The Sweet Scent of Blood

by Suzanne McLeod

‘Did it?’

  ‘You know it did,’ I spat.

  ‘The spell was powerful enough to knock me unconscious for a few minutes.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘And that was long enough for someone to take a kerbstone to my head.’

  So that explained the caved-in skull, but not what else he was getting at.

  ‘Whoever hit me was fae,’ he added, his tone accusing.

  Okaaay, so that’s what—

  ‘Well, don’t look at me,’ I snapped, ‘I had my own problems, if you remember.’

  ‘Had your scent not engulfed me, I would have known they were there.’ He ran a fingertip over my injured shoulder. ‘Was I supposed to come into the park with you?’ His touch skimmed down my damaged arm. ‘Would you have stood back while they attacked me? Would you have watched, and applauded? Was that why they had to improvise?’

  ‘Ri-ight, just because a fae tries to reshape your thick head, you think I’ve set you up!’ I snorted. ‘Well, if we’re talking stupid ideas, what about the revenants? You just said they could only be made by a vampire, so maybe you made them. ’Cause there’s no way I’ve got anything to do with any vampire.’

  ‘But you do have something to do with a vampire, do you not, Genevieve?’ His hand circled my left wrist, turned my palm up.

  Pain raced up my arm like wildfire and I screamed before I could stop myself. He touched a finger to my palm and the agony was gone, snuffed out like a light.

  ‘See how your body responds to me.’ His voice held sorrow.

  Another touch, and the pain burnt through my shoulder again - only I couldn’t scream; he wouldn’t let me. All I could do was stare at him wide-eyed, my heart pounding under my ribs.

  Then the pain was gone again and I sagged in relief.

  ‘You will not struggle.’ The words were an order. ‘Else I will be forced to return the pain. Do you understand?’

  ‘I get that you’re into torture,’ I ground out.

  ‘No, I am not.’ He gave a resigned sigh. ‘But I am also not squeamish.’

  ‘Fuck you.’

  ‘Maybe later.’ Mocking amusement lit his face. ‘But first, we will settle this matter between us?’ He made it a question.

  Like I had any choice ... I nodded.

  ‘Last night, outside the police station.’ Malik stroked my palm. ‘I was surprised at how easy it was to enter your mind and influence your body with my thoughts. Why, I wondered, was that?’ He glanced down at my open hand. ‘You even offered me your blood, almost without demur. It was unexpected, especially for a sidhe.’ Blood blossomed, four bright half-moons across my palm.

  The sight was just as terrifying as it had been the first time.

  But even more terrifying was the lack of those hazy feelings; I didn’t feel that desperate need to give Malik whatever he wanted, and I realised just how much he had been playing with my mind, right from the first.

  Now he was playing with my body, leaving my mind my own.

  He stretched out my arm, brought my hand to his mouth, and I knew it should hurt; I could almost hear the bones grating against each other where they were broken. But I could feel nothing other than his cool breath over my skin, his tongue warm on my palm.

  I stared, unable to deny the fluttering in my belly, cursing myself that I could still want him.

  ‘But your blood has already told me who your Master is.’ He sank his fangs into the mound at the base of my thumb, and a shudder rippled through his body.

  The sharp sting spiked low inside me, making me gasp with pleasure.

  ‘The taste of you was of her,’ his voice whispered through my mind. ‘Only I would not believe it.’

  ‘I have no Master,’ I hissed through clenched teeth.

  He lifted his head and sighed, sounding both sad and threatening. ‘She is not strong enough to Bond with such as you, so I imagined I was mistaken.’ A pinprick of red glowed in his pupils. ‘Only then I found her, and the demon inhabiting her body, trading in her soul.’ Keeping his eyes on mine, he fastened his mouth again over the bite on my hand. ‘Her taste was of you.’

  Heat sparked between my legs and I dropped my head to my knees, trying to ignore it, trying not to hear the soft sounds of his feeding. His fingers tangled in my hair and he lifted my unresisting head. ‘And when she plunged her knife towards my heart’ - he took my other hand, pressed, it to the pink starburst scar under his ribs - ‘I understood.’

  Images and words from the night before slipped like a slide-show into my mind. His insistence that I was Rosa, the pleasure of his bite, the terror that he would kill me, my Alter Vamp stabbing him, the memory of him calling me, calling to my blood.

  ‘No,’ I whispered, my mouth dry. ‘I have no Master.’

  A bleak expression crossed his face. ‘To take you as her Bond, to join with you, is worthy revenge.’ He kissed his lips to mine and I tasted my own honeyed blood. ‘She knew how much I coveted you,’ he murmured, ‘but to allow a demon to use her soul is something I can not allow.’ His mouth brushed against my ear. ‘You shall give her a message from me. It is the only reason I do not kill you.’ His words made me tremble.

  I saw myself reflected in his obsidian eyes, but I skated as though on black ice, fearful of what might be hidden in their depths. ‘I. Have. No. Master.’

  He smiled. And my fear dissipated as liquid warmth pooled inside me.

  Smiling back at him, I touched my fingers to his perfect pretty face.

