God Save the Queen (The Immortal Empire) (24 page)

“What’ll ye have?” the Irish barman – human – asked.

I ordered a hard cider and tossed a handful of pound notes on the bar when he thrust the frosty bottle towards me. I turned to find Ophelia there – again.

“To family,” she said, clinking her tankard against my bottle. Something in her tone gave me pause.

“Are you taking the piss?” I asked.

Another of those bollocks shrugs of hers. Fang me, I wished I could get drunk.

My rotary chirped that I had a digigram. I pulled the device from my pocket and checked the screen. The message was from Vex, informing me that he’d be a few minutes late. Brilliant. I was stuck with Ophelia for a little while longer.

“Are you trying to make trouble for me?” I asked. “Or are you just doing a rotten job of spying on me?”

She choked. I whacked her on the back – hard. She pitched forward, coughing, and shot me a glare. “I think you just broke a rib.”

I scowled at her. “You must also think I’m mentally deficient if you believe for one sweet minute that I’m buying any of this family shit.”

The band finished their set, and for a moment a heavy silence descended over the place as the two of us regarded each other with equal amounts of animosity. Then twin sisters Maisie and Grace took the spotlight to juggle, dance with and swallow fire. Maybe Fee and I should get up there and throw knives at one another.

Penny sidled up to me as Ophelia continued to brood. Had I truly injured her? More guilt added to the pile. Why didn’t she just sod off and leave me alone?

“Dearest, you look scrumptious as always,” Penny told me, tossing back glossy red ringlets. It was a different wig every night for Penny. “A little dusty, though. You here for that gorge alpha again? I heard you two left together the other night.”

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Ophelia turn her head ever so slightly, listening to Penny’s bright rambling. I closed my eyes – not because I was embarrassed, but because my private life wasn’t any of my sister’s business.

“I’m meeting him in a sec,” I admitted.

Penny squealed. “I’m taking you out to lunch so you can tell Sister Penny all about it!”

I smiled and told her to ring me, and then she flitted away like the glorious butterfly she was.

“Come with me,” Ophelia said over the music that accompanied the fire-dancing siblings – an industrial number with harpsichord added in. “There’s something I want you to see.”

I should decline, but I had to admit I was curious. After this surreal experience, how could I not be? Besides, I had some hope that maybe whatever she wanted to show me might shed light on this whole fucked-up situation. “All right, but make it quick.” And discreet.

She arched a brow. “I won’t make you late for the alpha, don’t worry.”

“I won’t,” I retorted, holding her gaze. What I did with Vex and vice versa was none of her business.

Her lips curved into a mocking smile that I’d dearly have loved to chew off her face. “Let’s go.”

I drained the remainder of my cider and slipped off the stool to follow after her like a good little puppy.

She led me out of a side door and up a flight of red-carpeted stairs to where the balconies and other rooms were. We continued down the hall almost to the very end, stopping in front of a door with a small red heart painted on it. The heart looked as though it was bleeding.

How appropriate that she’d brought me to a room for bleeding hearts, given the trouble I was courting for not reporting her and everyone else I loved who had turned their back on their queen and country. As a member of the Royal Guard I was sworn to protect the Crown, yet here I was in the company of someone who would see the monarchy destroyed.

If I was found out, not even my father could save me from execution, or at least a lengthy prison sentence in New South Wales. In this situation, the juice – as Dede was once fond of saying – was not worth the squeeze.

Yet I did not turn away. Part of me was forced to admit that I
wanted to see where this led, because I might be loyal but I wasn’t stupid. As wrong as I thought Dede and her Bedlam crew were, I had seen just enough lately to make me wonder if perhaps there wasn’t something terrible going on. I wasn’t prepared to blame the entire aristocracy for it, or even all vampires, but if halvies were being experimented on, I needed to stop it.

Ophelia turned the knob and pushed the door open. “After you.”

I hesitated on the threshold. The room was dark save for a soft glow coming from one wall. I took a step, and once I saw that Ophelia was with me, I moved deeper into the room, turning to face the dim light.

What I saw snatched the breath from my lungs. It wasn’t a light at all, but a two-way mirror looking into the adjacent room. We were alone on this side, but on the other there were at least half a dozen vampires, and they were feeding on half-bloods.

More than just feeding, actually – given the state of undress and, uh,
arousal
.

“They have to be humans with dyed hair,” I whispered hoarsely. I’d always been told that aristos didn’t feed on halvies because it was so close to cannibalism. A little bite during sex was all right, but to feed was taboo. This was more than little love bites. Blood ran down the chest of one of the halvie women. I recognised her as the hoity bitch who’d given me a hard time at the door.

“They’re not,” Ophelia replied, shattering my frail hope. “It’s a regular occurrence here. Halvies sell themselves as blood whores. I hear our blood is like an aphrodisiac to aristos.”

I swallowed – hard. That would explain all the writhing going on in there – and why I was able to spy on it from in here. It was a frigging voyeur room, just like they had at some of the fancy brothels around the city.

My opinion of Freak Show dropped a little for it having such
a set-up. Apparently it wasn’t enough just to showcase freakiness; they also dealt in it. I made a note to ask Penny about missing employees and patrons when I got her alone.

“Still think they’re the good guys?” Ophelia asked, close enough that her breath skimmed the ridge of my ear.

I shuddered. “Drinking halvie blood might be wrong, but there’s no law against it unless the donor’s unwilling. I don’t see any of these putting up much of a fight. It’s kinky and skanky, but that doesn’t make those aristos evil.”

