‘Hmph. And I suppose in exchange for helping make Evie right, you’re also going to want your curse lifted.’
He blew out a long, unsteady breath. ‘I’ve wanted that for a long time. But I’ll settle for just helping Fi.’
She arched her thick white brows. ‘That so?’
He nodded, ignoring the widening hole in his chest. Having Fi back would be enough. She’d help him forget about the curse. She always had.
‘You love her?’
‘That’s none of your damn business.’
‘I’ll take that as a yes.’ Aliza drained the last of her coffee and sat back, judgment clear in her harsh stare. ‘The kind of magic that turns a woman into stone isn’t easy to undo. It’s heavy. Means sacrifice. Can’t just whip that kind of thing out of thin air.’
He sighed, steeling himself. ‘What do you need?’
‘Some of the drug she took that night.’
‘Done.’ Evie had scored an eighth of Medusa, a highly potent love potion that gave the user the ability to keep a man hard for as long as she wanted.
Aliza leaned her head forward. ‘I’ll also need blood.’
With a calm that surprised him, he laid his arm on the table. ‘I’m prepared for that.’
She laughed. ‘Not yours, fool boy.’
The small, sharp teeth of his sixth sense nipped the back of his neck in warning. ‘Whose, then?’
‘Dominic Scarnato’s.’
If she’d asked for the blood of an unborn child, he’d have been less stunned. ‘Do you know what you’re asking? I can’t just walk up to him and say, “Hey, I need some of your blood.” The man is a powerful crime boss. He pretty much runs the supernatural business that goes on in Paradise City.’
‘Told you.’ She shrugged. ‘I need the blood of the one whose magic made those drugs.’
‘I can’t get it. Pick something else.’
‘There is nothing else.’ She stood and walked her empty cup back to the sink. ‘Come back when you have it.’ She leaned against the counter. ‘Or don’t come back at all.’
Anger made him bold. He jumped up, almost knocking his chair over. ‘Anything else? Pot of leprechaun gold? A unicorn horn?’
‘Nothing quite that tough.’ She crossed her arms and smiled, crinkling the corners of her gray eyes. ‘I need the blood by Samhain.’
Samhain was Halloween. Son of a— ‘That’s less than two weeks away.’
She inspected her fingernails. ‘Well, then, you’d better get cracking.’
Chapter Eight
‘Do you know what I hate about this place?’ Tatiana asked Nasir as she stared out the window of her private jet, watching the horrifically bright landscape blur past the landing aircraft.
‘What’s that, my love?’ He curled a lock of her hair around his finger, leaning into her space.
She hooked her finger around the lock he’d claimed and tugged it from his grasp. ‘Besides the fact that this place is full of fringe, fae, remnants, and all sorts of undesirables, besides the fact that the Americas are a mess of human politics and infighting, besides the fact that several people who’ve tried to kill me reside here, it’s too damn sunny. All the time. Why would any vampire in his right mind want to live in such an awful place?’ She collapsed back into her seat with the appalling weight of returning to this forsaken land, her eyes fixed on the world beyond the helioglazed glass.
‘Well … ’ Nasir started.
She glared at him, willing him to continue and give her a reason to strike him.
‘I was just going to say that it’s warm. You know how good that feels to those of our kind. My homeland is very much the same.’ He tipped his head. ‘It will be dark in a few hours. The day is almost past.’
She returned her gaze to the window. ‘If I don’t kill something soon, I’m going to be in a very foul mood.’
He leaned in and stroked the side of her neck. ‘There are other ways to improve one’s mood, my sweet.’
She squinted at him, but it did nothing to improve her ability to suffer foolishness. Perhaps she should have bought him some picture books instead of the comarré. ‘You realize there are twelve Nothos on board this plane, as well as a fringe pilot and copilot, and my private bedroom is currently occupied by two comarré? Where exactly did you imagine this mood enhancement would take place? Out here, in front of these aberrations?’ She waved her hand over her shoulder toward the monstrosities taking up most of the plane’s forward space. The stench of brimstone was enough to ruin anyone’s mood, forget that it might never come out of the beautiful leather covering her seats.
‘Surely the comarré can spend a few minutes out here with—’
‘I realize you’ve never owned a comarré before, but you must understand that putting them out here with the Nothos would be like asking a feral dog to watch your steak.’ Bloody hell, he was an idiot about certain things. She tried to focus on his talents in bed and with alchemy and patted his hand like she’d once done to the child Malkolm had allowed to die.
‘Yes, I suppose it would.’ He gave her a conciliatory smile. ‘Later, then.’
‘Later you’re going to be out searching for my cover.’ She couldn’t go around looking like herself and risk being noticed by that wretched comarré or her shoddy group of friends. Someone local, someone connected just enough to get her in the door … that’s what she needed. Unfortunately, she had to rely on Nasir to bring that someone to her.
The plane taxied toward the hangar, slowing to a crawl as it eased into the large metal building. As soon as the doors were shut and sealed against the invasive sunlight, she disembarked. Nasir followed behind, but the comarré and the Nothos stayed safely ensconced in their separate spots on the plane.
The head of her household staff, Octavian, waited, hands crossed behind his back, posture
