“Run,” I yelled at Justin.
He didn’t hesitate this time. “I’ll get help,” he called over his shoulder as he rounded the corner.
Now it was just me and Avin.
I whirled around and he pulled back the hood, revealing the monstrous features left of his face.
“It’s after midnight. I don’t see my new body. Do you know what happens to oath breakers?”
Energy crackled through the air. If I thought the pain was bad before, it was nothing compared to this. Fire ate me from the inside out as my skin flaked off in charred layers. There was no holding back my scream this time. It ripped from my throat. The pain built, the fire all consuming.
Time froze. Stopped. The pain ended.
I blinked away snow. I was face down in the dirty alley. My mouth tasted of blood, but the fire in my skin had passed. My flesh wasn’t charred. I pushed away from the ground.
Avin squatted beside me. “It’s no fun if you black out, babe. You owe me a body, and you don’t seem to be doing anything to acquire one for me.”
“I got kidnapped.” I spat out the words. They were moist, filled with my own blood and terror. My fingers jerked violently as I gestured to the alley. “Look around, this isn’t my city.”
“That’s not my problem. My problem is that I look like Frankenstein’s monster.” He stood and pulled the hood over his head. “If you don’t call me by the end of the night with a body, expect me to be there when you wake at sunset. If you know what’s good for you, babe, you don’t want that.” Magic danced through the air, and he vanished.
Chapter Twenty-One
I stumbled up the concert hall steps as the door flew open.
Nathanial rushed out. His frantic eyes swept over my ruined dress, my tousled hair, the blood I’d tried to wipe from my face. Then he pulled me into his arms.
“What hurt you, Kita?”
I didn’t answer or pull away. I just leaned against his chest and breathed in his scent. My hands trembled where I clutched them by my sides. I couldn’t make the shaking stop.
I’d tried. The tremble stayed.
“I’m cold,” I whispered into the front of Nathanial’s tux. His arms wrapped tighter around me, but his warmth offered me no comfort. The only warmth in my body was building behind my eyes. The first tear tripped down my cheek.
Nathanial took a step back and examined my face.
“You are in shock. What happened?” When I didn’t answer, he went on, “I felt your fear, but I did not realize you had left the hall. What happened?”
I scrubbed the tear off my cheek but another slipped free to blaze its own bloody trail. The harder I fought not to cry, the more the searing pressure behind my eyes built, the more bloody tears slipped free. Vampire tears. I drew in a deep breath. It was supposed to be calming. Instead it was ragged, tasting of blood and fear.
Dammit.
I hated this. I hated the fear. I hated the tears. I hated the whole damn situation. I was stuck in one shape, in a strange place with creepy vampires who wanted to show me off as a freak, and I had an insane necromancer who wanted me to find him a new body.
But at least no one’s trying to kill me.
Yet.
A laugh slithered up my throat. I convulsed with it, fresh tears burning their way free. Nathanial pulled me against him again, as if his arms could shield me from the hysteria shredding me. I wrapped my hands in the front of his tux.
Held on.
I took another breath. It still shook, still cut through me with violence, but it was cleaner than the last. Stronger.
Nathanial held me. Kept me in one piece. I still hadn’t told him about Avin. I wasn’t sure what would happen if I tried, but I was at the point I’d risk the consequences. I opened my mouth to begin, but my gaze landed on the Collector and her retinue as they walked out of the concert hall. I couldn’t tell him. Not here. Not with so many ears around.
“I need to talk to you,” I whispered, and Nathanial’s arms tightened around me.
“Well, no one’s stopping you,” Aphrodite said, snapping a pair of gold opera glasses closed. “So the missing fledgling has been found all safe and sound. Are we returning to the gala?”
“No.” The Collector strolled down to stairs. “I believe this will end the night. Hermit, it is time we had a talk.” She turned to Jomar. “Summon the cars.”
I pushed away from Nathanial. A light tremor still shook through me, but it was inside, not evident in my limbs. Just to be sure, I hugged my arms across my chest, tucking my fists into my armpits. I walked to the bottom step, trying to find some distance from the vamps.
It didn’t work.
