Justine pursed her lips into a moue. “I guess that means we’ll have to make sure Tatiana never finds out I was involved. Maybe I should just kill her now. After all, it’s not like I can let her go, because as soon as I do, Tatiana will know I was the one who kidnapped her.”
She raised the knife to Melly’s throat.
He started to talk fast, and desperately. “That’s not true. You haven’t gone too far yet. Tatiana will be pissed you kidnapped her, but no real harm has been done. She’ll get over it – Justine, listen to me —”
Watching his face, Justine started to draw the knife slowly across Melly’s neck. A red line appeared on the tawny skin of Melly’s throat. With a hoarse, muffled scream, Melly fought against Justine’s hold, but the other woman held her firmly captive.
Panic blew out Julian’s mind. He roared into the camera, “Stop. Justine, stop! TELL ME WHAT THE FUCK YOU WANT ME TO DO, AND I’LL DO IT!”
Cocking her head, Justine pulled the knife away and licked the blade with evident relish.
As Julian stared while she tasted Melly’s blood, he wanted nothing more than to punch his fist into Justine’s chest, pull out her beating heart and crush it in one hand.
Justine said, “Or maybe I shouldn’t kill her, since she seems to be an effective way to control you. Hm, what to do.” She said to Melly, “Darling, you taste delicious. Stop struggling so hard, I barely scratched you.”
Fixedly, he focused on the bleeding wound on Melly’s neck. Even though the quality of the camera feed wasn’t terrific, the cut didn’t appear to be bleeding copiously. Justine was telling the truth. She hadn’t cut deeply enough to sever the carotid artery.
He thought of all the expert slashes on the throats of her dead attendants. She knew what she was doing with a knife, down to the millimeter. Now that she had decided on her course of action, she would enjoy playing with them both, like a cat with captive mice.
He had to turn her attention away from Melly and back onto him. He snapped, “What do you want?”
All Justine’s playfulness fell away, until her face turned cold and still. “It’s so simple, Julian, I’m sure you already know the answer. I want you. Taking Melly, this whole set up – it was all for you. I hope you feel flattered. Now I want to know just one thing. If I agree to let Melly go, would you take her place? Would you trade her life for yours?”
“Yes,” he said. Justine was right. He did already know she would ask that, because of course that was the trap.
Justine smiled. “That’s what I was hoping you would say.” Her gaze shifted to someone who stood behind the camera. “Now it’s your turn.”
A whirlwind of Power appeared in front of Julian. If that was Soren, his appearance on the scene could ruin everything. Snapping the laptop shut, Julian faced the new arrival with a snarl, his fangs descending.
The figure of a Djinn formed, but it wasn’t Soren.
It was a pariah Djinn named Malphas.
Like Soren, Malphas was a first-generation Djinn, and as such, he carried an intense concentration of Power. His physical form was that of an angelically handsome man with golden hair, but he was nothing like an angel.
Malphas smiled at him. “Hello, Julian.”
He snarled, “What the fuck are you doing here?”
The Djinn lifted a shoulder in a casual-looking shrug. “When I heard Justine was looking to bargain with a Djinn, I decided to pay her a visit to see what she required. We had an interesting conversation, she and I.”
“You can’t bargain to help Justine,” Julian growled. “Pariahs might not keep their word, but you can’t afford to break the bargain you made with Tess and Soren. If you do anything to hurt anyone in the Nightkind demesne, or anyone Tess knows and cares about, Soren will open the envelope of information she gave him and distribute the contents to every gaming commission in the world.”
Malphas’s smile glittered with malice. “I can keep a bargain when it suits me, and I fully intend on keeping that one. However, there’s nothing in that agreement to keep me from offering to give you a ride if you want it. After all, I wouldn’t be hurting you. I would be helping you to get wherever you wanted to go. I can drop you off at the destination of your choice and be on my way. What happens to you after that is none of my business.”
