“Celeste? As in, that human cutie from the bakery?” Gideon gulps down his blood. His wounds still aren’t closing.
“The very same. Didn’t you see the earring in her ear?”
“I was a little busy trying not to get my face ripped off.”
“Well, she was wearing Celeste’s earrings. And she’s trying to protect me, so I don’t want your guys to hurt her. Besides, aren’t they busy with Paul Badica?”
Gideon smiles ruefully. “They may be.”
“Celeste told you, didn’t she?”
“She’s just trying to protect you.” Gideon winces as he leans against my larch cabinets, empty wine glass clutched so tight his knuckles are white. “And I take it from the delightful treat you tried to distract her with that you received another message.”
“I sure did. It must have been his Thrall, because I found it on my table when I woke up. But I don’t need a fuss. I’ve already taken care of Badica myself. I suggest you take a look at his accounts. If his Thrall can mess with the security system, they’re probably the one stealing from you.”
“Stealing fromus,” he corrects with a groan. “That occurred to me too. My team checked his accounts, but we didn’t find any evidence, and now they’ve been completely cleared out. Not that you’d know anything about that.”
I smirk. “The clergy are always losing their wallets in the most inconvenient places.”
“We’ll keep digging, but his crimes are enough for me to make certain Badica will never step foot inside Sanctus again. This place only works if everyone inside it feels safe. Which is why Badica’s Thrall is gone, too, and I’m doubling security. But don’t change the subject. Celeste is a werewolf?”
“It appears so.” I slump down on the sofa, tossing Gideon’s phone on the table beside the scrawled word, and sipping my blood.
“I wondered why she smelled… not entirely human.”
I know exactly the scent he’s talking about. It’s always clung to Celeste, this… wildness. I thought it was from all that running in the woods.
“This wound isn’t closing. It must be something to do with werewolf magic. No wonder our kin hunted them.” Gideon crawls across the floor, reaching for his phone. I kick his hand out of the way. “Ihaveto, Arabella. What if she attacks one of our residents?”
“Celeste wouldn’t do that.”
“She was just about to gut me!”
“She thought she was protecting me. Besides, good luck finding her. Her species has eluded capture for, oh, thousands of years.”
“You have my word that my men won’t hurt her. They’ll keep her secret. We’ll contain her until the full moon is over. She’ll turn back into a human, and we can find out exactly what’s going on. I know you have every right not to trust me, but I’m asking you totryit for your friend’s sake. If she’s allowed to roam these woods and another Upyr sees her… you know our kin get a little stabby when confronted by ancient enemies they thought long dead.”
I sigh and kick his phone off the edge of the table. It skids across the floor towards him. He makes the call to Sinead.
“A werewolf.” Gideon slumps back on the floor once he hangs up. “Of course you’re friends with a werewolf…”
His voice trails off. His cobalt eyes fix on a spot behind me.
Oh, right.
I don’t need to turn around to know what he’s looking at. I hung Claude’s painting behind my sofa. I like entering my home to be greeted by my naked figure reclining over the ruins of a Greek temple – Aspasia clad in moonlight, with the jewels of a queen at her throat.
I especially like the reaction it stirs in Gideon. His body is frozen, the only movement his Adam’s apple bobbing at his throat. Red cherry, poppy and honey scent the air, and I’m aware that once again, Gideon has wormed his way across my threshold into my sanctum.
“You kept it,” Gideon whispers.
“It would be a sin to destroy something so beautiful,” I say.
“On that, we agree.” Gideon tears his eyes from my naked form, those luminous aquamarine orbs fixing on me. “Arabella, this—”
“Allit means is that I enjoy torturing you with what you’ll never have again. Take a good, long look at that painting, because that’s as close as you’ll ever get tothisAspasia.” Lights break through the trees outside. “You’d better pick your jaw up off the floor. The cavalry has arrived.”
I watch from the window as Gideon’s security team moves through the woods. There’s some snarling, trees rustling, and a lot of lights moving quickly. It looks like a scene fromJurassic Park, only Gideon is more annoying than Jeff Goldblum.