Elizabeth broke from the Traveler and daintily made her way into my flimsy bubble of solitude. She remained on the last step, giving her a height advantage as she looked down her small nose at me. “If you insist on sneaking about, you should choose better chaperones than Justin Morgan. He will never amount to anything.”
“I wasn’t sneaking anywhere. And I don’t need a chaperone.”
She sniffed. “It’s disgraceful and no way for a companion to act. I’m surprised the Hermit tolerates it.”
She’s lecturing me on proper companion etiquette?
I so couldn’t deal with this right now. I walked to the curb.
All I wanted in that moment was to tuck my tail and find a nice, small cat-sized hole to hide in and lick my wounds. Not like that was an option, but even fading into the background proved futile as the Collector strolled down the steps. She stopped far enough away that her location could have been misconstrued as impatience as she waited for the limos.
I wasn’t fooled. She’d moved closer to me, which she proved when the chill of her gaze landed on my bare shoulders.
“I suppose you slipped away in an attempt to meet that boy, Bobby,” she said.
So they had been listening to my call.
I wasn’t surprised.
Based on the way the Collector studied me, I probably should have pretended to be. But my nerves were too raw, too close to the surface, to lie with my reactions.
“Now, this ‘Bobby,’ is he a shapeshifter?” She stepped closer. “I would very much like to meet him if he is. I could be very generous if someone were to capture a functioning shapeshifter for me.”
Her eyes had bled to black, and I dropped my gaze. She’d bespelled me once before with just a glance in her eyes. I wasn’t going to hand her the opportunity to do it again.
Can
she compel me to reveal other shifters to her?
A shiver ran down my spine.
I couldn’t let that happen. I wouldn’t.
She flicked her wrist at her side, the movement meant to draw attention. “Where are you meeting your friend?”
I shrugged, not looking up, not meeting her eyes. Still my vision went dark. A stifling presence weighed down on me in the blackness.
“Answer my questions truthfully,” her disembodied voice said from the darkness. “Where are you meeting your friend?”
“I don’t know,” I heard myself reply, though I hadn’t meant to say anything.
“Then how will you find him?” she asked. I bit my tongue hard, concentrating on not saying anything. She clicked her tongue. “Answer me.”
“A mutual friend.”
“This friend is a shapeshifter?”
“No.”
“What is he?”
“She is a scholar.” I gave myself a mental pat on the back for restraining from saying mage.
“And where is this scholar?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then how will you find her?”
“I’ll call her.”
“What is her phone number?”
“I don’t know.”
The darkness around me buzzed with irritation, and an agitated sound escaped the Collector’s throat. “What
do
you know?”
Oooh, an open-ended question.
“I know that sunlight prompts the brain to produce happy chemicals, and so it is my belief that older vampires are grouchy due to light deprivation.”
The darkness surrounding me retreated with a snap. The street fell into focus. I swayed, disoriented. The Collector’s icy—and completely unamused—eyes dominated my vision.
My hand ached, and I realized Nathanial held my fingers in a death grip. I looked at our hands.
When did he—?
Hell, what did it matter?
“You are a most frustrating creature,” the Collector snapped. Then she turned. “Jomar! Where are those limos?”
The squinty faced guard shuffled his feet. “There appears to be a problem, Mistress. One of the drivers is missing. I’ve sent for another. But until then, there is only one car.”
I couldn’t see her face, but it must have been fierce because Jomar stumbled back. He growled something into his cell phone, and Nathanial tugged on my hand, drawing me several steps away. When we were several yards from the other vampires, Nathanial’s arms slid around my waist. He pulled me against his chest.
I stiffened. “Nathanial, I—”
“Shhh, Kitten. Listen to me,” he whispered, his lips so close they brushed my ear as he spoke and I still scarcely heard.
And if I could scarcely hear him—
No one else could.
I settled against his chest, and he let out a sigh as if he’d expected me to put up a fight. I frowned. This wasn’t the first time he’d acted surprised when I didn’t fight him. He clearly considered contrariness my default mode. I huffed out my breath.
Okay, so maybe I’m a little difficult at times, but I’m
not completely unreasonable.
