Nash stiffened. “What about Zack?” he asked, his fear and hate obvious as he looked at Landon.
What about Zack? echoed in my head, and I opened my hands to let energy drip from my fingers to hiss on the floor. I wasn’t attached to a ley line so what I had was finite, but I was mad, and that tiny hint of fear in her voice gave me courage. Sure, she was batshit crazy, but I had a rep for taking suicidal stands on hills just to irritate people.
Sure enough, Constance’s guards closed in about her, their fear of her as scary as all hell. Jenks flanked my one side, Edden and Nash the other. The tension rose until the pheromones made me dizzy. The small woman stared at me from behind them, fingers playing with her jewelry as she weighed her options. Maybe I’d gone too far.
“Constance?” Pike’s raspy voice made us both jump, and Jenks’s dust on my shoulder seemed to burn. “I’d like to speak to Morgan alone. With your permission of course.”
For a moment I thought we were done for, and then finally Constance flung a ringed hand into the air as if she didn’t care. I allowed myself a shallow breath. Pike’s eyes had gone black and his clenched jaw showed the strain he was under. He was clearly suffering, but his control was almost as good as Constance’s. Rachel, your middle name is Fool.
“I’m confident . . .” he added as he looked at me and a thrill of unhelped sensation dropped to my groin, “that this can be settled without the needless spilling of blood.”
Constance’s lip twitched. “You are too gentle,” she said, but the calculating madness behind her eyes remained. “Get her out. Landon? Tell me again about your species’ magic.”
Landon jumped forward, but his stammering words went unheeded, as Constance had already shifted her attention to Joni, promising the zoned-out woman a pretty new dress and some chocolate.
“What about Zack?” Nash said again, desperate as Edden put a hand on his chest to keep him from moving. “Rachel, if they bite him, he loses everything.”
Back hunched, Pike closed in on us, and I jerked away when he tried to grab my elbow. A rim of brown around his pupils was beginning to show, but they were still too black for me, and when his reach missed, the black shrank even more in surprise.
“I didn’t say you could touch me,” I said hotly. “And not with your eyes that black.”
Pike leaned in. Behind him, Constance was almost to the end of the hallway, and Nash groaned in frustration. “You’re fast,” Pike whispered, a new thought obvious in his gaze.
“Not really,” I said. “I just knew you were going to do it.”
“You’re leaving now.” Pike reached for me again, and this time I let him. Fool, I berated myself as my vamp scar flamed to life, almost buckling my knees. I’d known it would happen. I was playing with him. With myself. Worse, I think he knew it. God, it felt good, though.
“Rache, you want me to follow them?” Jenks asked, but I could hardly look past the delicious sensation tripping through me—until it reminded me of Kisten and I snapped out of it.
“You need to leave before she changes her mind,” Pike added, hesitating as he let a slip of tongue wet his lips. “She does that,” he whispered. “Frequently.”
“Let go before I hurt you,” I said, and his lips quirked into a smile. “I do that frequently.”
“You don’t have enough to hurt me.”
“You might be surprised,” I said, then glanced at his fingers around my arm.
“Rache . . .” Jenks said tiredly when Pike let go, and I pulled myself together, shoving down my libido.
“What about Zack?” Nash exclaimed. “Get me in with him. I’ll keep them off him.”
Not a bad idea. I stepped from Pike, satisfied that I’d given him something to hang his out-of-control, Constance-inspired, vampire lust on. Was she doing it intentionally? I wondered as I remembered the unusual response in the I.S. lobby. Maybe the flood of bloodlust pheromones was deliberate, goading those around her into doing her work and leaving her hands clean. No wonder everyone was scared of her. She was like the youngest child instigating bad behavior in her older siblings, then sitting back with a cookie to watch, the only one not sent to her room. And Joni? And the jewelry? Was it all an act to instill fear in her people, or was it real?
“Jenks,” I whispered, thoughts spinning. “Get me a hair from Nash. Make sure it’s his.”
Jenks looked at me, eyebrows high as he figured it out, then darted off.
“Constance, I’d ask a favor,” I said loudly as they reached the end of the hallway, and Pike turned to me, shock blanking his expression. Edden, too, seemed to take pause, and Constance spun to make her guards scatter from between us.
“A favor?” Her voice almost dripped sarcasm as she stepped forward. “Are you serious?”
Smile in place, I pushed past Pike to take the center of the hallway. “I grant that me walking down here and demanding Zack wasn’t the smartest thing I’ve done this week. This is the I.S.,” I said, nose wrinkled as I looked at the ceiling. “As you say, he’s under your hospitality as he considers what’s best for his people.”
Nash inched forward, his bulk hunched and hopeful. Behind him, Jenks gave me a thumbs-up. I had my sample to make a tracking amulet.
“Nash is his guard,” I said as I drew the big man forward to stand beside me. “Let him join Zack.” I hesitated, then, with more weight to my voice, added, “To be sure his value as an elven leader stays intact. He’s nothing if he accidentally gets bitten. You understand.”
Landon scowled at me from behind them all, his height making him easy to see.
“Smart,” Pike whispered, his voice icing over me like a cool wind. “She’ll like you owing her a ‘favor.’ Probably more than the favor Landon will owe her if she damages Zack’s value.”
Constance came forward, motioning for her guards to stay behind. Her fingers played with her jewelry and Nash paled as she looked him up and down. “I’ve never tasted elven blood,” she said, chilling me. “Cinnamon, is it?” Her eyes came to me. “He must be strapped.”
Worry slammed into me, and my eyes went to Joni, once again dull and vacant. Damn. This isn’t a good idea.
“Agreed,” he said, and one of her guards skulked forward, fastening a zip-strip around Nash’s wrist with an unnecessary tightness. His arm was so thick, the strap almost didn’t fit, and I knew the instant it took hold when Nash made a soft, uncomfortable sound.
“Nash, be careful,” I said as Edden palmed the large elf the necklace Pike had given us. “Don’t get anyone angry. She’s wound them past their limits. She uses it as a way to control them.”