If he could have blushed I’m sure he would have. “But mother—” he protested.
She held up her hand to cut him off, and proceeded to pay him no further attention.
“Come with me,” she said mildly to me and Finch, but her words were a command.
She swept off down the corridor, and Finch and I had no choice but to follow. The passageways we walked angled further downwards, giving the impression we were going deep into the bowels of this subterranean place. To my surprise we emerged in a large, brightly lit garden. The place was a delight, full of gorgeous roses and other flowers in a multitude of hues, and lush grass underfoot. Hummingbirds were flying around. Hummingbirds! And there were even trees here. An idyllic swinging bench was arranged beneath one of them. The cavern that housed it all was huge. A small flock of servants were busily tending the foliage and setting up round tables in a cleared area of lawn. It looked preparations for a tea party.
The moment one of the servants saw Audriett approaching, he hurried over to the side of the cavern to flick a switch. The lights dimmed to the level of a gently glowing dusk. The flock of servants quietly melted away, exiting by various tunnels behind the trees.
Audriett led us down a path bordered with gorgeous purple and lilac flowers that I had never seen before, probably from Otherworld, and into a private copse of trees. At its center was a little round table set with a white tablecloth. She took a seat, and invited me and Finch to do the same.
“I am Audriett Ronin,” she finally said. “Wife of Gaius Ronin. How can I help you?”
I was about to explain why I was here when a servant arrived with a tea-set on a large tray. Audriett did not acknowledge the servant, but at least she did not attack the poor man. He proceeded to pour a fruity dark pink tea for us. I was glad it was not red. He even poured a cup for Audriett, which surprised me.
“You like tea?” I asked, before I could stop myself.
She waited for the servant to leave before she deigned to respond. She took a sip and placed her cup back in its saucer before saying, “I enjoyed it when I was a sanguith. The flavor is too delicate for me now, but I can tolerate it.”
She addressed her response entirely to me, completely ignoring French. He seemed happy with this arrangement, and tried his best not to make a sound at all while he sniffed his tea cautiously and then discreetly put his cup back down.
“Will your husband be joining us?” I asked Audriett.
Keeping my sword in my right hand, I lifted my teacup with my left. It smelled alright to me and there was nothing in the background psychic music of this whole place to alarm me. I decided to trust it and take a sip, and happily did not drop dead. The tea was yummy.
Audriett’s eyes flicked towards where my sword was beneath the table. She did not seem to enjoy having it there. As she should be. The sword was hungry. Its desire was radiating up into my arm. It had absorbed Marielle’s blood and liked it. It wanted more.
I clutched the hilt for dear life, half out of fear that it might leap up and attack Audriett of its own will, and half out of fear that it might disappear as suddenly as it had appeared. I had assumed the Ronins, being friends of the mayor, would not dare to harm someone who worked for the Agency. Now I was in this place I realized how naive that was. They could easily have buried my body somewhere in this vast place and no one would ever be any the wiser. Poor Finch and I would have kept each other company under the ground for eternity, unless they had decided he’d make a tasty sheep.
“My husband is in seclusion and does not wish to be disturbed,” she said.
Well at least that meant I had only one vampire to deal with. One vampire and one sword. I’d no clue what help Finch he’d be offering me, meek as he was. We were lucky Audriett seemed in a reasonable mood. And maybe she’d be more likely to give up some useful information in the absence of her master. .
“It’s a lovely garden you have here,,” I said. “But kind of weird that it’s all underground in a cavern with no sunlight.”
“You can’t miss that which you’ve never had,” Audriett said. She looked around the garden as if trying to see it with new eyes. “I grew up here. My father built this garden for me to play in.”
It was weird to think of her as a sickly little sanguith girl playing in this garden, never being allowed outside, never seeing the sunshine. “Was it difficult being a sanguith? I’ve never met one before.”
She raised her chin. “Not for me. I was a strong sanguith. I had to be to bear my husband two living children.”
I didn’t ask her whether it was weird that her husband was also her father. “Were you ever allowed out?” I asked curiously.
She gestured around her. “I had all I could ever want here. And I was far too precious to be risked out in the open; my father’s only blood-kin child. Gaius protected me fiercely.” She looked proud of this.
I wanted to ask her more about being a sanguith. As a living creature, had she found it disgusting to have to drink blood to stay alive? Had she ever seen the sun? What had it been like to have a human mother and vampire father, and had she loved one more than the other? But my questions would no doubt make her impatient, and it about time I got on with the business at hand.
She seemed to think so too, because she said abruptly, “Pleasant as this is, why are you here?”
I didn’t think she really meant pleasant. I was sure she was only tolerating me because I was from the Agency and she thought the best way to be rid of me was to discuss whatever I’d come here for.
“Your son Steffane sent me.”
Her only reaction was to take another sip of tea. I explained my meeting with Steffane and his insistence that he was innocent of the murder of Leonie. I missed out the part about the Devil Claw Killer. She di
d not need to know about that, and I didn’t want her to know this was my only reason for helping Steffane. I couldn’t trust what she might do with that news.
Audriett was quiet and still as she listened to my tale. “Steffane,” she murmured, almost longingly when I had finished. “How was he?”