Twice Dead (16 page)

I’d spent most of my time ignoring them.

“This is all well and good, but surely more brings you to Haven,” Tatius said.

Thank the moon.
Maybe this conversation would finally get somewhere and we could get out of here.

The Collector drew herself up in her chair. It was only a small shift of weight, but it marked the end of the casual conversation. “Too true, Puppet Master. But I fear my purpose might have changed since arriving.”

“And what was your purpose, pray tell?”

“I had heard of the strength you’ve gained in recent centuries, and what a prosperous and well-managed city Haven has become.” She tilted her head slightly as if considering something, but the movement was measured, all show. “In light of recent events, I find myself… unimpressed.”

Tatius’s fingers stiffened where they cupped my hipbone, but his voice, when he spoke, betrayed none of the tension pressed against my body.

“I suppose I won’t be asked to join your esteemed council of city masters then, will I?” The amusement lacing his voice was a whisker twitch from disrespectful, but the Collector’s smile only widened—until she flashed enough teeth to rival a shark.

“I suppose
you
will not.”

A council of cities?
If she was assembling a council of city masters, all as strong as Tatius or stronger, that would be a scary group of vampires. The fact that her words indicated Tatius was expendable? Downright terrifying.

I glanced at Nathanial, looking for a sign I was interpreting the situation correctly. With his emotional mask firmly in place, he looked attentive, if aloof, as he watched the proceedings, but his gaze flickered toward me. When he saw me watching him, his gaze snapped away from me.

I sighed.
Is he mad I made a deal with Tatius? For the
moon’s sake
! I’d saved his life. It wasn’t like we’d had a lot of options.

Frowning, I focused forward again. The china doll, Elizabeth, watched me, a small smile creeping across her face, like she’d uncovered a secret. Then she leaned her head down and rested her cheek on the giant’s knees. The Traveler’s hand moved absently to her hair, stroking her loose curls.

“So,” Tatius said, leaning forward enough I could feel the muscles in his chest press hard against my back, “should I plan a goodbye celebration for you later tonight?”

The Collector steepled her hands. “That would be appropriate. I expect to move my retinue beyond your city lines before first light.” She paused and shot a meaningful glance over her shoulder. “But first, I’ve yet to present the entertainment I prepared.”

She lifted a hand, and a small cluster of her people hustled forward. They gathered in front of Tatius and dipped into deep, formal bows. There were seven women and four men, all dressed in elaborate kimonos. Something inside me registered the group as food, which meant they were human, but they tempted me no more than a gazelle tempts a wellfed lioness. Once Tatius acknowledged them, half moved to the side and picked up musical instruments; the men took small drums, one woman cradled a strange, stringed instrument, and another lifted a bamboo flute.

The remaining five women formed a single-file line directly in front of Tatius, one behind the other. As they assembled, a scent that didn’t belong caught my nose, and I stiffened.

Tatius must have felt the change.
What?
his mental voice demanded as he turned my face to his like he would kiss me.

I wasn’t sure about the whole psychic mind communication, so I mouthed the words ‘not human.’ His gaze flickered over my shoulder to the women a moment before returning to me. Gently, he lifted my chin and pressed a chaste kiss on my mouth. I didn’t move, didn’t pull back—the kiss was a follow-through of Tatius’s ruse. He released me without comment and I turned back to face the ‘entertainment.’

For a moment, I thought all but one of the women had returned to the wall. Then I realized they’d lined up so perfectly that, from my perspective, all disappeared behind the first. The other council members must have had a less illusionistic view.

“What is this you’ve arranged for us?” Tatius asked.

“My most recent acquisition: Akane, and her troupe of performers.” The Collector lifted her hands and clapped once.

“Begin.”

The drums tapped out a slow, two-part beat. On the strongest beat, the woman at the front of the line took a sliding step forward and clicked her fan. She turned, and on the next strong beat took another slow, measured step toward my right. Her fan clicked. No, she wasn’t the only one moving. Two Kimono clad dancers stepped toward my right, two to my left. Their fans clicked. Their slow, deliberate steps took them away from the center line, opening a chasm between the two groups by mere inches at a time.

