Suzanne McLeod - The Cold Kiss of Death

‘No one could find you,’ he said. I heard the question in his voice, but ignored it. The chair moved as he gripped the back of it. ‘Helen even had a chapter of coven witches cast a Seek-and-Find spell. It came up negative.’

Strange ... I tapped my fingers on the chair arm, thinking. On the monitor the florist’s lad picked up a couple of boxes from the leaning stack and carried them into his shop. A Seek-and-Find spell, with the power of a coven chapter behind it—‘When did they cast it?’

‘Not till late last night. Helen had to wait for a warrant, and budgetary approval.’

“Last night” I’d still been out of it, doped up on morphine under Joseph’s medical care. Still, the spell should have found me; so why hadn’t it?

‘I watched the coven cast , Gen,’ Finn said. ‘When they couldn’t find you, that’s when I realised you had to be in Between . The spell wouldn’t be able to locate you if you were ...’

Of course, Between was out of this world. Literally. Except I hadn’t been—

‘... here with Tavish,’ Finn finished almost with a growl.

‘What?’ I said, irritated at his tone. ‘Why the hell would you think I was here anyway?’

‘I phoned the bastard and asked if he knew where you were,’ he said tersely. ‘He swore he didn’t.’

‘That’s because he didn’t.’ I pinched the bridge of my nose; my 3V headache was making its reappearance. ‘If he made you think otherwise, he was more likely doing his usual and yanking your—’ I stopped; satyrs are touchy about their tails, for some weird reason. ‘He was just doing his mischief-making thing,’ I carried on. Finn had to know what Tavish could be like since he’d just waltzed straight into his home—even if it appeared the pair of them had some sort of jealous rivalry going on over me. Something I wasn’t too impressed with! ‘I got here not long before you turned up and decided to go all postal!’ The florist’s lad stuck his lip out, admiring his silver ring in the shop window, then turned to look behind him at the empty street. ‘And why the hell were you lobbing Stun spells about anyway?’

‘So where were you then?’ Finn ignored my question.

I pursed my lips, still annoyed. ‘Staying with a friend.’

‘What’s going on, Gen?’ he demanded. ‘Why’d you disappear like that without even a phone call?’

I snorted in disbelief. ‘It’s difficult to use the phone when you’re unconscious.’

Finn jerked me round to face him. ‘What do you mean, unconscious?’

‘Un-con-scious,’ I said sarcastically. ‘It’s what happens when you get blown up, or haven’t you been watching the news?’

‘But you didn’t get blown up, Gen.’ Confusion crossed his face. ‘You were seen running away before the explosion—’

‘What?’ I grabbed his arms. ‘Who by?’

‘Him!’ He pointed at the screen. ‘The boy in the shop next door. His statement says you went in to sort things out with the baker and left shortly after, and then the place exploded. There’s nothing on the recording to back him up, but he’s so adamant about it that Helen thinks you used some sort of Compulsion or Memory-Altering spell on him.’

Crap! I hadn’t—not to mention I couldn’t afford any spell that expensive—but Malik had—or at least, not a spell ... he’d mind-locked the boy when he’d stopped him phoning the police as I’d asked.

‘Yeah, well, I didn’t,’ I said, not sure if I was pissed off that Finn thought I’d deliberately disappeared after the explosion or mollified that he was now looking gutted that he hadn’t turned up at my sickbed laden with fruit and flowers.

Then remembering that Grace had advised me to talk to him ... I did just that.

I filled him in on most of what had happened, leaving out certain things—like the blood-flush, and where exactly I’d been, of course. ‘So the first I really knew about anything was when I came round earlier today,’ I finally finished.

‘Gods, Gen, I’m sorry. If I’d realised you’d been that badly hurt’—he brushed a strand of hair away from my face, remorse darkening his eyes—‘I wouldn’t have been so angry, or stupid. You know I’ll help you all I can, don’t you?’

A tense knot I hadn’t known was there loosened inside me and I realised now I wasn’t feeling quite so scared, or alone. And what about Helen? said a snide little voice in my head. It’s pointless bringing her up again , I thought, and silenced it.

‘Thanks, Finn,’ I said. ‘I appreciate it. And I’m okay now’—I gave a rueful smile—‘other than all this ...’ I waved at the monitors. ‘I’m hoping there’s some clue to be found on the recording.’

He hesitated, as if he was going to say something, then smoothed his hands over my shoulders. ‘Okay.’ He straightened, lips quirking in a half-smile. ‘I’ll watch with you.’

‘I didn’t realise you and Tavish knew each other,’ I said absently as I turned back to the screens. ‘You never mentioned it.’

‘I’ve known Tavish since I was a kid.’ Finn’s voice was quiet, thoughtful.

I leaned over and hit the rewind symbol on the monitor and the recording zoomed backwards. Time to see if anyone got to the bakery before me.

‘Where is Tavish, anyway?’

‘Probably playing with his food,’ he muttered. ‘There was a jumper two nights ago, off London Bridge. The body’s not surfaced yet.’

The hand clutching at my ankle when I’d been in Tavish’s sea came back to me. I frowned up at Finn. ‘Tavish abides by River Lore; he only takes those who want to die. You know that.’

‘Is that what he told you?’ His mouth turned down with derision. ‘Don’t be naïve, Gen. River Lore is just a nicety for the humans, and all he truly agreed was not to actually charm them into the water. He’s never given up his first claim on whoever he finds in the river. And anyway, he’s a kelpie; it’s part of who he is.’

‘What?’ I snorted. ‘Like you’re a fertility fae and I’m sidhe so it doesn’t matter what we want or what we care about, we just succumb to the magic?’

‘Of course not.’

‘Then why should Tavish be any different?’

Finn shoved a hand through his hair. ‘He’s spent centuries being different, Gen. He can’t change that.’

‘Is that why you were throwing Stun spells at him? You thought you were saving me?’ I huffed in exasperation. ‘Will you stop doing your white knight thing, Finn—there’s no way Tavish would hurt me!’

‘Hell’s thorns, Gen, River Lore says he can take someone if they’ve killed , doesn’t matter whether they want to die or not. He won’t make allowances for you; he’s not going to care that it was a sucker and that you had no choice.’

‘Of course I had a choice, Finn—I just didn’t like the other option; being a vamp’s blood-bond for eternity isn’t my dream lifestyle.’ At least not since I was fourteen, I added silently to myself. I swung back round to face the monitors. ‘Anyway, it’s not like I haven’t been in the water with Tavish before ... and that vampire wasn’t the first I’d killed,’ I finished quietly.

He didn’t say anything, just crossed his arms and withdrew into himself. I sighed, staring down at the diamond-chipped cuffs. Arguing with Finn wasn’t getting either of us anywhere, and we couldn’t seem to stop arguing either. The magic kept sparking between us, but something, Helen or my vampire parentage probably, was holding him back. Worse, I didn’t know why I just couldn’t resign myself to the fact there wasn’t going to be anything more between us than me working for him at Spellcrackers. Though even that looked like it wasn’t going to continue much longer. Snuffing out the little flicker of hope of something more I’d foolishly kept alive, I reached out, stopped the recording and set it playing forward again.