The Sweet Scent of Blood

by Suzanne McLeod

  Shock sparked through me as I recognised him. I’d been right with my ‘lost boy’ thought: I’d met Bobby, four years ago, and he’d been sitting in the exact same position, saying the exact same words to me.

  ‘They’ve got her in there.’ He lifted his arm slowly and pointed behind him at the blank wall.

  The hairs on the back of my neck stood up.

  ‘She’s in the basement.’ His shoulders hunched over again.

  I stared in disbelief. He was either auditioning for an Equity Card ...

  ‘The Master said to wait here, to tell you where she is.’

  ... or somehow Bobby was reliving the past.

  A past that was burned into my brain.

  Bobby hadn’t been a vampire then, just one of their blood-pets. He’d kept watch all that night, after the girl had been found, waiting for the morning. Waiting for me to come.

  ‘I tried to get her to come out once they’d gone.’ His face crumpled. ‘But she started screaming ...’

  It had been January. I took a deep breath and hugged myself, unwillingly replaying the scene in my mind. The morning sun was a cold disc in a sky streaked with red warnings. The place had been a rats’ nest - or rather, a fang-gang’s nest - of squalor, right in the heart of Sucker Town. My stomach roiled. Even now, I could still smell the gagging stench of urine, fresh blood and pain...

  Bobby’s expression was bleak with horror.

  I’d scrambled into the basement to get her. By then her screaming had disintegrated into whimpers. Her rainbow eyes dripped tears of ice that shattered like glass as they fell. After a while, she let me pick her up. Her fingers dug in my shoulders even as she flinched from my touch. I wrapped my coat around her, smearing the ruby dots that pitted her green skin like a macabre sprinkling of bloody sugar balls. The bastard suckers hadn’t left her with enough blood for the bruises to bloom.

  ‘How could they do that to her?’ Bobby’s whisper was harsh. ‘Siobhan’s so tiny.’

  Siobhan, the girl, was Mick’s sister - half-sister really - seeing as she was a full-blooded leprechaun. She’d been twelve years old, here on a holiday visit from Ireland to see her brother, too young to fight back when the fang-gang had snatched her from her bed. She’d been gone for five nights when Mick had sought me out and begged for my help. If she’d been human, any hope of rescuing her alive would’ve died within twenty-four hours, but those with fae blood last so much longer.

  And even though I’d known it was an inside job - no vampire could’ve crossed Mick’s threshold without an invitation - and that Mick was only the messenger, I agreed to the bargain when it was offered.

  Siobhan was the first fae I’d managed to save. There’d been others in need, before Siobhan, but I’d found them too late. After Siobhan, I’d been much more successful, but by then I had my own insider information.

  That bargain, the one I’d made then, was why I was now standing in a locked cell with a vampire accused of murdering his girlfriend, and it was why that vampire was taking me on an unwelcome trip down memory lane.

  He was delivering an invitation.

  So what the fuck was wrong with using the phone?

  Chill air crawled over my flesh. I backed up and leant against the door, not sure if Bobby would say any more. He rocked from side to side, grey eyes glazed, mouth half-open revealing a glimpse of fang. He might have hit the jackpot and graduated from blood-pet to blood-sucker over the last four years, but he was still just a puppet, jerking on his Master’s strings. It would be decades before Bobby would reach his Autonomy.

  I wondered if he’d known what the Gift had meant, or whether, with his looks, he’d truly been a sucker? Poor bastard. But then, he was better off than Melissa, his girlfriend. At least he wasn’t lying in the morgue. Yet.

  Another blast of frozen air hit me. I rubbed my hands over my arms and shivered again. What had happened to the heating? I looked up at the vents, puzzled. Then it hit me: Constable Curly-hair must’ve cut the heat. That same heat that was keeping Bobby, the vampire from getting agitated. Bitch! I rapped my knuckles against the cell door. Time to go.

  Movement caught in the corner of my vision. I turned back to see Bobby on his hands and knees, head hanging down.

  This was so not good.

  I slammed my hand against the door again.

  Bobby started moving, his movements more fluid now as he crawled across the floor towards me.

  I kicked the door with my heel, feeling the reverberation of the hard metal. Surely she could hear it out there?

  Three feet away, he lifted his head and scented the air.

  My heart thudded. I shifted, arms loose and ready at my sides. Maybe I was staying for dinner after all.