It wasn’t like any dancing I’d ever seen, but ever so slowly, the movement revealed a fifth woman. Unlike the other dancers, who all wore red kimonos, the final dancer wore a gold-trimmed blue kimono. She didn’t move from her stiff pose until the other dancers had opened a narrow path before her. Then the dancers in red turned and froze in a deep bow to the dancer in blue—Akane, most likely. She used painfully slow steps to cross the path, her constrained movements bringing her within a yard of our chaise. The drums sounded their loudest beat then fell silent as she bowed before Tatius.

The musky, inhuman scent met my nose again, and for a brief moment, her dark eyes met mine, shock clear in her features. She covered the look quickly, but she missed the first step of her dance as the flute and the strange stringed instrument sounded their first delicate notes. The music rose in a lyrical melody and Akane’s movements turned fluid; the slow sway of her body both suggestive and hypnotic.

One of the red dancers moved toward Akane, and without disrupting the serpentine dance, untied Akane’s sash and unwrapped yard after yard of material. The next dancer helped Akane out of the kimono, leaving her in only a gauzy undergarment. A third dancer approached and slid the thin fabric from Akane’s shoulders. Akane’s naked back faced our chaise, and as the garment slipped away, it revealed a thick tattoo running from over her right shoulder, down her back and legs, and ending around her ankles. In the flickering candlelight, Akane’s gyrating movements caused the intricate snakeskin design to mimic life.

Turning, she never broke the gently coiling dance. The tattoo ended with the snake’s fangs piercing her bare breast.

She beckoned the last dancer, and the girl hurried over with an ornate wooden box. Akane threw open the lid and removed a large snakeskin—the largest snakeskin I’d ever seen. I shivered.
Wouldn’t want to meet the snake that shed
that. It could swallow a cougar whole.

Akane tossed the tail of the skin over her shoulder. Then she pressed the head of the snakeskin to the tattooed snake head. When she pulled the skin away, the tattoo vanished.

The snakeskin expanded as she lifted it over her head like a hood. As she pulled the two sides to meet in the front, the skin knit together seamlessly, and suddenly not a woman in snakeskin but a five foot snake stood on its tail in front of us.

Then the snake unbunched, flowing forward to triple its length and half its width.

As the enormous snake coiled itself in the center of the room, the skin along my spine tingled. If I’d been in cat form at that moment, all my hair would have stood on end.

“She’s magnificent, is she not?” the Collector asked, the stunned silence filling the room.

Tatius said nothing, and I wrinkled my nose. The snake smelled of reptilian musk, a chilly serpent smell that assaulted my senses. The way her head darted, her tongue tasting the air as she swung to face me, I had the feeling she didn’t like my scent any better.

“Your collection is world-renowned. Your newest acquisition is… unique,” Tatius finally said, a note of boredom clear in his voice.

Boredom he couldn’t have possibly felt.

I’d never seen anything like her.
Is she from Firth?
I’d never heard of shifters who stored their skin. It was different.

Strange. She slid closer, and I reeled back, plastering myself against Tatius’s chest.

“Your companion has quite a unique background herself, Puppet Master,” the Collector said, as the snake’s head swayed a few feet in front of me. “I wonder if I could convince you to part with her. She would make a lovely complement to my collection. I would compensate you generously.”

My heart stuttered to a stop, my whole body tensing. I shot a desperate glance at Nathanial. His gaze crawled to mine, and he shook his head, just a small movement, but it lacked his normal confidence, and I wasn’t sure if it was directed at me or Tatius.

Tatius wouldn’t…
Honestly, I had no idea
what
Tatius would and wouldn’t do.

“I’m quite fond of my companion. I think I’ll keep her.”

Tatius announced, and the breath I’d been holding tumbled out.

My muscles all but melted in the rush of relief that washed through my body, and there was no holding back the smile I felt slide over my face. Nathanial’s body also relaxed, releasing tension I wouldn’t have believed was there if I hadn’t watched it dissipate.

Dragging my gaze back toward the Collector, I forced my face to what I hoped was blank. My eyes tripped over Elizabeth. She wore a small, I-know-a-secret smile again. She delicately pushed off the ground and sauntered to the Collector’s side. She curtseyed, then, at the Collector’s nod, leaned in and whispered something in a lyrical language I couldn’t follow.

