Killer's Gambit (Psychic For Hire 3)

But Diana merely pointed her sword at him and gave him a cheerily smile. “Where are your parents? I’ll find out, shall I?”

Using her pointed sword to keep Rodrigge at bay, she said to me, “Come along!” I swiftly followed her out of the room.

Chapter 10

AUDRIETT

Audriett Ronin had become aware of the stranger in her home the moment the stranger stepped in. The stranger’s presence snapped into her awareness from nowhere, like a shift in her world. The same way her world had shifted when she had been pregnant with her precious boy Steffane.

Audriett had known Steffane would be a dhampir before he was born. How else could she explain the sudden heightened alertness of her senses in impossible ways? Rodrigge in her womb had done nothing but drain her, but Steffane had given her a strength that she had never possessed before. And she had used it to bring him forth into the world.

She had feared her father’s response when she’d told him about the dhampir to come, but Gaius had shown a fierce joy. A dhampir! Such strength to bring his brood power and glory. Gaius had left Otherworld and it’s customs behind, he had said. He would build his strength here on Earth in new ways. And he would make any who sought to harm his precious dhampir son suffer.

For the gift of such a son, such a jewel, Gaius had rewarded Audriett with nothing less than marriage, making her his daughter-wife, an honor she had fiercely longed for. And immediately after her boy had been born, Gaius had raised her to the status of full-vampire, changing her in a moment of ecstasy and agony that had been matched only by the birth of Steffane.

Poor precious Steffane whose many gifts and strengths had made him willful and wild and delightful. How could they have known then that he would break their hearts’ pride?

Despite the stranger in her home, the stranger whose presence was so meaningful and full of foreboding that Audriett had felt his or her presence immediately, Audriett remained by her father-husband’s side for a few moments longer.

Gauis was as still as death, his form dominating the beautiful open sarcophagus that she had had made especially to fit his proportions. Not that vampires usually rested in caskets, but she had grown tired of reaching across the large bed to stroke his hair as he lay in his slumber, and it had seemed ridiculous to place such a great man in a narrow bed merely for the convenience of easing her ability to reach and tend to him. The sarcophagus was perfect for such purposes, giving her easy access while cradling his precious form aloft as if he was a king.

As she ran her cold fingers through his coarse hair she noted how he had aged these past six years in a way that vampires did not age. His formerly glorious dark hair was peppered with silver and his face was lined. He looked like an aging human in his fifties. Still handsome though. How could he not be?

Perhaps he would appreciate her better now. She had always feared that she’d looked older than him, having been changed in her late-twenties and looking older than that. Gaius had changed her far later than a sanguith should be changed, delaying due to his desire for her to give him blood-kin children. And for so many long years she had tried, suffering miscarriage after miscarriage, each one draining her strength and beauty. She had only brought him two surviving children, one a sickly sanguith Rodrigge, but the other a magnificent dhampir! It had been worth it. Those had been glorious days. Now, compared to Gaius’s aged appearance, Audriett appeared a veritable maiden. They would look good together. The day he rose would be glorious and terrible. She trembled at the thought.

Her fingers curled against his scalp and she wondered if he could feel her touch, if he could feel pain. She allowed her nails to grow long and clawed, the tips sinking into his flesh. Gaius’s eyelids fluttered as if he was aware of her. He began to mutter restlessly.

“Rest, my love,” she murmured in a soothing voice.

She went to the chest at the foot of the bed. Inside was stone lockbox, an item crafted in the old magic of the Realm that would open only to her touch. From it she extracted a small syringe and a vial of cloudy liquid. Filling the syringe, she took it to Gaius and pressed the tip of the needle into his wrist, against a vein that ran blue within his cold flesh. His skin sizzled as the silver needle sank into it. This needle itself was a rarity. Its length was inscribed with tiny sigils that human eyes would barely have been able to see. Such a thin needle would otherwise never have penetrated a vampire’s skin.

She plunged the cloudy liquid into his vein. Moments later Gaius calmed, his body relaxing and his eyelids ceasing their fluttering, which had so alarmed her. It was not time for him to wake. Not yet.

“Rest, my love,” she murmured again, and planted a kiss on his forehead.

Exiting the vault room with its thick stone walls, she sealed its massive stone entrance with a special spell that permitted entry only to her and would harm any other who tried to force it open. Then she went to greet the dangerous stranger.

Chapter 11

DIANA

I held the sword pointed towards an angry Rodrigue to keep him away from us, and I yanked Finch behind me as I walked backwards towards the door. Rodrigge kept his distance, his eyes never leaving the sword. I wasn’t surpris

ed. The sword was freaking me out almost as much as it was freaking him out.

Where the hell had it come from? It had a long and narrow black blade and its hilt was slim and perfectly formed for my grip. It felt just the right weight, and it seemed to vibrate fiercely against the palm of my hand. One second I had been seeing Marielle coming at me like she wanted to rip my neck open and my navelstone had vibrated fiercely and painfully, just like it had the night that Theo had worked his spell, and then Marielle had reached me and run straight into the sword which had appeared from nowhere into my hand. The way she had screeched had been almost comical. I had been too relieved to be alive to fully appreciate it.

Sneaky Marielle, who looked like butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth, so innocent and sweet for a vampire. I could not believe she had tried to kill me. I had not even seen it coming. What a good act she had put on for me at the club. So civilized, she had been, even going so far as to offer to help me find Zezi. I felt a like a fool, and no doubt Finch thought I was one too.

Since Rodrigge and Marielle were proving so unhelpful, it was time to find Steffane’s parents. They might have cared for Steffane more than Rodrigge did. They might be able to point me in the direction of who else had wanted Leonie dead.

We backed out of the door, and Finch gave a strangled cry of dismay from behind me. He had almost bumped into a woman. For a brief moment I thought it might be Marielle. But it wasn’t. This woman looked older than the other two vampires, in her mid-thirties maybe, but was likely much older. Like Marielle, she had short hair, but hers was blond and sleek and straight, framing a haughty face.

She rearranged it into an expression of polite enquiry, with one bronzed eyebrow raised. She wore a high-necked floor-length navy gown with square shoulders that made her look like a duchess. While I was gripping my sword like it was my shield, her hands were clasped in front of her in a relaxed manner that made me feel like she had all of the power, and I had none. She wasn’t even trying to mesmerize me. The scathing look she gave me was all that was needed to make me immediately point my sword downwards.

Rodrigge rushed out of the room behind us.

She gave him an icy look. “Really, Rodrigge? That is quite enough!”