Chapter Thirty-Four
THIRTY-FOUR
Hanora and Ruby assume the role of escorts, and I swear they take us on a longer route, which passes Ann’s room before mine. They open Ann’s door, and Ruby helps her inside.
“I will see you in the morning,” I say.
Hanora shakes her head. “You should lie down with her. You seem about to fall, and if you do, we can’t carry you. You’re such a big girl.”
That could be a mere observation, but her tone turns it into an obvious insult.
“Yes,” Ruby says, hurrying over. “I’m in envy of your height, Mrs. Daniels, and your figure. However, if you fall, we wouldn’t be able to move you. Why don’t you come lie beside your cousin?”
So they want Ann and me in the same room. Not a bad idea—otherwise, I’d have needed to sneak back here and stay with Ann.
“I think I will,” I say, stifling a fake yawn. “Could you please tell my husband where I am? I know I’m not small, but that is one advantage to a werewolf mate. He can carry me back to bedchambers.”
“I will tell him as soon as he returns,” Hanora says, and helps me to the bed.
Ann and I both pretend to pass out as soon as our heads hit the pillows.
I want to see what Hanora and Ruby will do.
Or what they will say. The answer is “nothing” on both counts.
They leave without an exchanged word, but once they’re gone, there’s an unmistakable sound at the other side of the door.
The sound of a key turning.
“They have locked us in,” Ann whispers.
I motion her to silence and listen until the footsteps are gone. Then I say, “That is very odd.”
“Odd? We are locked in.”
“Locked into a room with windows, Ann.”
“On the second floor.”
I shrug. “I could get down, and I could help you do the same, but it’s only a keyed lock. I can undo that with a spell.”
She visibly relaxes. “Good.”
“The odd part is that the door locks on the outside, while there are windows anyone could escape from, if they needed to. Perhaps it was originally a child’s room? Keeping the child from wandering at night?”
“I have no interest in knowing what this room was originally used for and every interest in knowing what they are using it for now, having locked us in here after drugging us with gods knows what.”
“Opium. I could smell it. They put in enough to make us sleep.” I yawn, walk to the window, and throw it open to inhale the night air.
“Did you drink some by accident?”
“No, I drank it on purpose.”
“What?” she says.
“I needed to be sure they weren’t trying to kill us.”
“And if they were? You’d be dead.”
“Don’t worry. My ghost would have come back to warn you.” At her look, I say, “A sip wouldn’t have killed me.”
“That still seems a very reckless experiment.”
“It wasn’t.”
I take more deep breaths of sharp night air. Then I push my head out to listen. In the distance, I pick up the sound of male voices, laughing and talking. The hunt must be over. I close the window and sit back on the bed.
“They wanted us unconscious,” I muse. “But they didn’t want us unconscious in order to hurt us. So what was the point?”
“Hanora seemed very intrigued by my powers. That’s strange. People aren’t usually interested in necromancy.”
“I am.”
“Normal people,” she corrects.
“Are you saying I’m not normal?”
“You just purposely took opium to see what would happen.”
“Oh, I know what would happen. I’ve taken it before. Experimentally.”
She squeezes her eyes shut and shakes her head.
I continue, “If you believe, in retrospect, that Hanora was overly interested in your powers, could that be the answer? Maybe there’s a ghost here that she doesn’t want you talking to?
” I consider that. “No, she had the gin drugged before she learned you were a necromancer. She asked me about werewolf mates and you about necromancy. Engaging us. Relaxing our guard.”
I turn to the window. “Are they getting us out of the way so they can hurt the men? I can’t imagine the Pack sees you and me as serious threats. Besides, as soon as Bishop returns, he’ll realize I’m missing and know something’s wrong.”
I look at her. “What do you think?”
“Oh, can I talk now? You’re done asking and answering your own questions?”
“I was thinking it through aloud.”
She shakes her head. “I believe there’s a reason you were put in here with me. They seemed to take extra pains with that. At first, I presumed they wanted us together to do us harm, but that doesn’t seem to be the case, so I don’t know what—”
I lift a finger as footsteps sound in the hall.
Ann tenses, but I shake my head and whisper, “It’s Bishop.
” I wouldn’t have thought I’d recognize his footsteps, but I do, especially when they’re moving fast, as if he came in and is heading straight to our room to make sure I haven’t been murdered in his absence.
The door to our room smacks open. It’s right beside Ann’s, and I realize there’s even a connecting door, which suggests it was indeed once a nursery. I hurry to that door, which is also locked, and I’m whispering an unlock spell when Bishop’s voice has me stumbling back.
“What the hell is this?” he snarls. Which seems a very odd thing to say to an empty bed. I get the door unlocked and inch it open just enough to see that our bed is not empty. There’s someone in it. Hanora. Stark naked and reclining on the pillows.
Well, I suppose that answers the question of what she had in mind. Can I admit I’m disappointed? Here I was envisioning some wicked plot against us, and it’s just a young woman trying to seduce my husband. I mean, I don’t blame her, but still …
“Hello, Alpha,” Hanora purrs.
