‘Pah! I could strike her head off and the humans would see nothing other than what I want them to.’ She waved the fan across her face and in an instant a haggard old woman stood in her place. The watching crowd clapped in appreciation. I blinked. Which was the illusion? The girl or the hag? I tried to lookand nearly choked on the ice in my throat.
‘Or do you doubt my power?’ Her wrinkled face creased up in an arch smile.
‘It is not your power I doubt, Elizabetta,’ Malik’s voice was hard like steel, ‘but your fealty to the Autarch. It will not go well if you cross him.’
‘I think it is your fealty that is in question, Malik. I’m not the one who is trying to steal a sidhe from under his nose.’ She laughed, a tinkling sound like breaking glass. ‘Oh, you didn’t think any of us truly believed that Rosa had made a blood-bond with the sidhe without your knowledge did you?’ She peered over the edge of her fan, her eyes dull with the clouds of age, the lids drooping with wrinkles. ‘It is a nice manipulation of our laws, but then you always were clever. You want the sidhe, but your oath to the Autarch forbids you taking her. But how convenient that Rosa, the only one of your blood to survive the curse, should be the one to tempt her, and how convenient that Rosa then turns feral and is to be put down or corralled—allowing you to force her to eat from your hand again, and hold all her property under your sway.’
‘Your perception does me no favours, Elizabetta.’
‘Bite her now.’ She snapped the fan shut then jabbed it towards me. Malik stepped back, jerking me away.
I frowned, puzzled at his action. ‘ What was that for?’
‘If I have truly embraced my curse’—Malik indicated the attentive but oblivious audience—‘you would have me start a bloodbath. Even you cannot wish for that.’
‘Either you bite her now and prove to me you haven’t, or I will kill you both myself and declare your deaths a necessary precaution to protect the humans. There will be no witnesses to say otherwise than mine. Think: where will your precious sidhe be then? Unclaimed property, at the mercy of any vamp who finds her. They are all eager, and stupid enough to try their chances, believing that her sidhe blood will increase their power, believing it will protect them. Then there would be a culling while they fought over her. She cannot even turn to the human authorities, not now they want her for murder. And no doubt her fellow fae will be only too pleased to be rid of her after the nuisance she has caused them.’ Her long fangs extended walrus-like over her bottom lip. She tapped the fan against them and the noise was oddly more like metal than plastic. ‘Is that what you want, for the sidhe to be used up by the fight? And then the winner gets to claim the patronage of the Autarch by offering him her blood. After all, from what I know of him, he is unlikely to care if the sidhe is not in the peak of health—in truth, he will probably appreciate her being broken in.’
‘ Okay,so not going to happen if I have my way,’ I muttered. ‘ And also, we’re wasting time while she’s gabbing. Can’t you just zap her or something?’
‘ She is the head of Golden Blade blood, Genevieve. Look sideways at her fan and our audience and see past the illusion.’
I turned my head away, looking towards the entrance and a group of men strolling into the foyer, then checked Elizabetta out in my peripheral vision. Instead of a fan, she was hefting a bronze-coloured broadsword as if it were a feather. The point was inches away from our faces. I took a step back before I could stop myself and she laughed, her face morphing back to the young girl’s. The audience applauded again, but now I could see interspersed between the delighted humans were stony-faced vampires, all of them carrying some sort of sword or knife.
‘ She’s got us surrounded!’ I glared at her.
‘ Of course. Elizabetta never goes anywhere without her personal guard.’
Elizabetta regarded me with spite-filled eyes. ‘Oh, she is a special one, isn’t she? One of your little human friendsmaybe, else why would you let her see? But then, you always were sentimental about your pets, Malik.’ Her expression turned sly and snide. ‘Better not let Rosa sink her fangs into this one, not like she did the last.’
‘Be careful, Elizabetta,’ Malik growled low in his throat, ‘that I do not declare youferal and rescind your Gift instead.’
‘But of course you won’t, Malik, since I am not feral, and it would go against your own code of honour. You see, there are advantages to being less than moral.’ She sliced the sword to the side in an easy motion, narrowly missing a couple of wide-eyed tourists. ‘Bite her,’ she snapped, her canines extending almost to her chin.
Vampires and their fucking games! ‘ Look, just bite me and get this over with,’ I thought at Malik.
‘ No—she will use it as an excuse to attack.’
‘ And if you don’t bite me, she’ll use that as her other excuse,’ I snapped. ‘ It’s one of those fucking win-win things for her, and I for one don’t fancy being skewered on that monster sword of hers.’
‘ She is trying to provoke me, Genevieve, it is nothing ...’
I stopped listening to him as the bizarre sight of a child skipping through the foyer caught my attention. She ran up to the group of men I’d seen strolling in through the entrance, breezing through them as if they weren’t there, then turned and smiled at me. Cosette, my ghost. Then she disappeared and I was left staring at the men as they surveyed the crowd. One of them was watching us, curiosity flickering over his face. My memory caught up and meshed with something Elizabetta had said.
‘Thanks, Cosette,’ I murmured, then smiled at Elizabetta. ‘ Okay, bitch, here’s your missing witnesses.’
‘Hey, Declan,’ I shouted, and stuck my arm in the air, waving madly, ‘over here, you big Irish totty. Hey, and bring your pals with you!’
Try slicing our heads off now, and see where it gets you.
‘What is she doing?’ Elizabetta’s face twisted in anger as Declan turned and made for us. Her sword snapped back into her black lace fan.
‘She is acknowledging a friend.’ Malik’s voice was calm, but in my head I heard his question.
‘ Declan is the one who’s been supplying me the inside info on all Liz’s disappearing faelings. We’ve agreed a bargain between us.’
I briefly wondered if Malik was surprised that Declan, head of the Red Shamrock Blood family, would bargain to rescue faelings lured into Sucker Town by the fang-gangs. Not that Iknew why Declan had; oh, I had an inkling that it was because he wasn’t strong enough to keep them for himself, so he’d decided to do the dog-in-the-manger thing—of course, Malik wouldn’t have any trouble working that one out. No, the real mystery for me was why Declan had never asked for anything much in return for the info he provided—other than the actual rescues.
‘ Does he know you walk in Rosa’s skin?’ Malik asked.
‘ No.’ I said.
‘Malik al-Khan, Elizabetta. I’ll be wishing a good evenin’ to you both,’ Declan grinned, flashing fangs; his brief burst of mesmamade me feel like all the joys of the world had come to visit—that was his speciality. Nearby humans broke out into enthusiastic, happy laughter and his grin widened, but his eyes were sharp with interest. To either side of him were two more vampires, his brothers. They looked overwhelmingly alike, in their tight black leather jeans and collarless white linen shirts, with fine gold hoops through their earlobes, not to mention the clichéd tall, dark and handsome Irish good looks. It was no wonder the Blue Heart’s steady stream of customers had stopped to gape and stare.