Page 23 of Bought for Blood

“So you’ll be sampling the goods,” Faine says. “They’ve approved this?”

“Who wouldn’t believe Val-Serein was there to slake his thirst, legal or not?” someone down the table says. There’s a low murmur of chuckles.

I don’t deny it. “I’m already in,” I say. “They have a retainer, and they’re running a book. The rest will unfold.”

“Good.” Faine nods. “We’ll establish a report mechanism and—”

I raise a hand. “I work at my own discretion, and I don’t file itineraries. The Court gets the source. How I do it is my business. That’s the arrangement.”

The table stirs. Faine lets it move through the room and settle before she speaks.

“The Court can accept discretion,” she says. “It cannot accept exposure. You’ll stay inside our law, Seigneur.”

“When have I ever left it?”

Nobody answers.

“At minimum,” Valdieri says, dry, into the quiet, “leave no trail. We’ve had enough bodies without adding more from our own people.”

“I never do.”

“And you will keep it that way,” says Faine. “This is not a sanction to make that world your new playground, Val-Serein. We’re there to put an end to it.”

“Bien entendu, madame,” I say. “I understand entirely.”

“Do you?” She doesn’t look away. “I’ve spent too long ensuring that our kind remain hidden. This blood trade risks all of that.” Her mouth thins. “Creatures abducted. Facilities designed for blood draining. Unsanctioned deaths. It’s only a matter of time before that all falls back on us. I won’t have it.”

“And you will not,madame,” I say. “You have my word.”

“Good.” She nods after eyeing me. “Contract terms through Crowe.” The table settles for good. “Reports at your discretion. The Court’s patience runs to months, Seigneur. It has never once run to years.”

Heads incline down the black wood. Done. Conversations start up at the room’s edges in the old tongues. Chairs ease back. I’m collecting my coat from the rail when Faine speaks again, exactly as mild as before, not looking up from her folded hands.

“You’ve been inside once. What is making you go back?”

The room doesn’t stop. The room is very good at not stopping. But the edges of it go slightly quiet. I stand there with my coat over my arm and do not think about a gray dress in a lit corridor, or a heartbeat going flat out behind a still face.

“Curiosity,” I say.

“Mm,” says Faine.

She unfolds her hands, which is how the Court learns the sitting is over.

When I walk out, Crowe is waiting where he said he’d be, coat on. He reads my expression as the elevator doors close on us both.

“Sanctioned?”

“Sanctioned.”

“Good,” he says.

Neither of us says anything else the rest of the way down.

Chapter 9

Serenity

I’m on my feet before the boots reach my cell. Blanket folded, hair tied back off my neck, standing at the door like a woman with somewhere to be.