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  “A prophesy, hmm?” She eyed us cautiously.

  “Yes—but he didn’t say what it was. Do you know anything about it?”

  “No, though I know one who might. But the Monsignor… doess he know where you are now? I do not wish to embroil myself with the likess of him.”

  “We’re in a safe house no one but Uncle Harry and I knew about,” I said. “I’m reasonably sure we weren’t followed.”

  “Good. Ssee to it that you do not bring his evil to me.” She flicked her tongue at me.

  “Excuse me,” Michael said, frowning at her. “So if The Monsignor is evil and the Slayers are good, whose side are you on?”

  “I am neutral.” She spread her hands, her pendulous breasts shifting under her hair. I saw that she had green nipples before I looked away. “I am a record keeper—a child of Lilith—Adam’ss firsst wife—and the sserpent who tempted Eve, his second wife. I have existed from the beginning of this world and I will endure until itss end when a record of the agess no longer needss to be kept.”

  Okay, so that explained why she was half snake but it was a pretty damn creepy reason if you asked me.

  “Can you tell us anything else about The Monsignor?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “Only that he iss very old and very evil…not one to crosss lightly. I would avoid him in future, were I you.”

  “Yeah, no shit,” I muttered. “Okay, well how about the prophesy he talked about and the completed family tree? Can you give us information on those?”

  “Not sso fasst, little slayer.” Her eyes flickered in the firelight. “There iss the little matter of my payment.”

  Uncle Harry’s words came back to me—the payment will be nothing you can hold in your hand—and I began to get a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I was determined not to show it, however.

  “What do you want?” I asked bluntly. “We’re a little light on cash right now but maybe—”

  “I do not dessire any form of currency.” She waved a hand as though the idea of money was boring in the extreme. Well la-ti-da.

  “What then?” Michael asked.

  “I have been hidden away for centuriess with nothing to do but keep the recordss of your race,” she said. “The agess change and yet all iss the ssame, day after day, century after century. There iss nothing new under the ssun.”

  “And?” I said blankly. “What does that have to do with us?”

  “I dessire novelty…for once I wish to ssee ssomething which hass never been done before.”

  “Which is?” I demanded. The bad feeling in my stomach was back and it was growing every second.

  “I wish to ssee a child of darknesss drink from a child of light—willingly,” she emphasized.

  “So you want to see Michael bite me?” I asked bluntly. Well, that was easy enough. I rolled up the soft leather cuff of his jacket. The silver stain had mostly faded from my uninjured wrist so that would probably be the one to use.

  “No.” Michael glared at the snake-lady. “I told you, I won’t do that anymore. It hurts Kate when she has to disinfect the wound.”

  “It’s all right, Michael,” I said, shoving the sleeve higher. “It’s not like I’m not used to it—I’ve been disinfecting vamp bites since I was sixteen. I’ll live.”

  “But I don’t want to hurt you.” He turned to me and I could see the agony in his green eyes. They glowed slightly with the vampire light but the expression on his face was the most human I had ever seen. I felt my heart melt, just a little though I tried not to let it. He really was worried about causing me pain.

  “It’s all right,” I said again, more gently. “If this is the only payment she’ll accept then we have to pay it. I still have half a vial of holy water left—I’ll be okay.”

  “All right.” He sighed. “But on one condition—that you let me make it up to you later.”

  I didn’t know how he thought he could make something like that up. But whatever—snake-lady was waiting and time was wasting.

  “Sure,” I said. “Okay, whatever you want.”

  “Thank you.” He took the wrist I had bared and started to bring it to his mouth.

  “Sstop!” Her hissing voice made both of us look up. “Thiss iss not what I wish to ssee,” she said, frowning at us.

  I put a hand on my hip.

  “I thought you wanted to see him bite me?”

  “Yess, I do dessire that very much. But not there.” She nodded at my bared wrist.

  The bad feeling was suddenly back in my stomach. It felt like a million bats had nested there and were stretching their wings.

  “Where?” I said, already knowing what she was going to say.

