The Shifting Price of Prey (49 page)

Hugh stood, his large bulk blocking out the sun.

‘Shade,’ I murmured. ‘Nice.’

He cupped my elbow, carefully helping me up. ‘Come on, Genny. I’ll get Lamber to take you to HOPE. Get the docs there to check you out for any problems from that spell mix the
cambion had.’

‘Can’t go.’ I yanked out of his hold as desperation dropped me to my knees and thrust my hands into the dusty grass. My flaking skin shimmered gold as the brittle stalks
crackled against my fingers. But it wasn’t enough. I collapsed full-length, rubbing my face into the earth. Still not close enough. My fingers clawed at my shirt, popping the buttons. I
needed more skin—

Water poured down on me.

I flopped onto my back like a starfish and opened my mouth wide, letting it rain over me. Gods it felt good, ice cold, wet and
salty
. Ugh. I jerked up, spluttering as I got a mouthful
of saline solution. I swiped my hair and the stinging water from my eyes, and scowled at the person crouching next to me. Finn.

His hair looked as if it had grown since yesterday, his bracken-coloured horns almost hidden in the dark blond waves. He was wearing dark suit trousers and a smart, short-sleeved shirt, cream
with a thin ivy-green stripe, the collar open. It was his usual summer business style. And he looked good enough in his handsome human Glamour that I wanted to tear the clothes off him. The thought
of the two of us rolling around on the dusty earth, naked, clenched things low inside me. I curled my hands into the grass and stifled that thought. Maybe the cambion’s cauldron mix
was
affecting me. Though Finn’s salt-drenching seemed to have solved my ‘hot and thirsty’ problem. And seemed to have cleared my head. Not that I was feeling overly
appreciative.

‘Thanks,’ I muttered, glaring at the blue fire extinguisher he had his hand on.

He grinned cheerfully. ‘You’re welcome, Gen.’

I sniffed. ‘I wasn’t being grateful.’

‘I didn’t think you were.’ His grin widened. ‘Looks like I’ll have to make do with the view instead.’ Wickedness lit his moss-green eyes as they flicked down
then back up to my face.

I looked down. Sighed. If there was a wet T-shirt contest to be found, my boobs would be taking point and leading the way. As there wasn’t, they’d just give anyone too close an
embarrassing poke. Great. Still, at least I had boobs, and not the mosquito bites that the Magic Mirror spell kept inflicting on me. I pulled the soaked shirt away from my chilled skin, flapping it
gently; in this heat it and my bra should dry in no time. On the plus side, the soaking had almost washed away the bloodstain from Dessa’s bite. Maybe the day was looking up.

‘Gen?’

I looked back at Finn; his grin was gone.

And maybe it wasn’t. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘The Forum Miribilis. It’s not good.’

‘I
t’s an auction site,’ Finn said to me and Hugh. ‘The online auction runs all the time, but once every ten years they hold
a real-time “Special Auction” in conjunction with the Carnival Fantastique on the Summer Solstice, which is tomorrow night. That auction has a listing of rare items for people to bid
on. Plus there’s another section, a bit like “Want it Now” on eBay. People list hard-to-find items that they want to buy, either for cash or by offering something in exchange,
then the Forum’s procurers step in to source the lots. If they do, the site’s updated ready for the real-time auction.’ He flicked his fingers and
called
an electronic
tablet. ‘Tavish downloaded screenshots from the website.’

I peered over Hugh’s shoulder as he read.

The screen showed an entry from ‘RiverCat1’: Wanted: Female ailuranthrope.
Panthera tigris
– any subspecies preferred, though would accept any female ailuranthrope of
any big cat species. Must be pure bred, not bitten, and of breeding age.

There was a tick in the column headed: Sourced.

‘Weretigers are obviously not as extinct as everyone thinks,’ I muttered.

There was a note added to the ‘Sourced’ column: ‘Subspecies
Panthera tigris tigris
(Bengal tiger). Female comes with one pure-bred cub, also
Panthera tigris
tigris
(Bengal tiger) – male; aged six. Lots can be offered separately or together.’