If this was the only way to have a somewhat private conversation, so be it.
“I know you need to search for the unaccounted-for members of Tyler’s gang, and I will help you when I can, but you must be careful.”
Like I don’t know that.
“Trust me, it is not on my to-do list to get Bobby and Gil added to the Collector’s zoo.”
“Kita, there is more at stake than that. We are walking a precarious line with vampire laws of hospitality. Right now she is trying to seduce us with grandeur—”
“You. She is trying to seduce
you
.”
I felt his lip twitch, just a small movement against my cheek. A frown? A smile? I wasn’t sure. After a moment, he continued, “She is splitting hairs with our laws. You are a companion, so she cannot separate you from me by force unless we are in her territory.”
“We
are
in her territory.”
“That is why we must be careful. For now we are guests, but if we break her rules or disobey her, we could be seen as hostile. That would be a very bad situation to find ourselves in.”
And more than likely, she’d consider my sneaky behavior and smart mouth a violation. “She promised you we wouldn’t be separated if you joined her.”
“I remain Tatius’s subject and only a visiting master unless I petition her for a place in her city. If I am deemed hostile or a threat, she could execute me without penalty. You would then be masterless.”
And I’d already learned that masterless meant ‘anyone’s meat.’
We had been whispering for too long. I pushed away from Nathanial, and he didn’t fight me. Rocking back on my heels, I considered our dilemma.
“How long are we visitors?” I asked. The other vamps might be able to hear, if they were straining to listen, but what did it matter? I was getting the abridged version of vampiric law, I’m sure they already knew it.
“Our timeline is dictated by Tatius. Though I am a master vampire, I must still answer to the master of my city. As Tatius’s subject, I am protected. But if I disobey him while out of his territory, I effectively disclaim him and am without protection. He is no fool. By now he has surely confirmed we are missing. We cannot know if he believes we left willingly or not, but when he finds our location, he will demand our return. I think the Collector is counting on his move. When he sends for us, time will be up and a choice must be made.”
A choice? Like joining the Collector’s menagerie was an option? Of course, Tatius had to be well and truly pissed by now, and if he believed Nathanial took the Collector up on her offer… Returning to Haven might not be possible. Moving to another master’s city meant Nathanial would have to negotiate our safe travel, which would be hard to do while we were under lock and key as the Collector’s guests.
“We’re so screwed.”
Nathanial winced. “Charming vernacular, but accurate enough.”
“So what do we do?”
Nathanial drew me into his arms again. “We play by her rules. She owns many cities. If we are not forced into an urgent decision, I may be able to negotiate a permanent relocation for us. One which will limit how she displays you.”
Limit
being the key word. “I hate vampires.”
“I know.” He brushed a kiss across my forehead. “And I know the urgency in which we need to untangle… that other issue.” His thumb trailed over the Judge’s mark, indicating which other issue he meant. “But for now, it would perhaps be more appropriate if you attempted to behave like Elizabeth.” He nodded to the porcelain doll where she clung to the Traveler’s hand, her body leaning against his.
My teeth gritted.
I can’t believe he just suggested—
“There is more going on,” I whispered, the words hot with anger.
“There is the necro—”
My jaw snapped shut as twin currents of first fire and then ice ripped through me.
Avin warned me not to tell.
I squeezed my eyes shut as I swayed. When I opened them again, I was clinging to Nathanial, his worried face filling my vision.
“Kita, what happened? What was that?” As he spoke, a single white limousine rounded the corner.
I shook my head as the limo pulled to the corner. I’d have to find a way to tell him. Somehow. But later.
The Collector turned toward us. “I trust you have finished your gossiping?” It wasn’t a question. She strolled toward the limo. “Aphrodite, you appear to have a personnel issue with your drivers. I suggest you fix it.” She gave the blonde woman a tight smile. Which was not returned. “You and your council can wait for the backup car.
My
council will be returning to the mansion. Hermit, come. We have much to discuss.”
* * * *
At the mansion, I left Nathanial in Aphrodite’s drawing room, with the Collector. My fate was being decided in that room, but I wasn’t allowed to speak, so there wasn’t any reason for me to be there.