He stroked his beard. “If we do this, Viktor’s the only one who might not believe it.”
“You think? He’ll never forgive you for letting someone into her room and them killing the woman he loves. You’re the best guard, and you have all your powers. How are you gonna explain someone sneaking into her room without your knowing? And for what reason would they kill her? How would neither of us have heard a struggle? Besides that, if Shepherd gets his abilities back, he’ll know something else went down when he starts touching things.”
“People slip in bathrooms all the time. Strike their heads. Bleed to death.”
I chuckled. “So you want her to die from blunt force trauma to the head by a toilet?”
“People drown in the bath. They choke on peanuts.”
I sat next to him and leaned against his shoulder. “She’s in our care. We can’t betray Viktor. He’s not going to believe she choked on a peanut—especially since the peanut would disappear from her throat. Claude will smell our deception anytime Viktor brings it up in a drunken stupor. Anyhow, since we can’t take off our clothes, Lenore wouldn’t be showering.”
He tilted his head toward me. “Is that a fact?” But all the amusement had vanished from his tone, and I sensed sadness.
“Yeah.” I put my hand on his. “We can touch, for now. I just don’t know what comes next.”
“Are you vexed with me?”
I gave it some thought, knowing I had secrets of my own. Christian hadn’t kept this from me to be malicious—he’d thought it would keep me safe. There was no telling if I would have gone after Lenore. Probably not. ButhadI confronted her, that might have been worse than killing her. “I’m not mad at you for keeping it a secret. I’m mad that you were using that information to get me to do something. That’s the only reason you told me. I’m not going to slip into her room and bludgeon her to death with the remote control to get revenge.”
“Now that’s disappointing.”
“You really want me to kill her?”
“No, I meant about the remote control. I thought you were more innovative than that.”
“It’s tempting, but there’s something else you’re not considering. Sparrow wants Lenore.”
“Hardly. She told me herself they planned the whole thing. Not the part with the wall and curse, but she wanted him to draw out any suitors who might claim her. She wanted to pin Viktor in a corner. It was Cupid’s arrow gone awry.”
“That little whore.”
He shifted back and centered his eyes on mine. “Don’t tell her I told you that. I swore to her I wouldn’t tell Viktor, but I made no other promises.”
I stood up again. “I think Sparrow sees her as a prize hog, and if we have any advantage over him, we need to keep the pig.”
Christian clenched his fists and then relaxed his hands. “Are you sure? This might be our only chance for a long while.”
I ran my fingers through his hair. “It’s bad timing. I have bigger issues right now, like how to resurrect myself.”
He wrapped his arms around my hips. “Does this mean our relationship dabbles in necrophilia?”
“Doubtful. Unless you know how to keep these panties off, it looks like we’ll be celibate for a long time.”
“So you have ten days to give him your fealty?”
I rested my hands on his shoulders. “No. We have ten days to figure out how to break this curse or kill him. The sooner the better—before he adds more people to his army. Viktor once told me that Keystone did what others wouldn’t. Do you really think I’m going to sit on my ass and see what happens?”
Christian stroked the curve of my breast with his knuckles. “If you kill him, you might stay like this forever.”
“Maybe, but what if we don’t? That’s a risk I’m willing to take.” Suddenly incensed by the idea I might never know intimacy with Christian again, I turned away and stalked toward the door. “Anyhow, if I’m going to be dead, then so is he.”
CHAPTER7
Viktor shared a room with Shepherd, Wyatt, and Niko. He’d managed to sleep a little, but shortly before dawn, he woke up and stared at the light on his palm while thinking about their predicament. His team was rattled, especially after seeing spirits in the halls. Viktor was more concerned about Shepherd’s stability. Godfrey Sparrow was keeping the child alive as a means of protection from Viktor’s team taking back their home, but there were no guarantees. Men like him were impossible to predict.
Unable to sleep, he slipped out of the room and went up to the sixth floor to speak with Lenore. Vampires never slept, so he wasn’t concerned about appropriate hours to keep company with her. As he neared the room, Christian stood up from his spot on the floor.
“What mischief are you up to this morning?” Viktor asked.