  Two feet...

  Calm. Don’t get him excited. I willed my pulse to slow, but the trick wasn’t working. Instead, the silver-laden air tightened my throat and panic pumped my blood faster. C’mon, think calm!

  His hand touched my shoe.

  I clamped my jaw to stop from screaming.

  He wrapped his arm round my knees, curling into my legs. ‘Help her,’ he whispered. ‘Help Siobhan.’

  My head dropped back against the door and I let out a relieved sigh. Bobby was still trapped in the memory. Cautiously, I brushed his hair aside, offered him a reassuring smile. ‘It’s okay, Bobby, Siobhan’s safe now.’

  Pink tinged tears glistened in his eyes. ‘She is?’

  I cupped his cheek, feeling the urge to comfort him. ‘She’s gone back to Ireland,’ I said softly.

  He made a quiet snuffle, then turned, pressing his nose against the inside of my wrist. My stomach jumped. His arm tightened round my legs, his hand convulsing around mine, the points of his fangs sharp against my pulse. The back of my neck throbbed in answer. I breathed in the heady smell of liquorice and the venom craving hit me. Need and want flared hot through my veins, drew a cry from my mouth and flooded my skin with a blood-flush.

  Damn. I was neck-deep in trouble ... and there was nothing I wanted to do about it.

  I closed my eyes, anticipating the sting of his bite—

  The pain didn’t come.

  A tremor shuddered through me.

  I stared down at him, and carefully, slowly, pulled my wrist away from his mouth.

  He didn’t try and stop me, just watched, awareness sliding over his face.

  Tension spiralled inside me.

  ‘You’re the sidhe.’ Anticipation laced his voice. He flowed to his feet, the movement almost faster than I could see, crowded me back against the door, shoved his hands in my hair. The liquorice scent bled into my mind, holding me captive. Hot breath seared my jaw. He bent his head to my throat. Then he hissed, the noise loud and angry, and punched the door next to my face. I flinched and he flung himself away from me, yelling with rage.

  I risked a look at the dented door and shuddered. What was wrong? Why hadn’t he bitten me? He was young, a baby vamp, and even if he wasn’t hungry - which he had to be - no way could he resist a feed that close to a venom-induced blood-flush. He should have broken skin at the very least.

  Fuck. And I hadn’t been about to stop him.

  I almost cried at the irony. How stupid was I, to think I could deny it twice in one night? So much for telling Hugh I had the 3V under control: the desire to offer my blood was so desperate that I had to fight the urge to scratch at my own bare arms. And there was worse to come.

  I gritted my teeth as the cramps hit. I clutched at my stomach, sliding down the wall, tears pricking the back of my eyes.

  He crouched in front of me. ‘Christ, but I want to drink you down so bad.’ He pulled me into his arms, buried his face in my neck. ‘You smell fucking wonderful.’ Anguish sliced through his voice. ‘God, I can feel it, feel your pain, taste it. It hurts, hurts like hell.’

  Panting, I grabbed at him, tore at his paper coverall.

  Hands caught my wrists, held me still. ‘Shh. You smell so sweet, and hot, your skin’s burning with blood, I bet
you taste better than Her, better even than Mel.’ His words vibrated along my pulse. ‘I haven’t had a decent meal in weeks. All that thin human blood is all He’s let me have.’

  Hot claws raked inside me as though rending the flesh from my bones. I opened my mouth, screaming with the pain.

  Make it stop.

  Sharp tips punctured my heart.

  Please, anything.

  Ripped through my gut.

  No more.

  Then it was over.

  ‘Why?’ I gasped into his chest, limp and exhausted.

  ‘Bastard likes his games.’ He laughed, the sound bitter. ‘It turns him on. He lets you have a taste, just so you appreciate what you’re missing. Christ, I’m rationed to two mouthfuls, even from my own girlfriend - and he has to watch.’ He licked my throat. ‘Bet he’s getting his rocks off right now, watching me drool over sweet sidhe blood, knowing I can’t have even a drop.’

  ‘No—’ Still weak, I clutched at him. ‘Why that memory?’

  He pushed me back, frowned at me. ‘What memory?’

  ‘Sucker Town.’ I gulped in cold air. ‘Four years ago. The fang-gang.’

