Death's Mistress (Dorina Basarab 2)

“The master burned it down, didn’t he?” he asked.

“He likes burning stuff.”

Now he told me.

“I’m going to have to take you to a hotel,” I told Christine.

Her eyes got wide. “A human hotel?” she asked, like I’d suggested throwing her in a snake pit.

“There’s some very nice ones in—”

“No!” she whispered, looking horrified.

“Plenty of vampires stay at human hotels,” I said, which was true for those who couldn’t afford the Club’s staggering rates.

“The sun—I can’t—I’ll die! I’ll die!” She grabbed me by the shoulder in a grip that threatened to crush bone. I pried her fingers off, and she just sat there, huddled in the passenger seat, looking devastated. And I began to worry about whether it was such a great idea, after all.

Vamps did use human hotels when up against it. But it was dangerous. Few hotel curtains were constructed to properly block all those dangerous daylight rays. And even sleeping in the bathroom, as uncomfortable as that was, might not be enough. All it would take was one careless maid ignoring a do-not-disturb sign, and Christine would be toast.

I could take her to vamp central and toss her out on the curb, and technically, that was exactly what I ought to do. But Louis-Cesare was there facing trial for murder, and he didn’t need another headache right now. And Radu had said there were no vampire- friendly rooms to be had in town, thanks to the damn races.

“I’ll be very quiet,” she whispered, as if she somehow knew I was weakening. “You’ll never know I’m there.”

“It’s not me we have to worry about,” I said, thinking of a certain half dragon with a serious vampire phobia.

I really hoped she wasn’t hungry.

CHAPTER 24

Forty-five minutes later, I pulled into my street. I was exhausted and cramped, and a bag or something had shifted when I had to stop for a red light suddenly, and it had been poking me in the back ever since. I wanted a drink or three and bed and I wanted them now.

Only that wasn’t looking too likely.

“Crap,” I said with feeling, almost standing on the brakes.

“What? What’s wrong now?” Ray demanded. His body was squashed in back between half a dozen suitcases, two garment bags, a trunk and five hatboxes, with the duffel on his lap.

“We have a welcoming committee.”

We were maybe a third of a block from the house, so I couldn’t see them very well. But someone was there, all right. Make that a lot of someones, I thought, as more shadows broke away from the house and drifted into the street, trying to get a look at us.

Ray’s body held his head up

so it could see, and the tiny eyes almost bugged out. “Shit. It’s the master.”

“Cheung?” I’d almost forgotten about him. Too bad the reverse didn’t appear to be true.

“What are you waiting for?” Ray asked, starting to sound a little frantic. “Go, go, go!”

“I can’t go,” I snapped. “Your master has a dozen guys across the driveway.”

“I didn’t mean go in,” Ray said, like I might be slow. “I meant, get us out of here.”

“I can’t do that, either.”

“Why the hell not?”

“The wards have held so far, but there’s at least a couple hours to dawn.”