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“You confessed to being mortal and are in need of my help. Humor me.”

Pan gritted his teeth. He hadn’t confessed to anything, but the vampire had drawn the correct conclusion. “Your people need your help.”

“And I will help them via you. I will tell you of my people and give you a map of the city.” The vampire pulled a gold ring off his finger. “And the city’s ring. So they will know you act for me.”

“Or they will think I killed you for it.”

The vampire laughed. “In either case, you are now the acting lord.”

Pan stopped just before he touched the ring. He didn’t want to be the acting ruler. He wanted his magic back. And while it was just a gold ring engraved with the city’s knotwork and held no magic, it did have power. “What will you have me tell them? I cannot say the true lord is in hiding because he is no longer beautiful.”

The vampire flashed his fangs in warning. “You will say that I am ill or injured…” He sighed as if even breathing was too much effort. “There will be other vampires in the city who are also afflicted. You may send them here.”

“Hereis a tavern that belongs to humans.” And he didn’t want to be gathering vampires; he had a dragon to find. Yet he needed worshippers.

He also needed that bath and a change of clothes and safe storage for the coat. It was not the kind of thing one left lying around.

The ring glinted. A weighty burden that promised to distract him from his own goals. But if he didn’t help the people of Beita, he wouldn’t be able to encourage anyone to praise him. As delightful as Noah was, he wasn’t enough.

The vampire smiled, fangs hidden. “Would it help if I got on my knees and prayed for Pan to assist with the rescuing of my city?”

That did sound pleasant. Though with a face like that, no one was going to slide into the Lord’s bed. Not unless they kept their eyes closed and the lights off. “That depends on what you’re doing on your knees.”

The vampire grunted. “You were never my favorite god.”

“Which explains why I preferred to party with the selkies.” He’d been to Beita, but not in a century. He wasn’t even sure they had a temple dedicated to him. Every town and city-state had its preferred gods.

“We did a lot of trade with them. And I must confess to being jealous that they didn’t suffer.” The vampire spun the ring between his fingers. “Do we have a deal?”

He didn’t make deals. People begged him for favors. This time, there was no begging, and if he didn’t help the vampire, he was only stabbing himself in the hand. “It is temporary.”

“It is.”

“Then how shall we determine what is the end?”

“I do not know. When you have reconnected with magic and are a god again? But what if that never happens,Silas?”

Pan swallowed. That was the lump of ice in his stomach that he didn’t want to think about. “And what if you never regain your beauty? I might be stuck as acting lord of a broken city forever?”

“I propose that we renew this agreement on each full moon, sealing it with blood and a prayer. "

Pan gave a bitter laugh. “My blood and your prayer, I suppose?”

“Who better to detect traces of magic in your blood than a vampire?”

That was true, and if they turned it into a ritual, then perhaps they might scrape together whatever magic was available in this world. “Very well. I agree with those terms.”

“We will seal our agreement once you are clean. The stink of you is giving me a headache.”

He didn’t stink that much, but then a vampire’s sense of smell was more delicate than a human’s. And the stench of dragon drowned out most things. “I would like you to meet with the human owners. If I am to bring more vampires here, then their passage needs to be negotiated.”

“That is your problem as acting lord.”

Pan grimaced. Technically, the vampire was correct. “And food and water for your unblooded?”

“That is something you need to arrange. We have enough for a few more days.”

“And your dead?”