Bloodlust - Helen Harper Page 0,35

any of your little minions were off torturing any innocent victims?”

Tom sucked in his breath at my words.

Corrigan snarled at me. “Watch your place.”

Oh, he so didn’t say that, did he? “Actually, my Lord, now that you’ve rejoined the council – of which I believe I am the head – you’re the one who’ll have to watch your place.” I smirked. “It’s my orders you’ll be following. Not the other way around.” As soon as I’d said that, I regretted it. Shit. I didn’t want to antagonise the Lord Alpha. I wanted him to like me. More than like me.

His face twisted and he began to speak again but, before any words could form, his attention was caught by a flickering screen from above our heads. His skin paled dramatically. Frowning, I half turned to see what he was looking at. My stomach dropped when I did. A video loop of Solus and me dancing was playing. Our bodies were pressed together and my eyes were half-closed as if in ecstasy, with my hands round his back, and what appeared to be his lips on my skin.

“We’re thinking of trying out for Strictly Come Dancing,” said Solus. “I’m not sure they’ll be able to show us before the watershed though. There’s just no stopping a passion as deep as ours, is there, dragonlette?”

Just when I thought I couldn’t feel any worse.

Corrigan pulled his eyes away from the screen, ignoring the Fae. “If you’re really going to lead the council, then you’re going to have to start acting a damn sight more responsibly. Especially now that the entire Otherworld clearly knows that you’re a Draco Wyr. So much for all that effort you put into keeping it a secret. I guess you just wanted to make sure that everyone was fully aware of your power. Well, congratulations. Because now you can bet that it’s all over the Othernet and that Endor knows too. Thanks to your stupidity, we’ve lost just about the only element of surprise and real advantage that we had.”

I probably deserved that. It didn’t stop me from rising to the challenge, however. I was pissed off he thought this was what I’d wanted. “Oh yeah? I think that thanks to your presence on the fucking gossip pages, he was probably pretty much already aware of that. So don’t coming knocking on my door to lay the blame.”

Corrigan took an angry step towards me. I did the same, then abruptly remembered that standing was a bit of an issue, and my knees gave way. All three of them jumped forward to grab me, but Corrigan was first to catch me. Despite his vaguely unkempt appearance, he still smelled as good as ever. I jerked away, cheeks burning.

“We need to go,” I mumbled, avoiding meeting Corrigan in the eyes. “There’ll be another council meeting tomorrow. I’ll call everyone in the morning.” Asserting my authority one final time, I added, “And tell Staines I still want to see him.”

With that, I moved to my left, Tom and Solus carefully supporting me from either side. I didn’t look back. I didn’t dare.

Chapter Eleven

I woke up late the next morning, my head pounding incessantly. The heavy hot feeling in my stomach hadn’t gone away and I generally felt as if I’d been driven over several times by a ten ton truck. It was an unusual sensation. I was no stranger to getting hurt or passing out, but I normally started to recover fairly quickly. Even the very first time after I’d inadvertently transformed myself into a dragon hadn’t been quite so physically bad as this. The stress of the last week was clearly getting to me.

Dragging my protesting limbs out of bed, I lurched over to the small bathroom and splashed my face with cold water. Then I leaned against the sink and stared at my reflection in the mirror. I poked at the bruise across my cheekbone. At least it didn’t hurt quite as much as it had the day before, although I reckoned it looked considerably worse. The purple was darkening and the shape now looked oddly similar to the outline of Africa, just a rather skewed version. My mouth felt dry and furry and, even though I’d brushed my teeth for at least ten minutes before I’d gone to sleep, I could still taste ash. I sighed deeply, then pulled myself together. A cup of the strongest coffee that I could muster, and I reckoned I’d start to feel more