Caxton smiled to herself. “We use bait.”
The trick she’d used on Hauser—using her own blood to drive that vampire crazy—would work on Forbin, but not on Malvern. Caxton had seen Malvern turn away from readily available blood before when the cost was too high. Over her three centuries she’d learned some kind of self-restraint.
She had another idea, though. She explained it carefully to Gert, who started breathing heavily and blinking a lot. It scared Gert. It scared Caxton, too, but fear had stopped meaning much to her.
“Okay. We need to be together on this one. If you don’t think you can handle it—”
Gert nodded. “I can be useful to you. I can be your road bitch. That’s all I’ve wanted this whole time, right? So let me do it.”
Caxton grabbed Gert’s biceps and squeezed by way of thanks. Then she stepped out of the doorway and into the starlight. “Malvern!” she called.
There was no answer. The shadows she’d seen moving before had stopped, still as statues. Maybe she’d been completely wrong and there were no vampires there. Maybe they had already escaped.
No. That wasn’t an acceptable thought. She banished it from her mind.
“Malvern, you know how I feel about vampires. You know I would never accept the curse willingly.” She grabbed Gert and pulled her forward, to her side. “But it’s not just about me, is it?”
She could sort of see a red glow in the darkness of the tower wall. Or maybe it was just her brain wanting it so badly that it was filling in details that weren’t there.
She had to keep this up. “Gert shouldn’t have to die, just because I’m stubborn. I want to make a deal with you. Clara gets to live. She’s out of your hands now, anyway—the police got to her first. But Gert and I… we’ll… join you.”
A pale shape detached from the shadows and stepped forward. It was Malvern, her red eye positively burning with excitement. She looked so healthy, so whole. Caxton couldn’t get used to the transformation. Always before Malvern had been a rotting corpse in a coffin. Now she was a sleek and deadly predator.
Her voice was a rough growl. “You—uh.” She paused.
Caxton frowned. She’d never heard Malvern mumble before. It didn’t matter, she told herself.
“Ye will forgive me, Miss Caxton, should I doubt ye.”
Caxton nodded. “Sure. I would, too. But I owe this to Gert. She’s saved my life a bunch of times, and—I can’t repay that debt any other way.”
“It’s what I want,” Gert said, right on cue. “Please.”
The red eye flicked from Caxton’s face to Gert. It looked the girl up and down carefully. Then it focused again on Caxton.
“Ye misunderstood my intentions, though,” Malvern said, in a flat tone. “I never meant to make ye come to my estate.”
Caxton frowned. “No?”
“No, dear. I only wanted to watch you beg for your life.”
Forbin came out of the shadows then as if she’d been launched from a catapult. Caxton didn’t see her feet touch the ground more than once or twice. Her hands were outstretched, her fingers curled like talons. For a killing blow.
“This is bullshit,” Gert had time to scream. And then her shoulder was in Forbin’s stomach. Ordinarily she had as much chance of moving a Mack truck with her shoulder as she did stopping Forbin’s attack. But Gert didn’t need to stop the vampire. She just needed to throw her a degree or two off course.
They went over the side of the wall together, arms and legs flailing, teeth flashing in the starlight. There was a brief scream, and a horrible thud.
Gert—Gert had—
Gert had just saved her life, again.