Trehan suspected he knew who'd attacked her-if he could dream her memories of them, then it was possible that he could use the crystal to find them. No plane was safe from Trehan, no hiding place too remote.
Wrong an assassin's woman, and he will make you pay.
"Bettina of Abaddon"-he gazed upward, higher even than her spire-"your enemies' days are numbered."
"Well, well, well. The princess was out catting around," Salem said when he returned to her suites, just minutes after she had.
Shit. She hadn't yet had time to recover from the events of the night. Her lips were probably still kiss swollen, her hair even more of a mess than usual.
"Careful, else you'll get a rep." He chuckled. "Soon you'll be as notorious as me."
"And what precisely were you notorious for?"
He gave another laugh. "For how fine I looked. And for how fine I fuc-"
"Okay, then! All clear," Bettina said in a rush. Bath time just got weirder.
"I'm giving you an aloof yet mysterious shrug, dovey."
She rolled her eyes. "I thought you were going to be out spying all night."
"Oh, I was. For instance, I saw you in the vampire's tent, squirming against his na**d body like an eel in heat."
"An eel?" What a fetching visual. Yep, sexually untutored. But the vampire hadn't had any complaints. No, he'd been full of praise. "Are you trying to insult me?"
"I don't make the news, I just report it."
"Reported it to Raum, no doubt?"
"I haven't yet. Any reason not to?"
She began to pace. "I thought we were allies." Had she left her mask and gloves in the vampire's tent? Shit! "And it didn't mean anything with Daciano."
"No? Tell that to the f**k knots in your hair."
"Salem! I made a deal with the vampire that I would go see him if he spared Caspion in the melee."
"Grinding wiv a vamp to save poor ole Cas? Wow, you are noble. If you'd come any closer to closing that deal, you'd of f**ked up beyond remedy. Remember, you're supposed to be a virgin? And from what I saw, Daciano was in the glide path."
How close he'd been. . . . "I have to know-are you going to tell Raum?"
"No harm, no foul. So far. I'll keep my invisible mouth shut, if you don't meet the leech again."
"Not-a-problem." She still couldn't believe Daciano had taken her blood.
Worse? She couldn't believe that her main problem with it was probably vanity.
Maybe he wouldn't see her memories of that night. Maybe he wouldn't see anything-because he'd die in the ring tomorrow. "Wait. Why do you care if I see him or not?"
"I'm not one to pull my telekinetic punches, Princess, so I'll tell it to you straight. After my night of spying, I'm convinced Gourlav's about to be your new gent. Which means your cherry best be unplucked."
At the thought of marrying the primordial, chills danced up her spine. The Bettina-the-Black-Widow option would fly out the window. Even if her power was returned, it wouldn't likely be enough to take Gourlav out. Not when newly restored and unpracticed. "Nobody can defeat him?"
"I found zero weaknesses. Zilch, f**k-all. None of my contacts in the network know anything either," he said. "You saw the heads rolling tonight. Think of the amount of blood someone would have to spill to take his. Barrels. It'd spawn a legion of Child Terrors."
"I'll prevail upon Morgana. There's got to be some kind of sorcery we can use."
"You do that. In the meantime . . . you were really into that leech."