“But it does make them liars.” She folded her arms over her chest. “Makes you wonder what other lies they’ve told, doesn’t it?”

Slowly, I turned to face her. Her faulty logic didn’t warrant such a smug expression. “You brought me here to …
this
just to prove a point?”

Her legs were braced in a defensive manner. “Pretty much, yeah. You’re so fucking blind to them. You probably think Vex is in love with you or something.”

“Don’t you judge me,
human
-fucker. A human who was just murdered, might I remind you, and
this
is what you decide to do with your evening?” I pointed at the mirror. “And do you have a problem with your alpha? Because I’m pretty sure that was the wolf who came to your rescue the other night after I saved your thankless arse.”

Her spine stiffened. “I would die for the MacLaughlin, but he’s still an aristocrat. They fuck halvies, but they don’t love them. I would have thought Dede’s affair with Ainsley would have taught you that.”

I could have slapped her for using Dede’s pain in such a flippant manner. “Aren’t you sweet to care?”

“Originally I’d planned to kill you, so I’d say educating you instead is an act of mercy.”

Mercy? “You think you could end me, wolf girl?”

Lupine gold brightened her eyes. “I know I could.”

I snorted, stood up straight and put myself right in her face. We were almost perfectly nose to nose. “No,” I said softly. “We both know you
couldn’t
.” The one thing I had absolute confidence in was my ability to fight.

Ophelia blinked. I felt rather than saw her back down. She’d driven me to that strange, calmly violent place where I could have ripped her heart out and then had tea. My hands wouldn’t even shake.

“I meant what I said earlier.” My voice was cold – detached.

“Don’t come near me again, or I will end you. Do you understand me, traitor? I’ll fucking kill you.”

Then I walked out of the room, leaving her staring after me. I had been absolved of whatever guilt or regret I might have felt for her. We might share a mother, but we weren’t sisters.

Vex and I ended up at a quiet, low-key restaurant. I didn’t want to remain at Freak Show, where Ophelia might spy on us. We sat there, eating, drinking and talking until almost dawn.

He seemed to genuinely like me, which was good, because I genuinely liked him, despite having been warned against it.

“How well do you know my sister?” I asked.

Vex’s gaze lifted to mine over flickering candle light. The air between us smelled of rich coffee, warm sugar, spiced vanilla and the subtle musk of two bodies attracted to one another. “I was wondering when we’d get to this.”

“To what?” I might as well have batted my eyelashes I sounded so innocently surprised.

His mouth tilted on one side. He seemed to find me terribly
amusing when I wasn’t even trying. “When you’d start asking about Ophelia.” He took a sip of coffee. “I’ve no desire to have her hanging over our heads, so here you go: I’ve known the girl her entire life. She’s part of my pack and under my protection. A couple of years ago she was abducted. I searched for her and never found her. Several months ago she returned to us. If I ever find who took her I’ll rip their hearts out. Yes, I know about PAH and why she was there, but if that gets back to your chief inspector brother I’ll deny it, and you and I will become those clichéd ships that passed in the night.”

I stared at him. He certainly was direct. “Whose records was she after?”

Flame reflected in his grey-blue eyes. “Whose do you think?”

“Mine.”

He grinned. “I’ve forgotten how arrogant youth can be. It’s not always about you, Xandra.”

It wasn’t said as an insult, but it stung a little. Relieved me too. “So it’s just a coincidence that you were one of the last people to speak to my sister Dede before she was taken, then Fee stole my records, and then you hit on me at Freak Show.”

Now he was the one who looked stung. “Drusilla and I discussed the weather and you. The nonsense with Ophelia might have brought you within my reach, but sleeping with you for any reason other than wanting you is not a level to which I would stoop.”

No, I realised. He’d hire someone to get information, or to sleep with me for that matter. I felt a little guilty about hoping to get information out of him now that he made it sound so tawdry.

Still, I couldn’t help but think he knew something I didn’t. Then again, if he didn’t know about Ophelia and Bedlam, he could very well say the same about me. We barely knew each other. Trust would come if this thing between us progressed.

“I didn’t mean to offend you,” I said. “I’ve been a little … off recently.”

“I expect you have, and I’m not offended, but you should have a little more confidence in yourself. You’re an attractive woman, and I am after all just a man.”

I snorted. That was like saying Big Ben was just a bell.

He leaned across the table, eyes flashing lupine gold. A more intelligent woman would have moved back, or at least flinched. I stayed where I was, so that we were almost nose to nose.

“I’m courting you,” he announced, words wrapped in a growl. “I haven’t courted anyone for more than fifty years. I don’t even care if that makes me sound like a fucking antique, so drop the self-deprecation, get a leash on all the reasons why we shouldn’t do this and just admit you want me too.”

A part of me wanted to offer him my throat at that moment. It was such an instinctive thing, I actually had to stop myself from doing just that.

Plague the mess my life was in at the moment. How often did a girl have a man like this fall into her lap? He was like a schoolgirl fantasy brought to life. He’d probably end up being more drama than he was worth, but at that moment, he was an extremely good thing. He was right. I should have confidence in more than just my ability to hurt people.

“All right,” I murmured. The air around us vibrated with tension – the good kind. I thought perhaps he might throw money on the table to pay the bill and drag me out of the restaurant, or at least to the loo, for a quick shag, like in the pictures. Instead, he leaned back in his chair and went back to his coffee. The tease.