The Cold Kiss of Death

Chapter Ten

‘If you do me a copy of the recording I’ll take it into the police and get them to have a look at it,’ Finn said, leaning over Tavish’s shoulder.

‘I doubt the police will do better than me, lad.’

‘They won’t,’ Finn agreed, ‘but if I show them where to start, they can compare it with the original. Then at least they won’t think you’ve tampered with the evidence.’

‘Aye, you’re right.’ Tavish nodded, reaching down to snag a new storage stick from the shelf below. ‘T’would nae take much to falsify something, and the humans tell their own falsehoods too often to believe that others dinna follow suit.’

I leaned on the back of the chair and pointed at the florist’s boy. ‘It’s not just what the recording shows; the boy must know something.’ I turned to Finn. ‘Do you think you can get Helen to interview him again and find out?’

‘Yes, I’ll ask her,’ he said as he ran a hand through his hair and rubbed his left horn.

‘Thanks.’ I gave him a quick smile, then I mentally crossed my fingers. Time for the next part of my plan: the one that had been slowly forming in the back of my mind. I needed to summon the phouka and I wasn’t sure how either of them would react. Or maybe they wouldn’t, maybe I was just being paranoid. I decided to ease into it in bite-sized stages; though thinking of biting and the phouka at the same time wasn’t necessarily healthy.

‘Um, Finn,’ I said, ‘before you go, any chance you could call something from my flat for me?’

A line creased between his brows. ‘It depends what it is. The magic only works if you can picture what you want and where it is exactly. I’m not sure I could do that with someone else’s things.’

‘Okay. I was hoping for some clothes.’ I sighed, looking down at the T-shirt. ‘But if not, the other thing I wanted was one of those shiny black pebbles I’ve got, the ones I keep in the white dish shaped like a leaf.’ I tilted my head in question. ‘Do you know the ones I’m talking about?’

‘Yes, I remember them,’ Finn said, thoughtfully. ‘They’re in your bedroom.’

‘That’s right,’ I agreed, keeping my voice even. Finn had only been in my bedroom a couple of times, but the pebbles were on my bedside table and hard to miss. Next to me Tavish stopped hitting the keys and swung his chair round, an intent expression on his face. My heart missed a beat. This was going to be tougher than I thought.

‘The ones you keep on your side of the bed,’ Finn said with an edge of mischief to his smile.

‘Both sides of the bed are my side, Finn,’ I said drily. Did he really have to make it sound as though we were sleeping together, the bastard? Still, better they get distracted by jealousy than figure out the real reason I wanted the stones. Finn started flicking the fingers of his right hand and relief filled me; he’d had his bit of fun, now he was calling for them. Then he frowned. ‘On the side nearest the door, right?’

‘Yes,’ I said, giving him a get-on-with-it look. Tavish gave a soft snort and Finn’s gaze shifted to meet his eyes. Something passed between them and this time my heart sank. Crap. Then Finn looked back at me, his face lighting with some emotion I couldn’t decipher, and his fingers stopped moving.

Crap. What had Tavish just told him?

‘So, doll,’ Tavish said quietly, ‘what’s so important aboot these stones?’

Briefly, I closed my eyes. ‘A friend gave them to me. They’re just something I think can help me, that’s all.’

Tavish looked at Finn. ‘What are they?’

‘Haematite,’ he said, frowning. ‘But there’re no spells on the stones, I checked.’

He’d checked? When? Not that it mattered; there’d never been any spells on the stones.

‘Doesnae need tae be,’ Tavish said, then pointed at me. ‘The magic’s in her. And if you’re planning on summoning one o’ the sidhe queen’s ambassadors, doll’—Tavish leaned forward, his expression unusually serious—‘t’is too dangerous. The Lady Meriel and the Lady Isabella willnae allow it, and I told you, I canna open the gate without their knowledge.’

Crap! I should know better than to try and fool a centuries-old kelpie.

‘Look,’ I said, turning to Finn, ‘all I need is for you to call the stones for me.’ I looked over my shoulder at Tavish. ‘And I don’t want you to stop him. You don’t need to worry about the others; the phouka doesn’t use the gates.’

‘Aye, she wouldnae, meddling bitch that she is.’ Tavish snorted in disgust.

‘Ah,’ Finn said, drawing my attention back to him, ‘and Tavish didn’t exactly stop me. The stones aren’t there any more.’ He held his hands out, giving me a rueful look. ‘Or at least they’re not on the bedside table, and if I don’t know where they are, I can’t call them. Ask me thrice if you want.’

I stared at him, wanting to do just that, but he wasn’t trying to be evasive, so I knew he was telling the truth. Damn. ‘But I never move them.’ I pressed my lips together in frustration. ‘So there’s no other place for them to be ...’

‘The police have been in, Gen,’ Finn said gently. ‘They’ve searched through the flat.’

