Inara.
I kept my suspicions to myself, not wanting to startle the prey. “Want to tell me what you were doing skulking around this mansion?”
“Who said I was skulking?”
I pointed at the realm guardian behind her. “He did.”
As if on cue, Alches raised off his haunches, several tentacles unfurling as his lips peeled back to expose dangerous looking canines.
“Where’d you find her?” I asked my realm guardian.
One of his tentacles waved in the vicinity of my window.
“Ah. A spy.”
“I am not.”
“Oh?” I arched an eyebrow at her. “How do you explain your presence here then?”
If she was going to lie, the least she could do was make it believable.
“What’s your name?” I asked when she simply glared at me.
“Why should I tell you?”
I made a tsking sound with my tongue. “Why wouldn’t you? It’s not like I can harm you with it or anything.”
There might be some spooks who gained power over a person through their true name, but I wasn’t one of them.
Although a name could give me a place to start if we had to look into this pixie.
“It’s an easy request that poses no risk to yourself,” I pointed out.
However, refusing could lead to painful reprisal. If I were some other vampire, that is.
“I can’t believe this is how far I’ve fallen. Chatting with a fucking fang-head.”
“You have only yourself to blame,” I said unsympathetically.
Who told her to perch outside my window?
The pixie’s shoulders dropped, her expression getting even more pissed off if that was possible. “It’s Nyx. Happy now?”
“Not really.” Her name wasn’t what I wanted. Answers were. “Why were you spying on me?”
Nyx attempted to stare me down.
Alches’s deep woof right over her head made her quail. Her knees hit the ground as she hunched in on herself.
Even my heart jumped.
I checked the door to see if Liam or one of his enforcers had been alerted.
“Inara,” Nyx shouted. “Inara sent me.”
Alches plopped back down on his butt with a happy expression.
“Easy on the barking,” I told him.
