“Where are Gabriel and Jenny? What have you done with them?”
I’d rather have killed Victoria, but since Disco hadn’t reestablished our mark I knew he was still unconscious. It would be hell to find him in a house this large. They’d said the slave quarters, but I had no idea where those were. Even if the slaves showed me where they lived in this hellhole, he could be anywhere. Then there was Jennifer. What had they done with her? Where would you put a newly turned vampire? Disco said he’d been placed in the earth, but Marius had changed him and Paine in the open, following a Civil War battle. Would Jenny be above or below ground? In a bed or in a shallow grave?
I shivered at the thought.
“Do you honestly think I’d risk Revenald’s wrath by answering that question?” Victoria scoffed, her glossy red lips thinning. “You’ve lost your mind.”
“Not yet, but I’m getting there.” I bent down and removed the patent leather heels from Victoria’s feet. Her toenails matched her fingernails, painted bright cherry red. It was a shame I was resorting to torture tactics, but she wasn’t leaving me much choice.
Sucker buzzed in my hand when I removed it from its sheath, hungry for more blood. Victoria must have had a clue what I was up to, because she balled up her toes. Oh well, that just meant I couldn’t take her little piggies one at a time. I decided to cut past the final knuckles of her foot, so that it took off a quarter of her tootsie. This time, she did scream, so loudly my ears rang.
“We don’t have to do this,” I reminded her, moving to her other foot, wishing she would just tell me what I wanted so I could end this. Even though she’d hurt Jenny, torture wasn’t my thing. “All you have to do is tell me where they are.”
“Fuck you,” she snarled, a wild beast now, feral and out of control.
“Sorry, I don’t swing that way. But thanks for the offer.”
I wished I’d had the foresight to bring earplugs. When Victoria screamed, she really screamed. The sound seemed to go on and on, echoing loudly inside the room.
“Answer my question.”
“Fuck you,” she repeated, huffing through heavy tears.
I was plotting my next move when I heard heavy footsteps behind me. Instinct told me to move, but I didn’t have time. I was sent across the room, thrust away from Victoria. I rolled when I hit the ground, trying to get my bearings as I went to my hands and knees and lifted my head.
I could have slapped myself. Stupid is as stupid does.
A facepalm was definitely in order.
For some reason I hadn’t paid full attention, otherwise I’d have noticed a necromancer had snuck from the room—Victoria’s familiar, Dimitri. The son of a bitch had managed to get me away from his mistress, but that was small potatoes in the larger scheme of things. It was what was standing beside Dimitri that made my holy-shit-o-meter shrill like an old-fashioned alarm clock.
The largest demon I’d ever seen studied me, standing at least seven feet tall. Like all demons, its features were androgynous. Its long, dark red hair flowed down its back, and it was dressed in a cloak straight out of Star Wars.
Oh shit.
“End her life, Labre, and I will consider our debt paid,” Victoria said, her voice a shriek of anguish. “Kill her for me.”
“Why would I want to do that?” the demon chided, clucking its tongue. “It’s obvious she’s about to end your life, thereby nullifying our debt. I gain nothing in the exchange.”
Victoria panicked, realizing her mistake. “Name your price!” she squawked, moving her hands trapped by the blades stuck to the chair, her fingers wriggling.
“A child, Victoria Delcroix. You will come to me each night until you conceive. The fruit of our union will then be given to me.”