"But you were beyond caring?" Morgana said. "It's called seduction. And what it shows us is that your prince is a very cunning player indeed." Her blond brows drew together. "Strange, though-an immortal male will usually become an unthinking, primal brute when fighting for his female."
Daciano a brute? Bettina couldn't see it. "Morgana, it was only the tiniest drop."
"Then maybe he harvested only your most recent memories." Her godmother examined the end of a braid, the Sorceri equivalent of navel gazing. "Haven't I changed in front of you within the last few months?" With a shrug, she said, "If he sees that memory, I'll expect a call from him directly."
Raum's eyes went wide. "Then he knows our kingdom's defenses."
Cas's disappointed look sliced through her. "The secrets I've trusted you with, Tina."
"And now Morgana's arranged for them to be together for this-this tour?" Raum blustered. "What if the vampire bites Bettina? You know that could prove ruinous to her."
Daciano's kisses and caresses had proved so-Bettina could think of little else-so why had no one told her to be wary of those? Then she frowned. "Why is a bite ruinous?"
"Because they're excruciating," Raum said. "Right, Morgana?"
Excrutiating?
In a grudging tone, the sorceress said, "Bite play can go badly. If the vampire's exceedingly thirsty or inexperienced. And the prince did look peckish. Hmm, what say you, Caspion?"
Had Cas's cheeks flushed? "It's like nothing you've ever felt." He sounded almost as if he were speaking from firsthand knowledge. Hadn't he described a bite as altering? Had some Dacian female taken his blood?
Did it . . . hurt?
Daciano was inexperienced, had never bitten another. Would he tear her skin?
Raum traced before her. "Promise me you'll keep your blood from him."
She craned her head up. "I promise! Believe me." Bettina had suffered enough excruciating pain to last an eternal lifetime.
To Morgana, he said, "You intend to send her off without a chaperone, to spend the night with a 'very cunning player' who's practiced in seduction?"
"You did not just say the word chaperone to me."
"I won't have it, sorceress. We will come to blows!"
"Oh, let's!" Morgana leapt to her feet, her eyes beginning to spark in warning, like a viper's rattle.
"Damn you, what if the vampire sullies her?"
That was the absolute wrong thing to say to the sorceress. Morgana looked as furious as Bettina had ever seen her, braids flying. "What if she sullies him? Why is it always the female who gets sullied? Archaic demon! You think like the primordial!"
Raum yelled the vilest of Demonish curses, basically telling Morgana to suck on his horns until they were raw. Bettina gasped. In turn, Morgana blew him a kiss, essentially telling him she'd poison him at the earliest opportunity.
"You Sorceri harlot!"
"You demonic fossil!"
Cas joined in, and the three started up once more.
Bettina stood unsteadily, putting her hands over her ears. Did none of them understand how close she was to losing it? Inside, she was at once blistered and numb, torn between alternating urges.
Cry.
Scream.
The latter won out. "Shut up, all of you!"
They were shocked into silence. She'd never raised her voice to any of them.