They were going to auction off the ambassador’s wife and her kid. I hugged myself, chilled despite the summer heat. ‘That’s sick.’

Hugh rumbled agreement. ‘However, it does explain the Bangladeshi ambassador’s insistence on his diplomatic immunity.’

‘Damn. He’s worried about people finding out, isn’t he?’ I said. ‘Though really you’d think that would be the last thing on his mind.’

‘The longer a secret is locked in fear, the more impossible it becomes to release it, even when a more immediate danger threatens.’ A puff of worried dust escaped Hugh’s
headridge. ‘But now we know the motive behind the kidnap, it should be easier for us to help the ambassador.’

‘It doesn’t explain why they took the zoo employee too.’

‘No doubt we’ll find out,’ Hugh said, ‘when we find him. Which is more important right now.’

‘This should help.’ Finn handed the tablet to Hugh. ‘There’s a lot more info about the Forum in it. It’s been around since Roman times in various guises, but now
all the pre-organisation, leading up to the actual auction date, is done online. It also talks about the gold coins the Emperor’s werewolves throw around.’

‘They’re a recompense of sorts,’ Hugh rumbled angrily.

Finn nodded. ‘They’re given as payment to the person who has had something taken from them by the Forum procurers. The person can either choose to keep the coin and realise its
monetary value, or use it to attend the auction and buy back that which has been taken.’

‘You mean those who’ve been kidnapped?’

Finn shook his head. ‘Some of the Forum’s listings are of things, not living beings.’

Right. ‘So you’re saying whoever’s got the coin can turn up at the Forum, hand over the coin and get their relatives or item back?’ It was too easy. ‘What’s
the catch?’

‘It’s not a straight exchange. The coin’s only an invitation to attend the Forum and barter. The coin-holder is asked for additional payment of some sort.’

‘Like what?’

‘Apparently it’s different for everyone. It’s to discourage coin-holders from turning up or, if they do, to make sure the Forum doesn’t lose out.’

‘Crap,’ I muttered. ‘It’s probably some Faustian or first-born child thing. But at least the coins are a way into the Forum.’ I looked at Hugh. ‘We’ve
got two: the ambassador’s, and the one the werewolves threw at Max. So we could use them to infiltrate the auction, couldn’t we?’

Hugh nodded. ‘An option to consider, Genny. Though I hope it won’t come to that. It would be better all round to stop the auction before it even begins.’

I shot him a wry grin. ‘Is this where you tell me to stop trying to teach you to suck eggs?’

‘Your input is always welcome.’ Hugh’s pink teeth sparkled in a gentle smile. ‘If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t ask for your help. ‘Now we have this’
– he waved the tablet – ‘to give to the IT bods at New Scotland Yard, there’s a good chance we can find the exact auction location. I’ll get it off to them right
away.’ He called Constable Lamber over, showed him the tablet and started issuing instructions.

A sudden thought hit me. ‘Am I on the auction wanted list?’

Finn shook his head. ‘Tavish did a thorough search.’

Relief washed over me. ‘Good to know I’m not going to end up on the auction block.’

‘Yeah,’ Finn agreed, clasping my shoulder. ‘I hate to say it, but the Autarch did a good thing giving Tavish this info.’

I snorted. ‘Only because he’s got a showdown scheduled with the Emperor. He’s probably worked out that if the police get in on the act, it’ll weigh the odds in his
favour.’

‘Ahh.’ Finn gave me a ‘should’ve known’ look. ‘Still, at least it gives the victims a better chance.’

‘Yeah,’ I agreed, hoping it would save them, and determined to help any way I could. Only, unease pricked at me. The Empress card had said ‘save my children’ –
Bastien and Dilek, presumably – and helping the police nab the Emperor would do that. But if the Emperor was nabbed before I got a chance to ask him my question about the fae’s trapped
fertility, where did that leave me and the fae? Okay, so it might be that the Emperor’s price for telling me the answer was to get him out of clink. Only while Hugh might be pro-fae, I
doubted the human law would see that as a good reason to let the Emperor go, so realistically, it wasn’t a price I could pay.

