He regards his naked wrist with wariness. “I lost it in a fierce battle with a badger.”
I blink.
Gideon grins. “It was either give him my watch or he’d scratch up my beautiful face. What choice did I have? That badger is going to pull all the hot badger-ettes with his new bling.”
Sinead untangles herself from my feet and throws herself at Gideon. “What happened to you, Sir?”
Gideon sinks into the chair beside me. “What happened, Sinead, is that I’m going to need another bottle of blood.” He shakes the bottle I’ve been enjoying. The dregs slosh around. “Be a doll and fetch one for me.”
Sinead shoots me a vile glare before storming out.
“Tsk, someone should teach Sinead that other women aren’t her competition.”
“She’s upset because I’m not drinking from her,” Gideon says. “And possibly because I smell like badger.”
He doesn’t smell like a badger, but he does smell like the woods and sweat and red cherries. I wave my hand. “I don’t mind if you pop open one of Sinead’s veins. You must be thirsty after your walk.”
Gideon fixes his gaze on me. “There are a lot of marks on her neck. I think she’s getting addicted. We’ve already had an incident—”
He cuts himself off.
“Danny?”
Gideon sighs. “Yes, Ms Nevermore Coven, I’m talking about Danny. We never had any complaints about Patrick Stock, and he wasn’t a Thrall, so I don’t think their deaths are linked to Sanctus, but your friends are determined to prove me wrong. Dannywasa menace. Members were going off him – he was bothering the female residents, touching them inappropriately while they were feeding. Alyra made a complaint and we let him go, but he came back a couple of times, demanding we rehire him or he’d reveal our secrets. Lilac snuck one of her potions into his drink at the pub, but he was husked before we found out if it worked.” Gideon accepts a bottle from Sinead and slides the cork out in a sensuous motion. “I’m sorry he was killed in such a brutal way, but I’m not sorry that he’s no longer making women uncomfortable. Speaking of uncomfortable…”
He reaches beneath himself and draws out a long, gnarled twig, wincing as he tosses it into the corner of the room.
“I can’t believe you walked back to Sanctus.”
I wish I wasn’t impressed, but I am.
Gideon pulls off a leaf stuck to his shoulder. “There was no phone reception on that road, and there aren’t exactly many cars going past at this time of night. It was a pleasant walk. I got to catch up with my badger friend. What do you think of the movie so far?”
“The operatic excess of it appeals to me, but must we have all thatsinging?”
“I thought you loved opera.”
“That was no opera.”
He grins wickedly. “I knew you’d love it.”
“It reminds me…” I trail off as a blur of tassels and corsetry and peacock feathers soaked in blood dance across my memories. I gesture to the line of scented candles on the table between us. “Why the candles?”
“Ah, now these are genius.” Gideon leans forward and lights each one with a silver lighter pulled from the dark recesses of his suit. “We can enjoy the scents of a human movie theatre without having toeatthe food or be around other people. That one is butter popcorn, that one is some sort of cherry-flavoured candy, and this one is foot odourfrom when other people take their shoes off. And this one reminds me of… well, you just have to smell it.”
He holds the candle up to my nose. Notes of peony, iris, waterlily and apple blossom stir a bitter memory. I’m the woman in the painting, lying back on the stones, bathed in the scent of blooming flowers, my naked skin kissed by the moonlight, and Gideon…
I wrinkle my nose and set down the candle. “Why did you do this?”
“I thought it was obvious.” Gideon shrugs. “It’s my grand gesture.”
“What?”
“My grand gesture. Like in the romance novels you love. Me and you… we were amazing together, remember?”
I fold my arms. “No.”
He sighs. “I’m not denying that mistakes were made. We don’t get to go back in time and fix the things that were broken, but this is the next best thing. A second chance to make this work. Hardly anyone gets that, butwedo. Isn’t that amazing?”
