Maudlin's Mayhem (Bewitching Bedlam #2)(63)

Kayo rubbed his temples, looking pained. “I see. Then I suppose I’ll have to take your word for it that he left your house with the journal?”

I bit my lip and played a bold move. “You can come over and search for it if you like. I very much doubt you’ll find anything.”

Apparently, that was a good-enough play to put it to rest.

“No, I trust that you’re telling me the truth when you say it’s no longer in your house.” He regarded me closely, then turned to Essie. “As for you, the next time you’re asked to one of my affairs, you’ll kindly leave your bloodwhores and sex slaves at home. I have more than enough to share. Very well,” he said, suddenly straightening up and sounding all official. “We’re done. For now. But both of you, watch yourselves.”

And with that, he swept out of the room without saying good-bye.

Essie leaned back against her chair, shaken. I had never seen her look anything but pulled together and the fact that he could send her into such a spiral of fear worried me. I decided I’d have to look him up later on.

“Ruby, Joseph, please leave us until I summon you.”

The skinny vamp and Ruby left the room. Essie reached into the folds of her skirt and brought out what I immediately recognized as a mandrake root. I had one at home. Any witch worth her salt did. She set it on the table and ran her fingers over it, chanting:



Silence be, silence will be.

No ears to hear, no eyes to see.



Another moment and it felt like a dampening field had closed down over us. She was skilled, all right. She regarded me quietly for a moment.

“You have saved our lives…for now.”

“You stole that book from him. I can’t believe you’d pull something like that on the Arcānus Nocturni. Don’t you realize just how dangerous they are?” Before I realized what I was doing, I had launched into her. “How did Thornton escape? Ruby showed me your prison block and pointed out his baby mama, whom you have locked up in there.”

Essie waited until I finished. “Are you quite done?”

“Well…yes, for the moment. No, actually, I’m not. You kidnapped me off the street for this? Why didn’t you just come ask me yourself?”

“First, it was a time-sensitive matter. I had no notice Kayo was arriving until I woke up and found the note. I didn’t have time to go round and round with you, so I sent someone over to the meeting, where I knew you would be. Consider that my official invitation.”

“Your official invitation could get your minions staked.” I rubbed my head. “I’m really pissed at you about this, but for now, we’ll let it go. You stole that book from the Arcānus Nocturni? What the hell were you going to do with it? Go gallivanting around in the daylight and make yourself the target of every wannabe Buffy in town?”

Essie tsked away my concern. “Why would I worry about them when I have the real hunter under my nose? You’re far more dangerous than any two-bit vampire hunter out there. I know your past, I know what you did to my kind.” She leaned forward, her eyes glowing. “But the fact is, no, I did not intend to use those spells for myself. I was planning on destroying it.”

I froze. Had she just said what I thought she said? “You were going to destroy it? Why?”

“For precisely the reasons you mention. If vampires gain a foothold during the day, we’ll be hunted down and exterminated. At least the human world has some feeling of superiority, given our inability to walk under the sun. But if vampires start showing up in daylight, then we’re suddenly a much bigger threat than we were before. I’ve heard rumors, girl. I’ve heard rumors that several members of the Arcānus Nocturni were planning to use the magic on a number of vampires, to bring them into the fold. Usually, it takes thousands of years to reach the state of walking in the sun and few vamps ever get to that point. And by then, most of them keep to the shadows and themselves. But the society wants to expand the control we have over the world.”

I pressed my lips together. So Essie wasn’t all that thrilled with them either. I tried to reason it out. She was on point about becoming greater targets, but there was something more. She seemed almost…afraid.

“What are you afraid of, Essie? What’s out there that I don’t know about?”

Essie held up one finger. “A moment.” She crossed to a bookshelf on the other side of the room and sorted through the books until she found what she was looking for. When she returned, she opened the book and slid it across the table.

I pulled it over. The book looked to be a who’s who of the vampire world. I was staring at the sketch of a woman, tall and thin, with an angular face so sharp it could have cut diamond. She was holding two leashes, and on the end of those leashes were what looked like twin boys, around three years old. They were on all fours, with crazed expressions on their faces. The entry was in a language I didn’t recognize.

“It’s heresy for me to show you this. You are, after all, a mortal enemy of my people, even though you claim to love one of them—”

“I do love him. He’s taught me not all vampires are—”

“Are what…deadly? Oh, he’s deadly. Dangerous? Trust me, Aegis is plenty dangerous.”

“Fine, so he’s just as dangerous as you are. But…he’s not as selfish. He doesn’t have the same mindset.” I cocked my head to the left. “Who is this?”