  ‘I haven’t the foggiest idea what you’re talking about.’ His fingers dug into my arms. ‘Which means the bastard’s been screwing with me again, stealing my memories. Fuck, I hate it when he does that - it’s bloody torture when he gives them back.’ He looked around the cell, disgusted. ‘And I don’t even fucking remember where here is!’

  I slumped in his hold. ‘We’re in the police station,’ I whispered. ‘Do you remember about Melissa?’

  ‘Melissa?’ He shook me, making my head snap back. ‘What—?’

  The door opening interrupted him. ‘Time’s up, sucker.’ Constable Curly-hair’s tone was gleeful. Something metallic clanged.

  Almost as if in slow motion, I saw him react. He grabbed my shoulders, rolling me over, away from the door.

  ‘Hey,’ she shouted, ‘don’t make me use this.’ Green light shattered the edges of my vision. ‘C’mon, that’s enough now.’

  Bobby threw himself on top of me, crushing me as a fork of green lightning arced round the cell. Burnt mint assaulted my nostrils. He jerked, limbs moving as though pulled by tight strings. His eyes widened with pain, then fell empty and blank.

  I shoved him off me and collapsed, the backlash of magic pounding me like a Beater goblin.

  ‘Sorry about that,’ she said, sounding far more satisfied than sorry. ‘I tried to miss you, but he was a bit close for comfort.’ She brandished a silver pole. A smooth hunk of jade embedded in the end of the pole still sputtered green sparks. ‘These new stun-spells of the DI’s can be a bit overpowering.’

  Wheezing, I glanced at the unconscious vampire next to me. Damn. No chance of any more answers tonight. He’d be lucky if he revived before dawn.

  I glared up at the smirking constable.

  She gave me a wide grin. ‘Oh, sorry, was I too early? Have I spoiled all your fun?’

  ‘You didn’t,’ I muttered, adding silently, at least not as much as I intend to spoil yours.

  Chapter Eight

  ‘How’d it go with the horny bastard then?’ ‘What?’ I slumped in Hugh’s spare chair and pressed my phone closer to my ear, my exhausted gaze taking in the still empty murder squad room. I’d got out of Bobby’s cell in one piece, no thanks to Constable Curly-hair, and I’d even survived Hugh’s disappointed, disapproving concern. I was tacitly blaming the stun-spell for my jitters. And now I had to wait for DI Crane - she had expressed a wish to see me herself, which sounded like more fun than a whole barrel of laughs.

  ‘C’mon, Genny,’ Toni’s voice teased me over the phone, ‘’Fess up: did you succumb or not, when Finn asked you out? Remember there’s a lot riding on the answer.’

  I rubbed the back of my neck and briefly shut my tired eyes. ‘Oh, that horny bastard.’ Now I knew what our office manager was talking about.

  I opened my hand, looked at the blister-pack of G-Zav tablets sitting innocently in my palm. I was going to have to give in and take them.

  ‘You knew who I meant!’ She tutted in exasperation. ‘Don’t forget I know what your social life is like - it’s as frozen as the South Pole - and if the male of the species was my thing, Finn’s hot enough that I’d definitely let him melt my ice caps.’ She laughed. ‘Now, you know your Auntie Toni’s right, so tell me you’ve put the sexy satyr out of his misery. And remember, your secrets are safe with me.’

  That got a weary smile; Toni was the biggest gossip out. ‘Nothing to tell,’ I assured her, brushing dust from my trousers. The black linen was starting to look like I’d been rolling around the floor—Oh wait, I had. Twice. ‘Finn asked me out, but no, I didn’t “succumb”, as you so succinctly put it.’ Even if he had picked me up. Literally.

  Using my thumb, I pushed two tiny black pills out of the packet.

  ‘What is it with you, Genny?’ Her disappointed sigh whistled down the phone. ‘It’s not good to keep your libido locked up like this. C’mon, Honeybee.’ Her tone turned pleading. ‘There’s just three more days before the bet’s up. Give in, have some fun with the sex god, it’ll do you good.’

  I let the saliva pool in my mouth then popped the pills between my lips, tipped my head back and swallowed.

  ‘Otherwise, Genny,’ Toni warned, ‘Team Toni is going to have to treat that bitch - sorry, witch - Leanora and her Luvvies to facials plus all the works.’

  ‘Toni—’ I exhaled on a strangled laugh, my tongue sparking with the concentrated liquorice aftertaste. ‘Toni, how can I put this? No way am I going out with Finn, no way am I having sex with him, just so as you can find out about his tail and win a bet!’

