I walked over to the table, placing the drinks in front of the guests. “One Bloody Mary. One vodka martini with four olives. And one whiskey, no rocks.”
None of them thanked me, too busy with their hushed conversation. The man was telling the baroness and llama-face that he had heard Ddraig Goch had made his initial fortune by smuggling opium and blood diamonds to France. I rolled my eyes and moved away, approaching another table.
From the corner of my eye, I saw the Baroness chugging her Bloody Mary as if it was a contest. Good. The potion would take a few minutes to start working. The sooner she finished it, the better.
It was probably my finest work.
Vampires drink only blood. The very thought of consuming anything else is abhorrent to them. I couldn’t spike the security director’s drink with a truth serum.
So I spiked Sinead’s blood instead.
The potion was aimed to do two things. First, it enhanced Sinead’s blood’s scent, hopefully making it a temptation Maximillian Fuchs couldn’t ignore. Second, her blood now contained a mixture of truth serum and a soporific drug. It should make anyone drinking Sinead’s blood woozy enough for her to pick his pocket for the keycard, and get the code to the vault door from him. If there was a Nobel prize for alchemical concoctions, this potion would be a potential candidate.
“Okay guys,” I murmured under my breath. “The baroness just drank the potion. You should probably get out of the servants’ quarters.”
“Sure,” Kane said. “Harutaka, can we leave?”
“Just one moment…” Harutaka said.
My heart pounded as I waited for Harutaka to do his magic. Kane and Isabel were being watched via the security cameras. Harutaka’s job was to tinker with the feed, overriding it with older security footage, from before they were there, making them invisible to whomever monitored the feeds. That was his main responsibility this evening—to make us digitally invisible.
“Okay,” Harutaka said. “Just inserting a bit of static to mask the replacement… there we go. You two are invisible. Go forth and make trouble.”
“We’re out,” Kane whispered.
Harutaka began murmuring instructions to Kane and Isabel, guiding them through the garden in a way that would avoid the patrols he followed via the untampered security feed. I tuned this out, focusing on my job. I glanced at Maximillian Fuchs. If he was sensing Sinead’s blood scent, he didn’t show any sign. I checked the time. Five minutes since she’d drunk the potion. It should have begun working by now. Was it not strong enough? Or was he much more in control than I had thought?
“Baroness, perhaps you should inspect that picture on the far wall,” I murmured.
The painting I referred to was only six feet from the vampire. It should be enough.
The baroness smiled thinly as she listened to the man beside her talking. Then she placed her hands on the table, and said, “Excuse me for just a moment.”
She got up, and made her way to the picture, her pace calm and certain. She sidled right past Maximillian Fuchs, and I focused on his eyes. A tiny frown. A fraction of head movement. And then he blinked, and looked away. Damn it.
“Baroness, can you get your heart rate up?” I asked.
“It’s as high as can be, darling,” she murmured. “I’m a bundle of nerves.”
“The potion isn’t strong enough. You’ll have to get your chest closer to the vampire’s nose.”
“Closer? What do you want me to do, darling, shove my cleavage into his face?”
Maximillian began to pace the room, looking around, occasionally stopping to talk to someone. I clenched my jaw tightly. “Okay, go back to your seat, I have an idea.”
I approached the bartender, trying to look much calmer than I felt. “I need a glass of red wine.”
“For you, or one of the guests?” He winked at me.
“I definitely need one for me, but no, this one is for one of our esteemed guests.”
“They have wine on the tables.”
I cursed myself. Of course they did. “He’s some kind of pretentious asshole. Said the acidity lingers too much.”
The bartender rolled his eyes. “Oh god. Tell you what. I’ll pour a glass of the cheapest wine we have here, and I bet you ten dollars he drinks it without noticing a damn thing.”
“You’re on.” I smiled.
“Acidity my ass,” he muttered, pouring the drink.
I picked up the glass and turned to look at the crowd. Maximillian was still making his rounds between the tables, and would reach Sinead’s table in a few minutes. She was back in place, making conversation, and again, I couldn’t see even a glimmer of nervousness in her.
I crossed the room, pacing myself so that I would reach the table just as Maximillian walked by it. I had to walk a bit slower than my usual pace, my heartbeats mismatched with my footsteps.
Thump-thump-thump, step, thump-thump, step, thump-thump-thump, step.
I was close enough to the vampire to see his predatory eyes, the whiteness of his hair, his ageless skin.
I tripped and my glass tipped, most of it spilling on the table, some splattering the baroness.
“Oh!” she said, and stood up in mock shock, her boobs thrust as closely to Maximillian Fuchs as she could possibly bring them.
He paused, and I saw the dazed look in his eyes as the enhanced blood scent hit him. Bingo.
“I’m so sorry, ma’am,” I blubbered.
“It’s quite all right.” She flicked her fingers imperiously. Our eyes locked and I saw the twinkle in her eye, the rush we both felt.
Maximillian’s attention snapped to me. “You clumsy oaf!” he hissed. The blood had brought out the predator in him. The animal. His eyes were brimming with bestial rage, and my heart dipped, suddenly thinking that instead of going for the bait, he would tear my throat wide open.
The baroness laid a hand on his wrist. “It’s quite all right, sir.” She smiled gently. “No harm done.”
He blinked, his attention back to her. “I’m sorry for this incident, madam,” he said. “Please allow me to escort you to a private room where you can clean up.”
“Thank you, sir. I wish all men were as courteous as you.”
He glanced at me, his eyes cold. “You’re fired,” he said. “Get out of here.”
I did my best to look upset as I turned and left. In my ear, Harutaka whispered in excitement at our shared act. We had done it. Sinead was inside.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Jonathan accosted me as I tried to leave the kitchen.
“Where are you going?” He limped, and I felt an inkling of guilt, which dissipated once he added in an angry voice, “Get back in there. Now!”
“I was just fired,” I grumbled, letting my voice quiver in indignation.
“What? By who? Only I can fire you!”
“That weird pale guy.”
“Maximillian Fuchs?” He seemed to blanch.
“Yeah.” I paused. “So he can’t fire me? Would you mind talking to him? Because I could really use this job.”
“Um…” Jonathan eyes frantically avoided mine. “I suppose if he fired you he had a good reason. I’m sorry, you have to leave.”
I snorted and left the kitchen, slamming the door behind me.