Bloodlust (10 page)

“The owner would like to meet you,” he said gruffly.

Yes! Trying not to be appear to overly exultant, I glanced quickly at Solus. He nodded, returning my look with a wink, and then the pair of us followed the ogre. The speculative looks in the eyes watching us were narrowing into jealousy as we weaved our way through the crowds to an ornate door set in the side. It opened automatically and we were beckoned in. At last.

The ogre ushered us into a waiting lift. I had been starting to assume that Tarn would be up in the balcony area although the presence of a lift suggested that we were going higher up than that. Clearly this UnSeelie Fae wasn’t much of one for exercise, however, as the journey took less than five seconds and it was obvious when the doors dinged open that we were only one floor up. The music seemed less intrusive up here, and the surroundings were considerably more plush: gilt mirrors, dramatic paintings that were akin to some Hieronymous Bosch visions of hell, and comfortable looking booths in which various Otherworlders were lounging. A few of them gave us curious glances but, for the most part, we were ignored. The ogre pointed us towards the back, and then we were on our own.

Feeling slightly unsteady on my feet, I grabbed Solus’ arm. I ignored the tiny flicker of humiliation I felt at needing his support to do nothing more than walk, but figured it might make me appear less threatening towards the club’s owner. If I could persuade him to tell me about Endor without having to resort to violence, then all to the good. As we approached his table, I realised that what must be Tarn himself was in the centre, arms akimbo while several scantily clad women leaned in towards him. With a jolt, I recognised one of them as a shifter. I didn’t think, somehow, that fawning over a Fae was quite what Corrigan had in mind for his minions. Tarn brushed the girls off, and stood up with a remarkable amount of grace, considering he was probably the only overweight Fae I’d ever come across. He was still remarkably good-looking, making me wonder if it was a prerequisite for the Wee Ones to be genetically disposed to attractiveness, no matter which side of the Seelie-UnSeelie spectrum they landed on. His head was shaved, as were his eyebrows, and his dark eyes glittered. I’d mistaken Solus for an UnSeelie Fae when I’d first met him - now I realised just how wrong I’d been. There was something of the night about Tarn that clung to him in a manner unmistakably of the darker side of faery.

He inclined his head. “Lord Sol. It’s been some time since you decided to grace us with your presence.”

“Let’s just say I’ve been busy doing other things,” Solus returned with a smile, although I was aware there was a slight edge to his voice.

“Yes, I heard you were in the Summer Queen’s pocket now. I do hope you are enjoying being so close to so much power.” Tarn was obviously being deliberately ambiguous with his words, suggesting merely through his tone that Solus’ proximity to power was more due to where we were currently standing than being in the confidence of the Seelie Queen. “And who is your lovely companion?”

I met his gaze directly. This guy was starting to irritate me already. “Mack,” I answered. “I’m a were-hamster.”

Tarn snorted. “Of course you are. That’s why you have a rather arresting bruise across your beautiful face. Because were-hamsters often find themselves the unwitting targets of attackers.”

“I walked into a door.”

He eyed me. “You’re telling the truth. Fascinating. Unsightly facial disfigurement aside, that’s an interesting shade of red hair you are sporting. Funnily enough, I was just reading this afternoon about a redhead. Something to do with the Brethren’s Lord Alpha and some curious allusions to fire.”

I stiffened, as did the shifter on Tarn’s right. I pasted a smile on my face. “I don’t think the Lord Alpha would be interested in little old me,” I said, trying to sound breathy and girlish.

Tarn raised his eyebrows. “Are you out of breath after your show on the dance floor?”

Fuck it. I gave up. We weren’t fooling anyone, least of all the target of our attention. I leaned over and injected in as much menace as I could muster. “You have some information that I want. And you’re going to fucking give it to me.”

He looked amused. “Is that so?”

I didn’t blink.

The UnSeelie Fae shrugged expansively, then looked down at his expensively draped companions, dismissing them with a wave. All of them quickly stood up and headed for the door, although the shifter gave me a particularly dirty look as she did so.

“You don’t have many friends, do you, Mack?” commented Tarn, noting her reaction towards me.

I looked at Solus, then back at Tarn. “Oh, I think I do alright,” I said coolly.

“Indeed.” He sat back down, stretching his arms out again against the back of the sofa. “Well, then, let’s play.”

