Liam took a step, placing himself in front of me. “What was the message for Rylee?”
Faris laughed, a chuckle really, but he seemed truly amused. “Simple. I want to make a deal with her. I want her to Track for me. I do believe we’ve already agreed that Berget taking control of the vampire nation would be a very bad idea.”
“I’m not helping you,” I snapped, moving so that Liam was to the side of me. Alex moved with me, and though he was no longer snarling, his teeth were bared and the fur along his spine hadn’t lowered.
“Fuckity fucker,” the werewolf grumbled, snapping his teeth once for emphasis.
Faris looked from Alex to me, blinking several times. “And she shall teach the submissive to stand. I wasn’t sure it was going to be you, Rylee. I truly wasn’t.”
This was not the time to get into prophecies. Pamela needed us. I put my back to the wall and slid along it. “Alex, which way did Pam go?”
He took a couple long drags from the floor and then he started forward.
“Liam, let’s go.”
Liam backed toward me, never taking his eyes off Faris. “You don’t want to kill him?”
“I do, I just don’t have the time right now.”
Faris clapped three times, condescension in his every movement. “You will regret this.”
I flipped him off. “Regret not killing you? You’ve got that right, you monkey-sucking taint jockey.”
His blue eyes narrowed. “You shouldn’t hang around ogres, it will be bad for their health.”
We slid around the corner and he was out of sight, though most definitely not out of mind.
“Jack warned you they would fight over you, that’s what he said, isn’t it?” Liam and I continued to walk backward, our eyes trained on where Faris would come from if he were to attack us.#p#分页标题#e#
“Yes, he said that’s why he got sick, because he wouldn’t work for them.” Jack had no one in his life to use as leverage, so they’d used his health against him. At least, that’s what he’d told me. This was what I got for caring about other people, and this was why I hated the soft emotions. They caused nothing but grief.
We walked like that for another thirty feet before I bumped into Alex.
“Pamie through there,” he said, a whine escaping him, whatever tough guy exterior he’d had slipping back behind his submissive nature.
I turned to see a thin door, maybe a foot across at the most, with a large, ornate doorknob in the shape of a skull. I looked closer. The skull had a perfect set of miniature fangs. Nice touch.
Without waiting, I opened the door and Tracked Pamela. The faintest whisper of her threads responded to me. “This is it.”
Liam put a hand out, blocking me. “I’ll go first, you next.”
Alex pointed at himself. “Then Alex?”
Liam gave him a nod. “Yes, you come through last, guard the rear.”
There was no point in waiting, we stepped through the doorway, the veil twisting and wrapping around us before spitting us out on the other side. We stepped across the threshold into a beautiful room, done all in white, creams and gold. There was a bigger than king-sized bed, covered with pillows and pale pink rose petals.
Alex grabbed my legs and whimpered. “Bad, bad, bad.”
I looked to Liam as his face drained of color. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what the hell they were picking up on. I stared around the room, tried using my second sight, but there was nothing to see, nothing hidden from me.
Pamela was close, really close, maybe a few hundred feet down and to the right. I turned slowly, pinpointing her with ease. But before I could take a step in her direction, Liam barred my way with his arm.
“This is worse than bad, Rylee.” He shook his head as if to clear it. For Alex to be spooked was something of an every day occurrence. But for Liam to be so spooked? That did not bode well.
“What is it?”
He swallowed hard and looked around the room. “It shouldn’t be this clean, not for what I’m smelling.”
Shit on a stick, where the hell had we ended up? I walked to the bed, though Liam sounded as if he were choking with each step I took. I trailed my hand on the cream blanket, picked up a rose petal. Soft and squishy … I lifted it higher, my gorge rising into my throat.
They weren’t rose petals, they were pieces of skin peeled and shaped to resemble rose petals. I threw it down onto the bed. It didn’t matter where we were, or what had gone on, we needed to get Pamela and get the hell out of there.
I strode toward the oversized double doors that led out of the room, twisted the handle and stepped into the hallway.
While I couldn’t be sure, if I was a betting kind of gal, I’d say we were back in Venice, below the city.