My stomach twisted. Shit. I pinched the bridge of my nose, hating the thought of strangers going through my things again, and trying to think what to do next.

‘I’m sorry, Gen.’ Finn rubbed a consoling hand over my shoulder. ‘I didn’t know until after.’

I clenched my fists in determination. If I couldn’t get the pebbles, there was another way. I turned back to Tavish. ‘Okay, here’s what I need: a Glamour to change my appearance, clothes, a phone and some money. You can get me all that, can’t you?’

Tavish’s gills flared, then snapped back against the skin of his throat with an almost audible whisper that yelled trouble in the back of my mind. ‘Aye, but it doesnae mean I will,’ he said calmly.

‘Just wait until after Tavish has looked at the recording, Gen,’ Finn said. ‘Don’t forget you’ve been badly hurt.’

‘I’m fine.’ I stuck my hands on my hips and gave them both an annoyed look. ‘So the pair of you can stop right now. I’m going to do this, with or without your help. Even if you get something off of the CCTV footage it still won’t tell us where the sidhe is. The phouka might know something, or be able to track them—’

Tavish reached out and grabbed my arm, scattering my thoughts as he traced his fingers over the healing burns. ‘What in the River’s name happened tae you?’ he asked.

I blinked at him, puzzled and vaguely confused, as if I’d forgotten something. Why was he asking about my injuries?

‘I got blown up, Tavish, with the bakery—you must’ve seen it on the recording. Not to mention that I don’t look any different from when you first saw me outside,’ I said, still perplexed. ‘You must’ve noticed then.’

‘Ach, doll, my heart is full o’ sorrow that I didnae.’ His touch was light over my skin, soothing away my exasperation. ‘I dinna always look at a body’s shell; I like tae see the core of those around me, nae the deception they offer tae the rest. The fae are too easy wi’ their Glamour, like the lad here,’ he jerked his head at Finn, the orange beads on his dreads shifting to silver, ‘fooling folk wi’ his prettiness.’

Finn was standing at ease with his hands in his pockets. He didn’t say anything, but the relaxed pose didn’t hide the tension in his shoulders.

I frowned at Tavish. ‘Finn works mostly with humans; the Glamour makes that easier.’

‘Aye, so he says, but he dinna always wear it quite like that.’

‘Times change, kelpie,’ Finn answered quietly, but there was an edge to his tone. ‘Something you seem to have forgotten.’

‘Okay,’ I said slowly, suspicion cutting through the odd fuzziness in my mind as I looked from one to the other. ‘Just what is going on between you two?’

‘Dinna fash yoursel’ aboot us, doll.’ Tavish smiled and tugged me closer so I stood within the V of his legs. His hands felt warm as they clasped the bare flesh of my arms. ‘And then there’s your own soul, Genevieve.’ Iridescent turquoise swirled through the silver of his eyes, a whirlpool of colour that pulled me under and wanted to drown me in liquid desire. ‘Your essence is like a fine river, streaming with golden currents that shine more dazzling than the sun and are a delight to the eyes, your waters so sweet and pure and warm that a soul would slip joyfully into your depths and yield up their life to the blissful pleasure of your embrace.’

I smiled happily down at him, then bent to brush my lips across his, tasting earthy orange sweetness. ‘Tavish,’ I whispered soft against his mouth as his hands tightened on my arms, and I was surprised in some distant part of me at the yearning that threaded through my voice. ‘That’s all very pretty, but my wrists are burning up,’ I said just as softly, and without as much longing. ‘So maybe you could leave off trying to sic me with your magic until later, otherwise I might just let mine go and then it’s Goodbye Computer time.’

He looked down and horror filled his face, then he shoved the chair back and dropped my arms like they were radioactive—and maybe they were, since the diamond-chipped cuffs were glowing like small supernovas.

A muffled laugh behind me made me turn. Finn leant back against the glass wall, smiling in amused smugness. ‘Doesn’t look like the bean sidhe is going to fall for your watery charms, kelpie.’

What the hell was I? Some sort of bone for them to fight over?

‘You’re just as bad as him.’ I strode over to him and jabbed him in the chest, my finger and the cuffs glowing at the same time. ‘You used to try exactly the same thing on me. And never mind your little innuendoes just now; it didn’t get you anywhere either.’

Finn lifted my chin with his finger, a wicked glint in his eyes. ‘Want me to try again? I’m sure I could do better now.’

‘No,’ I said slowly, turning back to Tavish as my memory caught up with what was going on, ‘all I want is what I asked for.’ I turned to Tavish. ‘And just in case you’ve forgotten after that little bit of trickery you pulled on me, that’s a Glamour to change my appearance, clothes, a phone and some money.’ I opened the glass door. ‘And if you feel like trying anything again, just remember: I really will fry your computers next time.’