“Because Aloysius was scared shitless when Tyr visited him the first time, too, and we talked it through. But that doesn’t matter. Nothing matters but when I can see you, Maddy. You can’t just shut me out.” Bahlin’s voice was hoarse and choked with emotion. I hardened myself and refused to think about it.
“I need you to come get me at the Hardley on Old Queen Street—”
“I’ll be there within fifteen minutes,” he said.
“Bring me some clean clothes,” I yelled into the phone. But it was useless. He was already gone.
Chapter Sixteen
I grabbed my purse and headed down to the lobby to wait for Bahlin. True to his word, he was there within fifteen minutes. I didn’t give him a chance to get out of the car, instead knocking on the passenger window so he unlocked the door. I let myself in and buckled my seatbelt.
“Where to?” he asked quietly. He looked haggard, with circles under his eyes, rumpled clothes and an unshaved face. I hadn’t imagined him as suffering with my absence. A small, sick part of me was relieved he was hurting too. Petty, but honest.
“I need to get some things from the hotel—” I began, but he interrupted me. Apparently we’d regressed to that point.
“I brought you a small suitcase of things, including your bathroom stuff. You left in such a rush before that I wasn’t sure what you’d need…or want.” The double entendre was so clear it rang in the air like a crystal bell—fragile, distinct, breakable.
I shrugged, uncomfortable with this part of a conversation I knew we’d have to have. What did I tell him? That he was my familiar and there was no choice in the matter for him? Did I just ignore that part of things? I was blushing again, damn it. What was it about Bahlin?
“Let’s head north,” I muttered. “I kind of know where Tarrek is.”
Bahlin sputtered, wrenching around to look at me, pulling over to the curb roughly and stalling his car. He ignored the honks of irritated drivers and just gaped at me. “Well why didn’t you say so? For the love, woman, you’re killing me.” He cranked the key so hard I thought he’d break it off in the ignition and the little car started up, shooting back into the heavy London traffic.
“I’m…” he and I both said at the same time. “Go ahead,” we both said again. He laughed uncomfortably, and I shrugged.
I held up my hand to indicate I was going to speak and said, “First, you need to stop acting like my father, Bahlin. I don’t need to be chastised. I need a partner. Second, Tarrek’s in Scotland somewhere near Castle Duncan. He came to me in a dream walk and said he was there. He looked bad, so I’m not sure what’s been done to him. He said I had until the next full moon to get to him or all was lost.” I leaned over and looked up at the sky, the three-quarter-plus moon filling the sky.
“I’m sorry for being overbearing. It’s just been…tough since you left.”
“Understood.”
“Imeena is gone,” Bahlin said softly, looking over his shoulder to change lanes.
I whipped my head around to look at Bahlin. “What do you mean the vampire’s gone? Gone how? Vacation gone, or disappeared gone?”
“She’s gone missing, Maddy. Her kiss called the High Council to request assistance in locating her. They claim she’d been acting strangely since returning from the last Council meeting. When she failed to show up to her kiss’s regular meeting, her compatriots called in for help. They fear she may have gone rogue.”
I thought about a rogue vampire on the loose in London. The thought wasn’t a pretty one. I thought back over my conversation with Tyr, and the idea that a vampire heart would be the easiest means to immortality unless the vampire was the killer. I shared this conversation with Bahlin and he nodded, agreeing that it made sense but equally as lost as I regarding guilt and innocence.
But something didn’t set right with me and I said so. “I just don’t see her as the killer, Bahlin. She’s powerful, she has her gaze available to influence others, she has access to Seers, she’s already immortal. True, she’s not magical and she doesn’t have immeasurable power, but she just didn’t seem the type to go nuts.”