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‘I have given you my protection,’ he said dismissively. ‘It is not necessary for you to worry.’
Looked like I was getting the brush-off again, which meant it was time to discuss a few ground rules about whatever our relationshipwas, or wasn’t.
I gave him a bright smile. ‘You do know I’m not fourteen any more, don’t you?’
‘I had noticed,’ he said, giving me an amused once-over.
‘Good,’ I said, ignoring the twist of desire inside me. There hadn’t been enough heat in his eyes for it to affect me like it did. ‘Well then, much as I’m grateful for all your past protection, and your help, you should also know that you can’t keep leaving me out of the loop or doing your mind-mojo thing whenever you feel like it.’
An odd, indecipherable expression crossed his face. ‘No?’
‘No,’ I said firmly.
‘How do you propose to stop me, Genevieve?’ he said softly.
That wasn’t the answer I’d expected, and it certainly wasn’t what I wanted to hear. I stared at him, a part of me wondering if he was joking. ‘What do you mean?’
‘You gave me your blood of your own free will.’ His eyes were cool, contemplative. ‘Not only does it allow me an open invitation into your home, but into your mind. I can make you think or feel whatever I choose to, whenever I choose to.’
‘But you won’t,’ I stated, in spite of the unease crawling down my spine.
His shoulders lifted in an elegant shrug. ‘Why not?’
Because you’re supposed to be one of the Good Guys.‘Look, Malik, I spent the last five months sleep-walking through my life because you and Tavish got over-protective and sicced the Sleeping Beauty spell on me—I mean, I get that you were both worried about me after everything that happened, but I’m fine now. And the pair of you can’t keep leaving me out of the loop. You need to talk to me, to tell me what’s going on, to stop hiding things from me. It’s my life, after all.’
‘I have given my word I will keep you safe, Genevieve.’ He paused. ‘Even from yourself, if necessary.’
I tightened my hand on the glass, exasperated. ‘C’mon, Malik, I can look after myself.’
He raised his brows. ‘As you did so successfully tonight.’
‘Fine, okay, most of the time,’ I admitted. ‘Tonight was an exception.’
‘No, it was not an exception.’ A thread of anger laced his voice. ‘You are continually reckless with your own safety.’
My exasperation exploded into frustration. ‘I hadto help them—they’re my friends, and it was because of me they were getting hurt. If I hadn’t, one or more of them might have died.’
‘It is possible,’ he agreed. ‘People die all the time. It is sad, and sometimes regrettable. But their lives are not as valuable to me as yours. You wear my mark, you are my property, and as such I will take care of you. In the future you will not visit Sucker Town without my permission.’
I felt the ordersink into my mind.
I stared at him in shock. ‘You can’t do that.’
Chapter Twenty-Eight
‘You have given me your blood, Genevieve,’ Malik said, his eyes black and opaque, ‘so I have no need to indulge you, or negotiate with you, or discuss anything. If and when I want anything from you, then I will mould your mind and body into agreement, and I will take it.’
My shock turned to confusion, then to gut-churning betrayal. I poured another drink, almost on autopilot, and knocked it back, concentrating on the clean taste of the alcohol. The urge to smash the bottle over his head erupted inside me, but as quickly as it arrived the anger was gone, replaced by a sick feeling of inevitability. Hadn’t I always known it would come to this: that one day I’d end up at the mercy—or otherwise—of a vampire? And despite, or maybe because of Malik’s high-handed over-protective habits, I’d believed he thought I was a person in my own right—that he cared about me. And I’d trusted that he’d never abuse the power he held over me. But evidently I was wrong, since he thought it okay to mess around with my mind, to make me do whatever hewanted without any discussion. Obviously I was nothing more than valuable property—his trophy sidhe.
I stared into my empty glass, not wanting to let him see how much that hurt. I gritted my teeth, tears stinging my eyes at my own stupidity … Automatically I raised my hand to my neck, seeking solace in the touch of Grace’s pentacle—
It was gone.
A quick flash of memory showed me my body in Darius’ room: my throat was a bloody mess … and there was no pentacle. I’d lost it while Darius had been necking me.
Panic, and the overwhelming need to find it overrode everything else, flooding adrenalin through my veins. I jerked up—
—and Malik’s hand fastened round my left wrist, holding me in place. ‘The necklace is safe, Genevieve,’ he said softly, indicating the bedside table, ‘but the chain is broken.’
My heart thudded in relief at the sight of the pentacle and the little pile of coiled chain, both glinting gold against the dark wood of the table top. I pulled away from his hold and started to reach out, but stopped. Oddly, my need to touch it had dissipated now I knew where it was. Briefly I wondered why I hadn’t felt the loss of it earlier, then that thought was banished by another.
He’d not only found Grace’s pentacle and brought it back safely, he’d noticed it was missing in the first place. Okay, so he could just be observant, hard not to be when you were as old as he was, but my gut told me it was more than that. After all, he’d killed me more than once in his efforts to protect me, so his ‘I am the master, you will do as I say’ pronouncement was just more of the same. But if I needed more convincing … Well, I was damned sure no other vamp would be keeping his fangs to himself when he was thirsty enough to drink an ocean of blood while he watched me drinking vodka … especially since he’d once told me he’d coveted me since I was four. But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t happily turn me into his cosseted, pampered blood-pet and leave me to twiddle my thumbs in some ivory tower if he thought it best for me. And it didn’t tell me why he was playing the big bad vamp in an attempt to distract me from whatever was going on.
And it didn’t make me any less angry.
Time to go fishing.
I looked up and met his dark, enigmatic eyes. ‘So,’ I said, letting the fury simmering inside me bleed into my words, ‘I’m valuable property, a possession you need to keep safe. But I’m curious as to what happens now: is this going to be an exclusive arrangement, or am I going to have to earn my keep?’ I leaned forward, spitting the words out: ‘Are you the only one I’m going to be forced to feed and fuck, or will you be offering my blood and my body around? After all, there’s no point wasting me, not now you’ve got me, is there?’
His pupils lit with pinpricks of rage, then snuffed out almost as quickly. He studied me in silence for a moment, then, talking as if to a recalcitrant child, said, ‘There are times when not utilising an asset can better maintain its worth. Your own father was careful to protect you, and to ensure both your blood and body were untouched, so as not to lessen your value.’
‘Ri- ight,’ I snorted. ‘And we both know how well that turned out for him—the Autarch killedhim. Not to mention the fact that my “untouched” value doesn’t exist any more—after all, you’re the one who infected my blood with 3V, and it’s been a while since I was a virgin. So as far as I can see, I’m hardly worth having any more.’
He treated me to another long, silent gaze. ‘Your value now lies in you being alive and uninjured, and not in the possession of a vampire. By agreeing to keep you that way, Genevieve, I gain a powerful ally in the kelpie.’
Surprise winged through me. I knew why Tavish wanted me safe—hard not to, with the fertility curse hanging over my head like a phallic Sword of Damocles—and I knew the pair of them were plotting whatevertogether, but I didn’t know what Tavish could offer Malik, that had the vamp passing up my supposed coveted sidhe blood. I cast another lure.