I followed.
“Where are you going?” Liam asked, not looking up from where he was examining my bookshelves. They were full of books and little items from all the placesI’d visited and adventuresI’d had. There should have been more of them, but becoming a vampire had put a serious crimp in my travels.
“The bathroom. I need toiletries,” I said.
Liam grunted but didn’t say anything else, secure in the knowledge there was no way to escape. It was a logical assumption, given there were no windows in the bathroom and its door could be seen from where he stood.
I stepped inside, Lowen and Inara darting in after me. They landed on the sink as I opened the medicine cabinet and grabbed a few toiletries to give credence to my fib.
“What’s with the fanger?” Inara asked, jerking her thumb toward the living room where Liam waited.
“Don’t ask,” I said, slamming another item down. The act didn’t make my anger lessen any.
She rolled her eyes.“Doesn’t matter anyway. Close your eyes.”
“Wha—?”
Before I could finish my question, the world spun around me in a dizzying hurricane of kaleidoscopes.
I landed on my ass with a thump, my head still spinning and a headache beginning right behind my eyes.
“Inara, what the hell?” I asked, groggily, feeling likeI’d just gone on a three-week bender and then been thrown into a wood chipper.
The door to the bathroom yanked open. Cadell peered down at me with an inscrutable expression.“Good, you brought her.”
CHAPTERFOURTEEN
I sat up from my sprawl on the floor and looked around. Their bathroom’s layout was similar to mine. Whereas mine had spots of bright colors in the towels and photos I’d hung on my wall, theirs was sparse of any decoration—except for a surprisingly healthy plant on a shelf over the toilet.
“Come,” Cadell said before disappearing into the apartment.
I aimed a glare at Inara and Lowen as I picked myself off the floor. They ignored me, fluttering into the apartment with a flick of their wings.
I grumbled about annoying house guests as I followed. It would have been nice to have had a little warning before Inara shifted me through time and space once again, but at least this dealt with one problem—getting me a meeting with Niall and Cadell without Liam’s knowledge or interference.
After the whole debacle with Miriam, I was hesitant to introduce another set of contacts to him.
I walked into the living room to see that unlike me, Niall and Cadell had found the time to change since the party, looking almost human in jeans and t-shirts, instead of like Fae lords about to jaunt off into the woods.
I felt slightly self-conscious in my rumpled dress, which was looking worse for wear. I scrubbed at a spot of blood that had dried on the beautiful fabric. I wondered vaguely if vampires had dry cleaners who specialized in blood removal. It would make sense, given what they liked to eat.
“Aileen, I want to express my appreciation to you for coming,” Niall said in a cordial voice.
“Your lackey over there didn’t give me much of a choice,” I said, turning my stare on Inara.
She flicked her hair over her shoulder and met my glare with a haughty look, not repentant in the least.
I turned to the other two. “I can’t stay long. Liam is going to notice I’m missing.”
If he hadn’t already. Vampires didn’t have need of toilets. He wasn’t going to believe the excuse of “I just had to use the bathroom”.
“You want to tell me what a bunch of fairy princes are doing living in a place like this?” I glanced around. Their apartment was nicer than mine. A lot nicer, but it wasn’t exactly what I pictured them calling home.
A guffaw escaped Cadell.
Niall’s face was slightly startled at the sight of his friend bent nearly double, lost in laughter.
“Our people don’t really have princes as you understand it,” Niall said.
