The Sweet Scent of Blood

and given Hannah an opening? Maybe the tattoo hadn’t worked in the gardens because Rosa hadn’t been hungry? I pushed all the questions into a dark corner in my mind; I didn’t have time for them.

No use crying over spilled—well, blood, I guessed. ‘Again. What do you want?’ I demanded.

‘I like helping people, Genevieve. I find it very rewarding.’ She stood and gestured behind her at the bed. The vamp sprawled across it, one leg hanging over the edge of the mattress as if he’d been so exhausted he’d just fallen onto it without conscious thought. ‘For instance, I rescued this poor lamb. His Master gave him the Gift and then left him to starve. He was going quite mad with hunger.’

‘We should all be so charitable.’

‘Exactly. Rio thought you’d make a nice first meal for him, only I appropriated him before that happened.’ She took hold of my left arm, stroked her fingers over the almost healed skin. Her touch was gentle, hypnotic. ‘And I’m sure that the four vampires Rio did finally give you to enjoyed you immensely—and they were much more effective at removing the iron poisoning from your body than just Darius would have been.’ She leaned in and licked the swollen bite on my neck.

A shudder of need rippled through me.

‘Without the loss of blood, you really might not have survived, even with your strange heritage.’ She kissed my mouth, the faintest touch of her lips. ‘My help is always free, I never ask for anything, but I always find it returns to me in such interesting ways.’ She sat back down on the bed, circled her hand round Darius’ ankle and smiled. ‘He really was very satisfying.’

I shook my head to clear the slight wooziness brought on by her touch. Had she just told me she’d saved my life? Not that it mattered; she was after something and no doubt I’d find out what sooner or later. Until then I had other more important things to do.

‘If you want to help so much, take me to Malik al-Khan,’ I said flatly.

‘Malik can’t help you, Genevieve.’ Her low, warm laugh echoed round the cave room. ‘I am afraid he still dances to his Master’s tune.’

So much for Plan A.

‘Fine. Get me a phone then.’ I waved an arm at the room. ‘Or get me out of here.’

‘We’re underground.’ She smoothed a hand over the silk sheets. ‘When the goblins excavated into the rock down here mobile phones hadn’t been invented, and the vamps are so archaic that as yet they haven’t made provision for communications. And as for getting you out’—she sighed, standing up—‘sadly, not everything is in my power. I am, after all, just a human. We’re in the middle of Sucker Town, and the vamps are gathering for the Challenge.’ She moved to stand in front of the huge wooden wardrobe. ‘The likelihood of you escaping and being able to get help to rescue all of your friends in time is an impossibility.’

Friends, plural? The word snagged my attention. ‘You said “friends”?’

She smiled at me like I was a child. ‘Well, you’ve more than one, haven’t you?’

Katie. An anxious knot tightened in my stomach.

Hannah opened the wardrobe and placed some clothes on the bed.

I stared at them. What was I going to do if they had both Katie and Finn?

‘Don’t just stand there,’ she chided me, and I realised what I was looking at: her Corset Girl outfit.

‘Hurry up and put it on, unless you want to go out there naked.’ She pulled a long blue evening dress out and held it up in front of her, her eyes sparkling. ‘Beautiful, isn’t it?’ She stroked a hand over the shimmering silk. ‘John Galliano made it especially for me.’ She glanced up, a mistrustful glint in her eye. ‘But don’t get any ideas about it. I know I said like to help, but I draw the line at lending you an original Dior.’

Her dress was the last thing I wanted.

Chapter Forty-Three

The skyborn goblin curled her long cats’ whiskers, regarding me with her blue marble-like eyes as she slid her finger down her nose. I returned the greeting. A deck of cards appeared on the blue baize card-table in front of her. She picked up the cards and shuffled the pack, the cards whizzing through her triple- jointed fingers almost too fast to see, then she carefully placed them face-down on the table.

‘Hurry up, Genevieve. You need to pick a card,’ Hannah shouted in my ear, trying to make herself heard over the whoops and whistles and jeering.

I pressed my lips tight together. Now she wanted to hurry. The cave room had opened onto a stone-hewn corridor with a small underground stream running down the middle. Hannah had sniffed, then lifted the long silk skirt of her Dior and picked her way carefully up the slight slope, trying not to scuff her Jimmy Choos. I’d stomped along behind her in the Corset Girl outfit. Her boots were too big for me, so I’d stuffed them with tissue. The puffball skirt was itchy and scratched against my thighs, and she’d had to lace the corset so tight to stop it falling down that even my small breasts were bursting out over the top. By the time we’d reached the circular metal staircase that led upwards, my patience was running thin enough that I was ready to heave her over my shoulder and carry her. The staircase had taken us up into the empty—but noisy—interior of the Leech & Lettuce, the Blue Heart blood-pub.

There was another loud burst of sound, and Hannah nudged me. ‘They’ve started.’

I glared at her in disbelief, snatched up the cards, and started to turn them over.

‘No look, Lady,’ the goblin ordered, waving her bony fingers at me.

‘What the hell am I supposed to do then?’ I asked.

‘Just pick up half the pack, and give it to her,’ Hannah said. ‘Or she won’t let you in.’

‘Fine.’ I put the cards back and cut the pack.

The goblin took them and handed me back the bottom card. ‘Participant.’

‘I’m not here to participate,’ I snapped.

Hannah put her arm round my waist and gave me a quick hug. ‘You want to save your friends, don’t you? You can’t do that by watching.’

‘I wasn’t planning to.’ I shrugged out of her embrace. ‘And I wasn’t planning on playing games either.’

She gave me a knowing smile. ‘Check your card, Genevieve.’

I turned it over. The face of the card was printed in flat grey, only as I looked, the grey swirled and eddied. What a surprise—not! I went to give it back to the goblin, but she shook her head.

‘You have to keep it,’ Hannah said.

Of course, I did. I stuck the card down my cleavage.

Hannah picked her own slice of the pack. Her card was painted red. ‘Blood,’ she announced, her face disappointed. ‘Well, I suppose it’s only to be expected.’

‘Get a bleedin’ move on, pets.’ The voice came from behind us.

Tensing, I swung round to face a short, stocky vamp in black wraparounds and full goth outfit flashing his fangs in a grin. ‘We ain’t got the time to muck around, y’know.’ He pushed past us and grabbed half the stack of cards. His card was black.

‘Spectator,’ called the goblin, hiking a thumb over her shoulder at the steel door behind her.

He slapped the card against it. As the door slid away into the wall, noise slammed through the opening like a tidal wave. He strutted out.

I started to head after him, but Hannah gripped my arm. ‘I need to show you where to go.’

‘Hurry up, then,’ I snarled, my patience at an end.

Outside, Hannah led me to a tarmac walkway. I squinted, trying to shield my eyes from the glare of the huge stadium lights. To either side of me was scaffolding, and the underside of wooden planks. Another roar assaulted my ears. The planks rattled, dust filtering down between their cracks as the crowd stamped their feet. I dragged Hannah down the walkway and into an arena, where tiered seats looked down on the action, while above the tightly packed spectators hung giant plasma screens. All were showing close-ups of the two contestants in the ring. They were locked together, arms wrapped around each other like pro-wrestlers.

Then the screens switched to show a league table with a list of names. Betting odds flashed next to each name: the Earl, Rio, others I didn’t recognise, and—my pulse started speeding—my own name at the bottom. Odds against me were sixty to one. Malik’s name wasn’t there.