Bloodrage (22 page)

I could bet I knew exactly why Corrigan had bothered to do just that.  He was trying to throw me off my game by reminding me of my old life.  Well, I was stronger than that.  Irritated by Tom’s subservient attitude, even though I knew it came part and parcel of the role he’d so eagerly volunteered for, I couldn’t help myself.

“So, Tom, are you enjoying serving the Brethren or do you wish that you were still back in Cornwall?”

He flicked a nervous glance at Corrigan and cleared his throat.  “Well, I wouldn’t call it serving the Brethren.”

“Tom here has been promoted,” interrupted the Lord Alpha smoothly.  “Because he’s a very helpful and loyal wolf.”

I pulled my arm away from him and spun round to look him in the eye.  “And of course you demand abject loyalty from all your subjects, don’t you,
my Lord
.”

His eyes gleamed.  “For someone who spent so much time living with a pack, you seem to have a remarkably weak grasp on how all this works.  The hierarchy keeps the system working.  It prevents discord.  Not only that but it’s in our blood and in our genes.  To pretend otherwise would be to deny ourselves our true nature.
  Without the Way Directives and the chain of command, the pack wouldn’t exist.”

I knew that Corrigan was right.  I’
d wholeheartedly believed in that hierarchy when I’d been part of it.  It was the life-blood of the shifters; it created the sense of family that I’d been missing so much since my departure from it.  It helped to prevent rogue shifters from branching out and causing chaos, and it meant that weaker members were always protected.  But that still didn’t mean I had to like it at this particular point in time.  “Well, it certainly makes your life more comfortable,” I snapped.

Careful, kitten.
His Voice whispered brushed my mind. 
Remember that you’re supposed to be my ever-so willing date.  If you continue to look as pissed off as you do right now, then you’ll draw attention to yourself.  And I don’t imagine that will help your plans, whatever they really are.

I gritted my teeth. 
Tom switched his weight from foot to foot, apprehensively watching the pair of us.

I don’t have any plans,
I shot firmly back.  Then smiled sweetly at him, and turned to face Tom.

“I hope that Betsy isn’t very sick.”

He gave me an uneasy smile.  “No, it’s nothing serious.  But she’s tucked up in bed with a hot water bottle.  She’s gutted that she didn’t get the chance to come and catch up with you though.”

“And Julia?”

“She’s gone back down to Cornwall.  Anton needed her for some things.”

My eyes narrowed at the mention of my former nemesis.  However, I was saved from making any further unpleasant comments, by the loud clinking of
a glass towards the front of the room.

“Ladies and Gentlemen of the Otherworld,” boomed a deep voice.  “Welcome to Kingsway.  We encourage you to sample our humble offerings, partake in our wine and use this opportunity to mix and mingle with friends.  This unique event offers much scope to forge new contacts and prevent unnecessary conflict, and we are honoured to welcome you.”

“Trumped up little shit,” commented Corrigan, drily.

I shot a surprised look at him.  Then the crowds cleared and I could see the owner of the voice.  It was definitely a vampire
, and he reeked of power.  His eyes were blood red, and his smooth unlined face gave me the creeps.  He raised his glass, eyes wandering over the room with the blaze of self-satistfaction.  When his gaze fell upon me, his eyebrows raised in unabashed interest and curiosity.  I felt an involuntary shiver run through me and, without thinking, moved an inch closer to Corrigan.  Then, irritated with myself, I moved away again.

“Don’t fret about it,” the Lord Alpha drawled.  “He has that effect on most people.”

Wanting to snarl back a retort that I wasn’t afraid of a stupid vampire, I pressed my lips together forcing myself to stay quiet.  I took another sip of my drink instead, looking around hopefully for some snacks.  A tuxedoed waiter came up and whispered something in Corrigan’s ear. 

He leaned over to me.  “I need to go and do some of my jumped up arrogant Lord of the Brethren stuff now,” he said, his breath hot upon my cheek.  “Be good.”  He raised his eyebrows meaningfully at Tom, and then me, making it clear that I had a babysitter who would no doubt dog my every move. 

