The Shifting Price of Prey (33 page)

There was a crack and a football-sized globe bathed the room in light; one of Sylvia’s Moonshine spells.

Tavish was hunched over by the bottom of my bed, hands between his legs, eyes now murky grey with pain, the beads on his dreads flickering from bright turquoise to the same muddy colour.

‘Genny!’ Sylvia cried from the doorway, her head of blossomy twigs quivering with concern. ‘Oh my goodness, are you all right? Tavish said you were with that vampire at
Regent’s Park, and that he wouldn’t let Tavish see you. What happened? Did he hurt you?’ Sylvia moved to look down at me, spring-green eyes sparkling with concern and curiosity.
‘Why aren’t you getting up? Do you need to be healed?’

‘I’m fine,’ I croaked, rubbing my throat. ‘Or I would be if that stupid kelpie hadn’t tried to strangle me.’

Tavish snorted. ‘You kicked me!’

‘You were choking me!’

He shifted gingerly. ‘You didnae look like yourself for a second, doll.’ His words were part apology and part question. ‘’Twas as if darkness slicked your soul like oil
on water, but ’tis washed away now.’

‘Yeah, well,’ I grumbled, ‘if you started looking at folk’s shells instead of checking out their souls to see if you can take a sneaky mouthful, then maybe you’d
recognise them more often.’ Idiot kelpie and his soul-tasting habits. Though his comment made me frown. Was my odd-looking-soul moment down to my recycled blood? Maybe it was like the Ward
not quite recognising me? Not that that let Tavish off the hook.

‘You did look weird, Genny,’ Sylvia exclaimed. ‘Your eyes had these tiny blue flames. They’re gone now, though,’ Sylvia said, moving to peer down at me. ‘What
were they for?’

‘It’s a power thing,’ I said, still hardly believing it. ‘I froze

Bertha.’

‘You did?’ Sylvia gasped. ‘Oh my goodness, is she dead?’

‘No such luck,’ I muttered, then louder, ‘she’s fine. It’s just a temporary freeze so I could avoid her.’ I looked out the window. Bertha was back in her
pool, head stuck up like a vigilant periscope, eyeballing the point where I’d entered the Ward as if she expected me to reappear any moment. ‘She doesn’t like me.’

‘Oh, I’m so glad you didn’t kill her,’ Sylvia said, obviously relieved as she offered me a hand. ‘She’s so sweet, and of course she likes you. Bertha loves to
tease, that’s all.’

I huffed as I untangled my legs from the heavy coat and let her pull me to my feet. ‘By taking chunks out of my arse?’

‘It’s a nice arse.’ Sylvia grinned, then stroked her finger down the coat’s lapel. ‘This is nice too, though it’s a bit big for you. Have you been shopping
again?’ She tilted her head, pursing her cherry-red lips. ‘No wait, I recognise it. It’s that vamp’s coat, isn’t it?’ Her eyes widened, and before I could stop
her, she’d pulled the collar open. ‘Oh, you’ve been Fanged.’ She peered closer, enveloping me in her sweet cherry-blossom scent. ‘More than once, I’d say too. Oh
my, Genny, are you all right? He didn’t hurt you, did he?’

‘No—’ I shifted away, taking me, my Fanged throat and Malik’s coat out of her curious reach and felt a prick of magic that wouldn’t let me lie – he had hurt
me when he half-drowned me – and that made me add, ‘not in the way you mean.’

‘Genny!’ Her head twigs shook with determination and she crossed her arms. The movement drew my attention to her ‘Hello Boys’ cleavage, and envy filled me as a familiar
pinballs of magic jumped to life inside me; Harrods’ Magic Mirror spell.
Damn, I’d thought I’d got rid of that.
Before the hex could get its ‘plastic surgery’
tendrils into me again, I quickly averted my eyes to Tavish.

He was giving me a look that said a lecture was coming my way, so I went on the offensive. ‘And there was no reason for you to check up on me, either.’

The beads on his dreads flashed crimson with anger. ‘Aye, there was, doll. Given what I found.’

