The Shifting Price of Prey

Chapter Twenty-Seven

‘Typical flashy vamp entrance, Malik,’ I murmured, knowing he could hear me, and wondering why he’d followed me here instead of waiting for me to turn up to our date. Was it concern? Or something else?

The corner of his mouth quirked briefly. ‘Genevieve.’ His scent of warm leather mixed with dark spice and liquorice curled round me like a teasing summer breeze, making my stomach flutter. Part nerves, part lust. Mesma.

Wary, my fingers tensed around the bottle of werewolf repellent; the stuff stank enough that it would work on a vamp too. I trusted Malik. But only if he was the one in control. And since I’d last seen him, I couldn’t be sure that Bastien the sadist hadn’t been up to his torturing tricks. My gaze skimmed over Malik’s beautiful face, down his long lean body, searching for any new nasty spells or possible injuries. Nothing.

‘Just so I’m clear,’ I said, raising my voice slightly, ‘who am I chatting to? Is it you or is this going to be like the other night, with the Autarch doing his remote string-pulling thing, or whatever was going on with that Jellyfish spell?’

Malik touched the faded delta scar on his forehead as if in a brief salute. ‘I appreciate why you might be concerned, but with the spell’s influence removed, I am the only one who is pulling my strings. I give you my word of honour.’

His word. Good. Neither Malik nor the Autarch would mess around with that. I slung the tiny bottle on its neck chain back over my head.

‘Glad to hear it,’ I said, the knot of worry under my heart easing as I allowed myself a longer, more appreciative stare. And damn, in all that leather he might be wearing the clichéd, dangerous vamp look that all the Fang-Fans drooled over, but hell, I was ready to drool too. In fact, after our close encounter on the table at the hotel, I was ready to do way more than drool. And there’s no reason I couldn’t. At that thought, desire coiled deep inside me—

Malik’s obsidian eyes took on his sleepy tiger look. ‘Are you well, Genevieve?’

Oh, yeah. ‘Good, thanks,’ I said, giving him my best innocent smile. He might have vamp supersenses, but just because Malik could tell what my body was feeling didn’t mean I couldn’t at least try to keep him guessing.

His look sharpened. ‘Is there a reason you are jogging in the park and are not at the mosque?’ His question held an edge of disapproval. Hmm. Irritating vamp better not be getting ideas about doing his whole ‘protecting the sidhe’ thing again.

‘I was chasing a couple of the Emperor’s werewolves.’ I shrugged, like it was an everyday occurrence, and started walking towards him. ‘Don’t suppose you’ve seen any sniffing around?’

A fine line furrowed his brow. ‘Were these werewolves in human, animal or beast form?’

He hadn’t denied the possibility that the Emperor or his werewolves might be about. So, did that mean he knew something, but was going to stall me, or what? ‘Human, last I saw, but that was nearly ten minutes ago.’

‘I see.’ He lifted his chin, nostrils flaring, then his frown cut deeper. ‘It is possible they have come this way, but I cannot tell conclusively.’

My frown joined his. It wasn’t the answer I expected. Or wanted. Annoyed, I stopped a few feet away from him. ‘Why not?’

‘A werewolf in human form does not carry enough of their wolf’s scent for them to be identified by smell alone; it is part of the magic that allows them to be two-natured. I would need to have met them in their human form before I could pick out their scent from the myriad of others that permeate the air about us. As for scenting a werewolf in their wolf or beast form, there are a number of scents upon the air that could be wolf, or a large canine of some description, but with the zoo and the Carnival nearby that is to be expected.’

Right. Good that he was giving me chapter and verse without any prevarication. It meant he was on the level and not trying to hide anything. For a change. My irritation dissipated and I took a step closer. ‘So a werewolf in human form smells like a human, and in their wolf form smells like a wolf?’

‘Yes,’ he agreed, giving me a look that said he had his own questions but was prepared to answer mine. For now. ‘They are much more easily identified by sight, or by their blood.’

I blinked. ‘They don’t smell different, but their blood does?’

He moved closer; his coat brushed against my jeans. I stuck my hands in my back pockets, resisting the urge to run my fingers down his black T-shirt where it stretched over his hard abs. Later.

‘Their blood has a certain tang to it, yes.’

Malik’s voice was low, intimate and turned my knees weak. Embarrassingly, it took me a moment to catch up with his words . . . Oh right, werewolf blood tasted different. Weird that didn’t affect its smell . . . I got my brain back on to business and looked up at him. ‘Have you met any of the Emperor’s werewolves?’

A conflicted expression crossed his face, part sadness, part . . . anger, maybe? ‘I have. But not in more than five hundred years.’

Werewolves only live a human lifespan. So not much point describing the couple to him. Though really, since he’d tacitly admitted that the Emperor and his werewolves could be about, it wasn’t what the couple were that was in question, but where they were, and where they might be going, so we could locate the victims. But if he couldn’t scent them, we couldn’t follow them.

Damn. Looked like the werewolf trail was a dead end.

I cut Malik an enquiring look, and asked the big one. ‘What about the Emperor? Have you met him more recently?’

His eyes turned cold. ‘I have not.’

Nice unequivocal answer, even if his tone had sent a shiver down my spine. Malik really didn’t like the imperial vamp. ‘So does that mean you don’t know where his lair is?’

‘I do not know where he might be if he is in London, which is the question you are asking, I believe?’

‘Yep.’

He stepped back and disappointment sifted in me. I sighed. Well, I was the one who’d spoiled the moment. ‘My question is, why do you want to know, Genevieve?’

‘I told you. The tarot cards say the Emperor has the answer to releasing the fae’s trapped fertility.’

‘But what has that to do with the Bangladeshi ambassador?’

Something, but exactly what I didn’t know. And I wasn’t going to find out staying here. I hitched my small backpack higher. ‘How about I tell you on the way back to the mosque? If I can’t find the werewolves, then I want to see what info I can get out of the ambassador.’

He pushed his hair back, elegant fingers sliding through its long length. ‘The ambassador is no longer there.’

‘Really?’

‘I looked for you at the mosque first. While there I overheard him having an altercation with his security chief. He had received an invitation for an immediate meeting with the British Prime Minster. The security chief did not want the ambassador to go, but moments later the ambassador’s vehicle arrived and I saw him driven away.’

Crap. Tonight was a dead end all round. At least when it came to werewolves, the ambassador and finding his connection to the fae’s trapped fertility. I looked at Malik. Though maybe not when it came to other things, like our date. Not that I wanted to head off to the Blue Heart vamp club, but maybe we didn’t have to. We could stay here. It was way better. Quiet, private, and with the added advantage of no Autarch hanging around to play the psychotic gooseberry.

I gave Malik a bright smile. ‘How about I tell you what the ambassador has to do with this while we take a walk around the lake?’