and unsubtle enough that people notice when she moves around. That business with the hearts…” She tsked. “Points for style I suppose, but hardly in keeping with the allegedly clandestine nature of our existence.”
I got a sudden very cold feeling. It was partly the broken arm, but it was mostly the nauseating wave of realisation. “He’s distracting us again, isn’t he? He’s got something else planned.”
“What did I always tell you about Sebastian?” She gave me a strangely sincere, strangely sorrowful look. “Just when you think you’ve worked out what he’ll do next, it turns out he’s already done it.”
I needed to find Patrick. Fishing in my left inside pocket with my left hand, I managed to work my phone out and unlock it. I had like eight missed calls from an unknown number. That was what happened when people tried to ring me while I was drunk, hallucinating, or having a vampire try to murder me. “Sorry,” I said, then immediately regretted it. I was very far from wanting to apologise to Julian Saint-Germain for anything still. “I mean, there’s some calls I should be making.”
“Pretend I’m not here.” She shot me a sly grin. “I shan’t even breathe.”
I rang back the unknown number.
“Kate, is that you?” I didn’t recognise the voice.
“Yes,” I replied cautiously. “Who am I speaking to?”
“It’s Flick. I’m under a desk at Safernoc. Sofia’s outside doing the sunlight thing but it’s not helping. Something’s here and she told me to call you but you didn’t answer and I don’t know if we still need you or it's too late or—”
I recognised this. It was blind panic. “Breathe,” I told her. “Let the people with the magic powers do the fighting. Stay wherever you can go that’s as safe as you can get. Safernoc is all thick walls and strong doors, I’m sure there are a lot of places to hide.”
“Sofia said we needed you. She said you’d know what to do.”
I didn’t, but now seemed like a bad time to break her illusions. “What’s happening?”
“Something came out of the woods. I didn’t get a good look at it, but everybody seemed worried.”
This was beginning to look bad. “Okay. Tell you what, keep your phone close—do you have battery?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I’m going to hang up and see if I can get to where you are. Keep doing what you’re doing, staying safe is the most important thing. If Sofia comes back and wants to speak to me, I’ll be here. I’m sorry I didn’t pick up earlier.”
She made a soft, affirmative noise. “Hurry,” she said. “Please.”
Well fuck. “I assume you heard all of that.”
“The question you should be asking yourself is whether this is another distraction.”
I stared at her. Between the pain, her saving me from Yelena, and what I was sure was a deliberate effort to dick with my head, my feelings towards her were approaching maximum ambivalence. “Just get me a car.”
“Commanding,” she gave me an approving smile. “I’d almost forgotten how much I enjoyed that.”
I made an emphatic gesture that was a very, very bad idea with a broken arm, and almost fell over. “Fucking hell, Julian. Help me or throw me out or, I don’t know, fucking kill me where I’m standing because right now you’re just pissing me off.”
Her deep blue eyes met mine. There was something almost gentle about her expression. “As you wish. But we need to do this properly. Hannah”—she signalled minidress-vampire—“get this one’s arm splinted. Then send for the limousine.” She gave me a dazzling, headfucking smile. “Never let it be said I do nothing for you.”
I sat quietly while Hannah the Vampire fixed up my arm. I wasn’t quite sure why Julian made sure so many of her minions had rudimentary medical training, but perhaps it was a sensible precaution when you were superhumanly strong, driven by bloodlust, and had a deep fondness for kink.
“By the way,” I figured I should distract myself while my arm was being prodded and it was chat to Julian or nothing. “What happened to Ash?”
“He left.” She looked genuinely bummed about it. “Around the same time you did, and for approximately the same reasons.”
I’d never worked out what the thing was between Ashriel and Elise—nearest I could tell they each liked the fact that the other one didn’t want to fuck them, which they both would have found quite a novel experience—but I had a sudden and probably alcohol-induced pang of regret for not reaching out to him more after she