put in trash cans and toilets and had my face rubbed in the dirt. I'm no good in a fight."
    "I am," Gregori said softly, his hand suddenly on Gary's shoulder. It was the first time Gary could remember the Carpathian voluntarily touching him out of camaraderie. "Gary is saying all these things, chérie , yet he intended to go up against a man brandishing a knife with only his lab jacket for protection."
    Gary blushed a fiery red. "You know why I was in the lab," he reminded Gregori, ashamed. "I made a tranquilizer that works on your blood, and they turned it into a poison of some kind. We've got to do something about that. If something goes wrong tonight, and they get me, all my notes on the formula are in my laptop, too."
    "This is beginning more and more to sound like a bad movie." Gregori sighed. "Come on, you two amateurs." He was impassive on the outside, but he couldn't help laughing on the inside. "Do not worry about the formula. I allowed one of the members to inject me with it, so we know its components and are working on an antidote now."
    "It