He inclined his head. “Lord Sol. It’s been some time since you decided to grace us with your presence.”

“Let’s just say I’ve been busy doing other things,” Solus returned with a smile, although I was aware there was a slight edge to his voice.

“Yes, I heard you were in the Summer Queen’s pocket now. I do hope you are enjoying being so close to so much power.” Tarn was obviously being deliberately ambiguous with his words, suggesting merely through his tone that Solus’ proximity to power was more due to where we were currently standing than being in the confidence of the Seelie Queen. “And who is your lovely companion?”

I met his gaze directly. This guy was starting to irritate me already. “Mack,” I answered. “I’m a were-hamster.”

Tarn snorted. “Of course you are. That’s why you have a rather arresting bruise across your beautiful face. Because were-hamsters often find themselves the unwitting targets of attackers.”

“I walked into a door.”

He eyed me. “You’re telling the truth. Fascinating. Unsightly facial disfigurement aside, that’s an interesting shade of red hair you are sporting. Funnily enough, I was just reading this afternoon about a redhead. Something to do with the Brethren’s Lord Alpha and some curious allusions to fire.”

I stiffened, as did the shifter on Tarn’s right. I pasted a smile on my face. “I don’t think the Lord Alpha would be interested in little old me,” I said, trying to sound breathy and girlish.

Tarn raised his eyebrows. “Are you out of breath after your show on the dance floor?”

Fuck it. I gave up. We weren’t fooling anyone, least of all the target of our attention. I leaned over and injected in as much menace as I could muster. “You have some information that I want. And you’re going to fucking give it to me.”

He looked amused. “Is that so?”

I didn’t blink.

The UnSeelie Fae shrugged expansively, then looked down at his expensively draped companions, dismissing them with a wave. All of them quickly stood up and headed for the door, although the shifter gave me a particularly dirty look as she did so.

“You don’t have many friends, do you, Mack?” commented Tarn, noting her reaction towards me.

I looked at Solus, then back at Tarn. “Oh, I think I do alright,” I said coolly.

“Indeed.” He sat back down, stretching his arms out again against the back of the sofa. “Well, then, let’s play.”

I remained standing, folding my arms. “You know where I might find Endor.”

“Endor?” he asked innocently.

“The necromancer. Tell me where he is and I’ll leave you alone.”

Tarn laughed. “Now why would I want you to do that when we’ve only just met?”

I snarled. “Where the fuck is he?”

“Come on, Tarn,” Solus chimed in, “you know you’ve got nothing to lose. Just tell us.”

“I’ve got nothing to gain either,” replied the UnSeelie Fae, with a mellifluous lilt that did nothing but grate. The frustrations of the day were starting to get to me, and I could feel little starburst explosions of heat zipping up through my chest.

“You’ll gain your life,” I spat.

He laughed again. “Take a look around. Do you really think that you’d have gained admittance up here if I wasn’t absolutely sure I could defend myself?”

I twisted round, clocking the fact that there were now several ogre sized shapes dotted around the open balcony. “Don’t count your chickens that they’ll be enough,” I said, with slightly more confidence than I felt. I could probably take them all. Probably.

“What? A little were-hamster like you?”

Solus interrupted. “Fine, Tarn. What do you want in return?”

“Nothing you can give, Sol,” he answered, his eyes still trained on me.

I gritted my teeth. “What do you want?”

A small smile played around his lips. “Well, now that you come to mention it, there is just one little thing…”

“What?”

His eyes glittered. “Give me a pint of your blood.”

Solus exploded. “No way!”

“Done,” I said.

“Mack, this is a really bad idea,” Solus began.

“Too late,” Tarn trilled. He jerked his head over to one of the waiting ogres, who lumbered over with a blood bag and a needle. At my look, the Fae smirked. “Let’s just say I had a funny feeling we might be meeting in person. Although I did enjoy watching you dance.”

I scowled at him, then sat down on an empty chair and held out my arm.

“Mack,” Solus said again.

“We’ve got no choice,” I answered shortly.

“You can’t do this, dragonlette. You don’t know what he’ll do with your blood. What trouble it might cause.”

Solus was right. But I was right too. The only thing that mattered was finding Endor. If this was what it was going to take, then so be it. I’d have to worry about the consequences later. Besides, the UnSeelie Fae might be pretty sure he knew my real identity, but I reckoned that he wasn’t aware of the full power that my blood contained. And at least only having one pint would somewhat limit his resources.

