Bloodlust - Helen Harper Page 0,16
be to look for specific known problems. Being a dragon probably wasn’t something that even the helpful people at Great Ormond Street Hospital would think to look for. And, considering the situation with Endor, goodness knew where I’d be or what would be happening in a few weeks’ time. I wanted to get this done now, while I still could. Even if my weird Draco Wyr blood only helped one person, that would be enough.
“Okay then. Who would like to go first?” she asked.
Sneaking a look at the pallor on Alex’s face, I volunteered. The nurse took a band and fixed it tightly round my upper arm, then slowly inserted the needle. I watched, fascinated, as my blood began to snake its way out. It certainly didn’t look any different to anyone’s else’s.
“I’m going to be sick,” moaned Alex.
“It’s fine,” I reassured him. “You can hardly feel it.”
“But it’s so…so…red,” he exclaimed. “Anyway, I thought we were going to be doing something about money, Mack Attack.”
“All in good time.”
The nurse moved over to Alex, instructing him to look away. He moaned again, and turned his face towards me, screwing his eyes tightly shut. I shook my head. Given all that we’d been through since we’d known each other, I’d have expected Alex to cope with this a little better. When she inserted the needle, he gave out a little shriek. The nurse patted him on the shoulder.
“There now, just ten minutes and you’re all done.”
He sniffed and nodded, keeping his eyes firmly closed. There was a clatter from behind, and the nurse looked up, holding her hand towards me to indicate she would be back in a few minutes. I gave her a nod of acknowledgement then, once she’d gone, turned back to Alex.
“You were asking about the money?”
He didn’t respond.
“Alex! Hey! You were asking me about the money.”
“Mmm.”
I guessed that was the most I was going to get out of him for now. I continued. “Well, the thing is, I was round at Balud’s this morning.” I quickly outlined what the troll had told me, and that the expected cost of making a bunch of palladium based weapons was going to be high. “So my plan is to go home after this and send out an email to all the council members and get them to talk to their organisations for some cash.”
Alex’s eyes flew open. “What? No! You can’t do that!”
Okaydokey. That wasn’t quite the reaction I’d been hoping for. Apparently it was possible to bring him out of his needle-induced nausea, after all. I eyed him warily.
“Why not? We need the money to get the metal. We need the metal to make the weapons. We need the weapons to defeat fucking Endor.”
“The Ministry doesn’t have any money.”
“I know they don’t have much, but…”
“No, Mack Attack, they really don’t have any money. Every missive I’ve been sent recently has been about how we can start to raise some funds. You have no idea how hard the recession has hit us.”
“If there’s no money, then the Arch-Mage can just decline. The Brethren and the Fae will step up. I wasn’t expecting much from your lot’s side anyway.”
“You’re forgetting the politics. The Arch-Mage can’t be seen to be the only person not stepping up to the plate. If the faeries and the furries give money, then we have to as well. Otherwise the loss of face will be catastrophic. We’ll have no choice but to match whatever the others put in, and that will completely bankrupt us.”
“That’s so fucking stupid!”
He shrugged expressively, a troubled look crossing his sun-kissed face. “You can’t just avoid asking the Ministry to contribute either. If it got out that you, as the all-powerful dragon council leader, went to everyone else except us for money, then the result would be even worse. No-one likes being made to feel like an object of pity.”
Outfuckingstanding. “I need to get hold of palladium, Alex.”
He sighed. “Let me see what I can do first. There must be some other way to source it without having to pay for it.”
That sounded a hell of a lot like stealing to me. I gave in for the time being, however, murmuring a reluctant assent. “Just don’t take too fucking long. Goodness knows when Endor will decide to show up again.”
The nurse bustled back in, removed the needles and swabbed over the small wounds on our arms, before covering them with a blob of cotton wool and some surgical tape.
“There now, that wasn’t so