Julian’s eyes narrowed. Clearly this was the Djinn’s way of getting revenge for Julian’s part in the confrontation that had trapped Malphas into making the bargain with Soren and Tess.
His mind raced as he tried to think of options, but Justine had planned too thoroughly and there weren’t any. With Malphas’s travel “assistance,” Julian would have no way to trace their paths or to find out the location of the meeting.
“I know what you’re trying to do,” said Malphas. “You’re trying to think your way out of the situation. But this time all of the cards are in Justine’s favor. You’d better hurry. From everything I’ve seen, I think she really likes to use that knife.”
“All right,” he bit out. Maybe he could think of something he could do once he came face-to-face with Justine.
Malphas raised an eyebrow. “ ‘All right’… what? Do you want me to do something for you?”
“Take me to where Justine and Melly are,” Julian snarled.
Smiling, the Djinn crossed his arms. “Did you ask me a question in there somewhere? I didn’t hear a request in that. I can’t imagine why I would do anything for you when you haven’t even said please.”
His fangs sprang out. Lowering his head, Julian stared at the Djinn. “I might be trapped at the moment,” he whispered. “But you don’t want to push me too far.”
“On the contrary.” Malphas returned his stare with one as implacable and hostile. “That’s precisely what I want to do – push you too far. Hurry up. I’m growing bored. You have no value to me if you stop being entertaining, and I couldn’t care less whether or not Justine slits the Light Fae princess’s throat.”
Julian sucked in a breath. He said, “Will you please take me to where Justine and Melly are?”
“That’s better.” Malphas’s smile returned. “Of course I will.”
As the Djinn strolled toward him, Julian had time to consider a few things.
Every old Vampyre had talents that increased with age, and he was no exception. His talents were persuasion and also the ability to hold on to his prey. If he got his hands on Malphas, the Djinn wouldn’t be able to dematerialize again until Julian either let him go or he was dead.
And he considered it.
He really considered it.
If he waited until after Malphas transported him to where Justine and Melly were, and he tried to call on Soren, he could force Malphas to stay until the other Djinn arrived.
But that was assuming Soren could hear him, or would choose to answer him if he did. Djinn made psychic connections to the people with whom they struck bargains. Those connections allowed them to hear when they were called, but Julian had always been careful to stay clear of Djinn obligations.
Witches were also able to put out calls to the Djinn with enough Power to make themselves heard, but Julian was no witch. Normally when he wanted to contact Soren, he did so in the most ordinary of ways, by phone.
Even if he were able to call Soren and the Djinn responded, the maneuver would kill him. Julian might be able to pin Malphas, but he couldn’t defeat the Djinn on his own. Malphas was too Powerful.
A first-generation pariah could only be destroyed if several Powerful creatures teamed up to take him down. It had been done before, but it was a risky and dangerous proposition, which was why the Demonkind only went after a rogue Djinn when they had no other choice. At their essence, they were social creatures, and their preferred method of punishment was to ostracize a Djinn who went rogue.
And none of that took into account what would happen to Melly in the precious seconds it would take Soren to arrive and assess the situation. Justine would have her throat slit before Soren could do anything to stop it.
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They really were well and truly trapped.
So Julian said nothing as Malphas stepped close enough to lay a hand on his shoulder.
And he did nothing, as the Djinn’s whirlwind of Power rose up around him and carried him away.
Blood trickled down Melly’s neck from the stinging cut Justine had given her. She thought, dear lords and ladies, all I want in the whole wide world is a bath, a piña colada, and the chance to stake this bitch in the heart.
And please, gods, a nap in a real bed is mighty high on my list too.
None of those things appeared to be in her near future. Not only was Justine’s iron grip unbreakable, but Melly’s makeshift stake lay several feet away, hidden in the pathetic little nest she had carefully arranged so that it hid the damage she had done to the frame of the cot.
When Justine and Vampyre Guy had shown up earlier, they had given her plenty of warning at their approach, although she hadn’t understood what was happening until it was almost too late.