‘What did you find?’ Sylvia questioned.

Malik using my magic and me out for the count. Something Sylvia didn’t need to know. I risked a quick apologetic glance at her. ‘Sorry, Syl, but is it okay if I speak to Tavish
alone?’

Her eyes rounded in astonishment for a moment, then she gave me a conspiratorial wink. ‘Course, no probs, Genny. I wouldn’t want to hear anything that Mother would want to know
anyway. It’ll drive her crazy if she thinks she’s missing out on things and she can’t force it out of me.’ She patted her barely there bump. ‘And Baby Grace needs her
sleep. See you in the morning.’ She turned then looked over her shoulder. ‘Oh, and before I forget, Katie dropped your phones off earlier. They’re charging on the
landing.’

‘Thanks,’ I said, and we waited until the wardrobe door clunked, then Tavish set a Privacy spell. Lust sputtered, then, to my relief, snuffed out, and I reminded myself to check my
emails for Ana’s Poultice spell so I could keep the leaking Fertility pendant’s side-effect in check. Though hopefully I wasn’t going to need it, not if there were to be more
nights like tonight with Malik . . . Of course, first we needed to sort out a few more ground rules; like when things started looking iffy, talking was the way to go, not packing me off home like
some delicate damsel who needed protection.

‘So, you’ve been sharing blood and power with the vampire, doll,’ Tavish said, breaking into my thoughts. ‘And now the pair of you can use each other’s
magics.’

‘Y
eah.’ I gave him a considering look. ‘Malik wants it kept quiet. Says it’s dangerous and I agree with him.’

Tavish snorted. ‘Well, you’re nae wrong, doll. But I ken we decided ’twas best you stayed away from him and the rest, till we know what’s what with this
Emperor.’

Yeah, well I decided it wasn’t best, Mr Grumpy.
And as I wasn’t about to debate it with him, I hit him with my next attack. ‘Oh, and thanks for telling me there was
silver in that werewolf repellent.’

His gills snapped shut in embarrassment. ‘Aye, well, you were nae meant to use more than a wee drop. ’Twould nae have harmed you then.’

As I’d thought. Still, he should’ve told me. I shot him another scowl to show I hadn’t quite forgiven him yet, then filled him in on the Tower card and my visit to see the
Bangladeshi ambassador; the werewolves having something to do with the kidnap victims; the Emperor wanting Janan, the Bonder of Souls; and that given my quick trip home it didn’t look like
Malik was going to help me get to the Emperor, since it looked like there was a throwdown in the offing between the Emperor and the Autarch. I finished with, ‘So apart from the long-term
problems that a vamp takeover bid could cause all of us, we’re no closer to finding the Emperor or what he wants in return for the info about releasing the fae’s fertility from the
pendant.’

‘Hmph. I’ll be chatting again to the vampire, doll, and see what this vampire takeover business ’tis about. ’Tis maybe naught but a storm in a teacup, but so long as they
keep to their agreements’– the beads on his dreads flashed a warning red – ‘it doesnae matter who’s in charge. So dinna fash yourself about the
blood-suckers.’

I stared at him. I
was
going to worry about the blood-suckers. Malik, and a few others who were my friends. And I did think it mattered who was in charge. But Tavish and I obviously
lived in different worlds, and I wasn’t going to waste my breath arguing with him about it. I already knew he and Malik were allies, not friends, only drawn together by what the other could
offer . . .

Damn it, that was it. Malik wanted Tavish’s help in killing Bastien – an idea I was fully behind. Only I’d always had in the back of my mind that with Bastien gone, Malik would
be the new Head Fang, not some evil interloper like the Emperor. And Tavish wanted me protected until the fae’s fertility problem was solved . . . which was why Malik had sent me home. Into
Tavish’s waiting arms.

Crap. The annoying pair had double-teamed me again, first with Tavish’s text, which I didn’t get to see, and then with their little chat while I was out of it. Maybe I should just
save time and trouble for all of us, and buy the bubble wrap myself.

‘So that’s it?’ I glowered at Tavish. ‘You’re going to talk to Malik and I just have to wait for the next card to turn up?’

