She breathed, 'Steal? Moi? Never.'
'I saw you taking things from them already,' he said. She gazed up at the ceiling, resisting the urge to whistle with guilt. 'Why did you exchange pebbles for your thefts?'
'Well, it's one thing to take something from the living, another to give. I wanted to hear someone say, 'Now, where'd this pebble come from?' well after the fact—it would be like a record of my existence. I thought it would prove me real.'
'And now, because I interact with you, you know you're real?' When she nodded, he said, 'Then you'd think you'd be more appreciative, more inclined to help me. Néomi, I'm going mad just lying in this room hour after hour.'
'You're already mad.'
He cast her a glower. 'Aren't your kind supposed to be territorial? Get me that key, and then you can be all by yourself again.'
'I'm not always alone here,' she said. 'Families live here at times. And contrary to most ghost stories, I adore having people here. Even if they can't see or hear me, they at least entertain.'
'When were the last ones here?'
'Ten years ago. A charming young couple moved in.' The husband and wife had been dazzled by the incredible bargain they'd gotten on Elancourt—having no idea it was the scene of a 'grisly murder-suicide,' as the papers had called it.
The two had worked diligently to restore and modernize as much as they could themselves. When their first baby had come, Néomi had cosseted the little girl, rocking her cradle and putting on floating puppet shows, helping out the exhausted parents as much as possible. Yet when the toddler had begun to cry for an invisible puppeteer, the parents had gotten spooked and moved.
Néomi had been heartbroken—and alone for the next ten years... until Conrad and his brothers had come.
'You've never frightened anyone away?' he asked, as if that was precisely what he would've been doing in her position.
'In truth, I do get very territorial with vandals. I scare them off—and they never return,' she said proudly.
'I've already done much more damage to your home than some vandals. Yet you won't help me leave?'
If she gave him a key, he would be gone before the chains hit the ground. And she knew she would never see him again.
Merde, that pang hurt. She inwardly shook herself. 'Even if I could get it, why would I give it to you? So you could make good on your threats against your brothers?'
'You would give it to me because, if you don't, then I'm as much your prisoner as theirs.'
'Why are you so keen to get away from them, Conrad? They're only trying to do what's best for you.'
'You know nothing.'
'Then tell me why you hate them so much. Because they turned you?'
He gave a bitter laugh. 'That's not enough?'
'It was a long time ago, and they're doing so much for you now. They aren't sleeping. They trace across the ocean, warring against evil vampires when it's night over there, and then they rush back here to try to help you.'
His expression inscrutable, he asked, 'Do you hate?'
'Pardon? As in hate a person?'
He nodded. 'Picture who you hate most in the world.'
'That's easy—Louis. The man who stabbed me.'
'Imagine dying and then waking, only to be bound to that miserable fuck for eternity. Would you not resent whoever put you in that situation?'
Oh, Lord, he has a point.
'They took from me my mission, my comrades, my life as I knew and wanted it—'
'Would you rather be dead?'
'Without question.'
She could see there was no convincing him of anything different in this matter.
'You've heard that I have all kinds of factions gunning for my head,' he said. 'It's only a matter of time before they find me here. I need that key, ghost.'
'My name's not 'ghost.''
'Mine's not 'dément.''
'Touché, dément,' she said blandly.
'Damn it! I've told you not to call me that—'
Murdoch suddenly appeared in the room.
12
Call you what?' Murdoch asked, but Conrad only shrugged. 'Even with your one-sided conversations, you still seem a hundred times better already.' Murdoch wasn't nearly as surprised as he should be about his progress.
They had an ace in their pocket. Conrad narrowed his eyes. They know something I don't about the bloodlust. 'If I'm so much better, then free me.'
'Can't do that. You could relapse. It's not even an option until you're drinking bagged blood, and you go at least two weeks without a rage.'
Barely reining in his temper, Conrad said, 'Am I to stay here the entire time?'
'No. Of course not. At the end of the next week, we're tracing you to a meeting about the Accession. A huge crowd is expected, with Lorekind from all over the world attending. Thousands of females will be there—Valkyrie, sirens, nymphs. You might find your Bride among them. Especially now, on the cusp of the Accession. We're also going to search for Nïx, a Valkyrie soothsayer. She's been aiding us with you. When we can find her.'
Conrad had heard of Nïx the Ever-Knowing. She was powerful and supposedly as mad as he was. But whereas his mind was clotted with memories, hers was filled with visions of the future. 'Why would she help you?' Just because Sebastian and Nikolai had married Valkyrie didn't mean the rest of their kind accepted vampires. 'Leeches' were universally hated in the Lore, even the clear-eyed ones.
'We're not entirely sure,' Murdoch admitted. 'But she could help locate your Bride.'
'And what about your Bride, Murdoch? Your heart beats. Sebastian and Nikolai know it. You can't hide it.'
When Murdoch stood and crossed to the window, Néomi relocated from her window seat to the spot beside Conrad in the bed. The first female ever to move away from Murdoch in favor of another Wroth. He felt a surge of satisfaction.
'I've made a vow to my Bride that I would tell no one, and Wroths keep their word.' Murdoch ran his hand over the back of his neck. 'I ask you not to bring it up to them.'
'It's none of my concern—just as my Bride isn't yours,' Conrad said.
'But we believe finding your female could help you recover fully.'
'Fully recovered still means I'm a vampire.'
'That's true,' Murdoch said. 'Everything we're doing will be wasted if we can't convince you that some vampires aren't evil. Not all of our kind have to be destroyed.'
'What did Nikolai mean about controlling the memories, pulling them up at will?'
'You can learn to do it—but you have to be stable first.'
Stable? When was the last time he'd been stable? 'What have you been injecting me with?'
'A sedative and muscle relaxant concocted by the witches. They also put some element in it that's supposed to make you more susceptible to your Bride's influence. If we can help you find her.'
Son of a bitch. 'You don't say.' His gaze landed on Néomi. She tilted her head at him.
Was she... his? Was this why she affected him so strongly? Then why hadn't she blooded him? Especially if
