His blood told me he’d been one of those who’d directed the massacre, and I tasted the horror and shame he still felt at that memory. It coated my throat, made it hard to swallow.
Was that when you were made revenant? During the fighting?
‘After the battle, Suleiman dispensed with the vampire’s services, the one who had made the revenants. When the vampire left, he took something of mine. I hunted him down. Offered myself in exchange. That was when I was afflicted with the blood-curse.’
He stopped. And this time I felt grief, failure and soul-deep revulsion and hatred. For what he’d become, and for the vamp who’d made him both evil and a monster.
The vamp that did this to you is the evil monster, I said firmly, my own anger rising. Not you.
Bitter denial trickled through his blood, and then he gently ordered, ‘Stop now, Genevieve.’ My mouth and hands let go of his wrist, and I gasped, slumping as he released his mental hold on my body. ‘You have received back all but a small part of the power I acquired from you when I fed.’
I rubbed my neck and jaw, easing the stiff muscles there, swinging between anger, the need to comfort him and wondering what the hell he was talking about. ‘Explain.’
A weary sigh chilled my nape. ‘It was too dangerous for me to carry your magic, Genevieve.’
I twisted to kneel between his legs, relieved to find his almond-shaped eyes were back to their normal obsidian black. ‘Dangerous?’
Malik traced a finger over the pulse in my throat. It jumped at his touch. ‘I became close to losing control of the revenant when I took your blood. It is why I took more than I intended.’
My chest constricted. It was his biggest fear; that he’d go insane with bloodlust, start killing and spread his revenant curse. Personally, I couldn’t see it; after all, he’d kept himself under strict control for centuries, always feeding from other vamps, however difficult they made things for him, and never from humans. Or even me. Until now. But then that’s phobias for you. Still, it was understandable after the trauma of seeing an army destroyed by a pack of animalistic revenants, only to become one soon after. I shuddered. It also sort of made sense of his ordering me about, but—
‘But more than that,’ Malik continued, ‘the danger is also due to the Emperor. He is the one who gave the Gift to Bastien.’
Chapter Thirty-Two
I stared at Malik, horrified. ‘The Emperor is Bastien’s master?’
‘He is.’
Fuck. Bastien might be the Autarch, and have gained his autonomy centuries ago, but if the Emperor was his master, there was a pretty good chance he could waltz back in and start ordering Bastien around like he was a baby vamp. And Bastien owned Malik’s Oath.
Malik raked a hand through his hair. ‘I cannot risk any other knowing I have the ability to access your magic in this way, Genevieve. It would make you too vulnerable.’
He had it in one. If I wanted to keep my freedom then there was no way any vamp who had power over Malik – be they Bastien or the Emperor – could be allowed to know what Malik could do with a quick slurp of my blood.
But greater than the threat to me was the havoc that sort of power could cause between the different supernatural races. The Emperor might be European Head Fang, but unlike in the UK, vamps in Europe weren’t mainstream; there was just too much prejudice and superstition against them from both non-magical humans and the European Witch Councils. It kept the vamps in check and often in hiding, fearing for their nearly immortal lives. Whereas with the Live and Let Live Tenets of the UK witches and vamps, and the vamps recent step up to celebrity status . . .
I raised my brows. ‘I’m guessing that the vamp set-up in the UK looks pretty attractive to the Emperor?’
Malik inclined his head in agreement. ‘London, in particular.’
Damn. No wonder Malik had made me drink all my power back. If the Emperor was already interested in taking over, then a vamp able to use a sidhe’s power would definitely add a high shine. ‘Fuck, Malik, if you’d just explained what I needed to do I’d have done it. You didn’t have to order me.’
‘My apologies, Genevieve. The revenant is more easily controlled if it is not provoked.’
I frowned. Okay, so maybe I’d have wanted to know what the big deal was before I’d agreed, but— ‘You mean if you’re not provoked?’
‘The revenant is not I,’ he said, with an odd stiffness. ‘I am not the revenant.’
‘What does that mean?’
He gave me an empty stare. ‘We are not the same.’
Did he think he was possessed, or did he have some sort of weird alter-ID thing going on? Though with what he’d told me of his past, and the emotions I’d gleaned from his blood, or maybe our blood, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he did. ‘So what, you think of the revenant part of you as separate?’
‘If you wish.’
O-kay. Probably better if we left the philosophising for another time. Like when we didn’t have to worry about the Emperor or what he wanted. ‘So,’ I said, glancing at the opaque dome, ‘if you’re feeling yourself again, we need to work out how I’m going to speak to the Emperor about the fae’s fertility. And find out what he and his werewolves have got to do with the Bangladeshi ambassador and his missing wife and kid.’
‘It is something to consider,’ Malik said, ‘but first . . .’ He picked up a pebble from the ground, took my left hand and, pulling us up to our feet, dropped the stone into my palm and closed my fingers over it. ‘Travel safe, Genevieve.’
I had a split second to think, oh shit, before his eyes flashed gold, my stomach lurched and the island and boating lake vanished.
I landed hard—
On the gravel roof outside my flat. A second later my backpack appeared.
I took a wary scan around. The roof was empty, the majority of windows I could see were dark, and above me the stars twinkled happily despite the haze of sodium light polluting the night sky.
The exasperating vamp had sicced me with a Translocation spell.
It could take a full witch coven hours to cast one of those, and even then they didn’t always hit the target.
And Malik had cast it just by picking up a stone.
Like it was no harder than blinking an eye.
Even channelling a sidhe’s power, that was fucking scary.
But how the hell had he even known how?
The annoying vamp was going to have to come up with a lot of answers next time I saw him.
More disturbing though was the fact that it sounded like there was a vamp throwdown in the offing. Something Malik obviously wasn’t interested in discussing with me, judging by my involuntary quick exit. No doubt the idiot vamp was trying to protect me again by keeping me out of the loop. But with the tarot cards pointing the finger at the Emperor for info on releasing the fae’s trapped fertility, and with the kidnap victims to find, no way was I going to twiddle my fingers while Malik did whatever Malik was thinking of doing.
‘No doubt some stupid Lone Ranger impression,’ I muttered.
So, next step was . . . speak to Tavish. He was as invested in finding the answers as I was.
I scrambled up, dusting myself off with a groan. Malik’s Translocation spell had dropped me on my butt, hard enough to jolt every vertebra in my spine. At least his leather coat had stopped me getting gravel burn, even if it did drag around my feet.