The Queen Is Dead (The Immortal Empire) (14 page)

“He was killing himself, in case you haven’t noticed. It’s not my fault he bit me during the course of trying to kidnap me.” I didn’t know if the betty would have taken me as well, but I assumed it.

“Yes, I’m quite sure you had a terrible time of it fighting him off.” Maine made a scoffing noise. “He’s human. It was hardly a fair contest.”

Straightening my spine, I pulled back my shoulders–posturing, that was what it was. “He’s a betty, that makes it fair enough. He also left here with my brother. Purposely killing him before getting Val’s whereabouts out of him doesn’t make sense.”

The officer closed his notebook and tucked his pen in the coiled spine. “But you did kill him. From what’s left of his face, you can’t tell me you didn’t have every intention of hurting him.”

“I was defending myself.”

Maine smiled–it didn’t reach his eyes. “No offence, but would you believe a lion who said it was only defending itself against a sheep?”

“He was no sheep. You can believe what you want, but all
the witnesses will tell you the same thing. I was trying to find out about my brother and rescue my friend–who was being abducted by your sheep. Your boy bit me and it did him in.”

“And you tried to save him, of course.”

“I tried to get him off me.”

Shrewd eyes met mine. “You really don’t care that he’s dead, do you?”

“Actually, I do. He knows what happened to my brother, remember? The one you said was one of yours?”

“If CI Vardan was investigating this club, then you are interfering in that investigation. That’s reason enough for me to take you to the Home Office.”

I s Ssizering in ighed. “I’ve told you what happened, and what I know. If you want to fuck about with me, that’s fine. But if you make it difficult for me to find Val, you’ll regret it.”

Maine frowned. “Is that a threat, ma’am?”

Oh, I was so done with this. “Fuck off,” I snarled, and turned my back on him. “If you need anything else, I’ll be doing your job for you.”

“I’ll be watching you, Your Majesty,” Maine promised.

I flipped him off. “Come on, Penny!” I called as I stomped towards the street, her heels clacking behind me. “We’re done here.”

I dropped Penny at my place. Vex wasn’t there, so I decided to go to the den. The more time that passed before we saw each other again, the better. I didn’t relish the tongue-lashing he was bound to give me for what had happened at Freak Show. Not
only had I rushed in without thought, but I’d killed someone in the process.

It didn’t matter that I hadn’t meant to kill the bastard. I just… did. Was it instinct or plain cruelty that made me do it? It was one thing to call myself a monster and another to actually believe it. I could have stopped the betty from taking my blood. I could have tried to save him, if for no other reason than finding Val. Instead, I’d let him die and I’d felt a strange satisfaction with it. I’d done it out of a need for revenge, but I should have got the information out of him first.

Because of my actions, the other betties had got away, and my brother might suffer in retaliation. As if Dede didn’t weigh heavily enough on my conscience.

This time I sent word ahead that I was on my way to the den. I didn’t want surprises. It was one thing me for me to hear that goblins seduced drug addicts into being willing blood donors, sex partners and even the occasional meal, and quite another to see it first-hand. Part of me knew it was wrong and was very much horrified by the fact that another part of me didn’t mind at all. Humans knew the risks of getting involved with gobs.

And that was all the thought I intended to give the matter for now.

I entered the den the same way I had the other night. Tonight there was a little music–a gob playing a mandolin while the pack sang along. They fell silent at the sight of me. Most bowed. Some looked at me with open resentment. I did not need more enemies, not with the Human League, the Bedlamites and Queen Victoria all gunning for my arse.

“Sorry to interrupt,” I said as William the prince approached me. It was odd to refer to him, or any goblin, by such ordinary
names. I’d never really given it much thought, but if asked I would have supposed that goblins gave themselves more tribal-sounding names. Names that were as strange and fierce as they were. “I wouldn’t have come if I’d known you were busy.”

He tilted his head, reminding me of a curious wolf. “Our lady does not interrupt. Our lady graces her plague.” He took my arm and led me out of the great hall. “What troubles you?”

I took the tracking chip out of my pocket. “This belongs to my brother. I found it on the ground near the Wardrobe. Do you reckon one of your techies could take a look at it? See if there’s any history left on it?”

“Not my techies,” he corrected me. “
Your
techies. And yes. What the lady asks we will do.”

I made a face. “I d S fat need moron’t like that–and neither do some of the plague. I don’t want you to do things just because I wish it.”

He smiled. Fang me, but I will never get used to that. He reached out with long, nimble fingers and took the chip from my palm. That was when I noticed that his right hand looked decidedly different from his left, which seemed more paw-like.

He caught me looking–and seemed just as surprised as I was. “This is strange to you?”

I nodded, frowning. “Forgive me. I didn’t mean to stare.”

William held up both hands. I watched as the left one lengthened and became less furry, more slender. Bones and cartilage snapped and groaned. In a few seconds both hands were identical.

“Like our cousin wolves, the plague can change shapes.”

That might explain why my face changed when I gobbed out. “Can you look human?”

He shook his head. “Look more human, yes. Be like human,
no. Too much plague to be furless and pale. Easier for old ones like your prince.” He held up the chip. “Immediately this will be examined.”

A huge wave of relief swamped me. “Thank you. I know I only seem to come here when I want something…” I faltered. This was the moment when he was supposed to shush me and tell me I wasn’t at fault at all.

