Nine Shillings

Covent Garden

London - 1842

As Josef and I worked our way around the inhabitants of Covent Garden his problem became clearer. My ability to resist mental manipulations meant I'd never seen Josef as the diabolically charismatic vampire; everyone we met seemed compelled to tell him the truth for want of his smiles, his charm, and his cock. I could see how the line would begin to blur; they desired an image of him, they didn't desired him.

'You haven't asked Bran,' Josef said, stirring me from my thoughts as we wandered the dark streets looking for fresh witnesses.

I sighed. 'Suggest a way to broach the subject where Bran's brain can't twist it into an insult.' I looked towards the smoky sky. 'I'm beginning to wonder why I'm considering this.'

'More opportunities to call me an arsehole?'

I smiled and pinched the bridge of my nose. 'I don't think you understand how much the idea of you stealing me away scares Bran because you wouldn't do it. Then there's...' I shook my head.

Josef stopped and touched my arm. 'There's what?'

I looked up at him, I stood on the edge of violating Bran's trust but didn't know who else I could talk to.

I lowered my voice. 'The night Bran shot Richard's vampires I thought... I felt fear but it wasn't my fear, it was separate from me somehow. Then a few nights ago I think I stepped into Bran's dream.'

Josef's eyes widened. 'It might be...' He drew me into the mouth of an alley. 'You and Bran share blood through your vampire lineage and I know you share blood in other ways.'

I tucked my thumbs in my knife belt and shrugged.

'Blood, sex, love, all have power. You took Richard's power when you drained him, perhaps you took his connection to Bran.' He rubbed his beard. 'It can't be quite the same as a maker's connection, or Bran would've noticed. Sensing a progeny's fear, being able to walk in their dreams, these are things a maker can do.'

As far as we knew my brain was impervious to psychic connections, Freyja couldn't read my mind and Richard hadn't been able to form a maker's bond with me. I was the impossible vampire, or so people kept telling me.

'I could end up peeking in on Bran and being as bad as Freyja.'

Josef squeezed my shoulders. 'You will never be like her. Besides...' He sighed. 'I don't think Bran would object to sharing a bond with you.'

A tile smashed against the cobbles a few feet away. We both looked at it, then at each other. Neither of us had heard anyone on the roof.

'Perhaps our mysterious magic user is getting to me, I'm slightly unsettled,' I murmured and nodded towards the roof.

Josef looked up, hesitant. The first time I met him was on a roof but he was afraid of heights. It didn't matter; my immunity to illusions meant I was better with a greater view, Josef was better with his other senses. I made a vague gesture meant to suggest, 'you take the bottom, I'll take the top, and we'll pincer them'. He nodded.

I climbed up the wall, fingers finding grips a human never could. At the top I peeked along the pitch. There was no sight, sound, or smell of a person, but there were plenty of missing tiles. My skin crawled. I pulled myself onto the roof, keeping low.

I sniffed. There might've been a hint of magic on the breeze but the stink of the city choked it. I concentrated and threads of energy appeared, shifting and reforming across the rooftop. A vague sense of wrongness tugged at me and I crept closer.

There were footsteps torn in the threads of magic at the top of a drainpipe. They jumped from one roof to the next following The Thieves' Road across the rooftops.

A loose thread tingled my fingers, I couldn't sense how long it had been broken.

A hand grabbed the back of my jerkin. Another found my exposed throat.

Everything froze. Energy roared in my ears. Heat bloomed through my throat.

Time caught up again.

I snarled. It was like a hand in my chest ripping out my innards. I threw my weight sideways.

The pain stopped.

I tumbled and fell.

Crunch. I hit the ground. My brain screamed to get up. I couldn't move. My body ran on magic, not helpful. I reached for the magic around me. Panic tugged at my brain. My mental fingers wouldn't catch the threads.

Stop pissing about, Maguire, I thought.

'Charlotte.' Josef grabbed me and turned me over.

I flopped.

'Charlotte.' Josef caught my chin. 'You can't swallow. I'm going to share my energy with you. I need you to think about absorbing it like you practised. I'm out of practise.'

Patronising arsehole.

He put his mouth over mine and breathed.

My tongue prickled.

He inhaled through his nose and exhaled slowly into my mouth, each breath sending heat through my body. My mental fingers caught the strands of energy he exhaled and drew them into my core.

My limbs warmed. My fingers twitched.

He tasted so good, rich cinnamon magic and bitter coffee. My real fingers caught his hair, pulling him closer, deeper into a kiss.

I sucked.

He gasped. Veins of energy appeared on his skin. His dark eyes clouded. His heart stopped.

He was a bottomless well of delicious energy. I was so hungry. I wrapped myself around him.

His hands clenched on my sides and he choked.

I was hurting him.

I was hurting Josef.

I broke the kiss and he sucked in a breath.

I scrambled away. 'Sorry.'

He doubled over gasping, the colour returned to his eyes and his heart started. He waved his hand. 'Forgot the safety precautions.' He rested his back against the wall. 'I had a Fae lover who taught me a long time ago.'

I looked towards the roof. If our murderer had any sense they'd be long gone. 'I guess we know our murdered woman definitely came from round here somewhere.'

Josef nodded. 'And you can't sense the murderer. I don't know how they do that.'

At the Goodington house we'd only been able to smell the murderer's magic, not their physical scent. It hadn't occurred to me they would be able to mask anything else, there was no reason for me to think of it when illusions didn't work on me.

'You must still be leaking magic and they couldn't resist.' Josef tipped his head back wearily. 'But why let you go?'

'I threw them off balance,' I said. 'I suppose I'll have to go see Freyja.' I lay back down. 'Don't know about you but I'm knackered.'

Josef sighed. 'I'll talk to Bran.'

'Not without me you bloody won't,' I muttered, pondering how bad it would be to fall asleep where I was. 'Start as you mean to go on. All three together.'

He grinned. 'If we start as we mean to go on, we'll do whatever you tell us.'

I laughed and my throat protested.