She had been hard at work staking ferals, which was a rotten, dangerous, tedious task, thank you very much. It was tough physical work, and her arm and shoulder tired quickly.
Horror was so much more fun on a movie set, where all the wounds were special effects applied by makeup artists, and there was a concession table with tasty snacks, and trailers with working plumbing, and weekend parties, and somebody else available to do her stunts whenever she didn’t feel like doing them.
In real life… there weren’t enough words to describe how much this sucked.
Also, the Vampyres were feral – that didn’t necessarily make them stupid. It hadn’t taken them long to learn to jerk back when she lunged for one of them.
Yet they wanted her… they really wanted her, so they stayed close, in case they might be able to grab her whenever she danced near. There were so many Vampyres, they crowded the ones at the front against the bars and hampered their movements, which was why she had been able to make as many kills as she had.
So far, she’d managed to stake five. Four of them had crumbled to dust, while the fifth one had gotten extra snarly and violent, and there were still so many left.
Then a high-pitched whistle sounded.
As she paused and tried to figure out what this new information meant, the ferals turned toward the sound and raced down the tunnel. A few lingered, including the one she had stabbed, but not for long. After a few moments they, too, raced out of sight.
At first she had been relieved but puzzled. What had made them run?
Moments later, she had heard Justine’s and Vampyre Guy’s voices coming down the tunnel. That was when realization had struck.
They had conditioned the ferals to respond to a whistle.
Leaping into action, she had scrambled to get her nest arranged so she could hide her stake. She kept the cot propped on its side, the ends touching the walls in the corner, with the blanket and her food and water stacked inside the triangle.
The whole illusion was as risky as a house of cards. One good puff of wind and it would all fall down.
For example, if anybody chose to right the three-legged cot and sit on it, it would collapse under their weight, but she had bet that nobody would want to settle in for a relaxed visit.
So far she had been right.
“Relaxed” was definitely not what this visit was. Homicidal and psychopathic, but not relaxed.
She had watched them set up their technical operation, complete with camping lantern, a Wi-Fi router and a laptop. None of it had surprised her, except for the arrival of a Djinn named Malphas.
When Justine had stepped into the cell to take hold of her in a firm grip and turn to face the laptop, Melly had been braced to see her mom on the screen, or maybe Bailey, or even both of them together.
Not Julian.
Never in a million years would she have expected Julian.
He was such a bastard. He was two thousand years of mean streets rolled into a rough, foul-mouthed package. His best talents were making war, smoking cigars and wearing those god-awful, worn cowboy boots of his. Those were some of the things that had first attracted her to him, and they were what hurt so much now that she and Julian were estranged, because he knew all too well how to use words as a weapon.
But that look in his eyes when he had told her she would be okay…
The words he had roared echoed in her mind. TELL ME WHAT THE FUCK YOU WANT ME TO DO, AND I’LL DO IT!
In a daze, she thought, some part of him still cares for me. Maybe it isn’t the most important part. It certainly hasn’t been enough for us to overcome all the damage, distrust and hurt that has built up between us over the years.
But it might be just enough to get him killed.
She wanted to scream at him, but Justine’s hard hand clamped over her mouth and kept her from speaking. Even though he was too far away for her to connect to him telepathically, she still tried. Justine isn’t going to let me go! Don’t throw your life away!
He didn’t show any evidence that he heard her, of course.
Then Malphas disappeared and Julian snapped his laptop shut, cutting off the Skype session. After a few moments, the maelstrom of Power that heralded a Djinn’s impending arrival filled the area again.
Justine hugged her tight with every bit as much delighted affection as a child with a new pet. The Vampyre whispered in her ear, “Here we go, kitten. I wonder if this is how Christmas feels. Because of some blasted bargain, Malphas can’t and won’t take Julian against his will, so… did he agree to come, or didn’t he?”
As the Djinn’s Power coalesced, two male forms appeared in the cell across from Melly’s. One of them was Malphas.
