Page 37

Cain rose to his feet. “Vampires.” He adjusted his tie. “They always believe they’re the most powerful thing in the room.”

Was he dead? Would he survive a fall like that? I turned, and with the wind tearing at me from behind, I fixed Cain in my sights.

He sauntered over and stopped in front of me. With the broken window at my back, all it would take was a shove, and I’d be gone the same way as Reynard. I watched for it, because if he moved, I’d drag him down with me.

“Understand this. I don’t want you dead, Adam Vex. I just want what is rightfully mine.”

“You will never get it.”

“Sign over the deed and save your demon. Don’t, and he dies. He has three days before he starves to death.” Cain breathed in and glanced over my shoulder, into the swirling grey. “There are two reasons to wear the glamor you wear. Either because you’re prey, or because you have a measure of power that will incite the humans to destroy you. Which is it, Vex?”

“If you hurt Zee⁠—”

Cain laughed, cutting me off. “They don’t know what you are. It’s best you and I keep it that way.”

He couldn’t know either. Not from a single touch. But he was powerful and he might just figure me out. I’d made a terrible mistake in coming here. I’d underestimated this man, who wasn’t a man at all, but a sorcerer of the highest order.

“Time is ticking on your demon. I’ll assume you can show yourself out.” He left the conference room, so I stood alone, shivering from the cold.

Gideon Cain had won.

For now.

CHAPTER 10

As there hadn’t been any police or paramedics at the foot of Cain’s building, I assumed Reynard was not mincemeat on the sidewalk. But his car and driver were gone, so I took the bus back to the hotel, and headed for the bar, where Zee’s dancing pole served as a reminder he was hurting somewhere, and I couldn’t get to him.

“Who fucked you up?” Tom Collins asked.

“Life.”

“I have the perfect remedy.”

I slumped at the bar and watched the hotel’s broken barman whip up a fancy cocktail.

It had been a mistake. All of it. What had I been thinking, opening a hotel, putting myself out there? It had lasted three days. Now a sorcerer who could control shadowbeasts had Zee locked away somewhere, and would kill him if I didn’t sell the hotel. Plus, that sorcerer knew things about me I’d spent six months carefully hiding from.

Tom handed me a pink drink with a toy scythe sticking out. “Have at it.”

A dry mist wafted off the drink’s surface. “What’s in it?”

“Do you really want to know, or are you just going to drink it and fuckin’ trust me?”

I plucked the toy scythe out and eyed it. “Is it going to kill me?”

He shrugged. “It might.”

“Adam?” Madame Matase breezed in. “There you are.”

“What is it now? Did someone else die, are the police here, is there a mob with flaming torches on the doorstep?”

She blinked. “Erm, none of that. It’s Lord Reynard. He’s asking for you to see him in his room.”

He was alive then. I picked up the pink death drink and gulped it down. Spicy, sugary, with a hint of something that probably wasn’t legal and may have been cocaine. Admittedly, it tasted good, and had a decent kick to it that buzzed the brain.

“Good?” Tom asked.

“Not bad.” A pleasant warmth zinged through me. I slid off the stool. The room tilted, trying to slide out from under me. Oh-kay. I hiccuped.