I smiled unconcernedly, wondering if I could persuade my old sparring partner to give me a break and let me sneak off.  The flicker of obedience that Tom returned to his alpha, however, suggested otherwise.  With silent confirmation of Tom’s loyalty, Corrigan placed his empty glass onto a nearby tray and lithely sauntered off.

Tom looked at me sadly.  “I’m sorry, Red, he’s my alpha, I have to…”

“I know, Tom, I understand.”  I sighed and looked around the room, noting several other shifters, each of them watching me with brazen unabashed vigilance.  Great.

Frustrated,
my hand curled around the glass I was holding.  How the fuck was I going to manage finding the bloody Ancile now?

Chapter Sixteen

I mulled over my options.  It appeared that I had scant few at this particular point in time.  I probably should just have come clean with Corrigan and told him the truth; I wasn’t really doing anything wrong per se – in fact it could be said that I was doing the right thing by returning the statue to its rightful owner.  Well, sort of rightful owner anyway.

I drained my glass of champagne and wandered over to a waiter to get it replaced, Tom trotting faithfully at my heels.  Picking up a fresh glass, I felt a pair of eyes watching me.  I turned, half-expecting it to be yet another shifter, and then realised that it was someone entirely different.  Solus, or rather Lord Sol Apllinarius, seelie Fae, was lounging languidly on the other side of the room.  He lifted his glass and toasted me lazily.  Ignoring Tom, I walked over to him.

“Solus.”

“Dragonlette.  Bald dragonlette.  How are you?”

“Oh just peachy.  How is Mrs. Alcoon?”  I asked.

“Sleeping,” he answered, twirling the stem of the glass in his hand.  “I’ve been concerned about you, you know.”

“And why’s that?”

“You’ve been bleeding.  More than once.”  He jerked his head towards the scabs on my hand.  “I sensed it.”

I raised my eyebrows at him.  “Well, clearly you weren’t concerned enough to come and check to see if I was alright.”

“You know I can’t do that.  How is life with the witches and wizards treating you anyway?”

“They really don’t like being called that,” I murmured.

“They’re a bunch of hocus-pocus con-artists,” interjected Tom, with a note of bitterness.

I stared at the werewolf by my side.  “Tom, that’s hardly fair!  They’ve helped shifters out lots of times.  And they don’t con people.”

He grumbled at me.  “Since when were you their freaking champion?”

I rolled my eyes in exasperation.  No wonder they had this stupid party every year.  Someone needed to do something to keep all these idiots from each other.  “You met Alex.  He’s nice!  In fact, he’s my – our – friend!  He knows as much about me as you do.”

“Yeah, well, that was before I knew what they were really like.”

Solus ignored my ripples of outraged indignation and grace
fully extended his hand.  “Tom, I don’t believe we’ve officially met.”

Tom stared at the Fae for a moment, then shook his hand.  “You were at the restaurant that time.”

“Indeed I was,” Solus said smoothly.  “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

Tom muttered something uncomplimentary about Fae in general.  I watched Solus’ eyes harden for just a heartbeat before returning to normal.

”Tom, do you think you could give us a moment?”  He began to shake his head, but I interrupted.  “You can stand just over there.  I only want to talk to Solus for a minute in private.”

He glared at me, then stomped off, positioning himself just a few feet away.

Solus raised his eyebrows.  “Don’t you trust the little wolf any more?”

“Corrigan’s got him on a short leash.  Look,” I said quickly, “I need your help.”

“Again? Dragonlette,” he said, shaking his head in mock disappointment, “this is becoming a bad habit.”

“Please?  It’s important.”

He sighed dramatically.  “Very well.  What do you need?”

“Just to get out of this room without every single shifter trailing after me.  Can you glamour them or something?”

Solus glanced about.  “I can manage three or four but I’m afraid you’ve got more than that hanging off your coat-tails.”

“I know,” I said grimly.  “But I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t need to.”

