Wicked After Midnight

24

Back at Paradis, I ignored Charline and all my curious coworkers and went straight to the tailcoat I’d stashed in my armoire. There had to be something I’d missed. Gentlemen always left a signature of their grandeur in this world.

I stretched the garment out on my bed, running my fingers along the seams and searching for a tailor’s mark, a tag, a button, anything. It was well made and of the latest fashion, but tiny white stitches showed where the tailor’s tag had been torn from the lining. I sniffed at the thick fabric, scenting oil and hot metal and an unsavory, magic funk. It was vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t place it. An odor clinging to the cuff made me gasp—Bludman and pine and vanilla. Cherie. I put my lips to it, breathing it in.

“Did you just lick a coat?”

I spun, hands curled into claws, as Vale swung his other leg over to sit on my windowsill. “Do you ever knock?”

He grinned. “Not if I can help it.”

His fingers drummed on the sill as the gauzy white curtains billowed around him, highlighting the deep gold of his skin and the brightness of his eyes. He was back in his brigand’s gear, all black and shadows, and I unconsciously licked my lips, remembering what it felt like to pull him close by tuxedo lapels and devour him.

“Aren’t you supposed to be mad at me?” I asked.

He shrugged. “My anger burns off easily, like clouds on a sunny day. And you’re not drunk or drugged, so I’m hoping you took my warning to heart.”

“You’re not my boss.”

The grin deepened, quirked, took on a new meaning. “Didn’t say I wanted to be.”

I looked down and swallowed hard, all my earlier bravado fled. “Thank you for the book.”

“De rien, bébé. I’m glad it pleased you, even if I didn’t.”

“You did, but . . .” The apology was on the tip of my tongue, but something held it back.

“I didn’t come here for thanks, you know.”

I sat down on the edge of the bed and jumped right back up, suddenly skittish. “What do you want, then?”

He stood, took a confident but tentative step. “Just this moment or in general?”

“Your choice.”

“You want to have this discussion now, bébé? Might be easier after a bottle of wine.”

But after my outburst at the police station, I was done with being misunderstood. “Tell me the truth, Vale. Why did you offer to help me find Cherie?”

“You know why. Because I have a soft spot for lost girls. And so I would have an excuse to keep seeing you.”

“What do you want from me?”

“Everything.”

I blushed and turned away, twisting the tailcoat between my black fingers, aware now more than ever how other I had become. In the police station, I’d been furious at their prejudice, at their assumptions. But now, faced with the truth about someone who had no such qualms, I felt strange and unlovable and desperately alien. And so close to my goal yet so very far away.

“What did you think would happen once we’d found Cherie?” I asked.

He stepped close, so close I could feel the heat of his chest against my back. “More truth? As you like. I did not expect to find her. We’ve never found a girl after the slavers took her, at least not whole and undamaged. But I was willing to do anything to find her. For you. And if we did and she was beyond help, I would hold you until you were done crying and help you move on. Give you a reason to move on.”

I clasped my hands against my heart. In a tiny voice that was more human than anything I’d said in years, I said one word: “Why?”

“Oh, bébé.” His arms wrapped around me with the same silken warmth as his sigh, and I leaned back into him. “Biggest star in Mortmartre, and do you not even know your own worth? You’re an adventure. A beautiful, wild, strange, intelligent, rebellious journey of a woman. No cookfires for you, no bookkeeping or weaving or collecting of ribbons. You’re the kind of woman who would leap onto the back of a strange bludmare behind a stranger, gallop for hours without complaint, and plunge into the sewers without a second thought. The kind of woman who willingly walks into a trap to save someone she loves. The women of my tribe are fierce but not as fierce as you.” He planted a little kiss behind my ear. “And you make me laugh. I dearly love to laugh.” His hips pressed against me, a quick brush that was more a statement than a question. “And I like to do other things, too.”

“Stop, Vale. Be serious.”

“And you don’t think sex is serious? It’s the driving force of nature, bébé. Everything a man does is for love or sex.” He chuckled. “Power is about sex. Fame is about sex. Food keeps you alive so you can have more sex. Clothes make people want to look at you, think seriously about bedding you. Not that I generally take anything seriously. But still. You are a fool if you discount what really motivates every single person and creature in Sang.” He paused, sighed in my ear. “You turned me into a poet, bébé. Even the best songs and books are about love.”