Crap, maybe I’d made a mistake giving Hugh the info about the Forum. Maybe this was what Tavish meant when he said he’d had a prediction that I could screw things up, and leave the
fae’s fertility permanently trapped? Only he was the one who’d sent the info over. Damn. I needed to speak to him.

Heart thudding, I called. And got his voicemail.

Keeping my voice low, I started leaving him a worried message—

Finn’s hand closed over mine and ended the call. I looked at him in surprise. He slung an arm round my shoulders and subtly turned us so we faced away from Hugh. ‘Tavish and I
already talked about this, Gen,’ he said quietly. ‘If the Emperor ends up in goal, then it could work in our favour. We can get him out, free and clear, the same way Tavish planned for
you last Hallowe’en, if you were ever arrested for that human’s death. We’ll make the Emperor an
ùmaidh
.’

An
ùmaidh
. A temporary changeling. The sidhe don’t only leave them in cradles when stealing human babies, they and the lesser fae use them, if needed, to escape human law.
An
ùmaidh
might not ‘live’ long, a month at most, but then human justice for fae and vamps is swift and fatal. Severing part of your soul and sacrificing some flesh,
then forging it to a fresh cut log or an animal, isn’t a huge price to pay if you’ve got a one-way ticket to the guillotine.

I frowned, murmured. ‘Can one be made for a vampire?’

‘Tavish says yes.’

Right. ‘Good to know,’ I muttered. ‘Though would’ve been helpful if he’d bothered to return my calls and tell me.’

‘I think he’s got a lot on his plate just now.’

I shot him a narrow look. ‘Like what?’

‘When I went round, there was another fae there, but I never saw who she was.’

‘She?’ I asked, curious.

‘Yeah.’ Mischief flickered in Finn’s green eyes. ‘They appeared to be having a domestic, as far as I could work out.’

I gaped. ‘Really? Tavish has a girlfriend?’

‘Seems so, yeah.’

‘Wow. When did that happen?’ I pursed my lips. ‘Wonder if Sylvia knows? Nah, she can’t, she’d never have kept that to herself.’

‘Yeah, she and the rest of the dryads do like a bit of juicy gossip,’ he grumbled. ‘I’ve already had most of the herd ask me what my early morning visit to you was
about.’

I poked him. ‘Blame your brothers for gossiping about me being an item with Sylvia and Ricou. It caused Sylvia hassle with her mother.’

Faint heat coloured Finn’s cheeks. ‘Look, forget about that now, Gen. There’s something else we need to sort out.’

Oh, yeah. The whole Helen/Malik/Spellcrackers/Finn working or not for me thing. So not something I wanted to get into. ‘Now’s not really the right time, Finn.’

‘Not that, Gen,’ he said quietly, then pointed at the cambion’s tent. ‘Hugh says you’ve been hit with a massive dose of fertility rite magic, about five times more
than normal, even without taking into account the rest of the stuff the idiot had in his cauldron. Add that to the Fertility pendant problems Tavish says you’ve been having, and it’s
not surprising you were rolling round on the ground.’

‘It was pretty surprising to me,’ I said, then mock-grumbled, ‘as was my impromptu shower.’

‘You’re drying out’ – Finn glanced down – ‘which is a shame—’

‘Hey!’ I stuck my finger under his chin and pushed upwards. ‘Eyes up, okay?’

He gave me a quick grin, then sobered. ‘So the fertility rites were about increasing the fecundity of the land long before the witches co-opted them for making baby witches.’ He
waved an arm at the semi-circle of tents. ‘Look at it. The place is halfway to a drought, and the shows have sucked the natural magic dry. The ground is starving. It was reaching out to all
the fertility magic inside you. You’re lucky it didn’t
absorb
you.’

Swallowed by the earth. I shuddered. So not a great way to die. ‘Guess I should say thank you again, and mean it.’ I gave him a rueful look. ‘Thank you, Sir Knight, for saving
me. With your trusty fire extinguisher.’

‘You’d have done the same for me.’ He smiled. ‘Even if I didn’t need saving.’