I remained standing, folding my arms. “You know where I might find Endor.”

“Endor?” he asked innocently.

“The necromancer. Tell me where he is and I’ll leave you alone.”

Tarn laughed. “Now why would I want you to do that when we’ve only just met?”

I snarled. “Where the fuck is he?”

“Come on, Tarn,” Solus chimed in, “you know you’ve got nothing to lose. Just tell us.”

“I’ve got nothing to gain either,” replied the UnSeelie Fae, with a mellifluous lilt that did nothing but grate. The frustrations of the day were starting to get to me, and I could feel little starburst explosions of heat zipping up through my chest.

“You’ll gain your life,” I spat.

He laughed again. “Take a look around. Do you really think that you’d have gained admittance up here if I wasn’t absolutely sure I could defend myself?”

I twisted round, clocking the fact that there were now several ogre sized shapes dotted around the open balcony. “Don’t count your chickens that they’ll be enough,” I said, with slightly more confidence than I felt. I could probably take them all. Probably.

“What? A little were-hamster like you?”

Solus interrupted. “Fine, Tarn. What do you want in return?”

“Nothing you can give, Sol,” he answered, his eyes still trained on me.

I gritted my teeth. “What do you want?”

A small smile played around his lips. “Well, now that you come to mention it, there is just one little thing…”

“What?”

His eyes glittered. “Give me a pint of your blood.”

Solus exploded. “No way!”

“Done,” I said.

“Mack, this is a really bad idea,” Solus began.

“Too late,” Tarn trilled. He jerked his head over to one of the waiting ogres, who lumbered over with a blood bag and a needle. At my look, the Fae smirked. “Let’s just say I had a funny feeling we might be meeting in person. Although I did enjoy watching you dance.”

I scowled at him, then sat down on an empty chair and held out my arm.

“Mack,” Solus said again.

“We’ve got no choice,” I answered shortly.

“You can’t do this, dragonlette. You don’t know what he’ll do with your blood. What trouble it might cause.”

Solus was right. But I was right too. The only thing that mattered was finding Endor. If this was what it was going to take, then so be it. I’d have to worry about the consequences later. Besides, the UnSeelie Fae might be pretty sure he knew my real identity, but I reckoned that he wasn’t aware of the full power that my blood contained. And at least only having one pint would somewhat limit his resources.

The ogre tied a band around my upper arm, then started flicking at my taut skin to find a vein. Solus rubbed his face and sighed, then sat down next to me for support. Tarn watched as the needle entered, a lewdly lascivious look on his face. I turned away, disgusted, and caught sight of my face in one of the many mirrors. My skin was pale, the purple bruise across my cheek standing out in stark relief. That wasn’t what made me start, however. It was the fact my eyes were glowing from deep within that suddenly twisted my stomach in fear.

Chapter Ten

I turned and looked at Solus, my eyes wide. He hissed through his teeth. “Has this happened before?”

My mouth dry, I nodded.

“When?

I stared at him.

He reached over and gripped my arm, shaking it. “When, Mack?”

“I think earlier today,” I squeaked. “But nothing happened. I went to the hospital and I was fine.”

His body was very still and his tone was quiet and even. That was good. If Solus wasn’t panicking then I wasn’t going to panic either. It was probably nothing. Surely, that book couldn’t be right all the time? The ogre at my side seemed oblivious to the byplay going on right next to him, but Tarn was leaning forward, eyes fixed on mine, and his hands touching his lips as if he was in prayer.

“Why were you at the hospital?” Solus asked.

I thought of my earlier promise to Mrs. Alcoon. Shit. It hadn’t taken me more than a few hours to break it. I wondered if she had foreseen this all along. I swallowed. “To donate blood.”

Solus widened his eyes fractionally. “This is the second time today you’ve lost blood?”

“Well, I wouldn’t call it ‘losing’ blood per se. I know where it is.”

He gripped my arm tighter. “Don’t be flippant.” He switched his gaze to Tarn. “This might be a good time to evacuate the building.”

“What? You don’t really think I’m about to…that doesn’t make sense! I lost blood before when Aubrey attacked me. More than this. I feel fine. Nothing’s going to happen. I just need to stay calm.” As soon as I finished my sentence, a hot trail of fire scorched through my body from one end to the other. Oh, that wasn’t good.

