So Finn hadn’t been doing any ‘succumbing’ himself. Strangely, instead of feeling pleased, anger rose, making me want to hit something—the snippet of gossip was irrelevant after all. Anything with Finn had always been a non-starter, never mind Hugh’s all-too-recent repeat lecture on the important don’tsin my life, or the situation I was in.
‘Anyway,’ Toni carried on, ‘I only need to find out what colour his tail is, and everyone knows you’rethe one he’s got a thing for, so maybe if you asked him nicely enough he’d tell you,’ she finished in a hopeful tone.
‘If all anyone had to do was ask,’ I muttered, ‘what’s with all the fuss that’s been going on?’
Toni snorted. ‘Leanora’s after Finn herself. She was worried about you being competition, so she’s been doing that reverse-psych thing on you. She thinks that making the bet all about sex will put you off.’
‘Weird.’ More mind games. There were a lot of them going around, which brought my mind back to the vampires and Bobby’s selective memories, and his guided tour through our shared past. Had he killed Melissa and his Master caused him to forget it? Or was it only her death that had been wiped from his mind? And why bother anyway? Maybe I’d find out when I paid his Master a personal visit. I pressed my palm against my thudding heart. There’s nothing like the thought of meeting the head of one of London’s four blood-families for giving a girl’s cardiovascular system a really fast workout, never mind the blasts of adrenalin the G-Zav was shooting through my veins.
‘And the other thing,’ Toni carried on, oblivious to my inattention, ‘Leanora thinks she can get Finn to jump the broom with her.’
The office door swung open and Constable Curly-hair, the unpleasant smirk still stuck on her face, ambled over to the water dispenser.
I said sharply, ‘She’s got no chance.’
‘’Course she hasn’t,’ Toni huffed. ‘I mean, I reckon I’d have more luck with him, and that’s with me batting for the other side. Anyway, did that journo friend of Stella’s find you earlier?’
‘Uh-huh,’ I murmured.
Constable Curly-hair brought her water over to Hugh’s desk, put it down and picked up one of Hugh’s fat pens. She started clicking it on and off.
I stared at the wet ring mark marring the desk’s shine.
‘Well, you’ll never guess!’ Toni’s voice switched to high-gossip mode. ‘You know that vamp that’s in all the papers?’ She paused for effect. ‘Well, the journo guy is his dad!’
I snagged one of Hugh’s coasters. ‘Yeah, Toni, I know.’ Leaning forward, I picked up the cup and placed it on the coaster, dead centre.
Constable Curly-hair twirled the pen at me, indicating I should hurry up and finish.
‘You know?’ I could almost feel Toni’s excitement. ‘So what did he want you for?’
‘Nothing much.’
The constable made a show of looking at her watch.
‘C’mon Genny,’ Toni pleaded, ‘don’t tease, it must’ve been something. You know I have to know these things.’
‘I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow, Toni.’ I brushed another speck from my trousers. ‘There’s a larger matter here I have to deal with first.’ I said my goodbyes, dropped the phone back into my bag and leaned back in my chair.
Constable Curly-hair threw the troll-pen down and it clattered over the desk. ‘I want a word with you.’
What hadI done to piss her off so badly? I gave her a level look. ‘What, just the one?’
Her lips twisted in a sneer again. ‘It’s a bloody shame the sucker didn’t bleed you dry,’ she snapped.
‘But we were so rudely interrupted,’ I reminded her. ‘Good things take time.’
Her face wrinkled in disgust. ‘Hugh’s a good man.’ She picked her cup up. ‘He’s kind, caring, concerned.’ She knocked back the water as though it was something stronger. ‘Sometimes he’s too kind, and people take advantage.’
Ahh.Now we were getting to it. I smiled, though it didn’t reach my eyes. ‘Do they,’ I said in a flat voice
‘Of course, youknow about the kids he helps.’ Crumpling the cup, she lobbed it over-arm into a nearby bin.
I caught the flash of pink magic at her wrist again, then her sleeve covered it.
‘The kids he finds on the streets, runaways, and others.’ She wiped her hands down her thighs, tugging at her too-tight uniform trousers. ‘He tries to stop them stealing, doing dope, turning tricks, whatever.’
I tapped the arm of the chair.
‘I know you’re one of them, that Hugh thinks he helped you.’ Spots of colour stained her cheeks. ‘Oh, not that he’s said anything, he’s too nice for that, but I can tell by the way he talks about you.’
‘And you’re telling me this because?’
She leaned towards me, ample breasts threatening the buttons on her shirt. ‘I know your sort, even if he doesn’t. You’re just a nasty little slut who thinks she can get anything she wants using magic.’ Mascara caked her lashes into unattractive clumps. ‘I might be human, but I’m a witch’s daughter. When you came in here with the sucker’s dad, your magic was all over like him like a nasty rash. I could seeit.’
A witch’s daughter: her father was human, not sidhe. I’d have offered my sympathies if it hadn’t been for what she was up to.
She shook her finger at me. ‘Glamour spells are illegal, you know that as well as I do. Stay away from Hugh. Maybe then I’ll forget what I saw.’
‘What, like you forgot to stay outside the cell earlier?’ Grabbing her finger, I bent it far enough back to hurt. ‘I think you’ve already forgottenenough, don’t you?’
‘Bitch,’ she hissed, breathing bitter coffee-breath all over me. She swung at me, clawed fingers going for my face, but I caught her wrist, yanked her arm behind her and pushed her back against the desk. She jerked her knee up and I twisted easily to the side, using the desk to trap her.
‘You think you know a lot, don’t you?’ I kept my voice low. ‘Well, here’s something else you should know.’ I bent her finger back even more, forcing her arm down. Grunting, she heaved against me, but I shoved her back and shook her arm until her bracelet dropped, the beads chinking. ‘Glamour isn’t the only type of spell that’s illegal.’
She went still and fear flickered in her eyes.
My gut twisted in anger as I lookedat the bracelet. Every rose quartz bead but one winked with a spell: lust, binding, memory, maybe an-eye-of-the-beholder ... not that I could tell what they all were, but I’d seen bracelets like this in the market: True Love spells, the quartz being the affinity gem that ties the magic together—only love is too pure an emotion to be manufactured, so the bracelets are really nothing more than a confidence boost—unless they come with the addition of an illegal compulsion spell. Like the one hidden in the pink bead that appeared empty of magic.
No wonder Hugh couldn’t stop watching her.
Crackingthe spells would shatter the bracelet into so much pink dust, but if Janet had been desperate enough to buy one in the first place, that wasn’t going to stop her.
‘What’s your new DI going to say when she sees this?’ I murmured in her ear. ‘And Hugh, how d’you think he’s going to feel?’
‘You wouldn’t—!’
‘Believe me, I so would.’
‘No! You don’t understand,’ she whined. ‘I love Hugh, only he won’t go out with a human. I just wanted him to think about me like that.’ Her voice hitched on a sob. ‘You can’t tell him.’
I shifted so I could look her in the eyes. ‘Okay ... but there is one condition.’ Shit, was I really going to bargain with her? Probably not the greatest idea I’d ever had, but this was for Hugh, so I ignored my unease and said, ‘You remove the bracelet and keep it in an envelope.’
‘That’s it?’ Surprise sharpened her features. ‘Nothing else?’
‘Agree, and I’ll won’t tell Hugh, or your DI.’
Her expression turned sly. ‘Give your word you won’t tell anyone else either.’