But because vampires did nothing by chance, this tea was probably a reminder that the vampire Master of the City had somehow figured out that I was responsible for killing her vampire enemies.
But the two boons? That put me firmly in the lead. Thehungerof the land sat within me. Waiting. Eager. Not something I would ever admit to, but a power I held, ready and waiting for an attack I hoped would never come.
Cai poured tea into tiny cups with even tinier handles. Ming lifted hers and I waited to sip the pale green tea until she pulled the cup away from her mouth. Then I tasted. Hoping I was doing it all in the right order. “I’m honored that Ming of Glass would share her Tieguanyin tea. It is delicious.”
“It is my favorite tea, gifted to those who please me most. The tea is even better with a drop of my Cai’s blood in it. Would you like to try it?”
My cup clattered into its saucer. “Ummm.” I stopped, aware my heart rate had sped up again, my mind racing.
Cai leaned around the corner through the swinging doors. There was fresh blood on his lips. Rick’s blood? Aya’s? No. Cai would have drank from a vampire. Another vampire waiting around the corner. If I ever, ever, ever cursed, now would be the time.
“I am honored,” I lied, knowing she could smell the lie.
Cai entered the room again.
“But I should refuse your kind offer,” I said quickly. “I don’t know that my kind do well with blood.” And if I had a drop of his blood, that might tie him to my land, it might make him mine, and Ming would probably be really angry that I stole him. If I was right. “Especially strong blood like the blood your primo must surely have, after drinking from a Mithran as strong as Ming of Glass.”
Yummy raised her eyebrows in amusement and I wondered if the flattery was too much.
“I do see the difficulty in drinking Cai’s blood,” Ming said. “It may unsettle your…tree.”
It was so much in so few words.
I lifted the tea again and sipped, knowing that I needed topunch back, politely, or be considered prey. I smiled slowly. “Trees have wonderful self-defense mechanisms. Some of them have thorns. Some strangling vines.”
Cai walked back into the kitchen, and I could hear him whistling through the door.
Wackadoodle.
We drank slowly until the teacups were empty. Even Yummy, who clearly didn’t care for the tea overmuch, finished her cup. Ming placed her empty cup into the saucer and I followed suit. Yummy placed hers down last, though I had a feeling she had been finished with her tea for a while. Her eyes still looked amused.
“Yvonne,” Ming said. “The cards.”
Yummy shuffled the deck.
To me, Ming ordered, “Ask your different question.”
I cut the deck, sat back from the table a fraction of an inch. Placed my hands in my lap, one curled on top of the other. I pulled on my energies, and Soulwood answered with strength and comfort. “Why are the Mithrans different now?”
Yummy’s pale eyes met mine in shock. I had a feeling no one had asked why. They had just blamed the life in their bodies and the return of their souls on me. I was an easy target, an easy out.
Ming breathed in slowly. She had been vamped out all this time, but now her fangs clicked back into her mouth and her bloody eyes bled back to white.
Yummy laid out the cards in three rows of seven. “The Romany spread,” she said. Quickly, she pointed to the various rows, telling me about the horizontal rows A, B, and C, and the columns A through G, followed by the number of each card in the spread.
I didn’t take in much of it, but with this many cards, I could tell that the Blood Tarot, if it really was a Blood Tarot deck, was composed of two decks of cards, or one deck that was augmented with other, newer cards. The fancy cards, what Yummy called the Major Arcana, were older, much older, than the rest of the deck.
“The cards in the center column are the querent. That would be you.” Yummy pointed to the one closest. “Your past.” She indicated the center card. “The middle card is your present. And the bottom is your future.” She flipped over the card for my past. It wasn’t Death.
Yummy’s eyes met Ming’s.
“What?” I asked.
“Not Death. For the first time it isn’t Death,” Yummy said.
She sounded breathless, which, had I not been in danger, would have been funny, since vampires didn’t need to breathe. Right now, it just made my spine tighten even more.
“Instead,” Yummy said, “we have the Tower upright. Complete and utter disruption. Abandoning former ties.”
