Then of course, I’d got the job at Spellcrackers.com just over a year ago, a few days before my twenty-third birthday. I’d been as happy as a blinged-up goblin; not only did the job involve magic, but because it was a witch company, the job came with the witches’ protection. No wonder the Earl had been angry. The prohibition might have ended, but I was still out of his reach.

And there weren’t many vamps powerful enough to force the Earl—and the rest of London’s blood-families—into a prohibition in the first place, so it wasn’t such a leap that Malik was involved—but why would Malik do such a deal? Especially when he’d told me himself he’d coveted my blood since I was four years old? Why hadn’t he just come after me and snatched me up? I was infected and he’d obviously known where I was all this time.

I opened my mouth to ask him—then my thoughts snagged on the sidhe queen’s droch guidheand the fae’s needof a baby-making machine, and I got my answer. London’s fae—presumably through Tavish—had somehow stopped him. But if they had, the surprise of it was that the dryads or some other fae hadn’t decided to kidnap and impregnate me before now.

A fourteen-year-old sidhe is much easier to control than a twenty-four-year-old.

But Tavish was one of only four fae I’d spoken to in all the time I’d been in London, and I’d been so concerned about keeping my part-vamp parentage a secret that it had never really struck me as odd. Now, as I thought about it, it was nearly as odd as spending ten years relatively unmolested by vampires.

Until you added in a flipside to the prohibition.

With the sidhe queen’s curse hanging over their heads, what, or who, could make London’s fae agree to stay away from me?

Had to be the queen, of course, since she was ultimately the one calling the shots.

Suspicion crept on black-tipped claws into my mind. And who was her ambassador? Grianne, my not-so-friendly faerie dogmother—

I looked up at the dawn-streaked sky.

—who I was due to meet as the sun was cresting.

Early birds catching worms, or in this case answers to prohibitions, curses and murders,came to mind.

I sat up and looked round the room, hoping to find some clothes ...

Only I wasn’t the only one looking around.

My pulse jumped and I stilled.

Someone was watching me from the dive-hole in the glass floor. He—my eyes flicked downwards, yes definitely a he—had his top half in the room, pale-grey scaly forearms flat on the floor, webbed, clawed hands clasped together, while his blue-grey legs and long, whip-like tail floated in the water below. His wide lipless mouth yawned in a grin, showcasing rows of tiny, sharp green teeth, and the opaque membrane covering his eyes slipped up, leaving gleaming black orbs reflecting back the room’s soft green light.

I lifted the tattered sheet and tucked it under my arms, blinking at him in amazement. What the hell was a naiad doing in Tavish’s bedroom? And even as I asked myself, the answer popped up, pretty much as quickly as the naiad had: the sidhe queen’s stupid curse. I did a quick check through the glass floor of the room to see if there were any more of the naiad’s pals lurking outside in the water, but he seemed to be on his own.

He nodded at me, the thick fluted fins on either side of his head flaring outwards, then he put his webbed claws flat on the floor and started to push himself up and out of the dive-hole.

I shot out my hand and said firmly, ‘Hold it right there, fishface. No way do you get to come in unannounced and uninvited.’

The naiad’s elbows locked and he stopped. ‘Fishface, luv?’ His lipless mouth appeared to have no problem forming the words. ‘What sort of half-assed greeting is that?’

‘The only sort you’re going to get when you pop up naked and unwanted in my bedroom,’ I snapped.

‘Your bedroom?’ His spiny headcrest lifted up in what looked like surprise. ‘This is the kelpie’s bedroom.’

‘Ever heard of possession?’ I said. ‘The kelpie’s not here and I am, therefore it’s currently mine.’ I waved my hand in a ‘get lost’ motion at him. ‘You want to see him, you can go round the front way.’

‘There’s a bloody big sand-dune out there, luv. It looks like he’s imported half the bleeding Sahara, and I’m a naiad, not a bleeding camel-toed horse.’ He made a high clicking noise and I realised he was laughing.

‘Fine, I’ll remember to tell him that after you’ve made yourself scarce.’

‘S’okay, it’s you I’ve come to see anyway.’ He hauled himself out and stood dripping, legs apart, headcrest brushing against the curve of the ceiling, his tail trailing back into the dive-hole. ‘Word has it you’re in the market for a firionnach, bean sidhe, so us naiads had a little game of poker and, lucky for you, luv’—he thumped his chest with a closed claw—‘Ricou here plays a mean game of five-card stud.’

‘You won me in a poker game?’ I blurted out in affronted disbelief.

‘Yep. Bleeding great, ain’t it?’ His mouth did the grin-yawn thing again. ‘So, before all the official rigmarole with the Lady Meriel, I thought I’d swim over and let you have a look at my credentials.’ He looked down and carefully took hold of himself, one webbed claw around each of his overly excited credentials. ‘There you go, double your money’s worth, luv.’ His fluted face-fins flared proudly. ‘Just to prove I’m full-blood naiad and not some halfling pup.’

Two! Okay, so I’d heard the rumours, but—I stared, I couldn’t help myself, it was that whole car-crash thing ...

‘Oh and just in case you’re wondering,’ he went on, the membrane slipping down over his left eye in a wink, ‘they’re always like this. We naiads ain’t got the same shrinkage problems as everyone else.’ He did a little flip and his non-shrinking credentials somehow managed to stick out at right angles. ‘So, luv, whenever you’re ready for a bit of slippy-slippy, I’m up for it.’

I did an astonished double-take, then got my mind back on track.

‘Tavish,’ I yelled, glaring at the open vault door, ‘get in here, now!’

Tavish strolled in almost immediately, silver beads sparkling at the ends of his dreads, black harem pants gathered at his ankles and the green-black skin of his chest gleaming like watered silk. He smiled, and my mouth lifted to smile back at him before I could stop myself. I pressed my lips together and dragged my eyes away before I ended up staring like a charm-struck human again.

‘What the hell is he doing here?’ I pointed at Ricou.

‘If the naiad’s nae tae your liking, doll’—he gave me a bland look—‘just say the word; I’m sure the Lady Meriel will let you choose from the rest o’ them.’

‘But that’s not bleeding fair, kelpie,’ Ricou cried. ‘I’ve just told the bean sidhe—’

‘Hey, fishface,’ I waved my hand at him, ‘shut up, before you make me do something you’ll regret.’

‘Like what, luv?’ The clicking laugh came again. ‘I mean, the way I heard it, you ain’t got any bleeding magic to speak of.’

‘Yeah?’ I gave him a just-you-try-it look. ‘So who do you think built the sand-dune out there?’

His headcrest slowly subsided.

‘Of course, doll, if there’s nae one o’ the naiads takes your fancy,’ Tavish said coolly, his delicate black-lace gills shifting slightly at his throat, ‘t’would be an easy thing for me tae tell the Lady Meriel that we’re courting and save you the bother o’ disturbances like this one.’

Save me the bother?‘C’mon, Tavish,’ I snorted, ‘this is your own private aquarium. The only way fishface could get in here is if you let him, so whoever you think you’re fooling, it’s not me.’

‘Ach, doll, I’m only showing you your alternatives.’ He smiled, his silver eyes sparkling like the full moon on the sea. ‘Far be it from me tae stop you having a litter o’ naiad pups, or maybe half-a-dozen saplings.’