“Which one are you talking about? Sex or love?”

He swayed against me, making my hips move. I didn’t fight it; I felt liquid and dizzy. “Maybe both,” he said, and he spun me around to face him, catching my face in his hands and pulling me in with delicious slowness for a deep, lapping kiss that melted my hips into his.

A knock on the door made me jump guiltily away from him, my teeth bared at the innocent rectangle of wood. My door at the caravan had been mostly left alone, and I’d grown to find all the knocking and demands of Paradis as vexing as the spam e-mails I’d received back on Earth.

“What?” I barked, and the door opened just enough to admit Blaise. I hadn’t seen him in a while, and his big, dark eyes trembled with fear.

I beckoned him in, smiling. “Don’t worry, chou-chou. I’m not annoyed with you.”

He perked up and placed a sharp envelope in my hands, the paper thick and heavy with portent. I turned it over, noting that the blood-red wax seal featured crossed paintbrushes and the letter L. Forgetting that I wasn’t alone, I ripped the flap with no panache and pulled a creamy folded sheet from within. The impeccable script in dark purple ink matched the flecks of flower petals embedded in the paper.

La Demitasse, ma chérie,

I must request one final sitting to complete the masterpiece. It shall soon be ready for display at the Louvre, where all may gaze upon your beauty and tremble. Come to me one last time, my star. Tomorrow.

L.

Pride and a strange sort of hunger-lust bloomed in my chest. One more taste of that amazing, delirious draught. One more golden afternoon under Lenoir’s dark and delicious gaze.

The postscript was messier than the rest of the letter, as if he’d lost just a bit of that tight control. “I shall miss our quarrels, ma chérie,” it said. “But I shall enjoy more than words one final toast to your fame.”

“You’re not going,” Vale said, and I spun away from his prying eyes.

“Reading over my shoulder? That’s low, even for you.”

He made a strangled noise, half groan, half growl. “Bébé, please. We both know that’s a fancy invitation to fuck you on the canvas.”

We stood just a few feet apart, but suddenly, a wide and uncrossable gulf opened between us. As if he could see it, too, Blaise backed away and darted out the door.

“For your information, Monsieur Hildebrand, I’ve only fucked one person since I arrived in Paris.”

“That is the past.” He pointed at the letter still in my hand. “While this is an obvious offer for something in the future.”

“You don’t trust me?”

“Of course, I trust you! Otherwise, I wouldn’t leave you alone in this glorified whorehouse long enough to hunt teeth and secrets in Darkside. It’s him I don’t trust. Lenoir.” He wrapped a hand around the bedpost, his knuckles white. “Do you even remember last night? You were beyond drunk, as open and easy as a flower. Anyone could have done anything to you, and you would have just lain there, laughing, smiling.”

“So why didn’t you?”

“Because I want you awake and looking into my eyes while I tell you with every stroke that you’re mine. Not insensible and silly. Any man who wants that . . .” He set his forehead against the wooden post and sighed. “He’s a coward. And a villain.”

“And what makes you think I won’t sit for the portrait one last time, raise a glass of champagne, and leave with a kiss on the back of my hand? He’s never touched me, Vale. He’s never tried.”

“That’s the thing about absinthe, bébé. When the time comes, he won’t have to try at all.”

I opened my mouth to say a million more things, but then I remembered that I alone knew Lenoir’s secret. That he was a Bludman, like me, and that I needed that fellow feeling in a foreign place, surrounded by strangers. Something told me that if Vale ever learned anything about that, the smile would finally drop off his face forever.

One more trip to Lenoir’s studio, and then it would be over.

One more sip of absinthe, and then I would be done.

Then I would be good.

Then I would be a star.

And Vale didn’t need to know that.

“Maybe you’re right,” I said.

His eyes were wary as I walked to the fire and tossed in the note and the envelope, but as the paper caught and burned, he relaxed and finally let go of the bedpost. He came to stand by my side, sliding an arm around my waist with comfortable ease and pulling me against him.

I watched the paper curl, breathing in the smoke that rose from the cherry-red edges. I tasted violets and anise and something darker, woven into the paper along with the dried flowers. I wondered, briefly, what might have grown from the letter had I planted the paper in some dark place and watered it and kept it warm.