By the time she finished, the Collector was also smiling.

Her eyes sparkled as she glanced at me. Then they went black.

The room slipped away in darkness—the darkness I’d seen in her eyes.
What—?
I tried to look around, but there was nothing, no one, just blackness.
The void?
But it wasn’t. The void was oppressive in its vast nothingness. This, this was darkness filled with a presence. The presence so close, so all encompassing, that I felt like I was suffocating.
Vamp
powers.
It had to be.

“Return to your true master, child,” a voice in the darkness commanded.

The words seeped under my skin. Urged me to move. To go. The darkness pulled back, revealing ghost-like silhouettes around me. Nathanial stood out more clearly than the other gray shapes. I had to go to him. I
needed
to.

Springing to my feet, I reached for him, but I couldn’t move. Something held me back, held me still. I frowned. I had to move. Had to go. I glanced back. A gray ghost of Tatius clung to my arm. Gray light glowed in the center of his face, growing lighter, brighter until green burst through the obscuring fog.
His eyes.

The light he generated reached for my flesh and his control slipped over my body. I couldn’t move, but I still wanted to.

The world remained gray except Tatius’s eyes and glimpses of Nathanial.

“Do you think you can hold her? Can fight me?” the voice in the darkness asked, and the fog grew thicker, the suffocating presence heavier.

The fog billowed around Tatius. The brilliant green light faded. My body became mine again. I tugged my arm from Tatius’s grasp and ran for Nathanial. His ghost accepted me with open arms, pulling me against his chest.

Color poured over the world in a dizzying kaleidoscope. I blinked. Nathanial’s familiar scent surrounded me.

Oh crap.
The Collector had vamped out, had done something to me. It wasn’t my fault. But would that matter to Tatius? I pushed against Nathanial until he released me enough I could move. Then I twisted so I could face the room.

“As I suspected,” the Collector said, her eyes brown again.

Shaking her head, she stood and walked toward me. I cringed from her hand as she reached for my face, but I had nowhere to go with Nathanial’s body behind me. She touched my cheek only briefly with her cool fingertips before turning to face Tatius. “Dear boy, you who have stolen so many companions but never sired one of your own, you could not possibly understand what a master goes through when their companion is taken from them.” She gave him a sad smile, and his face darkened.

“I—” Tatius started.

“Silence,” she snapped, and turned her back on him.

She gave him her back?
Trust or… dismissal?
Definitely
dismissal. She’d just declared Tatius not a threat. Over her shoulder, I saw him bristle. His anger wrapped around him, and the candlelight flickered, each tiny flame shivering in the rising tension.

The Collector didn’t seem to notice.

“Hermit,” she said, “I have a proposition for you. Come to my city, bring your companion, and I promise no one will take her away from you.”

I swallowed and glanced at Nathanial. His face was carefully empty as his gaze traveled from me to Tatius then back to me again. The Collector watched him with a growing smile.

“You need not decide on the spot, Hermit. But soon, very soon.” She gestured to the Traveler, and he and Elizabeth hurried to her side.

Tatius strolled across the room, his stance casual, and yet the fluidity of his movements spoke of a predator prepared to pounce. He stepped between the Collector and me, knocking Nathanial’s hand from my waist as almost an afterthought.

“How dare you come into my city and cause such disruption.” He crossed his arms over his chest, and though he loomed over the Collector, she managed to stare down her nose at him. He stepped forward, into her space. “You’ve made allegations, insulted my hospitality, and now you are trying to fracture my council? I want you out of my city.”

She laughed, a mirthless sound. “You don’t have the power to back up that command if I choose to stay. You couldn’t even hold onto an infant vampire you’d already begun to bind.”

Nathanial stepped around me, blocking me from the rest of the room as the other council members surged to their feet, responding to the Collector’s blatant threat. The vampires lining the walls on both sides of the room straightened. Neck ties were loosened. Knuckles were cracked. The possibility of violence saturated the air. Filled it until I was afraid any movement might ignite bloodshed.