He didn’t. Instead, he smiled again. “It is my hope that one day the lady will join us because
that
is what she wants.”

I was such a tit. All I could do was nod.

After handing the chip over to one of the more tech-savvy goblins, I joined the prince and the others in the great hall. As much as I wanted to get home and check on Penny, I still wasn’t keen on facing Vex. More than that, however, was the fact that I’d been raised to have better manners than I typically exhibited. I did only come down here when I wanted something. No wonder some of the goblins sneered at me.

I sat on my throne, and tried to ignore Church’s skull just above mine. It was easier than it ought to be.

The music was good, and the crowd lively. I even sang along with some of the more chipper songs. He played everything from old folk songs to modern music I often heard on VBC radio.

Finally, after almost an hour, I took my leave. I’d left Penny alone for too long, poor thing. I felt a little better about facing Vex. He might take me to task, but it would be all right. I didn’t reckon I’d done anything he wouldn’t have done were the situation reversed.

When I exited cobbleside, my rotary chirped, letting me know I had a Britme waiting. I stepped to the side of the Met entrance and dialled the number to access the message.

It was Vex. “Something’s come up. I don’t know how long I’ll be. I’ll explain when I see you later. And then you can explain to
me
what the hell happened at Freak Show.” I could hear a smile in his tone and it made me smile as well. “Try not to get into any more trouble before dawn, okay?” And then the message ended.

Like a lovestruck teen in one of those melodramatic American programmes, I saved the message so I could listen to it again later. Then I jogged across the street and returned to the Butler. It had rained while I was underside, and the night was much cooler than it had been. A lovely breezed whipped through my hair as I drove, and the smell of damp earth hung in the air.

I went to Avery’s. I SAveacing could have rung her and brought her up to date on what little I’d managed to find out, but I wanted to see her. She was my sister after all, and I loved her. It didn’t matter that we fought as much as we laughed, or that she’d turned her back on me when I needed her. I had hurt her by not confiding in her, so that made us pretty much even.

She wasn’t home, much to my disappointment. I let myself in and left her a note on the table. I’d left the house and just pulled my goggles over my eyes when headlamps in one of the Butler’s side mirrors almost blinded me. It was a double-decker omnibus, and it was loaded with tourists.

What the bloody hell was it doing here? I knew there were evening tours for those who hoped to catch a glimpse of an aristo, or at least a few halvies, but I’d never seen one on this street.

A loud voice over a microphone answered my question. “And here we are, folks, Belgrave Square. This beautiful part of the Wellington district was home to many wealthy families
in the Regency period, right up until the early 1930s. After the Great Insurrection, those survivors of noble birth relocated to Mayfair and the outlying counties. The goblin queen herself, Alexandra Vardan, lived here until just recently.”

I was part of a fucking London tour? My life had become an annoying mix of the tragic and the absurd.

“There’s a half-blood!” I heard a young voice cry. “On the motorcycle.”

I wasn’t terribly familiar with the American vernacular, but I knew motorcycle was the same as motorrad, just as I knew that the trunk of a motor carriage was the same as the boot. Not sure how they came up with that one, but it hardly mattered.

Flash bulbs went off as the large vehicle slowly pulled up behind and then beside me. It stopped, engine idling.

“You mean to tell me that you people let this goblin queen, this child-eater, roam the streets?” a man asked. He sounded florid and fat, and in need of a good bowel movement.

“Why yes,” answered the guide. “She hasn’t broken any laws.”

“Son, where I’m from, a monster like that wouldn’t be allowed to live.”

I might have rolled my eyes if he hadn’t sounded so sure. He was probably the kind of man who hunted for sport, but only when the entire operation was set up for the sole purpose of him killing something and he was practically handed his prey.

“Hey, little girl. You ever seen this
goblin queen
?” He said it like he might have meant “sack of shit”. And he was talking to me. I just knew it. Fate wanted to fuck with me a little bit longer.

I turned my torso to look at him. He was exactly as I had imagined him. “I’ve seen her,” I replied. In the mirror.

“What’s your kind think of her?” My
kind
?

“She’s all right.” Really, what else could I possibly say?

“Would you trust her alone with your children?”

I looked at the man and his florid cheeks. Beside him was a haggard-looking woman and a young boy who I took to be his family. The top of the vehicle was full of tourists, and the lower half almost as packed. Faces watched me from behind glass, or poked out over shoulders and around those who were too tall. I felt like a model in an art class–naked and vulnerable in front of a group of people who were going to form their own image of me regardless of what I said or did.

“I would. She would never harm a child.”

He laughed at me. “Sure she would. You put a rabbit in front of a wild cat and it’s gonna get eaten.”

My gaze locked with his. “Why settle for a rabbit when you could bring down a hog instead?”

His smile faltered. If I could have got away with leaping up on to the railing and scaring the living shit out of him, I would have, but I didn’t want my photograph taken by every single tourist on board. And I certainly didn’t want to end up being accused of threatening humans.

“You obviously don’t know much about animals, ma’am. They bring down the small and the weak.”

“Goblins aren’t animals, sir.” I forced a friendly tone. “They are intelligent creatures. And they’re more likely to go after the biggest arsehole than the weakest link. You might want to stay above ground while you’re visiting the city.”