Oops! I’d forgotten about her. Damn magic.

Finn’s talk was going to have to wait until later. Much later, like when I’d got hold of something to stop me throwing myself at him. Silently chanting Helen, Helen,I did a quick mental calculation. ‘Talking sounds good, but let’s say my place around nine-ish?’ I nodded towards Victoria Harrier .‘I think she has to tell me the dos and don’ts to keep me on the straight and narrow.’

He cast a look at the lawyer, then gave a soft laugh. ‘Yeah, like you’ll take any notice of her.’ His thumbs skimmed over my knuckles and another cascade of magic sparked between us, only to fall flat on Helen’s name. ‘I’ve got a better idea. Why don’t I follow you, and we can chat once she’s gone?’

I shook my head, still chanting desperately, ‘Nah, leave it till later. I want a shower’— boy, did I want a really long, really cold shower—‘and there’s other stuff I need to get out of the way first.’

‘Hey, tomorrow’s Saturday. It’s usually quiet, take the day off.’ His grin told me he was trying to make amends. ‘I’ll swing it with your boss, he’s really a nice guy.’

‘He is.’ I forced out a smile. I was getting heartily sick of chanting Helen’s name in my head. ‘But I can’t put this appointment off’—I pulled my hands from his, the lure of his magic lessened and I sighed, relieved—‘so nine, okay?’

‘Appointment?’ His grin faded. ‘Can’t you postpone it?’

‘Not really.’

‘C’mon, Gen?’

‘I have to do this today. I’m sorry, Finn.’ I gestured at Victoria Harrier standing patiently next to the idling limo. ‘And I have to go, the meter’s running, and she’s probably more expensive than a taxicab.’

‘Have to … ?’ Comprehension dawned on his face. ‘It’s the sucker, isn’t it?’ He clenched his fists in angry disgust. ‘’Course it is. And now you’re going to see him because he’s the one paying for the fancy lawyer and the fancy car—’

‘Hang on a minute! I’ mthe one paying for this!’

‘Not up front, you’re not, Gen.’ He shook his head angrily. ‘And to get someone like her to drop everything, you’d need to be.’

He was right, even if I was planning on footing the bill in the end (however long it took; a thought that had me wincing)—not that I was going to stand there and argue about it with him. Irate, I pushed past him. ‘Look, I’ll see you later.’

He caught my wrist and pulled me back. ‘Gen, it doesn’t matter what he’s told you. All suckers are dangerous.’

I jerked easily from his hold. Turns out anger works as well as chanting Helen’s name. ‘Right now, Finn, the suckers are the least of my worries. There’s no vamp in London who’d even say hello to me—or to any other fae or faeling—without Malik’s permission.’

‘Hell’s thorns, Gen!’ Consternation clouded his face. ‘There’s no way any vamp can guarantee that sort of blanket protection—’

‘He’s running London, so yes, he can. That’s the way vamps work. They either toe the line or their ashes feed the fishes. You know that.’

‘Feeding … Gods, I should’ve realised— That’ swhy you started to fade this morning—he’s been taking too much blood. Gen, I can’t let you do this; it has to stop—’

‘You don’t know what you’re talking about, Finn,’ I stated, keeping my voice level. Of course I wasn’t feeding Malik—hell, I hadn’t even seenhim until last night. But maybe I had been overdoing it on the donations. It was something to think about later, but— ‘And even if you did, it’s still none of your business.’

‘I’m your boss, Gen, so it ismy business if you can’t do your job because you’re too weak.’

Damn.‘It always comes back to that, doesn’t it?’ I tried to ignore the hurt, furious that I hadn’t even seen it coming this time, and dug out my Spellcrackers.com ID card, grabbed his hand and slapped it on his palm. ‘I resign,’ I said. ‘As of now.’

He looked down in shock for a moment, then he held the ID card back out to me. ‘I’m sorry, Gen. I shouldn’t have said that.’

‘No, you shouldn’t.’ I glared at the ID card. I loved my job.

‘I’m worried about you, that’s all,’ he said, sounding defensive. He grabbed my hand, put the card in my shaking palm. ‘Look, take it back.’

I hesitated, wanting to curl my fingers round the thin bit of plastic … but I didn’t want my job held to ransom every time I did something he didn’t like.

‘Don’t do this, Gen,’ Finn pleaded, ‘not over some sucker. He doesn’t care about you; all he’s doing is using you.’

No,he isn’t—it was them—London’s fae, Clíona, the goddess—they were the ones using me, or wanting to anyway, with the damned fertility curse egging them on. But Finn was one of the good guys. My fingers started to curl—

— and something sharp tugged inside me, made me almost scream with pleasure—magic.

I shot a look at Finn, caught a spark of emerald in the deep moss-green of his eyes, and realised he’d done it deliberately. Anger flashed white-hot: I’d had enough of everyone trying to force me to do what they wanted.

I dropped the card, then turned and walked towards the limo, ducked my head and climbed inside.

Victoria Harrier got in after me. ‘Are you ready to go?’ she asked calmly.

I nodded. The door clicked shut, cutting out Finn’s calls to come back. Within seconds the limo was moving, and we were enveloped in quiet, air-conditioned luxury. Outside the tinted windows, London seemed far away. Tears pricked the back of my eyes and I swallowed down the ache in my throat. Time enough for a pity party later.

After the killer was found and the curse was cracked.

‘Was that a good idea, resigning like that, Ms Taylor?’ Victoria Harrier asked a few moments later, breaking the silence.

I stopped staring blindly out of the window and finally noticed the inside of the limo. Victoria Harrier sat kitty-corner across from me on the back seat. The usual limo bar area had been replaced with a James Bond-style mobile office: a couple of high-end laptops, a ‘does-everything’ printer, three telephones on cradles and various other gadgets sat next to neat piles of stationary and files. I looked: Buffer spells protected every electrical item. More spell-crystals were stuck to the doors and the opaque smoked-glass screen that partitioned off the driver: no doubt for privacy. It was all just as fancy—and expensive—as Finn suspected.

‘If you’re worried about your fee, I’m good for it’—sooner or later—‘but since you’re Malik al-Khan’s lawyer, he’s probably already guaranteed it.’ I recalled my earlier suspicions. ‘Although I am curious about why a witch is working for a vampire—I thought the Witches’ Council’s ancient tenets forbade it?’

‘I’m yourlawyer, Ms Taylor.’ She pressed a button and a table slid out in front of her. She reached for one of the laptops and powered it up. ‘I’ve never worked for Mr al-Khan. I haven’t met him, or spoken to him, and I hope I never do. I detest vampires and everything about them.’

I looked at her, amazed. ‘Then why did Sanguine Lifestyles hire you?’

‘You have my services because I’m one of the best criminal defence lawyers in Britain,’ she said briskly. ‘I have excellent contacts within the justice establishment, and I have quite some influence within the Witches’ Council, something I was able to use to your advantage when it came to dealing with DI Crane.’

‘Yeah, I get that,’ I said, ‘and I never expected you’d be anything less. But then, I thought Malik was paying your bill.’

‘Sanguine Lifestyles approached one of my colleagues,’ she said, her fingers tapping the keys. ‘My colleague is a first-rate lawyer, and he does a tremendous amount of very lucrative work for the vampires. He mentioned the job, and I convinced him to pass it on to me. My reputation is as good—maybe even better—than my colleague’s, and once I’d explained the circumstances to him, he was happy to agree.’