The Sweet Scent of Blood

‘You have to do it, Gen,’ he said quietly. ‘I can’t kill the sucker, I’ve already tried. I can feel her in me, controlling me, feeding off me, like she’s turned a tap on and I can’t turn it off.’ He turned his head away again.

Something about that didn’t tally; I hadn’t noticed the spell at all, not even after I’d taken it from Holly—nothing other than tiredness, and maybe the bad dreams—

‘She’s not going to let me fade—’ Fi

Heart aching, I finished tugging off my jeans and briefs as another flash of dizziness hit me. ‘Okay, let’s do it,’ I said.

He turned back to face me, hope turning the grey in his eyes back to their usual green for an instant.

‘Looks like it’s my turn to ride to the rescue.’ I gave him a lop-sided smile.

‘What are you talking ’bout, Gen?’

Leaning over, I gave him a butterfly kiss on the mouth. ‘You ru

He gave a weak laugh. ‘If I’d known it’d impress you, I’d have tried it sooner, instead of the cheesy sex god line.’

‘Don’t worry; the sex god thing is pretty impressive too.’ I opened my eyes wide to keep the tears from falling, gri

Chapter Forty-One

All I had to do was bleed a large enough puddle that I could stand in. I grimaced at the blue veins mapping my naked body. Getting blood out of one of them wasn’t going to be easy.

‘Why can’t I just draw a circle in blood?’ I asked.

‘It doesn’t work that way, Gen.’ Fi

Yeah, right. Heart labouring in my chest, I clambered to my feet, checked out my left wrist. Maybe I’d be lucky and the vein wouldn’t have healed yet.

I raised my wrist to my mouth.

‘What are you doing?’ Fi

‘I haven’t got a knife.’

‘Use one of my horns.’

‘They won’t be sharp enough.’

‘The spells in the restraints aren’t muting my magic, they’re just stopping me from getting free. And the sucker’s not getting all of it; I’m holding back as much power as I can.’ His chin jutted out. ‘Touch one.’

I crouched near his head and gently pressed my finger to one of his horns. It quivered, its ridges scraping against my fingertip as it elongated and stiffened until it was seven inches of smooth curved horn, its tip sharp, like a whittled bone.

‘You need to do it quick, Gen.’ His eyes were closed again, face tight with strain.

I wrapped my hand round his horn and he groaned, low and deep. Pleasure or pain? I wasn’t sure.

‘Hurry.’

Gritting my teeth, I pressed my i

The blood welled slowly and I stared at it transfixed.

The tattoo on my hip throbbed like a second heart. My nostrils flared as I drew the sweet smell into my lungs. My mouth watered. The urge to rub my blood into the tattoo filled my mind like the cry of a rapacious spirit. I gazed at Fi

And he couldn’t get away.

My mouth stretched in a smile.

‘Have you finished?’ Fi

Suddenly appalled at my own thoughts, I scrambled back from him.

‘Gen?’ His horn was shrinking back down into his hair. ‘What’s the matter?’

‘Nothing,’ I looked at the floor, not wanting him to see the hunger in my face. Holding out my arm, I squeezed the wound, watched the blood trickle into a puddle the size of a teacup.

‘Gen, we need to do the ritual first.’

‘I’m doing it,’ I muttered.

‘You can’t. You haven’t taken my blood.’

‘And I’m not going to, Fi

‘But you’ve got to go to Helen. She’s the police.

‘I know, but she upholds the humans’ laws, Fi

‘She’ll still come,’ he said with certainty. ‘She’s not going to leave me here.’

‘Fi

He turned his head away.

The pool of blood was the size of a plate.

‘You’re going to the sucker, aren’t you? The one from last night.’

What if the blood door didn’t work?

‘Gen you don’t have to do this, Take my blood, go to Helen, she’ll come, I know she will.’

I looked at Fi

‘I thought you were dead,’ Fi

My heart fluttered with palpitations. I answered him without thinking. ‘It’s the human blood in me.’

The quick movement of his head caught my attention. ‘No part of you is human, Gen, not with those eyes.’

‘My mother was sidhe, my father was human.’ Or he was once, I added silently.

‘Then you would be faeling.’

‘I’m not.’

After a moment he spoke again. ‘They brought you in and started feeding on you. She made me watch ...’

I looked at him, horror invading my mind. He wouldn’t have, would he? ‘What did you promise her?’ I breathed, not sure if I actually wanted to know.

‘I couldn’t let them do that to you,’ he murmured, and I heard other words echo as he spoke. I can’t kill the sucker, I’ve already tried. I can feel her in me, controlling me, feeding off me.

‘It’s not just the spell, is it?’ I whispered as shock settled cold and hard inside me. ‘You took the sucker’s Blood-Bond, didn’t you? That’s how she’s draining so much power from you—she’s combined them together.’

‘Gen, you have to get to Helen.’ He looked at me and the fear and despair on his face gave me my answer. ‘She can sort everything out. Fix this.’

Rio dead was the only way to fix this, and no way was Helen Crane going to kill her.

‘I know you think Helen can’t do anything,’ he continued, ‘but you’re wrong about her. Going to that sucker for help isn’t the right thing for you.’

Fucking shining knight complex! Even if I got him out of this mess he’d probably still come after me, still try and rescue me, thinking I was some distressed damsel he needed to save—and he’d get himself killed, or worse. No way could I let that happen. He had to know the truth.

I squeezed the slash on my arm again, forcing more blood out, concentrating on it instead of him. ‘When I said my father was human, Fi

‘That’s not possible; vamps can’t reproduce like that.’

‘My father found my mother at a fertility rite, got her pregnant, and then after I was born, he let her fade.’ Of course the story wasn’t as simple as that, but it covered the basics. ‘Vamps have their own magic, Fi