We waited.
The sound of classical music drifted in fits and starts down the majestic stairway that led to the grand ballroom on the third floor. It sounded like a string quartet rehearsing rather than a party in full swing, which is what I’d encountered the last time I’d been here. Periodically the music would stop, and we could hear someone issuing arcane instructions that hovered on the verge of audibility.
The doorkeeper returned. “Lady Eris will receive you in her sitting room,” he announced. “She is
“I remember.” Not as much had happened as he thought, actually, but I’d let Lady Eris save face in front of her minions in exchange for a temporary no-hunting decree. “But it was just after sunset that time, too.”
The vampire heaved a sigh, a disconcerting sound in someone who breathes only in order to speak. “When the nights are short, we make the most of them. As they begin to lengthen, we enjoy a more leisurely pace.”
“Some of us daywalkers don’t have that luxury,” Cody said in one of his more laconic tones.
The vampire glanced at him, his eyes narrowing again. At a guess, he’d identified Cody as eldritch, but hadn’t placed him yet. “Follow me.”
We followed him up the staircase to the second-floor landing, turning off down a hallway lit by sconces with fluted lamps of mauve glass. It made Cody’s healthy complexion—and probably mine—look sickly, but it created a pleasing effect on the bloodless alabaster pallor of our guide. I wondered how any non-Caucasian vampires in the House of Shadows felt about Lady Eris’s choice in lighting.
Our guide halted before the door of the master bedroom, knocking on it once. “Hel’s liaison,” he intoned. “And some cop.”
Huh. Maybe he wasn’t quite so ye olde world as he acted.
The door was opened from within. Lady Eris—which, no, I don’t believe for a moment is her real name— was seated on an ornate padded stool being groomed for the night’s revels. She wore a deep crimson satin dressing gown trimmed with black lace that, frankly, reminded me a lot of what the Fabulous Casimir was wearing tonight. One attendant was brushing out her long, jet-black hair while another knelt with one of her ladyship’s elegant white feet in her lap, assiduously applying toenail polish.
“Daisy Johanssen,” she said in flat acknowledgment. At least she wasn’t pretending not to remember my name.
“Hi,” I said.
Her ebony-dark gaze shifted to Cody, one eyebrow arching. “And Officer . . . ?”
Cody’s nostrils flared. “Fairfax.”
“Fairfax.” She echoed him, smiling a little. “How very interesting! A lycanthrope on the local police force?”
Apparently she didn’t have any problem identifying him, but if she was trying to use a touch of hypnotic vampire seduction on him, it wasn’t working. Maybe werewolves were immune to it. Ignoring her question, Cody showed his badge again. “We have reason to believe there’s a minor on the premises.”
Lady Eris’s eyelids flickered ever so slightly. “I’m sure that’s not the case. My people are under strict orders.”
“People make mistakes, my lady,” I said.
Her gaze shifted back to me, and this time I felt its weight. “Last time, you came seeking a favor and I granted it freely, Hel’s liaison,” she said in a silken voice filled with playful menace. “What will you give me for this one?”
Oh, gah! That shouldn’t be effective, but it was. I could feel my skin getting warmer, my blood rising. Clearing my throat, I let my mental shield grow from a tiny spark to the size of a mirror in a makeup compact and held it between us, trying to play my cards close to my chest. Lady Eris gave me the eyebrow arch anyway. “The courtesy of your response was noted in Niflheim, my lady,” I said to her. Total lie, but I needed to put my own spin on it. “However, I am tasked by Hel herself to mediate between eldritch and mundane authorities, and this matter pertains directly to the House of Shadows.”
I thought that was pretty damn diplomatic of me, not to mention well phrased, but the mistress of the manor was unamused. “In other words, this is not a request.”
Inclining my head a few degrees, I kept my mouth shut.
“No,” Cody said bluntly. “It’s not.”
Lady Eris came off her stool with blinding speed to slap him across the face with an open hand, her nails raking his cheek. Her attendants scattered out of the way. Cody’s head snapped sideways, his face distorting in a snarl, his mouth suddenly full of too many teeth, hands clenching into fists. Hairy, hairy fists. She stood imperiously before him, unmoving, unbreathing. “Mind your manners, wolf. This is
He growled at her in response, blood trickling down his cheek.
“Whoa!” I found my voice. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, people! Let’s not go all
I’m not sure what made me choose those words, but they worked. His features shifted back into human form. “I could arrest you for assaulting an officer,” he said in a hard voice. “You’re not above the law.”
“You could try.” Unimpressed, Lady Eris sat back down on her ornate stool. She raised her hand to taste Cody’s blood on her fingernails with the tip of her tongue, then made a face. I guess werewolf blood wasn’t yummy. She gestured to an attendant, who scrambled to bring her a bowl of water in which to dabble her fingers. “Is that what you really want?”
“No, my lady.” I got the words out before Cody could respond, elbowing him in the ribs for good measure. “Just the chance to look for the child.”
Lady Eris and I did the locked-gazes thing. What can I say? It was big in the eldritch community. I kept my expression neutral and my miniature shield shining between us. “Naturally, I have no desire to be in violation of Hel’s order,” she said at length, snapping her fingers at her attendants. One hurried to arrange her hair in a loose chignon, while the other eased a pair of open-toed mules onto her feet, careful not to smudge the fresh nail polish. “Come! Let us review the latest acolytes.”
Once acceptably attired, she swept out of the room before us, down the mauve-lit hallway and up the grand staircase to the ballroom on the third floor, where her early arrival—not to mention Cody’s and my presence— provoked consternation.
“My lady!” A tall vampire with a supercilious face protested. “The spectacle isn’t ready yet!”
I knew that face. Geoffrey Chancellor, the insufferable prat who was blood-bonded to Jen’s sister.
“Oh, my lady! It’s
And that would be Bethany Cassopolis, whom I did not expect to find up on a scaffold, arranging lighting. From what I could tell, they were in the midst of staging a scene from a play. On a low dais there were three, maybe four, people dressed in Renaissance-looking robes and frozen in poses around a platter with what appeared to be a bearded man’s severed head on it. Hence my confusion regarding the actual number of people on the dais.
Cody took a step forward. “What the
“It’s a tableau vivant,” Lady Eris said irritably. “Caravaggio’s
I studied the tableau. Unlike the members of the string quartet in the corner, sitting bloodless and motionless with their instruments at the ready, the participants were mortal. Now that I looked closely, I could see that the severed-head effect was accomplished using a black curtain affixed to the rim of the platter. Phew.
All of them held their poses resolutely, but the young woman playing Salome, draped in a red robe and ostensibly holding the platter, was trembling.
“Heather Simkus?” I said to her. She didn’t respond, keeping her face averted. “Heather?”
“Goddammit!” Bethany Cassopolis came storming down from the scaffold, a lighting canister in one hand. “What the hell are