The ogre tied a band around my upper arm, then started flicking at my taut skin to find a vein. Solus rubbed his face and sighed, then sat down next to me for support. Tarn watched as the needle entered, a lewdly lascivious look on his face. I turned away, disgusted, and caught sight of my face in one of the many mirrors. My skin was pale, the purple bruise across my cheek standing out in stark relief. That wasn’t what made me start, however. It was the fact my eyes were glowing from deep within that suddenly twisted my stomach in fear.

Chapter Ten

I turned and looked at Solus, my eyes wide. He hissed through his teeth. “Has this happened before?”

My mouth dry, I nodded.

“When?

I stared at him.

He reached over and gripped my arm, shaking it. “When, Mack?”

“I think earlier today,” I squeaked. “But nothing happened. I went to the hospital and I was fine.”

His body was very still and his tone was quiet and even. That was good. If Solus wasn’t panicking then I wasn’t going to panic either. It was probably nothing. Surely, that book couldn’t be right all the time? The ogre at my side seemed oblivious to the byplay going on right next to him, but Tarn was leaning forward, eyes fixed on mine, and his hands touching his lips as if he was in prayer.

“Why were you at the hospital?” Solus asked.

I thought of my earlier promise to Mrs. Alcoon. Shit. It hadn’t taken me more than a few hours to break it. I wondered if she had foreseen this all along. I swallowed. “To donate blood.”

Solus widened his eyes fractionally. “This is the second time today you’ve lost blood?”

“Well, I wouldn’t call it ‘losing’ blood per se. I know where it is.”

He gripped my arm tighter. “Don’t be flippant.” He switched his gaze to Tarn. “This might be a good time to evacuate the building.”

“What? You don’t really think I’m about to…that doesn’t make sense! I lost blood before when Aubrey attacked me. More than this. I feel fine. Nothing’s going to happen. I just need to stay calm.” As soon as I finished my sentence, a hot trail of fire scorched through my body from one end to the other. Oh, that wasn’t good.

“Your eyes weren’t glowing then, though.”

“Well, fucking do something and make them stop now!”

Solus, face pale, looked over at Tarn. He’d not moved a muscle. Then he fixed his gaze on the ogre who was pulling away the needle and wiping at my arm in a surprisingly delicate manner. I could tell that his mind was flipping over the options, but there just wasn’t any time. I immediately stood up, rubbing at the spot, and feeling distinctly woozy and nauseous. There were hundreds of people in here. I had to get out right now.

“Where’s the nearest exit?” I shouted at Tarn.

He blinked at me. I reached out and grabbed him by the lapels of his shiny designer suit and snarled, “Where’s the nearest fucking exit?”

For the first time since we’d entered the balcony area, the UnSeelie Fae appeared shaken. He lifted up a finger and pointed out towards the way we’d entered. “You can go that way. Up to the roof, not down. There’s a staircase to the right…”

I didn’t listen to anything more, and instead bolted in that direction. Losing the second pint of blood had just been too much, however, and I felt shaky and weak. Streaks of red began to zip across my eyes and my body was tingling all over with painful pinpricks of heat. I barely made it to the door, then scrabbled forward with my fingers, smashing the protective glass of the fire alarm and thumping on the button within. All at once, a siren sounded but, with the loud thump of music below, it didn’t seem as if any of the Circle customers had heard. It probably didn’t matter now. It was already too late.

A searing pain shuddered through me and it felt as if I was being ripped asunder. My fingers seemed cramped and, when I looked down, they were already curving into long talons. The shiny jumpsuit was becoming more and more constricting and I was starting to feel like I couldn’t breathe. I gasped and choked for air, then wave after wave of bloodfire rippled through my body like some unstoppable tsunami of flame. Scraps of shiny black from my jumpsuit spat out in all directions. I dimly registered screams from below, and a hundred faces turning up in my direction. My head scraped painfully against something and I tried to duck, but it didn’t seem to help. Then I realised that it was the high ceiling. How fucking big was I as a dragon? What was clearly my tail spasmed uncontrollably, and lashed out, seemingly of its own volition, smacking against a table and what sounded like a considerable amount of glass. I could feel the essence that was me already slipping away into a chasm far below, and my baser dragon instincts taking over.