Page 11

I only slow once we reach a small square. There are three benches, all unoccupied, and I drop onto one, planting my elbows on my knees before I glare up at him. “Well?”

“Well, what?”

He might think he’s in charge, being that he’s standing and that despite my height, he is much larger than I am, but he should know better.

I should not have left tonight. I did not ever consider that he might sneak out of his own clan house, that he might—

“Does anyone at the clan house know that you left?”

Njáll glares off into the distance. “No.”

“You didn’t—” I growl and snatch my phone from my pocket. I’m clumsy with it, stabbing at the screen until I pull up Bel’s number. He’s the only contact I have there, what with Afsaneh being back in her own district with her vampires.

“Maurice? Is everything okay?”

“If anyone asks, the crai is with me.”

“Should they ask?” His tone is mild, almost amused, and I rub the bridge of my nose.

“I don’t know. Just, if they start to panic…”

“I’ve got it.” His laugh is faint. “I take it you have it all under control?”

My eyes flick briefly up to Njáll. He has to have heard that, but there’s no evidence of it in his expression. “Yes. I’ll see you soon.”

“Bye.”

“You told one of the donors,” Njáll says, voice flat. “Not a vampire?”

“I find most vampires to be, at best, entirely insufferable, and you are not exactly helping to improve that opinion. Bel has been helpful during my time with your clan.”

“I’m sure.”

He doesn’t want to talk about it, but at least he knows better than to run. I sigh. “Why did you come here, Njáll?”

“Why does it matter?”

“Because you almost made a deal with two fae! Do you not understand how dangerous that is?”

“I was never in danger.”

He scoffs as he says it, and my eyes narrow. “Why did you follow me out of the pub?”

“What? I—”

“You didn’t want to. You don’t want to be here. You don’t want to answer to anyone but yourself, at least when it comes to whatever the fuck this is. So why are you here?”

“I-I don’t—” His eyes go wild, and it’s a few seconds before realisation dawns on his face. “You… What did you do?”

“Magic,” I say and revel for a second in the utter astonishment that overtakes him. “Fae magic. Like those fae were doing to you in the bar. Did you feel well? As you usually do?”

Njáll gapes at me, then snaps his mouth shut. His blue eyes go steely and cold. “You bespelled me?”

“Enough to get you out of there before those vampires—who were definitely listening, by the way—decided that they’d heard enough to blackmail you.”

“They wouldn’t—”

“How would you know? How?”

“You don’t know either!” Njáll cries. He’s breathing hard now, truly angry, and I like the way it looks on him. This is the most alive I’ve seen him. “You don’t know anything about me or anything about the clan—You don’t know anything that isn’t outside of your fucking Hunt!”

I’m suddenly alight with fury, and I know the truth; it’s not because he’s wrong. I jump to my feet, and Njáll takes a step back in surprise, although he must know I do not intend to hurt him at all.

“Do you think I’ve noticed nothing in the weeks I’ve been here?

” I say, and now my voice is pitched low, danger in it.

“You hardly eat. I doubt you sleep. You’re taking on work that your chieftains have told you, repeatedly, they will handle in your stead.

You avoid speaking with your ex-crai, even though he could help you, too, because, what?

You’re afraid you won’t live up to the legacy he left behind? ”

Njáll stares at me and swallows hard. Ah. I’ve hit a nerve, then.

I’m nothing if not observant.

Nothing if not troublesome.

“Well?” I say when he doesn’t answer.

Njáll breathes in deeply. Holds it. Lets it out.

“I’m going back to the clan house.”

“Wait.”

I don’t know what about the word has him stopping, but he does pause, though he doesn’t look back.

“Just tell me why. Why would you even consider making a deal? You’re a lot of things, Njáll, but I do not take you for a complete fool.”

“I…” Njáll is silent for so long that I think he’s not going to tell me at all. “I thought they could give me something I needed.”

“What?”

He shakes his head. His blond hair is in disarray, but I rather like the look of that, too.

What could it be? The fae can’t help with the clear doubts he has about being crai. Oh, I haven’t missed that. Neither have any of his chieftains. They’re more observant than I was expecting.

Did he want to fuck them? It’s what gancanagh are known for, distasteful and assumptive as that might seem, but he has plenty of choices out there.

Even if he doesn’t want to risk things with another vampire, there are wolves and plenty of humans, surely, who would be happy to spend the night with him.

Unless—

“You wanted to feed.”

Njáll glances back at me, just once, but it’s sharp enough that I know I’m right.

“You want to feed from a fae?”

“No.”

“Then why…”

“I like the chase,” Njáll says, and his voice is choked, the desperation in it palpable. “I used to… We’re not supposed to… I had a donor who was willing to indulge me. We were careful. And it’s difficult now, to… To not.”

Something inside of me softens, just a little, and whether it’s because I know he’s telling the truth or because I know it pains him, it doesn’t matter.

“That’s against the clan’s rules, is it?”

“It’s in the treaty,” Njáll replies. He turns, just a little, and he’s scared of me, too. Scared that I’ll tell someone. Scared that I’ll judge him for this. “We aren’t to hunt. We have registered, sanctioned donors, or we drink from blood bags supplied by other volunteers. Those are the options.”

“Makes sense,” I say, nodding. A city this large, a vampire population like this… Even without the occasional turn, things would soon get out of control. “So you used to hunt this donor.”

“It was never… I never hurt her,” Njáll says, emphatic. “And it was never—It was a game.”

“And now you can’t feed at all?”

“I can’t risk chasing a donor in this position. It was bad enough before, but I could cover for us. I could keep my district intact, even if it was handed over to another chieftain. If anyone found out now?”

“It would risk the treaty?” I ask.

“Yes.”

“When is the last time you fed?”

“I drank some in the bar.”

I move a little closer, secretly pleased when Njáll watches me warily but doesn’t move away. He’s peaky, eyes duller than I’d like, which could be down to being bewitched twice in one night. Yes, I haven’t helped, I suppose.

“You need more than that. More than you’ve been drinking.”

“I know . That’s what I’m saying—”

“Feed from me.”

The words are out before I can stop them, a consequence of my worst impulses. I recoil as much as Njáll does. I don’t want to be chased. I don’t want his teeth in me. I don’t want to know that he—that I—

“How would that help?” Njáll asks, which is more reasonable of him than yelling, as he should, that I must have lost my mind. “You’re a vampire too, aren’t you?”

His voice wavers on the last question.

“I am.”

“I’m not your turn. It won’t help.”

“There’s magic in my blood.”

“That’s not—” Njáll shakes his head. “Won’t it just do what the fae blood would have?”

“A little,” I say, “but if we’re careful, we can temper it, and we’ll find a way to top up what you need with fresh blood from willing donors.”

He doesn’t need the bags. Either he can feed directly from a donor, or we can get him blood as soon as it leaves the vein, but anything older is clearly making things worse.

And my blood will fuck with his head, but it will go some way to reviving him, too. Fae-blessed blood does that, from what I’ve been told.

Njáll stares at me for too long. He’s got more questions; he must have. After a while, though, he shakes his head.

“I really should get back.”

I eye the way back to the pub. It might be a place worth investigating in more detail, but I’ll have no more luck tonight after our little spectacle.

“We’ll go back,” I say and drop into step beside Njáll when he begins walking. “Wouldn’t want you to get distracted by a pretty fae, would I?”

Njáll grumbles, but he doesn’t stop walking, and he doesn’t tell me to fuck off.

I’ll count that as a win.