intersection of three ley lines, and activated by blood magic. The great disc of stone was humming, glowing red, brightening visibly as I approached. The guards clearly could see it-the first one actually looked shocked-but clearly only I had trouble looking at it. I wondered if this is what vampires felt looking at crosses.
And then I realized the Stone did work on the same principle as crosses and vampires: it was feeding my own hostility back to me. But I didn’t need to be hostile to Transomnia, didn’t want to be hostile to him. I was coming to him for a favor, but after all he and his had done, it was hard to let go of the anger.
How had Saffron defused that cross, with something like a breathing exercise? What had Darren and Rory said about breathing? The bridge between your conscious and unconscious? I drew in a breath, let it out. Let it go. The Stone began to calm. I felt for the thread of anger, released it. The throbbing glow faded; the sound receded, as did my headache.
“That’s better, now,” I said, stepping forward to stand before the throne.
“Holy living fuck,” the bearded guard said. “Did she just turn off our early warning system by breathing? ”
“Something like that,” I said, smiling. I was forcing the smile, but I held onto it, forced myself to try to believe it. They still looked wary, so to head them off before they decided to club me or something, I said, “Relax. It only works if I mean you no harm.”
Now that I could think, I glanced around: rich curtains, muted lighting, and comfortable chaise lounges, each with a view of the pit where I stood. The chamber shifted in my eyes from the throne room of a citadel of vampires to a performance space in a well-appointed private dungeon. Of course, I knew that in Saffron’s case, those were one and the same.
All this wasn’t the work of Transomnia. It couldn’t have been; it was being built while he was ostensibly the thrall of Mirabilus, and playing flunky of Calaphase. That meant that, like the maitre d’ had implied, technically, this was Nyissa’s pad.
Transomnia wasn’t setting up a criminal empire in the backwoods of Georgia. He was laying low from the police at Nyissa’s bondage-and-discipline bed-and-breakfast.
“Weren’t you just here?” a female voice purred. “Didn’t you pledge not to come back?”
I turned, and as expected, saw Nyissa, the deliciously pale, green-eyed, purple haired vampire who had threatened me before, leaning against the throne, twirling the metal poker she carried as if it was a riding crop. Can you say DOM-in-a-trix? “I had no-one else to turn to.”
“ You need our help?” came a male voice. The goateed vampire I had seen last time now stepped out from behind the other side of the throne. He didn’t quite fit the B amp;D B amp;B theme, but then he might be one of Transomnia’s imports rather than Nyissa’s co-dom. “Really?”
“Not precisely,” I said. “I need to speak to Arcturus, my old master. So I’m here to beg permission to return to Blood Rock.”
“Here to beg? Wonderful,” Transomnia said just behind me. I flinched as he stepped around me and climbed the steps to the throne, where the Stone was glowing again. “Absolutely wonderful. Please, have a seat in the chair. But where’s your suit, Dakota Frost?”
“She did look good in it,” Nyissa purred, glancing curiously at the Stone.
“My… suit?” I said, calming my breath. Then I remembered the awful getup they’d stuck me in when they’d first brought me here. I started to hit back with a smart remark, then realized the truth was even better. “Probably burned to a crisp when my car exploded.”
And then I pulled off my helmet. The vampires and thralls immediately snarled, and one of the guards reached for me. “Oh, relax, everybody,” I said, setting the helmet on the floor beside me. “I can’t hear in that thing. You don’t like it, shoot me. I’m not here to fight.”
“Such insolence,” the goateed vamp said. “We do not permit that here-”
“And yet she speaks the truth,” Nyissa said, surprised, seemingly at herself. “I don’t think she could even stand before the Stone if she meant us harm.”
“Whether she means us harm or not, she cannot speak to us this way.”
“Enough,” Transomnia said firmly. “Everyone, shut up, unless I owe you my life.”
All the other vamps and thralls froze, uncertain, and Transomnia said, even more firmly, “That means, everyone except Dakota Frost. Please, sit down. How did you find us?”
“Google Maps,” I said, sitting. There were choked laughs, and I shook my head. “You were threatened by my visit-and you had the Stone. That meant you were close to the center of Blood Rock. This room, on the other hand, is large, and underground, and perhaps new. Most of Blood Rock is small, single-storied, and falling apart. Really, it wasn’t that hard.”
“Do the police know?” he said.
“I didn’t tell them where you are,” I said, raising my hand. “But you made me late for a court appointment, and the judge made me make a statement to the police.”
“Damnit,” Transomnia hissed. “Frost, we had a deal-”
“They know what happened to me,” I said, raising my hand, “but not what I deduced from it. If they haven’t found you already, they’re probably not looking. Tracking down the crazy story of a murder suspect is probably the last thing on the police’s agenda.”
“A murder suspect?” Transomnia said. “ You? ”
“Valentine,” I said.
“Valentine!” Nyissa hissed. “How could they accuse you of murdering that sick fuck?”
“No good deed goes unpunished,” Transomnia said, frowning. “There is no way they could know what really happened in that room. I took the security tapes.”
“Of course you did. So it’s my word against a dead man,” I said, rubbing my forehead. “A national hero-look, could you please turn that off? It’s giving me a headache.”
“Turn… off?” Transomnia said, baffled-then he looked back at the Stone, which was humming and glowing again. “But if you do not mean us harm, then why-”
“If you think I’m not pissed off at being charged for murder, you don’t know me.”
Transomnia laughed. “I don’t think I know you,” he said, “but do it.”
“My Lord,” Nyissa said, protesting.
“Oh, come on, unbanish me already. The spell takes, like, a minute. You can always rebanish me later,” I said. Nyissa glanced at Transomnia, who nodded. Then she tromped up the stairs and began waving her hand over the Stone. Almost immediately, my head felt better. “If you please,” I said, “I need to mention some names you’ve asked me not to.”
Transomnia’s eyes gleamed red. “Go on,” he said.
“Calaphase is dead,” I said, and Transomnia’s mouth quirked up into a smile, then faded into a frown. “Murdered by magic graffiti, along with Revenance and one or maybe two more vampires of the Oakdale Clan. The Gentry has reported-oh, heck, I’ve lost count… ”
Transomnia’s face grew carefully neutral as I continued. Nyissa finished her spell and the Stone faded into quiet silence, and yet still I kept going through the list of attacks. Nyissa herself pretended to scowl as she descended the steps towards me, but I could see she was spooked.
“The werehouse itself was destroyed by magic graffiti, as was the Candlestick Apartment complex,” I said, racking my brain for any other incidents. “Oh, that last one was part of an attack on me personally, the second in as many days-”
“And yet none of this has touched the House Beyond Sleep, or any of the other clans or houses outside the Perimeter,” Transomnia said thoughtfully. “Why have you brought all this to my doorstep, Dakota Frost? To spread the curse to us?”
“ No, ” I said. “Look, my friends are dying. I’ve got to stop this, but I have no leads. The police know nothing. Despite weeks of hunting, I’ve learned next to nothing. I need to speak to someone who has real hidden knowledge. I need to speak to Arcturus.”
“And I’ve forbidden you to come to Blood Rock,” Transomnia said slowly, “so you came to me… to ask for safe passage?”
“For permission, like a good little girl,” Nyissa laughed, sitting down on the chair arm so her thigh closed the cuff on my wrist with a sudden clank. “How delightfully obsequious.”
“Unbelievable,” Transomnia said, as Nyissa stretched her poker out and closed the cuff over my other wrist.