  He sat and stretched his legs out. ‘I carry the True Gift, Genevieve.’ He threw back his head, exposing his neck, and drew his thumbnail down the side of his throat. Thick claret-coloured blood seeped from the slash and my pulse beat eager and fast.

  His beautiful face filled with peace as he pressed a fingertip into the wound. The trickle ran faster, to pool in the hollow at his throat. ‘The blood is strong here, nearer the heart.’ He reached out, traced a cool, wet line down my jaw. Tilting my face, I nuzzled into his palm, darting my tongue out to taste. He slid a hand round my neck, his thumb stroking over the pulse thudding in my throat.

  ‘Come. I freely offer you my blood.’

  I rested my hand on his chest. His flesh was cold and still. Unease rippled through me, then it was gone. I leaned over him, inhaled the copper and liquorice and sweet Turkish delight of his blood and underneath, a rich, dark spice that was all him.

  Shivers pricked over my skin.

  The pressure of his hand on my neck increased, pulling me closer.

  I looked up. His eyes were black pools, tiny flames flaring in their pupils. Fear made my mouth dry, tightened my stomach.

  Come, so I may offer you healing, his voice whispered in my mind.

  Need swept through me and I touched my lips to his blood, its rich tang sparking against my tongue. I covered the slash with my mouth and sucked. The glorious nectar slipped cold down my throat, spreading a dazzling chill that frosted over the jagged edges of my pain and burnt it away.

  ‘Enough,’ he murmured, hands clasping my head, pushing me away.

  Desperate, I sucked harder, teeth biting into his skin, fingers digging into his flesh.

  ‘Genevieve, it is enough,’ he ordered. ‘You will stop.’

  No, not enough. Never enough. The thought scattered his hold on my mind with glittering light and Glamour burst golden. I melted into him, not caring where I ended and he began, wanting more, needing more, taking more—

  He shuddered beneath me, the sudden beat of his heart thudding against my breast, a promise of more to come. I lifted my head, spilling my magic over and around him. It was too long since I’d taken the pleasure it wanted. He rolled us until he was staring down at me from above, his hands capturing my wrists beneath my back, his fingers pinching into my skin. Lust and magic fizzed in my veins, demand throbbed hot and wet between my legs. Flames burned deep in the black of his eyes and his lips pulled back from needle-sharp fangs. Through the material that separated us, I felt him pressed against me, hard and ready.

  �
�I am no human or newly Gifted vampire to be caught in your magic, Genevieve.’

  ‘And I am sidhe, and you can’t hold me with yours, Malik.’ I paused on the edge of the precipice, knowing I wouldn’t stop him, that I didn’t want to, even as a sliver of terror sliced into my gut. Who would be the master, who the slave? Or would we be neither?

  He stayed silent, unmoving. What was he waiting for? Then the knowledge slipped into me. He didn’t want to take, he didn’t want passive acceptance, he wanted me to offer.

  The feeling was curious, tantalising, seductive.

  My pulse jumping under my skin, I arched my back, lifted my chin and gave him my throat. Something flickered in his eyes for an instant, then his expression changed, turning dark, predatory, and somehow more desolate. A tremor shivered through me. His hands closed painfully round my wrists as he bent his head and placed his lips to my pulse. I tensed, anticipating the pain. And the pleasure.

  Then, too fast for me to even register, he was gone.

  I lay there, limp, gazing up at the amber crystals hanging from my ceiling. Other than my own shuddering breaths, the room was silent.

  But I could still hear his voice in my head as he spoke his message for Rosa.

  An odd quiver of fear chased the lust and magic from my body.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Daylight woke me as a heat-laden breeze drifted through the window and ruffled the white sheet across my bed. The sky was clear and blue, and I wondered why there were no clouds. There’d been clouds in my dreams: black clouds filled with the echoes of Malik’s words. Clouds that flowed down my throat and froze me into a solid block of ice that slowly melted, leaving me drowning in a sea of blood. I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and sat up, pressing a hand to my stomach to try and dispel the fear twisting there.

  Just dreams, that’s all. Nothing more. Just my subconscious processing what had happened.

  My bronze jacket, black skirt and even my torn briefs were neatly folded on the chair. I frowned at the small pile. Beneath the chair, my shoes sat side by side, clean. Malik had folded my clothes and polished my shoes. Something about that didn’t fit. I opened the wardrobe to put them away and caught my reflection in the mirror. For a moment I stared.

  The honey colour of my skin glowed with a warm sheen, my eyes sparkled like polished amber, and my flesh had smoothed out over the angles of my bones. I looked so good I could sell vitamins, never mind that I was healed. If that’s what drinking a vampire’s blood could do, no wonder they were subtly billing themselves as the new elixir of life and beauty. The only thing marring my new healthy perfection was my breasts. They felt fuller, perkier - but that wasn’t the problem. The revenants had made a meal of me, and the evidence was still there.

  I touched a fingertip to one fang mark, just above my right nipple. Why hadn’t they disappeared along with the rest of my injuries? Then I checked out my left arm. Sweat broke out on my skin. The bruises Malik had marked me with still encircled my wrist, faint but definitely there. A wave of dizziness made me sway. The mound at the base of my thumb was smooth and bite-free. My stomach clenched with nausea and I sprinted for the bathroom and retched into the toilet.

