Blood Kiss Read online

  “A prophesy, hmm?” She eyed us cautiously.

  “Yes—but he didn’t say what it was. Do you know anything about it?”

  “No, though I know one who might. But the Monsignor… doess he know where you are now? I do not wish to embroil myself with the likess of him.”

  “We’re in a safe house no one but Uncle Harry and I knew about,” I said. “I’m reasonably sure we weren’t followed.”

  “Good. Ssee to it that you do not bring his evil to me.” She flicked her tongue at me.

  “Excuse me,” Michael said, frowning at her. “So if The Monsignor is evil and the Slayers are good, whose side are you on?”

  “I am neutral.” She spread her hands, her pendulous breasts shifting under her hair. I saw that she had green nipples before I looked away. “I am a record keeper—a child of Lilith—Adam’ss firsst wife—and the sserpent who tempted Eve, his second wife. I have existed from the beginning of this world and I will endure until itss end when a record of the agess no longer needss to be kept.”

  Okay, so that explained why she was half snake but it was a pretty damn creepy reason if you asked me.

  “Can you tell us anything else about The Monsignor?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “Only that he iss very old and very evil…not one to crosss lightly. I would avoid him in future, were I you.”

  “Yeah, no shit,” I muttered. “Okay, well how about the prophesy he talked about and the completed family tree? Can you give us information on those?”

  “Not sso fasst, little slayer.” Her eyes flickered in the firelight. “There iss the little matter of my payment.”

  Uncle Harry’s words came back to me—the payment will be nothing you can hold in your hand—and I began to get a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I was determined not to show it, however.

  “What do you want?” I asked bluntly. “We’re a little light on cash right now but maybe—”

  “I do not dessire any form of currency.” She waved a hand as though the idea of money was boring in the extreme. Well la-ti-da.

  “What then?” Michael asked.

  “I have been hidden away for centuriess with nothing to do but keep the recordss of your race,” she said. “The agess change and yet all iss the ssame, day after day, century after century. There iss nothing new under the ssun.”

  “And?” I said blankly. “What does that have to do with us?”

  “I dessire novelty…for once I wish to ssee ssomething which hass never been done before.”

  “Which is?” I demanded. The bad feeling in my stomach was back and it was growing every second.

  “I wish to ssee a child of darknesss drink from a child of light—willingly,” she emphasized.

  “So you want to see Michael bite me?” I asked bluntly. Well, that was easy enough. I rolled up the soft leather cuff of his jacket. The silver stain had mostly faded from my uninjured wrist so that would probably be the one to use.

  “No.” Michael glared at the snake-lady. “I told you, I won’t do that anymore. It hurts Kate when she has to disinfect the wound.”

  “It’s all right, Michael,” I said, shoving the sleeve higher. “It’s not like I’m not used to it—I’ve been disinfecting vamp bites since I was sixteen. I’ll live.”

  “But I don’t want to hurt you.” He turned to me and I could see the agony in his green eyes. They glowed slightly with the vampire light but the expression on his face was the most human I had ever seen. I felt my heart melt, just a little though I tried not to let it. He really was worried about causing me pain.

  “It’s all right,” I said again, more gently. “If this is the only payment she’ll accept then we have to pay it. I still have half a vial of holy water left—I’ll be okay.”

  “All right.” He sighed. “But on one condition—that you let me make it up to you later.”

  I didn’t know how he thought he could make something like that up. But whatever—snake-lady was waiting and time was wasting.

  “Sure,” I said. “Okay, whatever you want.”

  “Thank you.” He took the wrist I had bared and started to bring it to his mouth.

  “Sstop!” Her hissing voice made both of us look up. “Thiss iss not what I wish to ssee,” she said, frowning at us.

  I put a hand on my hip.

  “I thought you wanted to see him bite me?”

  “Yess, I do dessire that very much. But not there.” She nodded at my bared wrist.

  The bad feeling was suddenly back in my stomach. It felt like a million bats had nested there and were stretching their wings.

  “Where?” I said, already knowing what she was going to say.

  “On your mark. The mark of the Sslayer. He must ssink his fangss into the very ssymbol that demandss you sseek out his kind and kill them.”

  “Wow, you don’t want much, do you?” I muttered. “You must be really starved for entertainment.”

  “I offer you much in your quesst for the truth.” She lifted her head, her forked tongue flickering. “Will you pay my price or not?”

  “No,” Michael said again. He sounded really angry now. “You know where Kate’s mark is—that’s a very sensitive area. It’s going to hurt twice as much to let me bite her there—not to mention the disinfection afterwards.”

  Not to mention how freaking embarrassing it was going to be. I’ve been known to pick up the stray man here and there for stress-relieving sex but that’s not an area I let anyone put his face. It was, as Michael pointed out, extremely sensitive. Also personal. And when I picked a guy for faceless, anonymous sex, personal was the last thing I wanted. Wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am was much more my style. I wasn’t exactly eager to change that now.

  Stop it, I told myself sternly. He’s going to be biting you—not…doing anything else. But it was still uncomfortable to think of his mouth being so close to such a very private area.

  The snake-lady didn’t appear to like Michael’s answer. Her eyes narrowed to slits, flaring orange again in the firelight.

  “Pay or leave,” she hissed, crossing her arms over her breasts. “I have no more time for you otherwisse.”

  “We’re going then,” Michael said at the same time I said,

  “Fine. We’ll do it.”

  “What?” He looked at me, frowning. “Kate, no!”

  “It’s the only way,” I said steadily, trying not to think how embarrassing it was going to be. “And it’ll be over in a minute. I’m sorry, Michael but we need this information.”

  For a moment his face was a mask of anger and indecision. But he must have seen the determination in my eyes because finally he shook his head and sighed.

  “All right. If you really want me to.”

  “Hell no, I don’t want you to,” I snapped. “But there’s no other way. So let’s get this over with, okay?”

  “Fine.” He got off the couch and started to crouch on the floor beside me, much as he had when I showed him my Slayer mark earlier. But the snake-lady stopped us again.

  “Sstand,” she demanded, pointing at me. “I wish to ssee.”

  “All right.” I stood on legs that wanted to tremble. Afraid, who me? It’s no big deal—just another bite, I lectured myself. So just damn well get over it.

  Defying my natural inclination to hide my more vulnerable areas, I propped one foot up on her dark red couch and turned my leg to the side, baring my inner thigh. Then I raised the skirt of the sundress, exposing the small, pale cross-shaped mark yet again. My, I certainly was showing this damn thing off a lot lately. Frankly, I was getting sick of it.

  “Higher!” the snake-lady demanded. “There must be no fabric in the way to block my line of ssight.”

  Biting my lip in irritation and embarrassment, I pulled the skirt and the long t-shirt I was wearing well out of the way. The white cotton panties I was wearing were now on full display along with my Slayer mark. Great. Just great.

  Michael knelt before me on the stone floor. It must have hurt h