“Do stop fussing, Giddy. Let her catch her breath.” Sarah floats across the room, picking up one of her lipsticks from the vanity and reapplying the crimson colour with intense concentration.
Gideon looks so worried. My chest pangs – a sharp pain that I’m afraid has nothing to do with my malaise. No one has cared about me like this since my mother.
I need to get out of here before I say or do something to reveal myself and place everything I’ve built in danger… but the simple act of sitting up against the silken pillows leaves me light-headed. Gideon places my hands in his. I don’t have the strength or the desire to pull away.
“Arabella, what happened up there? We were having such a lovely night, but then you fainted. And your skin blistered.” His voice cracks. “It was horrible. You looked as if you were burning, but I could see no fire. Sarah landed the balloon in the Tuileries Garden. We wrapped you in Sarah’s furs and brought you here, but none of the doctors could help you. They forced all these horrible concoctions down your throat. They wouldn’t tell me what was in them but they smelleddelightful.” He makes a face. “I thought I lost you.”
“Drink.” Sarah passes me a goblet.
Gideon’s eyes widen. “She probably shouldn’t have wine in her state.”
“Give me that.” My hands tremble as I lift the goblet to my lips. The scent of blood hits me in the face, and it’s all I can do to sip like a lady instead of guzzling the whole thing. I finish the drink and wipe blood from my lips.
I needed that. It’s not a miracle cure, but I do feel steady.
I glance up at Sarah. She winks at me. Gently, so that Gideon doesn’t notice, she brushes her hand over the fur stole she wears around her neck, revealing twin dots of nearly healed fang marks.
Of course. Sarah moves in the same circles as Gideon’s boss, Lucien Vega. While not a vampire herself – I would have smelled her – she is a Thrall. She felt my fangs when she kissed me and understood instantly what I was. Those doctors must know, as well. They must have been feeding me blood, trying to wake me up and hurry along the healing.
I run my fingers along my arms, over my neck. Gideon takes my hand in his and presses it to the swell of my breasts.
“It’s a miracle,” he breathes. “Your beautiful skin was so damaged, but you healed in just three short days. And you’re awake. You came back to me.”
Something cool slithers along my leg. I glance down, watching in numb fascination as the same something moves beneath the sheets, tipping over the discarded goblet.
Something that is very definitely not part of my personage.
“Cleo,no.That’s naughty.” Sarah leaps for the bedsheets and wrestles something out. My breath stills in my throat as a beautiful snake coils around her arm and undulates around her neck, its head raised and hood expanded to reveal a pattern of brightly coloured diamonds.
“This is Cleo II.” Sarah holds out her arm and the snake rears its head back, regarding me with reptilian curiosity. “The naughty minx must have escaped her enclosure. She’s intrigued by the scent of the wine.”
I bet she is.
“Why Cleo II?” Gideon asks.
“Cleo after Queen Cleopatra, of course.” Sarah pats the snake’s head affectionately. Cleo’s tongue flicks out. “She’s an Egyptian Cobra, which is the snake Cleopatra likely used to kill herself. And she’s Cleo IIbecause she’s my second snake. Cleo I sadly died when she swallowed an embroidered cushion. Snakes can be rather silly.”
The snake regards me from Sarah’s shoulder, her head gently swaying. She doesn’t look silly at all. She is majestic, in charge of her fate, ready to bite anyone who crosses her. Like Sarah.
Like me.
Sarah holds out her hand. “Would you like to hold her?”
Gideon recoils, but I nod. Sarah places the snake on the corner of the bed. Cleo II slithers towards me, head raised, eyes watchful. I hold out my hand, knowing I have nothing to fear. If the snake bites me, she cannot kill me.
But she doesn’t bite. Her cool body coils around my arm. I love the feeling of her muscles squeezing, her scaly skin sliding over mine, the beautiful diamond patterns shimmering in the candlelight.
“She likes you,” Sarah says as she powders her cheeks. “You may keep her if you wish. I’m to sail to America for my tour within the week, and I’d like to know that she has a good home. She’s nocturnal—”
Just like me.
“—although she enjoys sunning herself in the early mornings. Toads are her favourite food, but she’s an excellent mouser and she will frighten away any unworthy suitors.”
“That she will.” Gideon’s face is pale.
I hug Cleo II to my chest, my heart swelling, unable to believe how my life has expanded since Gideon walked into my theatre all those weeks ago. “I would be honoured to welcome Cleo to La Petite Mort.”
Sarah leaves for her evening performance. Gideon sets out bowls of food in front of me. All of it smells disgusting.
