I stretched my hand out again, trying not to pay too much attention to the fact that my fingers were trembling. This was ridiculous. I was a fucking dragon, for goodness’ sake. I couldn’t be afraid of a stupid piece of paper. More decisively this time, I picked it up and unfolded it, then stared down at the words scrawled there. Disappointment and relief warred inside me. The note was from Tom, not Corrigan. He wanted me to meet him outside the city on Thursday night to begin my transformation training. I’d only ever shifted into dragon form once, and that had been when my emotions were so out of control it was a completely involuntary manifestation. The dragon instincts had completely taken over my body and mind to the extent that I’d been too scared to give myself up to them again. But if we were going to have any hope of truly beating Endor, then I’d have to stop acting like a terrified little mouse and get with the program. Tom was going to use his years of shifter knowledge to help me. I sniffed, trying to tell myself I was completely nonchalant about the whole thing. No problem.

Standing up, I shoved the note into the back pocket of my jeans, scooped up my backpack and left the room, emerging into the busy restaurant floor of Alcazon. As soon as I did so, virtually every head turned in my direction and an abrupt hush descended across the space. My reputation was obviously starting to precede me. I straightened my back and glared at them all, wondering whether I was suddenly the object of the Otherworld’s interest because everyone now knew my so-called secret identity or because they were all aware that I’d very publicly declined the opportunity to be the Lord of the Brethren’s love muffin. Neither thought was a pleasant one, so I glared harder. The majority of the patrons hastily looked away. After years of attempting to keep a very low profile, I was not enjoying any of this attention at all.

I gritted my teeth and began to stride out, hoping I looked a lot more menacing and confident than I felt. I’d just about made it to the door, however, when a figure stepped in front of me. I scowled in irritation until I realised just who, or rather what, was barring my escape. My heart began to sink. I had a horrible feeling I knew what this was going to be about. A flicker of heat lit up inside my belly.

“You’re in my way,” I snarled.

The slender pale-skinned female inclined her head slightly, but the expression in her ruby red eyes indicated she wasn’t about to get out of my path any time soon.

“I was hoping that we might have a word.” Her voice was as icy cold as I knew her skin would be.

I pushed past her, trying not to shudder at the touch of her undead flesh. Unfortunately for me, two more vamps were now up ahead. So that hadn’t been the royal ‘we’ she’d been using there then. Damn it.

“Will you join us at our table?”

I turned back towards her and mulled over my options. I could just ignore her and her bloodsucking friends completely. I knew I could easily bypass them if they really wanted to get in my way. I was very aware that every other being in the room was watching our little exchange, however. If the vampires were so determined to speak to me, then it was probably better to get it out of the way as quickly as possible.

“You can say what you need to here.”

She lifted an elegant shoulder in a half shrug and a ghost of a smile traced over her lips. “Very well. We wish to procure your services.”

“They’re not for sale.”

“We will pay you handsomely. You may not be able to hide your disgust at what we are, Miss Smith, but you would be surprised at what we can offer you in return for one little favour.”

“In which case I’m sure there will be many others who will be more keen than I to help you out.”

“Perhaps. But word of your exploits has reached our ears, and it seems that you have the necessary skills to solve our little problem.”

I wasn’t going to be able to wriggle my way out of this without threatening violence. Except I didn’t think that would go down too well within the sleek environ of Alcazon. The trouble was, I thought I knew what she was going to say next. I played dumb though - there really wasn’t much choice.

“What problem would that be?”

She blinked at me languidly. “A small matter of a missing vampire.”

I knew it. Fuck. “Maybe they’re dead.” I paused. “Oh, sorry, you’re all already dead,” I said sarcastically. “Maybe they’re no longer undead.” Funnily enough, that was actually true.

“This vampire is a particularly strong one. There are few who would be able to take him down and we do not believe that he has passed. He is an important member of our little group and we would like to have him back. You will track him down for us.” It wasn’t a request.

“I’m pretty busy right now. I don’t have time to go looking for one lost bloodsucker.”

“You have met him before, I believe. When you came to our house and stole from us.”