“Your eyes weren’t glowing then, though.”

“Well, fucking do something and make them stop now!”

Solus, face pale, looked over at Tarn. He’d not moved a muscle. Then he fixed his gaze on the ogre who was pulling away the needle and wiping at my arm in a surprisingly delicate manner. I could tell that his mind was flipping over the options, but there just wasn’t any time. I immediately stood up, rubbing at the spot, and feeling distinctly woozy and nauseous. There were hundreds of people in here. I had to get out right now.

“Where’s the nearest exit?” I shouted at Tarn.

He blinked at me. I reached out and grabbed him by the lapels of his shiny designer suit and snarled, “Where’s the nearest fucking exit?”

For the first time since we’d entered the balcony area, the UnSeelie Fae appeared shaken. He lifted up a finger and pointed out towards the way we’d entered. “You can go that way. Up to the roof, not down. There’s a staircase to the right…”

I didn’t listen to anything more, and instead bolted in that direction. Losing the second pint of blood had just been too much, however, and I felt shaky and weak. Streaks of red began to zip across my eyes and my body was tingling all over with painful pinpricks of heat. I barely made it to the door, then scrabbled forward with my fingers, smashing the protective glass of the fire alarm and thumping on the button within. All at once, a siren sounded but, with the loud thump of music below, it didn’t seem as if any of the Circle customers had heard. It probably didn’t matter now. It was already too late.

A searing pain shuddered through me and it felt as if I was being ripped asunder. My fingers seemed cramped and, when I looked down, they were already curving into long talons. The shiny jumpsuit was becoming more and more constricting and I was starting to feel like I couldn’t breathe. I gasped and choked for air, then wave after wave of bloodfire rippled through my body like some unstoppable tsunami of flame. Scraps of shiny black from my jumpsuit spat out in all directions. I dimly registered screams from below, and a hundred faces turning up in my direction. My head scraped painfully against something and I tried to duck, but it didn’t seem to help. Then I realised that it was the high ceiling. How fucking big was I as a dragon? What was clearly my tail spasmed uncontrollably, and lashed out, seemingly of its own volition, smacking against a table and what sounded like a considerable amount of glass. I could feel the essence that was me already slipping away into a chasm far below, and my baser dragon instincts taking over.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. This couldn’t happen. Not here. I wasn’t going to let it. I chanted in my head, telling myself in a repetitive mantra to stop. I opened my mouth to scream at everyone to get out, to stop staring and to turn and run. Suddenly I was aware of nothing but heat and flames pulling up through my body from somewhere deep within the pit of my stomach, forcing themselves through my intestines and up past my heart and into my throat. Then, everything went dark.

*

When I came to, I was lying curled up in a foetal position. Someone had draped something over me, but I still felt cold, and there was an acrid taste of burnt cinders in my mouth. Angry voices floated from all around me. It felt oddly like someone had been calling my name, as if to get me to wake up or pay attention, but it must have been my imagination. I pulled myself up into a sitting position, clutching what I realised was actually some kind of velvet throw to my body and, terrified of what I might see, carefully opened my eyes.

The overhead lights were on, making the entire club seem less like an opulent den for Otherworld joy seekers and more like a garishly seedy dive. Solus and Tarn were arguing about something from just a few feet away, and it sounded as if there were some more people down below. A hand reached out to my face, smoothing away my hair, and I blinked my eyes into focus. Tom.

“Hey,” he said, gently. “How are you feeling?”

Tears swam into my eyes. “How many people?”

He looked confused. “What do you mean?”

“How many people did I just kill, Tom?”

He smiled at me. “None.”

“How many people are hurt?”

“None.” His thumb carefully stroked over the bruise on my cheek. “Well,” he amended, “I think the barman might be eyebrow-less for a few weeks, but other than that, everyone’s fine.” He gazed at me in all seriousness. “You brought it back, Red. You shifted and apparently breathed fire down at the bar, but you brought it back. You were in control.”

Control? That’s what he called control? I transformed myself into a dragon in a humiliatingly public manner. I couldn’t have chosen a worst spot to lose all of my senses than if I’d stood in the middle of Piccadilly Circus. Despite my overwhelming relief that I had managed to avoid hurting anyone, all I could think about was how in the fuck it had happened in the first place.