Chapter Seventeen
Felicity stirred her spoon around her cup of tea at the table in the dining room, ignoring her cousin’s chatter about the previous night’s patrol. All she could think about was how terrible Jonathan had looked in the carriage, like his skin had been falling off his bones.
“Felicity.”
Perhaps he’d forgotten to take a victim that morning. Vampires weakened when they didn’t consume enough blood. Her family had used that trick to extract information in the rare circumstances where they caught and managed to hold one of his kind.
“Felicity?”
She should have demanded to stay with Jonathan, but she understood why he’d ordered his driver not to bring anyone to his haven.
When she saw him again, she’d ask if he’d recognized the fledgling that had attacked them.
It was unfortunate that they hadn’t kept it alive for interrogation.
It hadn’t been in any state to talk, but feeding it blood might have eased its rage.
Even if an interrogation had failed, she could have used the woman in the pale-yellow dress as bait to draw out the vampire who had marked her with that distinct bruise.
She stared into her tea, which had long since cooled. That dress… she’d seen it before, and recently.
“Felicity!”
She dropped her spoon and looked up. The entire table was silent, and Great-Uncle Ezra’s face was twisted in a scowl that made her feel like a butterfly pinned to a specimen plate.
“Yes?”
He looked around the room. “I wish to speak to Felicity. Alone.”
Everyone else abandoned their meals and left. During those few seconds, the perspiration on her forehead dripped down her face.
When the room was empty, the old man leaned back in his chair. “So, Mr. Jonathan Drake.”
She swallowed thickly. “What about him?”
“Are you aware that he is a vampire?”
He knew. She’d feared this would happen. “Y-Yes.”
He threaded his fingers together. “You have been quite busy. First you steal objects from the archives, and now you associate with the very creatures we hunt.”
His crisp enunciation scared her more than any display of temper. Thankfully, she’d thought ahead and knew how to wriggle out of this particular trap.
“I’m using him,” she said. “He’d already led me to the location of a vampire gathering place. A gambling hall in Aldgate.”
Great-Uncle Ezra was silent for so long that she felt her legs going numb from having them pressed so tightly together. At last, his eyebrows rose. “You have done well.”
She squirmed, unsure how to react. He’d never praised her before.
“Continue to associate with Mr. Drake,” he said. “Your mission is to discover the location of his haven and the names of the other vampires in his nest.”
Her stomach twisted into knots. He didn’t know Jonathan was part of Winifred’s nest. That was good, as otherwise, he might have declared Jonathan off-limits like the Earl of Kingsbury.
As for the haven, leading hunters to Jonathan’s daylight resting place would mean breaking her promise of immunity. She’d been prepared to kill him when their mission concluded, but handing him over to her family for torture and eventual death was different. “B-But I…”
Great-Uncle Ezra shoved back his chair with a screech, then approached her. With every step, the entire room seemed to shake. When he reached her side, he placed a hand on her shoulder. “It was not a request.”
She stared at the half-eaten slice of toast on her plate. “I understand.”
Jonathan would be furious, but she could not betray her family, especially for the enemy.
*
Later that night, as she sat across from Jonathan in his carriage with a blindfold wrapped around her eyes, she scrunched her nose until a small gap formed.
He had remained unusually silent throughout the drive, other than to confirm he hadn’t recognized their latest fledgling attacker.
She did not mind, as it helped her concentrate on discovering where they were going.
She tilted her head against the interior of the carriage and peered through what she could see of the window that wasn’t obscured by the curtain.
It took several blocks, but eventually, she recognized St. Paul’s Cathedral, and then the name of a physician written on a plaque on the exterior of a house.
That would be enough information for her family to determine where Jonathan had taken her. Seconds later, the carriage stopped.
“Have we arrived?” she asked.
He slipped his hand into hers. “We have.” Then he guided her out of the carriage onto the street. Immediately, a sour smell invaded her senses, and when she lifted her boot, it separated from the ground with a sick tearing sound.
“Not the most pleasant of locales, I know,” Jonathan said. “Stay by my side.”