“I didn’t fucking steal from you,” I hissed. “Besides, I think you came off slightly better from that occasion anyway.” The thought of Thomas and Brock still made my heart tighten in pain. “Why would I want to help find the guy who is responsible for my friends’ deaths?”

“So you know to whom I am referring then?”

Uh oh. “I can only think of one vamp who I spoke to that night. The same one who appeared at the mages’ academy soon after. Believe me, I have no desire to help you locate that prick.”

And I didn’t actually know where Aubrey was anyway. I’d not seen him since the last time I was here at Alcazon three days ago and he’d scarpered off. Goodness only knew where he was hiding now.

“As you have already mentioned, we are undead, Miss Smith. That provides us more than a little insight into the world of the deceased and all those who barter with it. Including say,” she paused for a moment, blood red fingernails tapping the side of her mouth, and a malicious gleam lighting up her eyes, “necromancers.”

Fucking hell. How did the vamps get hold of that piece of information? “So what you’re saying is if I find your friend, you will find my necromancer.”

“I think that is exactly what I’m saying.”

I stared at her suspiciously. Did she know what had happened to Aubrey? It could hardly be a coincidence that it was me she had approached. There had certainly been enough Otherworlders who’d become aware of his transformation to the world of the living to have let that little tidbit slip out. I sighed inwardly. My head was still hurting far too much to deal with this right now.

“I’ll think about it,” I grunted. Not.

“Excellent,” she said, as if I’d already agreed to bring him to her immediately. “His name is Aubrey. He can be…dangerous if you get on his wrong side, but I’m sure you will manage it.”

“I said I’ll think about it.”

She smiled at me coldly. “Here is my card. Contact me any time.”

I stared down at the object she was holding out. Unsurprisingly, it was crimson in colour, with just a single telephone number etched into it in black. I took it from her, being careful just to pinch it at the edges. Who knew what nasty stuff it might have on it? I stuck it into my back pocket along with Tom’s note.

“Great.” I pasted on a very fake smile. “I have to go now.”

“I will look forward to hearing from you.”

Yeah, yeah. I stepped around her, careful this time to avoid touching her in any way. The two vamps up ahead had their arms folded and were staring at me expressionlessly. I was tempted to just shove them out of the way, but they moved to the side at the last second and allowed me to pass by without comment. Knowing that they, along with rest of the restaurant, were watching my departure, I forced a casually confident swagger into my step. I reminded myself not to forget to breathe and reached out for the door handle leading back to the outside world. Unfortunately for me, just before I could wrench it open, someone pushed it from the other side, and the edge of the door smacked right into my face, scraping against my nose and cheekbone, and sending involuntary tears springing into my eyes.

“Oh, I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry!” The blurry image of a waiter began to come into focus. Judging by the panic in his voice, he was worried about exactly what I was going to do to him for daring to try to open the door at the same time as me. Mack Smith, more monster than the monsters.

I tried not to show I was in pain and exhaled audibly in annoyance. “Don’t worry about it.” Then I stepped past him, and back out into the real world.

Chapter Two

My eyes were still smarting by the time I emerged into the daylight. A small hard knot of frustration had settled deep into my stomach. Talking about what everyone else was doing was all very well and good, but it was about time I actually starting doing something. However, until there was some kind of concrete information to work with, it appeared there was very little for me to actually do. I’d given everyone on the council tasks to undertake; it appeared that all I had to do was to wait until something came out from the fruits of their labour. It didn’t suit me. I didn’t want to spend too much time dwelling on what the vamp had offered, nor did I have any desire to wallow in misery about the things I couldn’t change, such as my utter failure with Corrigan. And hanging around waiting for the inevitable problems that my transformation lesson with Tom was going to highlight wasn’t particularly appealing either. Patience was clearly not my forte.

I could go back to Clava Books and help out there for a few hours. Certainly the ongoing bickering between Mrs. Alcoon and Slim would provide some entertainment, but after having to listen to the mages, shifters and faeries argue for the last hour or so, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to cope with any more of that. I’d asked the pair of them to see what they could dig up about necromancers, on the off-chance any of the books the pair of them had access to could provide some clues as to Endor’s whereabouts. After what was already two full days of digging, however, they’d not found anything yet, and I didn’t really expect much would have changed in the last twenty-four hours.