The other was the figure of a strong, powerful man wearing jeans, a plain gray T-shirt and scuffed cowboy boots. The man had hard, rough features, wolflike eyes and salt-and-pepper hair.
Julian was such an intense male presence, she couldn’t fail to mistake him – she knew it was him before his body had fully formed.
He had come. He really had come for her.
Tears filled her eyes.
Telepathically, she said to him, You idiot.
His angry, red gaze met hers briefly. Shut up.
Malphas said in a cheerful voice, “Well, Julian, now that I’ve done you this favor, I believe it’s time for me to leave.” His diamond eyes seemed to sparkle. “Have a nice day.”
The Djinn vanished, while Julian took in the scene with a single glance. His gaze focused on Justine, and despite all evidence of everything stacked up against him – the locked, secure cell where Justine held Melly, and the knife she held to Melly’s throat – Melly had to swallow hard and shiver at his icy, deadly expression.
Trapped as he was, he was still one of the most dangerous men she had ever met. If she had been Justine and the true recipient of that look, she wouldn’t stop running until she found a place to hide where nobody knew her name, and even then she would spend the rest of her life looking over her shoulder.
He said, “You said you’d let her go.”
“You’re not secured yet,” Justine told him. “There are chains right behind you. Lock yourself in. Fix the manacles on your ankles first, because you’re going to have to stretch up to get your wrists locked in.”
Don’t do it, Melly told him. You know she’s not going to honor any bargain she strikes with you. She’s not going to let me go.
I said shut up. Calmly, he stepped into position.
Since when do I listen to anything you say? she retorted, then desperately, Julian, stop!
Ignoring her, he snapped the manacles around his ankles and raised his arms to lock his wrists in the chains that dangled overhead.
Justine whispered, “That’s the most damn perfect thing I’ve seen in decades. Maybe centuries.”
Her punishingly tight hold on Melly loosened. Freeing herself with a jerk, Melly sprang several feet away and yanked the hem of her top into place angrily.
Neither Justine n
or Julian paid any attention to her. They were wholly focused on each other as Justine strolled toward the bars of the cell.
Justine’s lack of concern over letting her loose couldn’t have been more insulting, but Melly was okay with that, since it meant the Vampyre wasn’t paying any attention to her. Briefly tempted to slip over to her nest to retrieve her stake, she glanced at the corner, but as appealing as it was to make a try for staking Justine, the risk of getting caught was too great.
Now that Justine had Julian in chains, she had no reason to keep Melly alive any longer. If Melly attacked her and failed, even if Justine chose not to kill her, she would take everything out of Melly’s cell, and they – yes, it was now time to say “they” – would need all the help they could get if they were going to escape from this alive.
Taking the key out of her pocket, Justine let herself out of the cell and locked Melly inside. Then the Vampyre strolled into Julian’s cell while twirling her knife in between long, pale fingers.
Watching her, Melly’s stomach clenched. Oh gods, this was going to get bad.
Maybe she could get Justine to focus on her instead of Julian.
She rushed to the bars, gripping them so tightly she bruised the palms of her hands. “Justine,” she said in a sharp voice. “You promised to let me go. Locking me in the cell again isn’t letting me go.”
Justine gave her a glance filled with equal measures of contempt and amusement. “Poodles shouldn’t try to think so hard. Everybody knew I wasn’t going to let you go, except apparently for you.”
“Julian was right.” Melly spoke as fast as she could. “You’re playing this all wrong. Stop and think for a moment. My mother considers you a friend, and that’s a really valuable commodity. You don’t want to jeopardize it.”
“Tatiana will continue to consider me a friend.” Justine’s reply sounded almost lazy. She came to stand in front of Julian, who regarded her with the same contempt that she showed to Melly. “In fact, I’m going to be so sympathetic and helpful over your disappearance, our friendship will grow even stronger. That will be quite useful in the upcoming months, since Julian won’t be the Nightkind King any longer. Now hush, Melly, and don’t forget, you’ve just become a luxury mammal. You’re no longer a necessity to me.”