82
Leading her outside I move to head straight to the garden, when I’m stalled by my phone ringing.
“I apologise, Cat,” I frown, motioning for her to sit nearby as I pull my phone out, not recognising the number.
“Cut!”
I arch an eyebrow at the director as he scowls, and he has the nous to look abashed. When I lower my fangs before turning away from him he also has the intelligence to look a little frightened.
“Yes?”
“Jag,” a familiar voice drawls. “Do you miss me?”
“Asumpta,” I smile, “when next we meet you will be measured for your coffin.”
“I miss you,” she whispers, ignoring what I’ve said, “deliberately. But next time I might not.”
I grit my teeth. She’s referring to shooting me, obviously, but I’m not going to give her the satisfaction.
“What are you talking about?”
“You’ve been a bad boy,” she laughs, “very bad if this is the one.”
“What one? If you phoned to make a point, make it, Asumpta. Soon enough you’ll feel the point of my blade through your corrupt heart.”
“None of them, all of them. In the end there will be no other.”
I open my mouth to reply, but she’s hung up.
Shoving my phone into my pocket, I run my hands through my hair in frustration before collecting myself and returning to claim Catriona.
“You don’t look happy,” she murmurs as I join her, taking her hand and leading her further away from the cameras.
“I owe you an apology,” I say quietly, turning to pull her to a stop. “It wasn’t your people who shot me, as you said.”
She nods as I go on.
“And I should have trusted your word.”
“Thank you. Who shot you?”
I shake my head and turn to keep walking, still holding her hand.
“A woman.”
“Because…?”
“Because she was once a friend who turned on the house she served. I was forced to hunt her down, torture her, and drag her to a trial.”
“Torture? I thought you said you didn’t harm women.”
“Cat,” I shake my head, “just because I choose not to dine on human women doesn’t mean I don’t kill them if I have to. Not all humans are good, just as not all vampires are good. As it happens, Asumpta is a vampire.”
“Huh,” she nods.
I can see she’s thinking through what I’ve said and deciding on which question to ask first.
“So, you captured her, tortured her…”
“Yes,” I sigh, “and she was ultimately imprisoned. Unfortunately, she escaped.”
“And now she’s pissed?”
“You could say that.”
“How close were you?”
“I’ve known her for centuries.”
“Friends with benefits?”
“No,” I snort, “contrary to popular belief, I don’t sleep with every woman who crosses my path, Cat.”
“Could have fooled me.”
I frown and stop to look down at her, shaking my head.
“Are you referring to my nights with other contestants?”
“If the shoe fits,” she shrugs, apparently nonchalant, but I sense an undercurrent.
“Is it so wrong to bring a small amount of pleasure to women who only have weeks, perhaps days to live?” I murmur. “Women who came here knowing they’re risking their lives, for me.”
“Are you saying if they ask for it, you’ll oblige?”
“Where’s the harm?”
“You’re not a last meal request, Jag,” she scowls.
I laugh quietly, shaking my head.
“It’s no hardship. All the contestants are beautiful, desirable women. Every single one of them.”
I look her in the eye as I say this, and she blushes and drops my hand, turning to keep walking.
“So, what did this friend you’d known for centuries do against your house?”
“Not mine, my friend Falcon’s house.”
“Was she also his friend?”
“No,” I shake my head as I consider her question, “she was his procurer, ‘and half-sister’ he had no time for her, which ultimately led to her betraying his family.”
“So he didn’t care for her, yet you were the one to have to hunt and torture someone you called a friend. For him?” She frowns, “I suppose this Falcon is the same friend who somehow forced you onto these Games?”
“Something like that,” I scowl. “But I wasn’t forced to help him.”
‘Or was I? Didn’t my shame over my affair with Angie compel me to aid him in every way, even at my own expense?’
“So, you have vampire enemies still, even though the wars between the houses ended centuries ago,” she muses, unaware that her question about Falcon has bothered me. “Enemies who threaten your life.”
“Yes, many, many enemies,” I shrug, “some physical, some political, some emotional. The life of a royal vampire is not all you read in the tabloids.”
“I never thought it was,” she snorts. “That’s why it’s important that when I become your wife I also attain immortality.”
I sigh heavily as one of the rat-faced Starlen’s perennial sayings comes to mind.
‘Let the Games begin.’