Lost in Time (Blue Bloods 6)

“What are you doing here, really?” he asked. “In the underworld, I mean.”

Mimi scoffed. She glared at him. “What kind of a question is that? What do you mean what am I doing here? What does it look like? What did you think? Of course I came for you.”

He looked confused. “For me? How so?” He tapped a finger on his cheek.

She loathed him. Did he really mean to humiliate her like this? He had always been aloof, but never cruel. He had a wicked sense of humor, but he was never mean. Fine. If he wanted her to spell it out, she would give him the satisfaction.

At least it meant he would have to listen to what she had to say. “I mean… I missed you. I wanted to see you again. I came here for you. You know, so we could…” She hesitated, as a lump had formed in her throat and tears had sprung to her eyes—mostly because he was looking at her with so much hostility she couldn’t bear it. “It doesn’t matter now. I mean, it’s obvious you don’t…” She could not continue and made abruptly for the door.

Kingsley jumped from his seat and put a hand on her arm to keep her from escaping. His eyes were narrowed to slits, and his face was angry. “Hold on a sec. I thought you were here for the Coven. I know what’s happening up there; thought maybe you needed something from the dead’s kingdom. But you want me to believe you’re not here for any reason other than… What d’you mean, all this… was for me?”

Mimi wanted to die of embarrassment. Kingsley was star-ing at her as if he’d never heard of something so stupid. There were so many things unsaid in their relationship—if you could call it that—and it was glaringly obvious that while she considered him the love of her life, in his view she was merely some chick he’d hooked up with a couple of times. The dis-crepancy was so large it was painful to learn she had lived under a misguided illusion all along. She’d spent the last year trying to get him back, and now this. “Yes. It was all for you.

Happy?”

“But why?” he asked, still mystified.

“To rescue you.”

To his credit, he didn’t laugh at her. His forehead furrowed. “It’s no small task to travel beyond the seventh. Surely you’ve got a more substantial reason for your journey. Why not be honest about your agenda? You always have a trick or two up your sleeve. What is it? What do you really want from the underworld? maybe I can help.”

Mimi shook her head. She’d told him everything and he didn’t believe her. For a moment she was too shocked to reply.

Finally she said, “I don’t know what I can say that will make you believe that I’m here for you and only you.” Her lower lip began to tremble. She didn’t know what was worse, that she had told him the truth, or that he did not believe her.

Kingsley sighed and raked a hand through his dark hair.

“I thought our former friendship would mean you’d be honest with me.”

“I am being honest.”

“So the great Azrael travels to the Kingdom of the Dead for love? Is that it?” His lips curled into a sneer. “That’s why you were going to bond with Abbadon, right? Because of your great love for me?”

Mimi slapped him hard in the face. “You bastard. I came here for you. You know what, I don’t care anymore. Rot in Hell.”

Kingsley smiled and wiped his mouth with his shirt cuff.

“Now, that’s the Azrael I remember.”

THIRTY-THREE

Plea Bargain

They starved her.

There was no more water. No more bread. No more olive oil. Kingsley martin had ceased to perform his small acts of kindness. Charles had not returned to visit her either. She did not know how long she had been left in this room, but Allegra felt the change begin inside her. Since she had started to take the blood regularly, the deep-seated hunger had begun. She needed to drink. To perform the Caerimonia Osculor and take the living blood into her body.

It looked as if the Venators knew that too, as the next morning brought a knock on the door. “I was told to bring you this,” Nan Cutler said, as she shoved a Red Blood male into the room. “Drink from him. You have gone without for too long.” She thrust the specimen under Allegra’s nose.

The human boy was gorgeous and looked exactly like Ben: tall and blond and handsome. He had been drugged and he looked at her groggily.

“No,” Allegra said, feeling disgusted and excited at the same time. She could smell his blood underneath his skin, thick and viscous and so alive—and here she was, so dizzy and thirsty and weak. She could rip his throat and take him, drain him until he was almost at the brink of death. But she held back.

If she took another familiar, then Ben would cease to be special to her anymore. She knew that was what Charles wanted. The familiar’s bond was strong, but it was diluted by every other Red Blood a vampire took. Charles wanted her to forget about Ben, or at least have someone else in her system.

He wanted to say to her, This is all he is to you: a vessel for blood. Nothing more.

“Do it!” Nan said. She pushed Allegra onto the boy, who had fallen to the floor.