He frowned, considering the matter.  “You won’t have long.  Maybe three of four minutes.”

“That’s okay,” I said.  If that was all the time I had, then that was just what I’d have to work with.  I’d just have to hope that the Ancile really was being kept in the trophy room that
The Geography and Domestic Situation of the Vampyre
had described.  Come to think of it, I thought looking around for a moment, I hadn’t yet seen any gold leaf on the walls.

“So what will you give me in return?”

I thought for a moment.  Of course it had been stupid of me to think that the Fae would help me out of the goodness of his heart.  And even I wasn’t enough of an idiot to ask him what he wanted in return.  A few ideas flipped over in my head, and then a bolt of inspired lightning hit me.  If this worked…

I put on a serious look.  “I don’t want to do this, Solus.  It’s only because I’m desperate.”

“Go on,” he said, eyeing me with a disturbingly hungry expression.

“Well, I have this book, see?  I’m pretty sure it’s one of a kind.  I found it first up in Inverness, in fact right before you showed up.  Then it turned up again in the mages’ library.  I’m sure it’s the same one and that somehow it’s sentient.”

“What would I want with a sentient book?” Solus waved a hand airily around.  “My life is far too exciting to bother with reading.”

And that, Solus, is one of the reasons why I will never entirely trust you, I thought, keeping my mental fingers crossed.  “It’s a Fae book.  Rather beautiful, I might add.  But very old.  And it goes into lots and lots of detail about dragons.”

He started.  “Dragons?  You mean…”

I nodded.  “Yes, I do.  So with this book, this sentient book, you can know more about the Draco Wyr than anyone else on the planet.  In fact, more than anyone else on any plane.” I licked my lips.  “Well, apart from me of course.  Kn
owledge is power, Solus.  While I’m reluctant to give you such knowledge so easily, I can see I have little other choice at the moment.”

He held my gaze steadily.  “So you would promise that this book is worth reading, would you?”

“Certainly.  I give you my word on that.”  Especially if you can read it for me and tell me what it says, I thought.

The Fae thought about it.  I held my breath.

“Okay then.  Give me the book and I will sort out your little shifter problem.”

I exhaled.  Praise the gods.  Now I’d just have to finagle my way into getting him to tell me what was actually in the book without him realising that I’d not actually read much more than the first chapter.  I felt a slight twinge of guilt, then dismissed it.  This was the sort of thing the Fae did all the time with their tricksy bargains.
  I just happened to be playing them at their own game for once.

“I can’t get you the book right now, of course.  It’s at the academy.  But I leave every Friday for a couple of hours to go to anger management counse
lling.”  Solus started to laugh.  I ignored him.  “You can meet me there and then I’ll give you the book.”

“It’s a deal.”  He spat on his hand and held it out.  I did the same and then we shook.

Solus crooked an eyebrow at me.  “If you have access to the mages’ library, then why is the old woman still asleep?”

Puzzled, I just frowned at the mage.

“Honestly, dragonlette, for an apparently smart girl sometimes you can be incredibly dim.  The spell they put on her had to come from somewhere.  And it will be written down somewhere.  Just find the book that it’s written in and then you can find out how to free her.”

I stared at him, completely nonplussed.   A vision of the off-limits catalogue cabinet swam into my head
, along with the fact that Slim was constantly reminding me to stay on the ground floor.  I smacked my palm against my forehead.  I was a fucking idiot.

“And so turns on the lightbulb,
” drawled Solus.

The cogs in my brain geared up.  “I was told that only the M
inistry Council could actually remove the spell.”

“Well, of course
you were told that.  If every mage had access to it then it would never work, would it?”

I thought about it.  Assuming that I could find a book with details about how to remove the spell, and that I was able to do it myself, not only would I be breaking my word to the Arch-Mage, but I’d be pretty much damning myself and potentially Mrs. Alcoon forever.  I already knew that there were few places to hide from the reach of the mages.  And yet if I could free her now...I pondered carefully.  It wouldn’t hurt to have a back up plan in case everything fell to shit at the academy.