He looked at her blankly. “All day, all night. I sleep there.” He pointed to a nest of filthy blankets on a mat in the corner.
“You sleep there?”
Barry gave her the slightest tip of his head, then turned back toward his screen. He was playing solitaire, and the glow from the monitor accented the dark circles under his eyes.
“When was the last time you were allowed out of this room?” she asked softly.
His hand trembled on his mouse. “I don’t remember.”
“That’s not right, Barry. Fuck, they should at least let you out to see the sun.”
He didn’t respond. She wondered if he’d really heard her. Rowan watched him click on a card to turn it over and felt a deep sense of dread. This vampire coven had no respect for human life at all. Why should she believe they’d have any respect for hers? The way Malvern had looked at her when she’d said she was a dragon. It was as if she were a butterfly he wanted to collect and pin to his wall. After several minutes had passed, Rowan tried Barry again.
“Do you know what Malvern plans to do with me?” She didn’t have high hopes that he would tell her, or that he’d even know, but she had to ask.
Barry frowned at his keyboard. “I overheard them say that the Forebears want you. I think they’re on their way here.”
“Who are the Forebears?”
He didn’t look away from his screen. “Elder council of vampires. They sent a communication a few weeks ago that said any vampire who found a dragon had to deliver it to them, dead or alive.”
She inhaled swiftly.
“Don’t worry. I’m pretty sure Malvern is addicted to your blood. I’ve never seen him go to bed with his dinner before.”
“He fed on me while I was sleeping?”
Barry snorted. “Like you were filled with chocolate sauce. You heal quickly.”
“Barry, if you untie me, I can get us out of here. Both of us. You don’t have to live like this anymore.”
He smiled weakly. “I can’t leave. This is where I belong. This is my purpose.”
“Untie me. Set me free.”
He shook his head. “Can’t. Malvern told me not to.”
“Then bring me something sharp so I can do it myself.”
Barry closed his eyes tight and rubbed his temples. “I need you to be quiet now. I can’t help you. Malvern will be awake in three hours. You can take it up with him.”
Rowan leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. She reached out, trying to follow the magical bond between her and Harriet, the one forged when she’d fed the Traveller her tooth and saved her life. But the more she tried, the more drained she became. Her bindings, it seemed, had stolen even that from her.
She cursed. “Can you at least untie my ankles? I have to use the bucket.”
Barry stood and hooked his hand under her arm to help her out of the chair. “No. But I can help you hop.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Ember Fields was somewhere near Inwood based on the direction Djorji was driving. Nick sat in the back of the black sedan between Tobias and Gabriel, feeling awkward and uncomfortable. Not only was the back seat crowded with him sitting shoulder to shoulder with Rowan’s brothers, he was in the unenviable position of them knowing he’d slept with their sister, thanks to Harriet. Either one of them could snap him like a twig. Harriet seemed to be enjoying his discomfort from her roomy seat beside Djorji.
Relief flooded him when the car stopped and the door opened, a waft of cool air breezing through the sedan’s interior. He hurried across the seat and out of the car. But when Djorji drove away, he found himself staring at a slender alley between a veterinarian’s office and an apartment building. Unless Ember Fields was the name of Harriet’s apartment, this was not the place.
“Stay close,” Harriet said, “and follow my instructions.”
She shuffled into the alley and toward a scrawny tree whose feeble and crooked trunk thrust, seemingly by force of will alone, through a section of concrete that cracked and buckled over the roots. The branches drooped, but then how could it get enough sun or water here, squeezed between two buildings?
Harriet paused before the tree and waited until the three of them were huddled around her. “Good,” she said. “Hands on my shoulders please.”
