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I frowned, puzzled. Why was he asking me? ‘I don’t know, Bobby. I’ve heard you can do that, but I’m probably not the best person to ask.’
‘I’ve checked around, on the quiet.’ His expression turned anxious. ‘I don’t want Declan finding out; he’d make sure it never happened. I need to get another master to agree to take me before I petition the High Table—that way, if I’m accepted straight away, Declan can’t object—or at least, he can, and then he gets some sort of compensation, but he can’t stop me going.’
‘Sounds like you need to talk to the other master vamps, then,’ I said, checking the lifts again.
‘Of course, Albie would be my first choice,’ Bobby carried on, ‘but he’s already told everyone that he’s not interested in taking on anyone else’s vamps. He’s not even going to sponsor anyone for the Gift! He says he’s got too much on his plate already with taking over the Blue Heart.’
I suddenly realised I was scratching my neck; I forced myself to stop, wondering how long Grace was going to be. Maybe Hari would find me some G-Zav if I asked nicely ... or desperately ...
‘Thing is,’ Bobby brushed a hand over his hair, fingers hesitating at the silver circlet, ‘I never even get a chance to talk to any of the other masters. If I’m not here, I have to be at the Blue Heart. They sell tickets with fifteen-minute time slots, like I’m on a production line or something. I have to bite them one after the other, and the other vamps are all jealous, saying that I should be in vampire heaven or something, but I end up using so much energy making each bite feel great that half the time I don’t even get a decent meal and I’m still hungry at the end of the night.’
‘Well, don’t start looking at me,’ I said, feeling vaguely sorry for him, but a little worried that all his chat was the equivalent of him inviting me out to di
‘I can’t, can I?’ He moved to stand in front of me and a sullen look settled on his face. ‘The bastard ordered me not to, remember?’
Oh yeah, Declan did have his plus points at times. Forbidding all the vamps under his control from sinking their fangs in me was one of them. Of course, that still left Declan and a lot of other suckers out there who had no such inhibitions.
‘Good, just so we’re clear on that,’ I said, my voice calmer than I felt.
‘But there is something I wanted to ask you.’ His expression turned hopeful. ‘I was wondering if you could speak to your master for me, y’know, put in a good word, see if she’d consider having me.’
‘I don’t have a master,’ I said, baffled.
He frowned. ‘But everyone’s talking about you and Rosa.’
Rosa: the vamp whose body I’d been magically borrowing whenever I used my Disguise spell. Damn. Malik had mentioned something about that; the vamps all considered me her property now. ‘Rosa isn’t my master,’ I said slowly. ‘She’s something else—and don’t ask me to explain, it’s way too complicated.’
‘Okay,’ he agreed, obviously not interested in an explanation anyway. ‘But if you could tell her I’ll do anything, whatever she wants—I mean, I’ve heard the sort of things she’s into, and I’m fine with whatever.’ He lifted his cuffed hands and gri
I held my hands up, needing him to back off a bit. ‘Look, I can’t—’
‘No!’ He grabbed my hands, lifting them to his mouth. ‘ Please. I know I can’t influence your mind, but whatever you want, whatever you and Rosa want, I’ll do.’ His lips chilled my knuckles and the handcuffs chinked like heavy chains in my ears. I stared transfixed at where our hands joined. Around me the peach-coloured waiting area disappeared and in its place was a large square room lit by hundreds of thick creamy church candles, walls hung with rich burgundy drapes and stone-flagged floor sloping down to a grate in one corner, a river of blood streaming ...
For a stu
... I grasped the chain joined to his manacled wrists tighter and jerked my arm back. The force yanked him off his knees and his body crashed onto the hard floor. I pulled the chain, dragging him screaming and spitting across the blood-slicked stone flags until he lay shaking at my feet. I smiled down at him, seeing only the youth of his body, cusped on that edge between adolescence and adulthood, ignoring the centuries that lurked in the darkness of his eyes.
‘What did you call me, cara?’ I asked, my voice full of silk and seduction.
‘Bitch, you’re a fucking sadistic bitch,’ he sneered up at me, lips curled back, his fangs stained red with my blood.
I threw back my head and laughed, delighted. ‘Such sweet words, my lover.’ I flicked my wrist and a gun-shot crack sliced through my laughter as the metal-tipped whip flayed another blood-thin line across his naked stomach.
He screamed again, high-pitched, his spine arching with the edge of pleasure the pain brought him. Then grabbing the chain that joined us, he pulled me down, forcing me onto my knees next to him. ‘I promise you, on my honour,’ he snarled, ‘I will break the bones in your body, bitch. And then I will fuck you senseless.’
Eagerness and lust tightened my body, liquid heat flooded between my legs and I touched my tongue to my own fangs, tasting the sweet liquorice of my venom. ‘Yes, do all of that, cara,’ I breathed, my own excitement mounting as I lowered my mouth to kiss his. ‘But first it is my turn to feed.’
‘Jesus fucking Christ! What the fuck was that?’ Bobby’s voice brought me back to the here and now.
I stared into his shocked grey eyes, too shaken to speak. ‘It’s a memory, isn’t it?’ Bobby’s grey eyes went from shocked to amazed. ‘I shared one of your memories—yours and Rosa’s.’
Shit, I’d feltit, livedit, as though it was my own. And I knew the boy, or rather the vampire, I knew his name—Bastien—and I knew he’d taken as much pleasure from the game as Rosa had ... and I knew he had been true to the promise he had made to her. Bastien was the Autarch; not only that, he had been my betrothed—
Sweat broke out over my body, my stomach lurched with nausea and I pressed my lips together, willing myself not to vomit. Bastien wasn’t here. He couldn’t hurt me. And it wasn’t mymemory; it hadn’t happened to me. I swallowed back the taste of bile. The memory belonged to Rosa. So what the fuck was it doing in my mind?
‘Look,’ Bobby broke into my thoughts, ‘seeing that doesn’t put me off, okay? I still want you to talk to Rosa—’
‘I told you, I can’t speak to Rosa for you,’ I said, frowning. How could I when I didn’t know where she was, or even if she, as opposed to her body, was still alive? I hadn’t even used the Disguise spell in the last month—Was that why I’d had the memory? Was something wrong with the spell, or with me?
‘Please,’ he pleaded, squeezing my hands. ‘I don’t know what else to do. If there’s anything you want—I can’t bite you, but I’m good-looking, I’m great in bed, I’ll do any type of sex you want, or anything else ... ’
I shook my head, feeling frustrated sympathy at his desperation. ‘Bobby—’
‘I’ve got to get away,’ he interrupted, ‘but if I just put myself out there and none of the other masters want me, then He’s got the right to take the Gift back, and then I’d be truly dead and that would leave Dad with no one to look after him. Please. I’m beggingyou.’ He jerked my hands up to his lips again—
His fangs caught my knuckle, splitting the skin and the jagged pain so soon after the full-on sensory memory sent lust and panic spiralling through my body. Without thinking, I tried to pull my hands away.
He groaned, his pupils dilating with need, his hands convulsing around mine. His lips drew back, all four fangs glistening sharp as he licked the blood welling from the cut. The liquorice scent of venom curled around me, heat flushed my skin and I froze. He shoved me back against the wall and raised his head back to strike—