Blood and Kisses - By Karin Shah Page 0,6
what you meant, though I suppose it’s better than ‘lunch’.” Hostility flattened her voice.
Gideon tilted his head, eyes amused. “You think if they knew your people called them pettys, they’d, what? Take it as a compliment?”
Thalia gave a wry laugh. “You got me there.”
“And don’t think we don’t know what you all call us behind our backs.”
The word “leech” hovered unspoken between them, and Thalia shook her head. “Okay, okay, truce?”
Leave. Every synapse of Gideon’s brain seemed to urge him to escape the close confines of Thalia’s homey kitchen. Her presence was playing havoc with his self-control. But his body didn’t agree with his mind. Stay, it begged.
His body won. “Truce.”
He examined the elfin woman who sat across from him in the piece of doll’s furniture she called a chair. When Thalia was a child, her mother, the Champion then, had taken her everywhere. As a sort of apprentice, he supposed. He’d always been drawn to the tiny blue-eyed child. She’d seemed like a changeling, too otherworldly to be human. Adulthood hadn’t changed her fey charm, although she seemed shyer now, a wild creature that’d been hunted and become wary.
It was that old fascination that kept him planted in his seat.
Once more, she had attempted to hide her Champion’s mark with a strand of raven hair. Clearly, the mark bothered her, but Gideon liked the way the strawberry crescent moon hugged the gentle curve of her cheek. The imperfection only highlighted her luminous eyes and the lush curve of her pink lips. He doubted she had any clue how beautiful she was. How desirable.
Lulled by the soothing patter of the rain and the soft husky cadence of her voice, he’d already stayed longer than he’d planned. Get what information she had and get out. That had been the plan.
An inhuman yawn suddenly ripped him away from his thoughts.
The source of the yawn, a fox terrier-sized, chestnut-red dog, stood in the doorway to the dining room. It had the sleek lines of a tiny deer. Pointed ears crowned an alertly wrinkled forehead split by a thin white blaze. Dark almond-shaped eyes seemed to see into him. Gideon had not been an ancient Egyptian, but he was reminded of Anubis weighing the souls of the dead against a feather to determine their worth. The dog had a white chest, four white paws and a white tip to the tail corkscrewed on his left hip.
“Spirit,” said Thalia. “Where have you been?”
I took a nap, the dog answered telepathically. He sat in the doorway, lifted one spotless paw to his mouth, and began washing his face.
Gideon was able to communicate with animals, but animal thoughts were typically pictures punctuated by the occasional word. He’d never heard an animal speak in a complete sentence before. He raised an eyebrow in Thalia’s direction.
“Spirit is my familiar. He’s been with my family in various shells for many generations. This decade, he’s a basenji.”
Gideon nodded as if this made perfect sense. At his age, not much surprised him, but this came close. He’d heard of familiars, but he’d never met one.
The basenji walked over to the table and hopped up on to a chair. Did you ask him?
“Not yet.”
“Ask me what?”
Thalia sighed, her lovely features taut with strain. “I need to know if Lily is going to come back as a slave to the vampire who killed her.” Her face was austere. Gideon had the impression she was imagining the grim task of breaking into the city morgue and staking her cousin.
He swallowed the angry words that sprang to his tongue at the thought. How many innocent vampires had been murdered for no crime but existing? She’d been through a lot. He could cut her some slack—for now. “There needs to be a blood exchange for that, and the lab report indicates she was totally drained. She’s gone. Her soul has moved on.”
Thalia closed her eyes. Relief loosened the rigor in her joints. Lily had made the transition. When she opened them, she’d regained her equilibrium. “Have you learned anything?”
“Not yet. I’ve compiled a list of names of vampires and witches who were at the Tomb that night. I intend to interview the vampires tonight.”
“I’m going with you.” She braced for a fight.
“Very well, but I warn you, you won’t get a warm reception. And some of them may not have fed yet.”
Thalia turned. “I’ll get my coat.” She glanced back and let out a frustrated sigh. “Dammit!”
He was gone.
The aching emptiness awakened him.
He opened his ancient eyes