«I am not yours.»
Mircea smirked. «On the contrary, you have always been mine. I assure you I did not stay at Antonio's court for almost a year for the pleasure of his company.»
At my startled look, he laughed again, a low, touchable chuckle that tightened things low down. «I had heard of your gifts and arranged to meet you. I knew that a clairvoyant of your reputed strength would be a useful addition to my staff, but wanted to be sure what I was gaining before negotiating with Antonio. Once I met you, I suspected that I might be looking at the next Pythia, but I could not know for certain until you grew up.»
He looked off into the distance and sighed. «I made a mistake in not immediately adding you to my household, but I feared that it was too prominent, and that I would not be able to keep you from coming to the Circle's attention. I left you with Antonio and ordered him to continue to hide your identity. I planned to retrieve you when you matured, but by then you had rather complicated things, had you not?»
«Wait a minute. You knew about my parents' murder?»
«I only learned after the fact, and at the time it seemed a trifling affair.» He saw my frown and sighed. «Would you prefer me to lie to you? I did not know about you then, Cassie, and I could not chastise Antonio for dealing with his servant as he wished. Although I thought it a waste, it was his right. I was told that a woman had been with him in the car, but she had taken your father's name and I did not connect her with the runaway heir. Forgive me, but although your father was the most trusted of Antonio's humans, frankly that is not saying much. There was no reason to connect his wife with the Pythia's court.»
«What about me? When did you learn that they had a child?» If Mircea had left a helpless baby in Tony's fat hands, my opinion of him would go down considerably.
«Not until years later,» he said seriously, as if realizing how important the question was to me. «I spoke with Raphael a few months before my visit. Antonio had sent him on an errand to my court, and he took the opportunity to inform me of the truth. Of course, I immediately arranged to meet you.»
I believed him, and not only because I wanted it to be true. Mircea would have protected my parents had they run to him for help. He wouldn't have permitted a valuable asset like my mother to be killed if he'd known about her. If for no other reason, it would have been bad business to annoy the Pythia and the mages when he could easily put them in his debt by returning her. «How did Tony find me?»
Mircea grinned. «How indeed, Cassie. Here I was, worried about your safety, when I should have been concerned about what dastardly plans you had for my defenseless servant. What you did to Antonio was rather well reported, even in the human press. My people immediately began searching for you, and I had a watch put on his retainers in case he stumbled over you and was foolish enough not to mention it. In that case, they were to distract him and contact me, but luck intervened. A member of a family allied with him was stranded in Atlanta overnight because of an airline delay, and saw you at a nightclub. You were telling fortunes and it jogged his memory of the young girl he had seen at court. He informed his master, who sold the information to Antonio. Fortunately I had already found you, with help from the Senate's intelligence network.»
«Marlowe.»
«Indeed.» Mircea laughed. «The man is a marvel, although you were devilish difficult to trace, even for him. He wants to meet you, by the way. He said that you must have almost as devious a mind as he does—a rare compliment, dulceata. We located you less than a year ago, but it seemed safer to leave you where you were and guard you rather than to risk the Circle discovering that we had you, and invoking the treaty as they are attempting to do now.» He looked sober again. «The Consul is stalling, but it will not last. We cannot fight both the Black and the White Circles at once, Cassie. You understand?»
«Yes.» I thought back to the number of heart attacks I'd almost had through the years, thinking I'd sensed a vamp here or there, and it had been Mircea's people all the time. «You could have saved me a lot of trouble if you'd told me what was going on.» Mircea just looked at me. He didn't bother to say what we both knew: no master vamp, much less a Senate member, would discuss anything with a mere servant. Her life would be planned out for her, and she'd be informed of it when the time was right. «Is that how you knew Tony had found me? Did your people tell you?»
Mircea gave a rueful smile. «No, you were fortunate there. Antonio ordered a gunman to put two bullets in your brain by midnight, but Raphael overheard it and called me. I gave him my protection and told him to come here. I had had concerns about Antonio for some time, but doing away with a third-level master, even if he is one's servant, requires finesse. But if he actually went against my direct orders and made an attempt on your life, I could legally kill him for disobedience. I relayed the information about you to the Senate, who had assigned Tomas to you since the sybil's disappearance. In case they had trouble reaching him, I also contacted some associates of mine in Atlanta, but they had difficulty locating you. By the time they arrived at your office, you had gone.»