Sex, Lies, and Vampires

'Gigli's clientele,' Adrian answered my question, a black frown settled on his brow.

'And they took my spectral whips. The price of those have positively skyrocketed ever since the poltergeists learned they served as an aphrodisiac.'

'Really?' I slid a glance toward the door, the memory of the entwined bodies still fresh in my mind. 'Those were poltergeists out there? Huh. They didn't look ghostly at all.'

'That's because they aren't. Gigli uses the lounge as a cover for her real clients.'

'The poltergeists,' I said, trying to look as if there were nothing out of the ordinary in the idea of a whorehouse for ghosts.

'Exactly.'

'They pay extremely well,' Gigli added, evidently having worked out her tirade on the mutinous sylphs. 'Not in money, of course, because everyone knows poltergeists have no head for any form of treasure, but they are expert kobold catchers. The market here for tamed kobolds is incredible.'

'Kobolds?' I asked, trying not to look too stupid.

'A form of house imp,' Adrian answered. 'If we can get back to the point—'

'Very popular amongst the affluent set,' Gigli said in a confidential tone. 'A fully matured kobold can fetch anywhere from four thousand euros up. You can see why it pays to keep the poltergeists happy.'

'Of course I can,' I agreed, wondering if now was the point where my head exploded from all the strange things I had seen or heard about in the last seventy-two hours. 'It makes perfect sense. You have to buy sylphs so the poltergeists can get it on with them, thereby obligating them into hunting kobolds for you. What's not to understand?'

Adrian's hand descended upon my shoulder, squeezing it gently. 'Gigli, you're frightening Nell.'

'I'm not frightened. Disturbed, yes, I'm disturbed within a hairbreadth of going stark raving mad, but I'm not frightened.'

'We need two tickets to London,' Adrian said, ignoring both the rising note in my voice and Gigli's attempt to smother laughter. 'If you can provide us with them, I will consider your debt to me paid.'

'Done,' she said, lifting a black phone from the black glass desk that sat diagonally in a corner. She punched a few numbers, covering the mouthpiece to add, 'I will need your passport numbers.'

I looked at Adrian. He looked at Gigli.

'What?' she asked, her red brows pulling together slightly. 'Don't tell me you don't have your passport!'

'I have mine,' Adrian said slowly, his gaze dipping to where I sat.

'But mine got left behind in Christian's castle.'

Gigli set the phone back on its cradle, her gray eyes suddenly hard and assessing as she looked me over carefully before turning to Adrian. 'Christian? C.J. Dante?'

He nodded sharply.

'If you don't have your passport, how did you cross from the Czech Republic into Germany?'

'Adrian used me to do a mind push on the conductor on the train, which worked great, even though I had no idea how to make someone do what I wanted them to do just by giving them a mental shove, but…' I gnawed on my lower lip and slid him a quick glance. His face was frozen, his eyes locked on Gigli. 'But I had a bit of an accident in the Cologne train station, and we can't do that again.'

'Can you not have Dante send you the passport?'

'Are you kidding?' My lips curled into a jaded smile as Adrian's fingers tightened on my shoulder. 'Christian wants to see us dead. I don't think he's going to help us escape Germany.'

She sucked in her breath, her eyes huge as she turned them on Adrian. 'You did not mention that Dante is the Dark One pursuing you.'

Pain radiated from under Adrian's grip. I touched his fingers, wordlessly asking him to loosen his hold. He did so immediately, rubbing the sore spot as he answered Gigli. 'Does it matter who is trying to find us? We still need to get to London.'

'But this changes everything. Dante is'—she spread her hands wide in a gesture of helplessness—'very resourceful. You know that as well as I. The airport will be the first place he looks for you. This is not merely a matter of booking you on a flight to London. If you insist on flying, you must have new identities, and I cannot help you with that.'

I stood up, twining my fingers through Adrian's. Frustration raged in an angry swirl around him, wrapping me in its embrace until I thought I would scream at the obstructions that seemed to block our every move. 'Look, I realize we're asking a lot, and I don't have much I can offer in return, but I can withdraw some money from my retirement fund—'

'Money,' she said, snorting at the idea. 'What good is money? It is used only in the mortal world, and I keep my contacts with that to a minimum.'

'A big bucket of cash sure would come in handy right about now,' I snarled, immediately ashamed that my bad mood had caused me to lash out at someone who was trying to help us. 'I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. It's just that it's important that we get to London. Very important. And we'll do almost anything to get there, so whatever it will take—money, information, kobolds, whatever—we'll get it just so long as we're on a plane in the next couple of hours.'

Adrian disentangled his fingers from mine, wrapping both his arms around me as he pulled me back against his chest. 'Who do you know who can make us new identities?'

Gigli had pursed her lips at my outburst, softening the look to a thoughtful moue as I'd pleaded with her. Her lips relaxed into their normal full lines now as she eyed us. 'Seal.'

I leaned back against Adrian, exhausted and too overwhelmed to cope anymore. 'Trained or harbor?' I asked.

'The man who can help you is named Seal,' she answered, looking away quickly. 'He will be able to make you both new passports.'

'At what cost?' Adrian asked, his voice rumbling deep in his chest.

She wouldn't meet his eyes. 'That is between you and him. I cannot help you there. Once you have the passport numbers, I will arrange for you to be on the next flight to London.'

I had a bad feeling about this guy Seal, but didn't see that we had much choice. Adrian's frustration was still spilling onto me, joining with my own impatience and leaving me edgy and more than a little jumpy. Gigli wrote down the directions to Seal's apartment while I rubbed my arms, trying to quell the sense of disaster that seemed to grow stronger with each second that we were stuck in Germany.

Before we left, Gigli gave me an odd look, then unlocked a steel filing cabinet, pulling out a small green book which she offered to me.

'What's this?' I asked, flipping through it. It was in Latin, filled with diagrams and brief explanations along with what appeared to be very bad poetry. I translated a few sentences, surprised when I realized they weren't poems… they were spells.

'It is a book of charms. As you can see, it's not very old, and thus not worth much on the resale market. I thought you might like to have it, as you are a Charmer.'

I smiled and handed the book back to her. 'Thanks, but no thanks. I know that no one but Adrian believes me, but my Charming skills are pretty much limited to a couple of wards.'

'How do you know what you can do until you have tried?' she asked, her lips curving in a smile.

Unbidden, the image of Beth's bleak grave rose in my mind. I grimaced and looked away. 'Trust me, I know.'

Chapter Twelve

'Do you know this guy Seal?' I asked as Adrian and I hurried toward the nearest intersection, where we stood a better chance of finding a taxi.

'I have heard of him,' he answered. His voice was flat, but as soon as I slid my fingers around his wrist I