Unfazed, Hannah turned her delighted smile on him. ‘I thought I would do you a favour.’ She tipped Darius’ head back, offering his throat. ‘They plan to refuse you your blood-tithe, although I suspect you already know that. So I thought I’d offer you some provisions.’ She trailed a finger across Darius’ chest, smearing a line in his blood-sweat. ‘He has fed well, as you can see’—gorged was more like it—‘and is willing to do whatever you want, aren’t you Darius?’ She patted his cheek.
‘Yess,’ he slurred, eyes still eerily fixed on mine, his head lolling to the side.
Malik didn’t move, didn’t even blink, but I felt the tension tighten his body. A sudden edge of shared hunger clenched like a fist in my stomach, nearly doubling me over.
‘All I ask is you try not to kill him,’ Hannah added, leaning down to lick Darius’ exposed throat. ‘I find him satisfying in so many ways; I would be so disappointed to lose him.’
‘Leave us then,’ Malik ordered.
She pushed at Darius’ shoulder, urging him up. He staggered to his feet and stumbled towards Malik, who opened his arms, catching the taller vampire to his chest, then in one smooth easy movement, hooked an arm under his knees and lifted him, cradling him like a bride about to be carried over a threshold. Darius might have weighed not much more than his Calvin Klein’s for all the effort Malik seemed to expend.
‘Actually, it’s you who’s going to leave us, Malik. I still have a favour to do for someone else.’ She smiled and lifted a black holdall from behind the sofa and dropped it on the seat. It gave a metallic clank as it landed. ‘Elizabetta wants Rosa to dress appropriately for the ceremony.’
Somehow I knew appropriatewasn’t going to be my kind of thing.
‘Use the bedroom.’ Hannah waved at the other door. ‘Don’t worry, we’ll both be right here when you finish.’
Malik hesitated, then looked at Darius in his arms, his expression turning predatory, and I swallowed against the constriction in my throat; whether it was fear or envy I wasn’t sure.
‘ Be careful of this one, Genevieve,’ Malik’s voice whispered in my mind. ‘ She is more than she appears.’ The connecting door opened, apparently of its own accord, and I wondered if he had some sort of kinetic ability too. I filed that question away for later.
When the door had closed behind him and his meal, I turned back to a smugly smiling Hannah. And Malik’s warning reminded me that I was in Rosa’s body and I had use only of her vamp senses; all my own abilities with magic were gone. It wasn’t something that had ever bothered me much in the past, but then, I’d never knowingly sparred with a sorcerer before as ‘Rosa’. Now I couldn’t seethe magic, and even my unwanted aptitude for seeing ghosts was gone; after Cosette’s recent help, it made me feel oddly vulnerable.
‘So, Hannah, what isyour reason for being here?’ I said, echoing Malik’s question.
She walked over to me and stood looking at the gyrating dance crowd below. ‘They’re like chickens in the fox house, aren’t they?’ she laughed, the sound scornful. ‘Totally unaware of the dangerous possibilities that surround them. But we’re not like that, are we, Genevieve?’ Her fingers toyed with the silver death’s head pendant that nestled at the base of her neck. ‘We know how unpredictable life can be—unless of course we have a helping hand.’ She blew on the glass, misting it with her breath, then waved her palm over the now-opaque window. ‘Allow us to see,’ she murmured.
Within the glass a picture appeared: a room similar to the one we were in. Declan and Elizabetta were standing facing each other and a crystal wine glass—half-full of dark purple-red liquid—sat on a small table between them. Elizabetta held out a thin silver knife—more ornate than Malik’s, the blade already bloodied—and smiled up at Declan. Anticipation was written all over her currently young face. Declan’s blue eyes crinkled in an answering grin as he took the blade, then he held his arm over the glass and in a movement almost too fast to see, sliced along the vein that bulged blue under his pale Irish skin. His dark blood dripped down from the cut to merge with that already in the glass.
‘They agree to support each other, to spill blood together.’ Hannah spoke quietly next to my ear.
Declan offered his still bleeding wrist to Elizabetta as she offered hers to him and together they spoke, lips moving in silent unison. Then with a ritualistic deliberation, they bent their heads to each other’s wrists and drank.
‘Now they agree to share the spoils,’ Hannah said in a throaty whisper.
‘Spoils meaning me, the sidhe me, of course,’ I said, my matter-of-fact tone belying the apprehension that crept over me. The picture fogged and disappeared. I turned to look at her. ‘Neat little show, Hannah, but it’s not exactly breaking news or anything, is it?’
‘Maybe not, but I think it’s always better to know what your enemy is up to, even if all it does is confirm one’s own suspicions.’ She indicated the bag on the sofa. ‘That way, one doesn’t fall prey to false promises.’
Ri-ight: Elizabetta’s outfit, or whatever it was. I strode over to the bag, which clanked as I unzipped it and pulled it open. I lifted out what was lying on top: a gold neck collar with a long heavyweight gold chain attached to it. The chain looked like it could pull lorries. It ended in a wide gold wrist-cuff. I pursed my lips. ‘I HOPE this isn’t some sort of muscle-man bondage crap.’
‘Look at the rest, Genevieve.’
I pulled it out: an elaborate gold-metal bikini, which could double as a handy chastity belt if the leather thongs that kept it on were replaced with padlocks. Attached to the metal briefs was a fall of red material that was going to end up a tripping hazard, let alone the fact that it did nothing in the modesty stakes. It all looked vaguely familiar ... As I imagined wearing it all—gold bikini, metal collar and chain—the iconic movie image of the enslaved princess chained to her fat, bloated alien captor clicked into my mind.
‘Elizabetta wants me to kill Malik then.’ I made it a statement.
Hannah chuckled. ‘Her exact message was, “Slaughter the monster, and I will welcome you and yours into my blood with open veins.”’
‘Open veins,’ I mused. ‘Interesting choice of words.’
‘The movie is one of Elizabetta’s favourites, and knowing Rosa’s fondness for chains ...’ Hannah shrugged. ‘Elizabetta decided the costume was appropriate. You do understand what she means, don’t you?’
‘Yes. Elizabetta is offering her protection if Rosa kills Malik and swears fealty to her.’ I hefted the metal collar; the thing was heavy, even for my enhanced vampire strength. It was some sort of gold-plated steel, maybe. ‘And of course, if Rosa took the deal and she was still the vampire that Elizabetta thinks she is, she would bring a sidhe with her.’ I lifted my lips in a half-smile. ‘The irony is, Rosa is not that vamp, so old Liz is going to be one very disappointed sucker.’
‘You’re rejecting her offer then?’ Hannah asked, sounding only mildly interested.
I gave her my best do I look stupid?look. ‘C’mon, Hannah, even if I were the actual Rosa, I would have to be suicidal to trust her, wouldn’t I?’
‘As I said,’ she gave me a rueful smile, ‘we are both aware of the dangerous possibilities that exist.’
‘Which is something I could’ve worked out on my own.’ I narrowed my eyes. ‘So if all this info is supposed to make me produce the Fabergé egg in gratitude, it’s not working. Why don’t you tell me something I don’t know ... like why you really want the egg?’
‘The egg is a highly valuable item, Genevieve’—she slyly arched one carefully drawn-in brow—‘surely you Googled it on your computer.’
I smiled, knowing it didn’t reach my eyes. ‘As I said, it’s a neat little trick, spying on people like that.’ I waved at the now clear glass. ‘But you see, the egg wasn’t the only thing I Googled. You don’t need that sort of money, do you, Hannah? Not when your net worth is in the same bracket as a small African country.’