The Sweet Scent of Blood

‘I came looking for you’—his moss-green eyes darkened—‘and guess where you were? All dressed up and getting into a taxi with a sucker in Leicester Square. Stupidly, I decided to follow you, thinking you might be in trouble.’

The thought of him doing the proverbial knight in shining armour act—however u

‘Victoria Embankment Gardens, Gen.’ His voice was soft, accusing, his anger simmering just under the surface. ‘I watched you and the vampire chat, and then I saw you go in alone. I saw those two lads.’

I didn’t say anything. I didn’t need to. I knew what came next better than he did. I headed for the fridge, the sick feeling back in my stomach.

‘I go ru

That had to be where Malik killed the revenants. I grabbed the vodka and poured some into a glass, trying to stop my hand from shaking. The story was nearly over. All I needed to do was let him tell it, give his ultimatum, and then he’d be gone, and I could get back to what I’d been pla

‘Then this morning I heard some interesting news. A jogger found two naked bodies by Hammersmith Pier—human males, in their late teens, early twenties—both had their heads and hearts missing.’

I stilled in shock, then my brain kicked in. What the hell were the bodies doing there? Why hadn’tMalik burnt them, or at least stashed them so he could do it later? Old vampires were supposed to be good at that sort of thing—after all, they’d had centuries of practise. I frowned, tapping the glass thoughtfully. If the revenants hadbeen found, it wasn’t because Malik had made a mistake.

Fi

I blinked in surprise. Head and heart were easy: they’d been vampires, after all—but why the other? Puzzled, I turned to frown at Fi

He pushed off the wall and started walking towards me. ‘Not when you consider it’s a vengeance particularly favoured by the bean sidhe.’

Then I co

‘Yesterday at dawn, I find you covered in blood, but not injured.’ He stared back at me, his mouth thin with anger. ‘Then last night I see you fighting with two lads, and later they turn up dead. That’s a lot to put down to coincidence, Gen.’

‘Why don’t you just shove that idea where it belongs?’ I shouted, fear making my own anger rise. ‘Even if I had done it, no way would I be stupid enough to leave evidence that pointed right to me!’

‘I’m going to ask you, and I don’t want to ask it thrice, so no prevaricating. Just give me a straight answer.’ Emerald flashed in the hard green of his eyes. ‘Did you kill them?’

Shit, I hated the thrice rule. It wasn’t just that it forced a fae to tell the truth, but it made you feel so awful.

‘No,’ I snapped, ‘I didn’t kill them.’

He took a deep breath, his eyes closing briefly, and the anger seemed to flow out of him.

‘Happy now, are you?’ I shoved him in the chest, ‘Now you’ve had your little trial and jury scene?’

He stumbled back. ‘I’m sorry, Gen. I had to know.’ He ran a distracted hand through his blond hair and rubbed his left horn. ‘I had to ask—’

‘Fine. You’ve asked. I didn’t.’ I balled my fists. ‘Now if you’ll just leave, I can get on with what I was doing.’

His brows came together in a frown. ‘I take it the sucker did it?’

Of course, the sucker did it!I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself. I needed to get to the Shamrock, and for that I needed Fi

‘Why?’

‘No, of course they weren’t,’ I murmured, half to myself. ‘You said human males. If they’d found the heads, they’d have known they weren’t human.’

‘They weren’t human?’ He gave me a quizzical look.

‘No, not when they died.’ I glanced at the clock to check the time; daylight would disappear too fast for my liking

‘So the question is,’ Fi

‘I haven’t a clue, but I’m not going to find out by staying here, am I?’ I moved round him, needing to get my boots. ‘C’mon, Fi

‘Not yet, Gen. We haven’t finished talking.’

My insides felt like they were going to explode, and I almost kicked my bedroom door with frustration. I settled for glaring over my shoulder instead. ‘Yes. We. Have.’

‘Gen, you keep evading me and changing the subject, or rushing off somewhere.’ A muscle clenched in his jaw. ‘But we need to talk about all this stuff with the vamps, that spell-tattoo you’ve got, the murders, whatever it was that happened at the police station. I don’t know what’s going on, but we’re going to sort all this out. Now!’

Sonot a conversation I wanted to have—my heart just wasn’t in it—even though I’d guessed it was going to be inevitable sooner or later. And with only a few hours of daylight left, later was the option I was going for. I sighed and swiped my hands over my face, then gave him a resigned look. ‘Just give me a couple of minutes to finish dressing, okay?’

‘Go ahead,’ he said, calmly moving to stand under my long beaded light, arms crossed, legs apart, like he was on guard duty or something. ‘I’ll wait right here.’

I shut the door carefully, resisting the urge to slam it, and leaned my head against it. Why did Fi

Fi

My visit to Mick couldn’t.

I bent and swung my leg over the low windowsill leading out onto the flat roof. My boot snagged on something not there. Breath catching, I jerked my leg back and felt a strange, sticky resistance, almost like I’d stepped into a large glob of chewing gum. I looked. The spell even looked like chewing gum, stretching out in long elastic strands from the window frame, wrapping around my boot and creeping up my calf. Crap, what the hell was Fi

‘Fi

The door slammed back and he burst into the room, then he stopped and stared at me in disbelief. Then a smile twitched his lips. ‘Having a bit of trouble, my Lady?’

‘Nice try, Fi

‘Gen, that’s really not such a—’

... the sticky spell splattered into my hand, digging into my skin, then snapped back towards the window. It jerked me off-balance and dumped me in a heap on the floor; the chewing gumcontracting in on itself and trapping me even tighter.

‘—good idea,’ he finished, wincing. ‘It’s a snapper-snare. The more you stretch or tease, or try and crackthe magic, the worse it gets. We—that is, me and my brothers spent years perfecting it when we were kids.’ He finished with a touch of sheepish pride.