I was so lost in my reverie that I’d almost forgotten Vale was there, difficult as that was. Something about the smoke, about Lenoir’s letter . . . I finally blinked back to reality when he said, “Changing the subject, bébé: You never answered. Were you licking the coat?”

In his hands, the elephant pilot’s tailcoat seemed limp and harmless, and I walked over to finger the place on the collar that should have held the tailor’s tag.

“He removed the tags. And the buttons are completely average. And I wasn’t licking it; I was smelling the sleeve. He’s been near Cherie. I think. It’s hard to tell with all the clockwork grease.”

“From running the pachyderm, I suppose?” He held out the arms, inspected the fabric between two fingers. “It’s been there since Paradis opened. I don’t think anyone knew it could move, that it was useful for anything but . . .”

I raised one eyebrow, daring him to finish it.

“I didn’t even know you could go into the head,” he finished with a smirk.

“Me, neither. But then again, I spend as little time in there as possible.”

“I know.”

We glared at each other for a few moments, just until I noticed him staring hungrily at my lips.

“And you never told me why you broke in through my window.”

“What, is it not enough to crave your company?”

“Oh, it’s enough.” I dragged a finger up the dark stubble on his throat just to watch him swallow. “But that’s not why you’re here.”

He laughed with his usual good humor before shaking his head and clearing his throat, uneasy as a dancing horse. “Right as always, bébé. Two things, both disturbing. First of all, I found another fang and put it into the hands of a glancer. All she could glean is that the Bludman in question is somewhere deep underground and miserable. So if the fang did come from Cherie, we know she is not a concubine in a cabaret or a servant in a duke’s palace.”

“But she’s underground and miserable! And we don’t even know where to start looking or if she’s underground in another city . . .” I broke away from his orbit and paced the room. I’d always felt it was better to know the truth than to wonder, but now his news had killed my foolish hope.

“And here is the other thing—also bad news but a clue nevertheless.”

The item he pulled from his waistcoat pocket was small and heavy and cold in my palm. I pushed the curtain aside to let sunlight fall on the oil-smudged metal of a tie tack. “Is that a skull? With wings?”

He nodded. “A raven skull with bat wings. And a top hat.”

“Where did it come from?”

Vale pointed to the jacket on my bed. “From his cravat.”

“How did you get it?”

Vale shrugged. “I have my ways.” I stared harder. “I am a brigand, bébé. Had you forgotten?”

“I remember. I just haven’t seen you do many . . . brigandly things.”

He grinned. “That just shows you what an excellent brigand I am.”

“What does it mean?”

“That your kidnapper tied a natty cravat.”

At the end of my rope, I curled my fingers into Vale’s shirt and hissed at him, hard, my bared teeth inches from his lips. He stumbled back with a look of such surprise that it was almost comical.

“Did you just hiss at me?”

“You deserved it. Now, stop being clever and explain to me what this is, why it’s important, and why this guy wanted to kidnap me in a fucking elephant. It’s . . . not subtle.”

Vale held out his hand, and I dropped the button into it. He bit the edge and turned it over with one wide finger, and I noted how odd it was to see a man’s bare hand; I still wasn’t used to it. “It’s cast of solid gold, which is unusual. The symbol is not one that I have seen before, but among my people, it’s sinister. A raven’s skull is used for dark magic. Bat wings signify nighttime. The top hat is a very expensive kind, extra tall, favored only by the very wealthy men who can afford it. So whoever he was, he had money and dangerous leanings.”

“But you don’t know who he was?”

“No. But I expect that some of the daimon girls might. It’s an extraordinary man who isn’t known somewhere in Mortmartre. Especially if he has the money to buy the rare things that take his fancy.”

“Do we have a picture of him? A description? He was blond and completely forgettable.”

He shook his head. “The gendarmes are covering it up, for some reason. I caught this little dainty before they could stuff everything in the incinerator.”

“Hmm.” I ran a finger over the design. It was pretty, if evil. “So lots of money is involved.”

He threw back his head and laughed. “It doesn’t take a lot of money to make the gendarmes dance, bébé. But yes, judging by the fact that they were going to burn solid gold instead of keeping it, I’m guessing many francs changed hands.”

I tried to think back, but I had never really seen the kidnapper’s face, thanks to his goggles and mask.