‘Och, doll, ’tis the best thing.’ He patted my hand. ‘Safer too, what with the Emperor’s werewolves running about. And ’twill all sort itself out once the
last two cards turn up and the reading’s complete; the spirit in the cards hasnae failed me yet.’

Yeah, but there’s always a first time. I gritted my teeth. ‘What about the Emperor’s website? Have you hacked it yet?’

His dreads twisted with frustration. ‘’Twill nae be long now, doll, but I do have a wee thing of interest to show you.’ An electronic tablet appeared with a small audible pop
to hover in front of us. Tavish plucked it out of the air, tapped the screen and handed it to me.

It showed the home page for a plant nursery:

I cut Tavish a bemused look. ‘Um, why am I looking at this?’

Tavish reached over and tapped ‘News’.

A picture of Katie’s ‘boyfriend’, Marc, filled the screen. He was standing next to a slightly older man, both of them smiling for the camera, holding up three cards with gold
coins stuck in the middle of them. The caption read:

I wasn’t enlightened. I frowned at Tavish. ‘You going to fill me in?’

‘You told me that the lad, Marc, here, was spying on you at the gnome’s,’ he said. ‘This is why. He was there to do business. Apparently, one of the gnome’s cats
was sitting on the windowsill and the lad went to speak to it, glanced through the window and saw you, got a mite curious and then a wee bit embarrassed when you caught him watching. So he rushed
off instead of keeping his appointment with the gnome.’

Hm. ‘And you believe him?’

‘Aye, doll, his tale is true enough. The nursery does business with many of the gnomes, nae just Gnome Lampy.’

I pursed my lips at the smiling Marc and his medals, reluctantly remembering that Katie
had
mentioned he worked with plants. I couldn’t deny his story was plausible, given that
whole ‘the simplest explanation is usually the one’, only unease still niggled at me. Marc and his uncle were doing business with the gnome, who was in no way a nice guy. Though,
really, the gnome was pretty much stereotypical, albeit a tad more obnoxious than most. So my unease was probably just my ‘Katie paranoia’ kicking in.

I turned to Tavish. ‘So, there’s nothing to worry about?’

‘Aye, but to be sure, I’ve asked a body I ken, who stays down that way, to check out this nursery.’

‘Okay, thanks,’ I said grudgingly, relieved and glad at least that he’d helped in this— until his next words.

‘Och, and I told Katie’s mother all about it. I ken you wouldnae want her worrying.’

I stiffened. ‘Tell me you told Katie too? Before you told her mum?’

His ‘why would I do that?’ expression said it all. He hadn’t. Perfect.

Tavish gave me a sharp-toothed smile that told me he’d dropped me in it with Katie deliberately – a joke, payback for some slight, or just him being ornery – then he said
he’d let me know as soon as he had any news, and left.

As soon as he’d gone I grabbed my phones from the landing outside . . . and discovered about twenty texts from Katie, starting with the expected snippy one which informed me Marc had
already told her about the ‘gnome mix-up’, before Tavish had done his ‘Sam Spade’ thing, which he wouldn’t have had to do if he’d just spoken to her first. Oh,
and some friend I was, getting Tavish to do my dirty business, and blab to her mum, instead of trusting her to know that she’d have told her mum anyway.

Damn. I was going to have to do some serious grovelling. Still her aggrieved tone let up a bit with the rest of the texts, all updates about Spellcrackers –things were all ‘running
like clockwork’, which was good news, despite making me feel oddly redundant. The childish part of me wanted Spellcrackers to fall to pieces without me, to show no one else could run it as
well. Mentally I slapped myself, saying I should be grateful that everyone was super-efficient at their jobs.

Katie’s next text had my jaw dropping in shock.

The text was sent mid-afternoon. I stared at it, heart pounding, thoughts and questions bouncing like balls I couldn’t catch till I snagged the important one: if Finn was
still here I had a chance to talk some sense into him about the Witch-bitch Helen.

I called him.

His phone went straight to voicemail.