Brandon sat in his office musing to himself about all that happened recently. Mandy was turning out to be a fine young vampire, and it was fun to mold her and watch her grow. With Endrik’s help he thought one day she could be great – after all she had a certain charisma about her. People just seemed to naturally gravitate towards her.
Her humanity was a bit of a problem but that would adjust itself with time and proper instruction. The question was what direction to nudge her in next. She seemed to excel at Thaumaturgy, though technically he already had Endrik for that, though he supposed if she were encouraged to learn different spheres it would keep things interesting. Convincing Vince to teach her more Protean would be easy enough, but what about Auspex? He knew few people who were highly skilled in it and it was a useful discipline to have around. Perhaps Petra could teach her the first few levels.
Speaking of Petra, what about her relationship with Claude? He offered to turn the mortal mostly out of jest but now that things were rolling he couldn’t exactly take back the offer. Still he wasn’t a bad candidate. He would make an excellent soldier, but not much of a leader perhaps. Soldiers were useful, good fighters were a dime a dozen, but one with the ability to think on his feet, to improvise, learn and adapt, that was more rare, and Claude certainly had all those qualities.
Somehow though Brandon felt he needed some sort of push, something to make him go from good to great. By mortal standards surely he already was, but as a vampire he may very well become lost in the mass. Mandy was the only thing he seemed to care about, but how to exploit that without endangering her? Perhaps … maybe if he felt that she no longer needed him, he could be convinced to push harder, and make himself useful again. But it was a gamble, he could easily go the other direction and become self destructive.
Hmmm… not a gamble he was willing to take just yet, but food for thought. He would make Claude of course, or let Petra if she so chose, but perhaps it might be best to offer some sort of surrogate, a different clan. But which one? Brandon idly wondered if there were any Assamites who owed him a favor or two. Now there was a thought, his own personal Assamite assassin. A smile crossed his face. It seemed like a good fit actually. He’d have to talk it over with Petra and Claude of course, but it seemed a better fit than his own clan in a way.
He did know of one, a friend of Vince’s. He would just have to trade favor with Vince, though he figured if he mentioned it would make Petra happy Vince would do near anything. Brandon knew of Vince’s feelings for Petra, and had always kept it to himself, not his secret to tell per-se.
In his mind the matter became settled, and Brandon picked up the phone to make some calls, first Vince then Petra and Claude.