Page 104 of Bought for Blood

The day between is long. Water drips somewhere outside the door, and that’s the only thing that happens.

I trace time by how many visits the smoking man makes with the poison—four—and between his visits, the thirst becomes all I can think about. She told the truth about that. By afternoon I can hear the blood moving in the guard outside the door. By evening I can hear every heartbeat in the building, and I know exactly where each one is. My gums ache down to the jawbone.

Somewhere in the second afternoon I try to call up her taste, because it is the only thing I want and the only thing that might get me through to dark. I don’t get it. I have her voice through a door, the weight of her asleep on my arm, the exact sound she makes when she is trying not to laugh. But the one thing I took from her has never stayed in my memory. And that’s the value of her line. The blood that keeps pulling you back.

And now, any blood would do. I’m being sucked dry from the inside. Ecaterina was right about what the drug does. She’s wrong if she thinks it will make me talk.

Her footsteps come back down the corridor a while after sundown. This time she doesn’t bring the chair. One of her men carries in a small table, sets a glass on it, and goes out.

Blood. Fresh, human, clean. I’d smell the drug in it, and there’s no drug. She’s placed it exactly at the edge of my reach.

“That one’s clean,” Ecaterina says. “A full feed’s worth. It will save you. Answer my questions, and it’s yours.”

The glass sits there. I want it so badly that I don’t trust myself to move.

“Take it away,” I say, “or I’ll stop being civil.”

“You’re welcome to stop being civil. The offer stands either way.” She folds her hands. “Your arm as well. We have a man who could set it, and fed, you’d heal in a night. The other houses.”

“I’ve told you. I never saw anything past the building you emptied.”

“Lisbon, then. A name. A street. The color of his door.”

Third time.

They still want her.Two nights, two questions, and this is the one she can’t leave alone. Whatever I sold her as, somebody above this woman is asking, and they’ll go on asking after I’m ash.

“I bought, I got bored, I sold. That’s all there is to it, however long you keep that glass filled.”

“Mm.” She looks at me for a while. “Here’s what I notice. Two nights, and your answers haven’t changed by a word. Most men improve their lies under pressure. They add detail. You give me the same sentences in the same order, and a starving man shouldn’t be able to do that.”

“I’m not most men.”

“No. And that’s my problem.” She glances at the glass, then back at me. “One more thing worth your thought. Your Court has known you’re missing for two days. Nobody has come. No word through the trade, no pressure on our houses. Think about what that says about your value to them.”

“It says they haven’t found this building yet. It doesn’t say they’ve stopped looking.” I hold her eyes. “You’ve taken a Seigneur of the Nocturne Court. Faine won’t leave that alone.Not for my sake; for the precedent. Whoever gave you the order to take me either doesn’t understand what the Court is, or doesn’t care what it costs you when it arrives. In your position, I’d want to know which.”

Ecaterina considers that for three seconds, maybe four.

“You’re very good,” she says.

“I’ve had practice.”

“So have I. Which is why I’m done spending time on you.” She picks the glass up off the table, carries it to the washbasin in the corner, and pours it out slowly, watching me while she does it.

I don’t let my expression change, and the effort drains me almost as much as the broken arm does.

“I want you to understand my position,” she says. “I don’t have anything against you. You were a good client, and you were polite to my manager and to me. But you can’t be sold, you can’t be traded, and nobody I could hire is going to break you. A day didn’t soften you. A week wouldn’t either. You’re a bad investment, Seigneur, and I don’t keep bad investments.”

“Then we both understand what’s left.”

“We do.”

“Then understand this as well. You’re getting nothing. And when it’s done, somebody above you is going to ask you why, and I hope the answer keeps you employed.”

She gives me a small nod, polite to the last, and steps aside for the men.

They come in, four of them. I’m too drugged to put up a fight.