  I missed her next few words as the G-Zav hit. It’s like the build-up to great sex, and then... instead of the fun part, someone injects ice-water into your veins, leaving you feeling like crap. But at least G-Zav, the vampire junkies’ methadone equivalent, kept the cravings and blood-flushes under control. If you were human, two tablets would work for a couple of nights, but being fae, I’d metabolise them in a couple of hours. Then I had a choice: another dose, and a session with the leeches (real ones, not the doctor or sucker type) - or I took my chances with the next vamp I bumped into.

  So not the healthy option.

  Then the amphetamine in the G-Zav kicked in and as I started to feel better, Toni’s voice faded back in: ‘—and you’re the only one who’s got a chance of finding out.’

  ‘Uh-huh,’ I murmured absently into the phone.

  ‘So you will!’ Toni’s voice jumped with eagerness. ‘Oh, I could hug you, Genny . That’s going to—’

  ‘Hang on a minute,’ I interrupted, ‘what exactly have I just agreed to?’

  ‘Asking Finn about his tail, of course! I just told you - Leanora’s convinced the only way anyone can find out is the fun way - but none of her cronies have managed to get that far,’ she gave a derisive laugh, ‘and I can tell you, some of the tricks they’ve tried to get him to do the down-and-dirty, well, I almost feel sorry for him.’

  So Finn hadn’t been doing any ‘succumbing’ himself. Strangely, instead of feeling pleased, anger rose, making me want to hit something - the snippet of gossip was irrelevant after all. Anything with Finn had always been a non-starter, never mind Hugh’s all-too-recent repeat lecture on the important don’ts in my life, or the situation I was in.

  ‘Anyway,’ Toni carried on, ‘I only need to find out what colour his tail is, and everyone knows you’re the one he’s got a thing for, so maybe if you asked him nicely enough he’d tell you,’ she finished in a hopeful tone.

  ‘If all anyone had to do was ask,’ I muttered, ‘what’s with all the fuss that’s been going on?’

  Toni snorted. ‘Leanora’s after Finn herself. She was worried about you being competition, so she’s been doing that reverse-psych thing on you. She thinks that making the bet all about sex will put you off.’

  ‘Weird.’ More mind games. The
re were a lot of them going around, which brought my mind back to the vampires and Bobby’s selective memories, and his guided tour through our shared past. Had he killed Melissa and his Master caused him to forget it? Or was it only her death that had been wiped from his mind? And why bother anyway? Maybe I’d find out when I paid his Master a personal visit. I pressed my palm against my thudding heart. There’s nothing like the thought of meeting the head of one of London’s four blood-families for giving a girl’s cardiovascular system a really fast workout, never mind the blasts of adrenalin the G-Zav was shooting through my veins.

  ‘And the other thing,’ Toni carried on, oblivious to my inattention, ‘Leanora thinks she can get Finn to jump the broom with her.’

  The office door swung open and Constable Curly-hair, the unpleasant smirk still stuck on her face, ambled over to the water dispenser.

  I said sharply, ‘She’s got no chance.’

  ‘’Course she hasn’t,’ Toni huffed. ‘I mean, I reckon I’d have more luck with him, and that’s with me batting for the other side. Anyway, did that journo friend of Stella’s find you earlier?’

  ‘Uh-huh,’ I murmured.

  Constable Curly-hair brought her water over to Hugh’s desk, put it down and picked up one of Hugh’s fat pens. She started clicking it on and off.

  I stared at the wet ring mark marring the desk’s shine.

  ‘Well, you’ll never guess!’ Toni’s voice switched to high-gossip mode. ‘You know that vamp that’s in all the papers?’ She paused for effect. ‘Well, the journo guy is his dad!’

  I snagged one of Hugh’s coasters. ‘Yeah, Toni, I know.’ Leaning forward, I picked up the cup and placed it on the coaster, dead centre.

  Constable Curly-hair twirled the pen at me, indicating I should hurry up and finish.

  ‘You know?’ I could almost feel Toni’s excitement. ‘So what did he want you for?’

  ‘Nothing much.’

  The constable made a show of looking at her watch.

  ‘C’mon Genny,’ Toni pleaded, ‘don’t tease, it must’ve been something. You know I have to know these things.’