Page 39 of The Vampire's Guide to Wooing a Curator
She ran her fingertips over the wall, searching for a knob or lever. “How do we get out?”
“Let me,” Jonathan said. He squeezed past her and slid his fingers into an indent she hadn’t noticed. The wall slid open, and she stepped through. After the stifling warmth of the corridor, it was a relief to be in an open space. She snatched the cane fromthe wall and ran her thumb over the broken dog’s ear. It was the same cane. She was sure of it. She grasped the hilt properly and started to twist it to release the dagger, when there was a loud thump from the hallway.
“There’s someone coming,” Jonathan whispered. “Get back here!”
Too late.
The door creaked open, and a slender, black-haired woman wearing a low-cut, shimmering, scarlet gown entered. “Ah, I thought I’d scented a bloodsucker.” She ran the tip of her middle finger along the edge of her bodice and uttered a rumbling sound that was halfway between a growl and a laugh. “Have you two been making trouble?”
Felicity could not tear her gaze away from the bones shifting beneath the woman’s face. She was neither human nor vampire.
“Keep your mouth shut,” Jonathan whispered. He stepped between Felicity and the strange woman. “I sincerely apologize for the intrusion, Madame Pearce. My companion and I were merely availing ourselves of the…” He trailed off as a trio of men appeared in the doorway behind the woman. They were so tall, they had to dip their shaved heads beneath the doorframe to enter and wore mismatched suit jackets covered in roughly stitched seams, as if they’d been repeatedly torn apart and repaired.
Felicity clutched the cane like a weapon. No matter how this confrontation ended, she could not leave without the only clue she had to the identity of her parents’ killer.
The tallest of the men took a position beside the mistress of the establishment, while the others braced the door with their arms stiff at their sides, like shabbily dressed royal guards.
Madame Pearce clucked her tongue. “Excellent timing, as always, Blaze. What do you suggest we do with our little thieves?”
Felicity tucked the cane behind her back, even though the woman had obviously already gleaned Felicity’s intention.
Blaze grunted. “Teach ’em a lesson.”
Jonathan cleared his throat. “My dear Madame Pearce, there is no need for violence. I am sure we can come to an agreement.” He reached into his coat. “I am prepared to offer a generous donation if you forget this incident. Perhaps twenty pounds?”
Madame Pearce raised her eyebrows.
Jonathan gulped. “Thirty?”
Blaze unbuttoned his jacket, removed it, and handed it to another of the guards.
Was it Felicity’s imagination or had their nails lengthened?
She tucked herself as closely as she could to Jonathan’s back.
“Dispose of this rubbish, Blaze,” Madame Pearce said.
The three men dropped to their hands and knees and began to change.
Chapter Eighteen
There was nodoubt in Jonathan’s mind that if he or Felicity ran, neither of them would survive. Werewolves lived for the hunt, treated anything that fled from them as prey, and killed without remorse. Blaze’s suit jacket was already tearing apart at the arms as silver fur sprouted beneath the fabric. His jaw lengthened with an awful crunching sound, then he lifted his mangled face and released a howl that the other werewolves echoed.
Felicity tugged Jonathan’s arm. “We have to go.”
He could not take his gaze off the wickedly sharp fangs erupting from Blaze’s gums. The wolf shook its massive head, and the scrap of silk that had once been a cravat fluttered to the ground.
Felicity cupped her hands around his ear and shouted, “Move!”
The command sliced through his body, forcing him into action. He grabbed Felicity’s hand and pulled her past the wolves. As they skidded on the thin hall carpet, however, a sharp stab in his abdomen sent him to his knees.
Felicity shook his shoulder. “Get up!”
He struggled to his feet.
The wolves had completed their transformation and would be on them in seconds, but he was too weak to fight. They would have to escape some other way. He snatched the cane out of Felicity’s grasp, twisted the handle, then threw it at thecreature that had once been Blaze. It struck the behemoth on the forehead, causing him to yelp.
It would have to be enough. Jonathan hefted Felicity in his arms and sprinted toward the window at the end of the hall. He leaped, and glass exploded around them. As they fell, he shifted Felicity on top of him. They hit the ground with an impact that exploded the air from his lungs. The next thing he knew, he was lying on his side with Felicity shaking his shoulders. High above them, the three werewolves stared out the shattered window. He thought they’d leap out after them, but they only turned around, as if judging their problem dealt with.
