The Sweet Scent of Blood

I knew they would rise close to sunset, but they were lying so still, that it seemed they were more than asleep ...

‘Please don’t hurt them.’ Fiona’s slippered feet scuffed over the carpet as she hurried to stand beside me.

‘Why would I harm them?’

‘You are angry.’ She cast a fearful look at the two brothers. ‘Hurting them will not change what will happen.’

‘What will then?’ I demanded.

‘I have lived a long time around vampires, Ms Taylor.’ She sighed. ‘When they want something, they usually get it. Fair means or foul. If they want you—?’ She gave a delicate shrug. ‘But I will keep Declan from the Challenge. I imagine that after it has happened your fate will be decided one way or another and you will no longer be a threat to us.’

‘When’s this Challenge supposed to happen?’

‘Tonight.’

My pulse jumped.

Turning to look at her, I said, ‘You know he’s not going to be very happy when he wakes up and finds you tried to kill me.’

‘This morning, I knew you weren’t dead.’ She clutched the edges of her negligée together. ‘I knew then I couldn’t change your future, but I thought that maybe I could change theirs.’

I narrowed my eyes. ‘How?’

She puckered her lips and blew a breath towards me. ‘Do you recognise the smell?’

A bittersweet scent drifted in the air. ‘No.’

‘She poisoned herself.’ Mick put his arm round her. ‘Nightshade.’

Fiona gestured at the two vampires. ‘They will feed once they wake. It will take some time for their systems to neutralise the effects. It should keep them here until the night is past.’

I blinked. ‘You’re going to feed them both?’

‘Of course.’ Her lips lifted in a small smile. ‘I always feed them on waking.’

‘Won’t they notice you’re unwell?’

‘Not until it’s too late.’ She leaned into Mick. ‘Mick will give me the antidote once they have fed.’

She looked ill enough that I thought Mick should be giving her the antidote right now.

I waved at the bed. ‘Declan lied to me.’

‘Did he?’ She frowned.

‘Melissa wasn’t a faeling.’

‘No, she wasn’t.’ Her voice carried faint confusion. ‘Did he tell you she was?’

I thought back. ‘Declan told me that Melissa had fae blood in her.’

‘She did,’ Mick broke in. ‘Bobby was always doing experiments, and we did one where he injected Melissa with my blood. Bobby said it was like she suddenly got so much more attractive. That’s why Declan made her his spy. All of a sudden the vamps were round her like she was a bitch in heat.’

Now that was a nice image, not!

I stared down at the naked vampires. Declan may not have lied to me in words, but the magic didn’t always take notice of semantics, only intent.

A memory edged into me.

Matilde, my stepmother, raging at my father, screaming at him to stop.

My father, drenched in blood that smelled like sweet apples, his voice calm. ‘Genevieve gave me her word that she would not see the beast again.’ Gripping my arm, he forced my nine-year-old self to kneel on the ground. The blood was still warm and it squelched under my knees and soaked up into my nightie. ‘The waterhorse was a danger to us all. Now she will understand the result of her lack of honour.’ The sleek ivory body of the kelpie was almost unrecognisable, but for patches of skin that still gleamed like pink-stained moonlight.

My father hadn’t killed the kelpie; the local people had. They’d been frightened that the kelpie would drown them and steal their souls.

The kelpie would have left before they found him if it hadn’t been for me. I hadn’t seen him again, but I had gone and talked to him—for the magic, that had been enough.

A noise beside me brought me back to the present.

‘Melissa wasn’t killed by magic,’ I said.

Fiona gasped. ‘How do you know? Have you seen her body?’

I turned to her. ‘I don’t need to. Melissa was killed just as the police have said: her blood drained by a vampire.’ I pointed at Declan. ‘Tell him that. And tell him I have honoured my side of the bargain. Now he must honour his.’

She frowned. ‘I don’t understand.’

‘Never break a bargain with a fae.’ I smiled, and it was bitter. ‘The magic always has its price.’

Mick gave me a sullen look. ‘Go away, Genny. We don’t want you here.’

I sighed. Fiona and Mick had confirmed what I’d already guessed, and if they did know about the spell, short of trying to beat it out of them, they weren’t going to tell me. I’d fulfilled my obligation, but I hadn’t learned anything really useful by coming here ... yet.

Was Fiona right about what my future held? There was only one way to find out.

I clasped her arm, just above her glove, skin to skin.

Mick shouted, clamped his hands round my wrist as Fiona’s eyes went wide, startled, her pulse jumping like a frightened animal under the thin skin of her throat. I held on tight, though Mick tried to pry my fingers from her flesh. She sagged, falling heavily to her knees, her mouth gasping like a waterless fish.

‘Please,’ she cried, her lashes fluttering on her cheeks, ‘no more.’

I let her go and she collapsed, trembling into a heap of rose-coloured silk.

‘Go away,’ Mick shouted, shoving me back, ‘just go away!’

Then he hoisted her in his arms, and tucking his head next to hers, he murmured small comforting noises. He carried her to the bed and laid her gently between the two vampires.

She sighed and curled into Declan, cuddling up against him like he was a giant teddy bear.

‘What did you see, Fiona?’ I demanded.

She gazed back at me, her pupils dilated by the poison, sweat beading her forehead. ‘Nothing,’ she whispered. ‘Nothing but fog.’

Damn.

I let myself out.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Iopened the door to my flat, freezing at the metallic crash that came from my kitchen area. Heart thumping, I peered through the doorway. There was a quiet cough, followed by a popping noise. Agatha the brownie a appeared on the countera next to my sink.

‘Afternoon, Lady.’ Her wrinkled face lifted in a tentative smile. ‘I hope I’m nae disturbing thee.’

Taking a soft breath, I let the air slide back into my lungs. ‘Afternoon, Agatha. Nice of you to drop in.’ After all, I added to myself, everyone else does, so why should a brownie be any different?

‘Och well, the wean tried to call, only thee were nae answering yon telephonic machine.’

Oh yeah, my mobile was still somewhere in the Blue Heart.

‘Never mind, you’re here now.’ I gave her an enquiring look. ‘Is Holly in trouble again?’

Agatha stepped diffidently along the countertop. ‘Nae, Lady, she just telt me to bring thee a message.’

Through the window I could see the sun dipping lower in the sky. I needed to be safe in the police station by the time night came—the vampires could challenge each other all they wanted, but there was no way I planned on being there to see it. I tried to swallow back my impatience as I asked, ‘What’s the message, Aggie?’