worst enemy.”
“Did you have children?”
The pretense of a tragic vagabond forced to wander the world alone was shattered by the abrupt question.
“Children?”
“Do I have any cousins?”
“Oh. No.” A visible shudder raced through the woman’s body. “I wasn’t blessed with children.”
Her tone made the thought of children sound more like a curse than a blessing.
“And you never returned to the village?”
“No.”
Chaaya waved the spear to indicate the strange void that surrounded them. “How did you end up here?”
A portion of Greta’s tension eased. This was a question she’d obviously been expecting.
“I’m not sure. I was battling against a wizard—”
“You were battling a wizard?” Chaaya interrupted. Those weren’t words you heard every day. Or ever.
Greta shrugged. “He was the leader of a cult of human magic users. They had a grand plan to take over the world.”
“So how did you get involved?”
“I happened to be taking refuge at the wizard’s temple when someone snuck in and stole a powerful amulet.”
The words were polished to the point of perfection. As if Greta had been rehearsing them for years. Perhaps centuries.
Chaaya studied her aunt’s delicate features, which gave nothing away. There were a few possibilities. Greta might be telling the truth. Unlikely. She might have snuck into the temple and stolen the amulet herself. More likely. Or she might have been staying at the temple and colluded with someone else to steal it.
She kept her thoughts to herself. “An unfortunate coincidence,” she instead murmured.
“Most unfortunate.” Greta sniffed. “Especially when the wizard blamed me for the theft.”
“What did he do?”
A genuine expression of horror twisted her features. “I was tied to a post and burned alive.”
Chaaya grimaced. No one deserved that. No one.
“That’s truly awful. I’m sorry,” she murmured.
“It was a ghastly way to die. You can’t imagine how I suffered.”
“You should have stayed to be sacrificed.” Basq mocked the woman’s tragic tale. “It’s not any worse than being burned at the stake, is it?”
Greta ground her teeth, and Chaaya hid her wry smile. The vampire was deliberately trying to piss off the arrogant older woman, no doubt hoping that he could aggravate her into revealing the truth of why they were there.
Greta grimly refused to glance at Basq. “Perhaps we could speak in private,” she suggested to Chaaya.
Basq stepped in front of Chaaya, his arms folded over his chest. “She doesn’t go anywhere without me.”
“Careful, leech,” Greta snapped in outrage. “Druid priestesses bow to no man, whether he has fangs or not.”
“We’re a package deal,” Basq warned in stubborn tones.
Chaaya swallowed a sigh. Things could get very messy very quickly if she didn’t take command of the situation. She moved to stand directly next to Basq, sending a silent assurance that she could handle her aunt.
“How did you end up here?”
“I assume the wizard cursed me before he set me on fire.”
Chaaya deliberately glanced around. “This is a curse?”
“I’m not sure. One moment I was being consumed by the flames and the next I was trapped here.”
“And it just happened to look like your own village?” Basq dryly demanded.
The flames in the pit hissed, as if in reaction to Greta’s anger. Still she refused to glance in the vampire’s direction.
“It must use my memories to create the illusion.”
The words were again said with the quick assurance of someone who had a lot of time to consider her answers to various questions. Chaaya needed to shake things up.
“Why did you lure Brigette here?”
Silence. Well, except for the continuing hiss of the flames. Greta hadn’t been expecting that.
She finally licked her lips. “Who?”
“The pureblooded Were.”
More lip licking. “I don’t know who you’re talking about.”
Chaaya rolled her eyes. Greta was a remarkably bad liar, probably because she was so accustomed to bullying others she never had to worry about explaining herself.
“She was traveling with a three-foot gargoyle with fairy wings. They’re hard to miss,” Basq pointed out in dry tones. “Not to mention the fact that their scent is still in the air.”
Greta’s head snapped to the side, her eyes narrowing. Clearly, she’d reached the end of her patience with the vampire.
“You…”
Basq arched a brow. “Yes?”
Greta glanced back at Chaaya. “How do you bear him?”
Chaaya smiled. “He sneaks up on you. Slow and steady.”
Basq’s fingers lightly traced the curve of her spine. “That’s the only way to capture a ghost.”
A white-hot pleasure seared through her, helping to banish the strange darkness that swirled around her aunt. It wasn’t the pulsing evil that filled the beast. This was cold and empty and foreboding. Like this void.
Greta held out