“Interesting. Very interesting.”
What’s so fucking interesting?Roux muttered.
Hot Young Thing kept her eyes trained over my shoulder, watching Grepper.
Steps sounded, coming closer, and I forced myself not to shiver. What was the warlock up to?
Grepper stepped around me, still holding my father’s painting. What would his next demand be? My firstborn child?
He tapped the rolled canvas against his palm, thinking.
“Think faster,” I grumbled, pointing to the door. “Vampires, remember?”
His lips curled into a smile. “Gordon underestimates me, but he also underestimates you.”
“Gordon doesn’t know I’m here,” I noted bitterly.
Grepper’s smile stretched. “I won’t be the one to inform him.”
The bell chimed again, and someone hammered on the door. “We know you’re in there!”
Grepper thought for another few seconds, then smacked the painting into my hands.
“Take it, and take her. That way.” He pointed at Hot Young Thing, then down the stairs. “Go to the lowest level, through the garage, and out the rear entrance.”
I stared as Grepper stepped toward the front door.
“Go, I say!” he commanded.
I stumbled backward, propelled by his magic. Roux bristled beside me, protective as ever.
“Wait. My things…” Hot Young Thing made for the stairs leading to the upper story.
I yanked her back and shoved her toward the basement.
“But my things!” she protested.
Boy, had Kurt picked a winner. But I supposed brains weren’t the top criteria for her job.
“You can’t be that stupid,” I muttered, bustling her onward.
“You will go with them, and you will do as you’re told,” Grepper ordered her in a frighteningly dark tone. “If you live to see tomorrow, you will forget everything.”
Her eyes took on a glassy sheen as she succumbed to his magic. “Yes, sir.”
“Take her to the Hotel Seeblick,” Grepper told me. “I’ll make arrangements for her from there.”
How he planned to make arrangements with a coven of vampires knocking on his door, I didn’t know. But I sure wasn’t going to stick around for the details.
“Go, already!” I barked at her.
Finally, Danielle got into gear. She was woefully underdressed for the weather, but I had a feeling she wouldn’t choose anything suitable even with an hour to prepare.
The three of us barely made it around the corner of the first flight of stairs before the front door opened, admitting a burst of frigid air that announced more than winter. It announcedvampires.
But the voice that greeted Grepper wasn’t at all what I expected.
“Why hello, Kurt,” a woman crooned, all sweet and sultry.