He led her down a cobblestone path and then through a doorway.
“You can remove the blindfold now,” he said.
She did so, then blinked several times, adjusting to the faint light. “Where are we?”
Jonathan chuckled. “Madame Pearce’s. This is where human men come to seek the company of lady vampires.”
She flushed. “A brothel.”
She wasn’t sure what she’d expected from a bawdy house, but this wasn’t a vulgar, raucous place.
A steep, wooden staircase stood in front of her with its dark banister perched above bone-white spindles and treads protected by a lush, silver runner.
To her right was a well-lit drawing room papered in light blue with a diamond pattern.
Heavy, velvet drapes in deep red and gold cascaded from the tall windows, and the faint scent of lilac hung in the air, layered over something older and muskier.
Sweat dripped down her back. Being caught in such a location would destroy her reputation and result in the loss of her employment, assuming a vampire didn’t murder her for being a hunter first.
It was a risk she’d have to take.
She followed Jonathan up the stairs and then into a room dominated by an enormous four-poster bed piled high with overstuffed pillows.
The velvet curtains around the windows were closed, but an ornate golden chandelier hung above them, providing enough gaslight by which to see.
As Jonathan closed the door, his abdominal muscles quivered.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
They were inside a brothel, in a locked room presumably intended for men to engage in carnal acts with vampire women. He couldn’t possibly expect her to—
“Relax,” he said. Then he walked over to the wood-paneled wall and pressed a switch she hadn’t noticed. A painting of a herd of galloping horses slid to the side, revealing a secret passageway.
“You’ve been here before,” she said. His familiarity with the brothel shouldn’t have been a surprise, given how the owner of the previous location to which he’d taken her had reacted. So, why did she feel the urge to demand he promise never to return?
“It’s one of my haunts,” Jonathan said. Then he gestured for her to pass. “Let’s see if we can find your vampire.”
She stared at the narrow hole. “You expect me to go in there?”
It was tight. She’d hardly be able to breathe.
“Would you prefer to barge into each of the rooms?” He put his hand on his hip. “Or I could summon Madame Pearce and ask her to introduce you to the ladies. I am sure she’d be keen to know why a hunter is interested in her business.”
“You made your point,” Felicity said. It was good that she’d worn another of Vincent’s trousers, as her crinoline would never have fit inside the passage.
She strode forward with her chin held high and lifted her leg to enter.
In the process of maneuvering through the ragged hole, something scratched her inner thigh.
She winced at the pain but shoved herself through.
The walls were as tight as she’d feared, but she focused on shuffling along the space until she reached what was clearly a spy hole.
When she lifted the flap and peered through, the room on the other side was dimly lit, but she could make out a woman and a man, both of whom were naked.
She slapped a hand over her mouth to keep from gasping.
She should have expected it, given the nature of the establishment, but it was still a shock to see a man’s flabby backside and a beautiful woman with breasts exposed and black hair loose around her shoulders.
The man was on his knees on the bed behind the woman, driving his cock into her quim.
The accompanying groaning and wet slap of bodies made something inside her wind tight.
For a moment, she saw herself in place of the woman and Jonathan as the man.
She pinched her wrist to dispel the thought. She might have started out willing to become Jonathan’s mistress, but that had been before she’d known he was the enemy. When she completed her mission, their partnership would end with his death… unless she discovered a better use for him.
“Well?” Jonathan asked.
She forced her gaze away from the place where the two figures were joined and examined the woman. It took only a second to confirm. “Not her.”
Jonathan gestured for Felicity to continue.
She did so, sliding along the passage until she reached the next hole, which was much lower.
This time, the sight that greeted her was even more shocking.
Instead of one, there were three nude people, two women and a man.
One woman was on her hands and knees with her lips wrapped around the man’s engorged cock.
Her pale breasts swayed as she bobbed her head up and down.
The other woman had her fangs buried in the man’s neck while he worked his fingers between her thighs.
The proof of her enjoyment was evident in the translucent liquid coating his knuckles and the way she rocked her hips.
“Anything?” Jonathan whispered. He wrapped an arm around her waist.