  What was the message Malik had given me for Rosa? He’d spoken in a foreign language and I didn’t speak anything other than English. But I didn’t need to get it translated: I’d understood him, and I didn’t even want to think how that could happen.

  For my love of Rosa, tell her I will strike the head from her body, rip the heart from her breast and sear her flesh until her bones are nothing more than ashes.

  I heaved again, but there was nothing left inside me.

  Jerking the shower on, I turned the heat up high and stood under the burning stream. I braced my hands against the tile, letting it scald down my back. Malik wasn’t the only one who wanted to kill me. There was last night’s little ambush to think about. I doubted Alan Hinkley had been in on the plan - he was probably nothing more than a mind-locked patsy - but I still had questions for him, once I got my phone back from the Blue Heart.

  I grabbed a towel and briskly rubbed myself dry, then ran a comb through my hair; it would dry quickly enough in the heat. I scowled at the bites on my breasts. The scabs had washed away, leaving little pink holes.

  Who had sent the two revenants after me? A vampire, obviously; but they’d have needed a witch to cast the stun-spell and attach it to the garden railings. And Malik had said he’d been hit over the head by a fae. Well, that combination wasn’t such a common one - in fact, the only vamp/witch/fae combo I could think of was at the Bloody Shamrock - but why would Declan want to kill me, a sidhe? There was no reason I could think of, at least none that fitted the larger picture in my mind.

  But I was betting a certain cluricaun called Mick would be able to fill in some of the details that my picture was missing. And then there was the update I had for Declan about Melissa’s death - getting Mick to deliver the message was a much safer proposition than delivering it to him myself after dark.

  Next stop the Bloody Shamrock.

  As I stared thoughtfully at my reflection, blood seeped from the fang mark just above my nipple and ran down in a watery pink drop. Crap. I scoured the towel furiously over my chest, chucked it on the floor and yanked open the bathroom door.

  I had a visitor.

  Finn was standing next to the window, watching the street below. His horns were sharp above his blond hair and he had a glower on his face that suggested he wanted to disembowel something. And the black shirt and trousers weren’t making him look any friendlier. Damn, I didn’t have time for a repeat of yesterday’s ‘Big Bad Boss’ routine.

  I grabbed the towel and wrapped it round me. ‘Just exactly how did you get in, Finn?’

  ‘You’ve got no wards, Gen.’ He turned, his gaze flicking over me then settling on my face. ‘And the lock wouldn’t keep out most humans—’

  ‘Forget it,’ Angrily, I waved away his explanation and headed for the bedroom. ‘It’s my day off. I’ve got plans, and I’m sure whatever you want can’t be that urgent. You can just let yourself back out.’ I banged the door shut behind me.

  I yanked on a pair of briefs, then delved inside my wardrobe, pulled out a pair of jeans and tugged them on. What the hell did Finn think he was playing at? Twice he’d let himself in now - did he think I lived at Waterloo Station or something?

  ‘I came round to see you last night, Gen.’ Finn’s voice came faintly through the closed door. ‘Toni said you’d had some problems at Tower Bridge, with the gremlins.’

  And damn Toni, with her stupid bet! What was she trying to do, play matchmaker? Why couldn’t she just worry about her own love life, instead of trying to organise mine? I grabbed a green strappy vest and jerked it over my head.

  Finn’s voice came again. ‘She told me you’d been hurt.’

  My anger started to subside and I briefly touched my cheek, then shivered as I remembered Malik doing the same thing in the taxi. One of the gremlins had thrown a spanner and I hadn’t moved quickly enough; an accident of course, since he’d been aiming for one of his pals. The bruise was gone now; thanks to Malik healing me. I shoved that disturbing thought away and slipped my leather waistcoat off its hanger and pulled it on.

  ‘But you weren’t in,’ Finn continued. ‘I was worried about you, Gen, especially after yesterday morning. ’

  Please don’t be nice, Finn, I really can’t cope with it right now. I sighed and leaned over to fish an ankle boot from under the bed.

  ‘I texted and phoned, then when there was no answer, I let myself in and looked around.’

  I dropped the boot as apprehension filled me. Pulling the door open, I said, ‘What do you mean, you “looked around”?’

  He was leaning, shoulder propped against the wall, just outside the door. His mouth turned down like he’d sucked on some salt. ‘You’d left your computer on, so I checked it out.’

  And found the Blue Heart website. Damn. I’d been hopi
ng that my evening’s entertainment wouldn’t get out for a couple of days - looked like my luck was out.

  ‘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 unneeded - made something soften just under my breastbone. Not that it made any difference; any possibilities with Finn had been just wishful thinking, even more so after last night. And now I was beginning to think my job might end up as wishful thinking too.

  ‘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 running in, and next thing I know, I’m taking a nap in the bushes, and when I wake up the place is deserted. But even though someone’s tried to wash it away, there’s still blood - if you know where to look.’

  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 planning.

  ‘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’t Malik 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 had been found, it wasn’t because Malik had made a mistake.