“He said something to me. Before he died.” I paused, rolled the button back and forth on his palm. “Mal.”

“Mal?”

“That’s it.”

“What does it mean?”

“I dunno. It means nothing to me. What’s it mean to you?”

He rubbed a finger over the dent his tooth had made in the button. “Mal means bad, evil.” But the way he rubbed his chin, his eyes shifting like moor grass . . .

“There’s something more, isn’t there?”

“Maybe. There are rumors . . .”

“Yes?”

“I’ve heard whispers of something called the Malediction Club. Its members are high up, very high, and sworn to absolute secrecy on pain of death.”

“But what is it?”

“I don’t know, not exactly. I had always assumed it was just a party of the usual powerful men sitting around with cigars, patting one another on the back. But between this pin, your kidnapping, and the way the gendarmes are sweeping it all under the rug, I suspect the Malediction Club is real and this is their crest, their sigil.” He glanced up at the clock and then to the window, his fist curling around the pin. “Come on.”

I followed him out my door, expecting him to drag me into the sewers or through dark alleys and into Darkside. Instead, he went right across the hall to knock on the room shared by Mel, Bea, and Blaise. After a moment, Bea answered with a halting smile.

“Demi needs your help,” Vale said plainly, and Bea stepped back to let us in, her small hands blanching sky-blue against the wood.

Mel lay on the wooden double bed, curled on a bright red and green blanket and reading a book, which she quickly shut and slid under a fluffy white pillow. Both girls were in simple shifts, and I noticed something that completely floored me, something I’d never noticed before.

They had no tails.

Every daimon I’d ever known had had a long, somewhat prehensile tail. Luc and his brother at the caravan used them for balance while doing incredible dance moves, and I had also met daimons who used them for building, painting, or self-defense. But Mademoiselle Caprice and every daimon I’d ever seen at Paradis had always been dressed in layers and layers of costume, and I had taken for granted that their tails were curled up under voluminous skirts. I caught myself staring and looked away.

“You need help, chérie?” Mel asked, and Bea sat down beside her on the bed, their hands clasping unconsciously and merging Bea’s blue with Mel’s green for a beautiful teal that made me smile.

“Are you sure—?” I started, and Vale nodded.

“What do you know about the Malediction Club?” I asked.

The color drained out of Bea, leaving her a sickly grayish-white, her eyelids fluttering as if she might faint.

Mel wrapped an arm around her and drew her close, giving me a reproachful look. “Nothing,” she said. “Nothing more than anyone. It’s a rumor, something whispered in the dark. Wealthy men who do horrible things. But no one’s ever seen it.”

“Do you recognize this, then?” Vale held out the button, and Mel took it, examining it.

With sudden violence, Bea dashed it to the ground, where it skittered across the room.

“What’s come over you, darling?” Mel asked. “Do you know more?”

Bea shook her head and hid behind her hair but wouldn’t lift her hands to sign.

“I’ve seen that symbol before,” Mel said slowly. “On a cravat, here or there. Figured it was just something the Pinkies enjoyed.”

“Do you remember any of the men who wore them?” Vale asked.

Mel shrugged and gave a small, defiant smile. “Oh, la. All the Pinkies look alike to me. But it is always fancy gents—I remember that much.”

“What about the fellow who tried to kidnap Demi? Did you know anything about him?”

Mel shook her head. “We couldn’t see him, with the pachyderm fallen and the gendarmes all around. Did they find that pin on his body? How wretched.”

Bea’s fingers twitched in her lap, and one hand rose, shaking, to make signs. I recognized a few of the letters as she spelled something out. After the last one, her hand fell limply back to her lap, and she slumped over, drained and defeated.

“Charmant? Darling, I don’t think it’s charming at all.” Mel drew her close, stroking her hair and her back and kissing her forehead as Bea shuddered, eyes closed.

“Monsieur Charmant?” Vale asked quietly, and Bea shook with a sob.

“That’s enough,” Mel said, eyebrows drawn down defiantly. “I don’t know what you’re getting at, but she hasn’t been this bad in years. I think you need to leave now.”

“Bea, I’m so sorry—” I started.

“We’re going.” Vale took my hand and dragged me out, leaving the gold button winking on a threadbare rug.

The last thing I saw was Bea sobbing violently, silently, in Mel’s arms.