I whirled around, red-faced and breathless.‘Of course not.’
‘Then I’d ask you to shelve your hatred for a moment.I’ll show you to the library if you can bear to tolerate my presence for that long.’
I didn’t reply, but the fact that I didn’t turn and walk the other way was enough of an acceptance for both of us.Raleigh practically bounded down the hall when he realised I’d follow.I started to wonder what lengths I’d have to go to in order to wipe that damned smirk off his face permanently when suddenly he was little more than a speck at the end of what was far too long to be a normal corridor.
‘Wait!’
The second I cried out he was back at my side, brows raised.‘Do try to go twelve seconds without plotting my demise, would you?Do we need to hold hands?’He offered one to me, and my imagination conjured the horrible sensation of how it would feel for his claws to cut into my hand.
I batted it away.‘I can manage.’
With Raleigh leading the way, the library was around the next bend.Yesterday my room had been in the same place.I tried to engrave the door’s image into my mind so that I could find it again.
Raleigh pulled open the door and stood aside with a decidedly unnecessary flourish to let me enter.The candles inside sprang to light as Raleigh followed me in, flooding the room with their glow.
My curiosity finally overwhelmed me.‘Do most vampires live in magic castles?’
‘Only some of them.The Qu—someoneshowed me how to place hypnotic triggers on the castle for defence, but these things spiral out of control if you leave them in place for two long.After three hundred years … well, you’ve seen it.That’s why it won’t let you traverse the halls alone.’He pointed an accusatory finger at me.‘You want to kill me.’
‘Don’t be dramatic,’ I said.‘I’d be perfectly happy for you to drop dead of your own accord.’
‘Hopefully we can find another way to make you happy.’Raleigh opened his arms, spinning to face the shelves.‘Like this.What do you think?’
I looked at the shelves, trying not to let my emotions show.‘It’s bigger than my library,’ I said.
‘You’re not very romantic, are you?’
Itwasbigger than my library.Ancient books were crammed into every inch of shelf space, with more stacks piled around the furniture.The combined scent of thousands of dusty books contaminated the stale air, and cobwebs smothered the chandeliers.I shuddered to think of what condition the books would be in if they had been rotting here for centuries.Half of them must have been worm-eaten and covered in mildew.The other half likely had spiders nesting in the binding.I sniffled, trying not to sneeze.
‘It’s very nice,’ I managed.
‘You hate it.’He seemed surprised.
‘No, it’s very nice.’
‘What’s wrong with it?’
‘Nothing.It’s very nice.’He was clearly proud of his library and I didn’t much fancy finding out what would happen if I insulted it.Not when his over-protective magic castle surrounded me on all sides.The candles flickered, as if confirming my suspicions.
‘I had a few books set aside for you.’Raleigh picked his way through the loose piles on the floor to a nearby desk that creaked under the weight of another indistinguishable stack.‘Mostly contextual works to get you started.’
‘Started with what?’
‘Research,’ he said as if it was obvious.‘To break the curse.’
I was taken aback.I hadn’t thought much on how I would try to cure him, but I certainly hadn’t thought he would help me.
‘You want me to research your affliction using the books you already own?’
‘Well, I obviously haven’t read them all,’ he said.‘No one really knew about my kind before I went to court, and you can’t expect me to have read three hundred years of academia in one decade.’He gestured to one of the heaving stacks on the far wall.‘I haven’t sorted half of them.I tend to buy full collections and hope for the best.You wouldn’t believe how many occult books are out there that never mention my kind.But these ones’—he waved his hands over the shelf nearest to him, the only one, as far as I could tell, that wasn’t caked in dust—‘came from Moira’s family.So I find them to be actually reliable.’
‘Moira’s family?’Why was Moira a housekeeper for a hermit vampire when her family was wealthy enough to host a library of their own?Just one of these books could have paid a housekeeper’s salary for a year.
‘Don’t worry, no one will be demanding their return.They’re all quite dead.’
That was far from reassuring.
‘Which languages can you read?’Raleigh asked suddenly.
