A Caress of Twilight

She looked at me for a few heartbeats, then gave a very small nod. "What would Princess Meredith of the Unseelie Court offer us?"

"You said once that you would give much for a longer drink of my blood."

She looked startled before she could school her face to courtly blankness. When she could control herself, she said, "Blood is blood, Princess. Why should I care for yours?"

Now she was just being difficult. "You said that I tasted of high magic and sex. Or have you forgotten me so quickly, Queen Niceven?" I made my face fall, my eyes downcast. "Did it mean so little to you?" I shrugged, and let my newly shoulder-length hair fall across my face. I spoke behind a curtain of hair that sparkled like spun rubies. "If the blood of the heir to the throne means nothing to you, then I have nothing to offer." I turned my eyes toward her, knew the effect that those tricolored green and gold eyes could have through a frame of blood auburn hair, coupled with glimpses of skin like polished alabaster. I'd grown up among women, and men, who used their beauty like a weapon. I would never have dreamed of doing it with another sidhe, because they were all more beautiful than I, but with Niceven and her hungry eyes that followed my men, with her, I could use my own other-worldliness as she'd tried to use hers.

She slapped her tiny hand on the arm of her chair hard enough to startle the white mouse. "By Flora, you are your aunt's blood. Prince Cel has never mastered his beauty as Andais has, and as you have."

I gave a small bow, because it's always hard to bow from a sitting position. "A pretty compliment from a lovely queen."

She preened, smiling, petting the mouse, leaning back in her chair so that her sheer dress showed off more of her body. Her body had gone past slender into cadaverous, so that it was like looking at a little starved thing. But she thought her body was beautiful, and I could show nothing less in my face.

Frost stayed unmoving a little behind me. He'd removed his belt, his shoulder holster, his suit jacket, but nothing else. Even his shoes were still on. He was not going to strip for Niceven.

Doyle on the other hand had removed his shoulder holster, his belt, and his shirt. The silver ring in his left nipple glinted so that Niceven could see it, even in profile. Rhys continued to work at all that thick black hair as if he were smoothing out the train of a dress.

The men moved about me like ladies-in-waiting preparing themselves for bed. They left me alone to deal with Niceven. Which meant I was doing all right on my own. Good to know.

I flashed her a curve of lips as red as the red, red rose, no lipstick needed. "A drink of my blood to cure my knight, you agree?"

"You give your own life's fluid away very freely, Princess." She was being cautious.

"I only give that which I own."

"The Prince thinks he owns all the court."

"I know that I own only the body I inhabit. Anything else is hubris."

The Queen laughed. "Will you come home so that I may feed?"

"Do you agree that another feeding is worth my knight's cure?"

She nodded. "I agree."

"Then what would a feeding once a week be worth?"

I felt the men behind me tense. The atmosphere of the room was suddenly thicker. I was careful not to look at them. I was princess, and I didn't need the permission of my guards to do anything. I either ruled, or I did not.

Niceven's eyes narrowed into pale little flames. "What's that supposed to mean, a feeding once a week?"

"It means exactly what I said."

"Why would you offer to make a weekly blood offering to me?"

"For an alliance between us."

Frost pushed toward me over the bed. "Meredith, no..."

He was going to say something unfortunate and ruin everything. I had the begi

He closed his mouth into a tight, thin line, so obviously unhappy, but he sat there, sulking. At least he was quiet about it.

I heard Doyle take in a breath, and I just looked at him. The look was enough. He gave a small nod of his head and let Rhys begin to brush out his long hair. There was a wave to all that blackness, because of the braid, I think; I remembered Doyle's hair as straight. I was distracted for a moment watching Rhys kneeling so pale and perfect against all that darkness. It was Doyle clearing his throat who made me jump and turn back to the mirror.

Niceven laughed, the sound of just slightly off-key bells, as if it were something lovely that had been just a bit malformed.

"My apologies for my inattention, Queen Niceven."

"If I had such a bounty awaiting me, I would make this a short conversation."

"And what if you had the bounty of my blood awaiting you? What then?"

Her face sobered. "You are persistent. It is most unfeylike."

"I am part brownie, and we are a more persistent people than the sidhe."

"You are part human, as well."

I smiled. "Humans are like the sidhe; some are more persistent than others."

She didn't smile back at me. "For another drink of your blood, I will cure your green knight, but that is all. One drink, one cure, and we are done."

"For one drink of my blood, King Kurag of the goblins became my ally for six months."

Her delicate eyebrows raised. "That is goblin and sidhe business, and none of ours. We are the demi-fey. No one cares who we ally ourselves with. We fight no battles. We challenge no duels. We mind our business and everyone else minds theirs."

"So you refuse an alliance?"

"I think caution is the better part of valor here, Princess, no matter how tasty you may be."

In negotiations, always try to be nice first, but if nice doesn't work, there are other options. "Everyone leaves you alone, Queen Niceven. Because they consider you too small to worry about."

"Prince Cel thought us big enough to spoil your plans with the green knight." Her voice held the first hint of anger.

"Yes, and what did he offer you for that bit of work?"

"The taste of sidhe flesh, knight's flesh, and blood. We feasted that night, Princess."

"He paid you in someone else's blood, when his body was full of blood only one step down from the queen herself. Have you ever tasted the queen?"

Niceven looked nervous, almost frightened. "The queen shares only with her lovers, or her prisoners."

"How that must irk you, to see such a precious gift wasted."

Niceven pouted tiny ghost silver lips. "If only she would take some of my people to her bed, but we are..."

"Too small," I finished for her.

"Yes," she hissed, "yesss, always too small. Too small a power for an alliance. Too small a power to be used except as her sneak spies." Tiny, pale hands balled into fists. The white mouse cowered away from her as if he knew what was coming. Even the trio of ladies behind her throne shuddered as if from the brush of an icy wind.

"And now you do dirty work for her son," I said. My voice was carefully neutral, almost pleasant.

"At least he sought us to do his work." The anger in that small, delicate figure was frightening. Her rage made her take up more space than mere physicality could explain. She was truly regal in her rage.

"I offer you what the queen will not. I offer what the prince will not."

"And what is that?"

"Royal blood, blood of the very throne of the Unseelie Court. Ally with me, Queen Niceven, and you will have such blood. Not only once, but many times more."

Her eyes became narrow little slits again, glittering with a fire colder than the diamonds on her crown. "What would either of us gain from such an alliance?"

"You would gain the ear and the aid of my allies."