“Where is my wife?”
She boosts up on the pillows more, wriggling and showing him what’s on offer because he must not have seen it.
“Don’t worry, sir. She won’t interrupt us. Seems she had a little too much to drink, and she’s sleeping it off. Come over here and—”
“Get up. Get dressed. Take me to my wife. You have ten seconds. Starting now.”
Hanora wriggles some more. “Or what, Alpha? You’ll spank me for being naughty?”
“Seven seconds.”
“You’re obviously very angry. Now come over here and show me how angry you are. Fuck me until—”
“Does it look like I have the least interest in doing that?” He waves at his crotch. “You have exactly three seconds—”
“You’re just tired from the hunt. I know how to fix that. I’ll suck you until you’re ready, and if you’re still not interested in fucking me, I’ll finish you off. Then you won’t even have cheated on your wife. How does that sou—”
She doesn’t get a chance to finish. Bishop has her by the throat, and he’s lifting her off the bed.
“Take me to my wife. If you have hurt her in any way—”
I fly through the door as Hanora starts to choke. “I’m right here. I’m fine.”
He looks from me to Hanora, and I expect his next words to be something along the lines of “This isn’t what it seems,” but I underestimate my husband. He might be holding a naked woman by the throat, but he doesn’t for one moment think I might misconstrue the situation.
He drops Hanora like a dirty sock and strides my way. “You’re fine? You were sleeping?”
I roll my shoulders and yawn. “I just got very tired. I don’t know what happened.”
Behind Bishop, Hanora has retrieved her dress and is tiptoeing to the door. I make a show of rubbing my eyes. Once she’s gone, Ann peeks in.
“Did that girl just try to seduce you?” she says.
“Evidently,” Bishop says.
“That’s odd,” she says.
“I know,” I say.
Bishop looks from me to her to me and back again.
I put my hand on Bishop’s arm. “Sorry. Clearly you are very seduction worthy. That’s not the odd part. It’s that…” I tighten my grip on his arm. “She tried to drug me so she could seduce you.”
“She what?” The words come loud enough for me to wince, and he starts for the door, which is why I have hold of his arm.
“Don’t go after her,” I say. “Please.”
His jaw works as he glowers at the door. “You want to let her get away with drugging you?”
“It was just opium.”
“Just—?” He sputters, unable to get more out.
“You aren’t helping,” Ann mutters to me. Then to Bishop, “Yes, your wife is underreacting. They tried to drug us, but luckily Cordelia smelled it. She’s right, though, that you can’t go after Hanora.”
“Who?”
I wave at the door. “The girl who was just naked in your bed?” I shake my head. “Never mind. The point is that, as delectable as you are, Bishop, drugging both Ann and me to seduce you goes too far.”
He eases back, relaxing enough that I let go of his arm. “There was more to it. Someone else set this up.”
“Perhaps? I suppose it’s possible she simply formed a mad attraction for you.”
He snorts. “More likely she formed a mad attraction for a new werewolf Alpha. But even that makes no sense unless I’m single and in need of a mate.”
“Maybe she hoped to get with child and use that?” I pause. “No, she also offered services that wouldn’t end in pregnancy.”
His brows lift. “You were listening to the whole thing? Testing my loyalty?”
Now it’s my turn to snort. “Hardly. I knew there was nothing to worry about, and so I was hoping to get a sense of her ultimate plan. I interceded when it seemed you might hurt her. Now, the other reason for seducing you might be to humiliate me, but I haven’t had time to drive her to that.
I was simply an obstacle to be removed.”
“Someone planned this,” Bishop says. “They knew you and Ann would be alone, and they had that girl ply you with drugged wine.”
“Gin. But yes. Seduce you and then threaten to tell your new wife? Or…” I nibble my lip. “Seduce you and then kill you while you sleep. Someone may want you dead, and this was the only way to do it.”
Ann nods. “Rufus is always with you during the day. Cordelia is with you at night … unless she’s sleeping—soundly—elsewhere and you have someone else in your bed.”
“Someone who has worn you out enough to sleep.” I pause. “Although, by the time that happened, Hanora would be too tired to kill you, so you were safe either way.”
Ann mutters a comment about things she really doesn’t need to know.
“We need to talk to Hanora,” I say.
“Wasn’t that what I was trying to do?” Bishop says.
“I stopped you to discuss the matter first. Also, were you chasing her down for a conversation? Or a thrashing?”
He fixes me with a look.
“What?” I say. “You looked like you wanted to thrash her, and honestly, she seemed as if she’d enjoy it, so I don’t know how that would have helped.”
“I would have had a very civil conversation with her,” he says. “After I throttled her until she felt more like talking.”
“Mmm, I think she’d have liked the throttling, too.”
Ann groans and lifts her hands. “Enough. Yes, we need to talk to her. No, Bishop, throttling won’t help.”
“Agreed,” I say. “I know you won’t let Ann and me go after her alone, so you can follow, but stay out of sight, please. I’m going to confront her and see if I can get her to talk.”
“And if you can’t?” Bishop asks.
“Then we do it your way.”