  “On your mark. The mark of the Sslayer. He must ssink his fangss into the very ssymbol that demandss you sseek out his kind and kill them.”

  “Wow, you don’t want much, do you?” I muttered. “You must be really starved for entertainment.”

  “I offer you much in your quesst for the truth.” She lifted her head, her forked tongue flickering. “Will you pay my price or not?”

  “No,” Michael said again. He sounded really angry now. “You know where Kate’s mark is—that’s a very sensitive area. It’s going to hurt twice as much to let me bite her there—not to mention the disinfection afterwards.”

  Not to mention how freaking embarrassing it was going to be. I’ve been known to pick up the stray man here and there for stress-relieving sex but that’s not an area I let anyone put his face. It was, as Michael pointed out, extremely sensitive. Also personal. And when I picked a guy for faceless, anonymous sex, personal was the last thing I wanted. Wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am was much more my style. I wasn’t exactly eager to change that now.

  Stop it, I told myself sternly. He’s going to be biting you—not…doing anything else. But it was still uncomfortable to think of his mouth being so close to such a very private area.

  The snake-lady didn’t appear to like Michael’s answer. Her eyes narrowed to slits, flaring orange again in the firelight.

  “Pay or leave,” she hissed, crossing her arms over her breasts. “I have no more time for you otherwisse.”

  “We’re going then,” Michael said at the same time I said,

  “Fine. We’ll do it.”

  “What?” He looked at me, frowning. “Kate, no!”

  “It’s the only way,” I said steadily, trying not to think how embarrassing it was going to be. “And it’ll be over in a minute. I’m sorry, Michael but we need this information.”

  For a moment his face was a mask of anger and indecision. But he must have seen the determination in my eyes because finally he shook his head and sighed.

  “All right. If you really want me to.”

  “Hell no, I don’t want you to,” I snapped. “But there’s no other way. So let’s get this over with, okay?”

  “Fine.” He got off the couch and started to crouch on the floor beside me, much as he had when I showed him my Slayer mark earlier. But the snake-lady stopped us again.

  “Sstand,” she demanded, pointing at me. “I wish to ssee.”

  “All right.” I stood on legs that wanted to tremble. Afraid, who me? It’s no big deal—just another bite, I lectured myself. So just damn well get over it.

  Defying my natural inclination to hide my more vulnerable areas, I propped one foot up on her dark red couch and turned my leg to the side, baring my inner thigh. Then I raised the skirt of the sundress, exposing the small, pale cross-shaped mark yet again. My, I certainly was showing this damn thing off a lot lately. Frankly, I was getting sick of it.

  “Higher!” the snake-lady demanded. “There must be no fabric in the way to block my line of ssight.”

  Biting my lip in irritation and embarrassment, I pulled the skirt and the long t-shirt I was wearing well out of the way. The white cotton panties I was wearing were now on full display along with my Slayer mark. Great. Just great.

  Michael knelt before me on the stone floor. It must have hurt h
is knees but he didn’t show any sign of discomfort. His eyes were trained on my bared thigh and they were glowing again.

  “Good,” the snake-lady directed. “Now bite. Let your fangs pierce her flesh exactly where the mark is placed.”

  Michael didn’t even look at her. Instead, he lifted his eyes to mine.

  “It’s okay, Kate,” he murmured, stroking my thigh with one big, warm hand. “I’ll try my best to be gentle.”

  “Just…just get it over with,” I whispered, uncertain why my voice was trembling and my skin had broken out in a rash of goosebumps.

  “All right.” He leaned forward but instead of biting, he kissed me. The soft, gentle press of his lips to my sensitive flesh had me trembling even harder.

  “Michael…” I protested, wishing my voice didn’t sound so high and breathless.

  “Easy…take it easy, Kate,” he whispered and kissed my mark again, just as he’d wanted to do earlier. This time his mouth was open and I felt the warm press of his tongue laving my quivering flesh. My nipples were suddenly achingly tight points beneath the stretchy top of the sundress and I felt my lower belly begin to tie itself in knots.

  God, why was this affecting me so much? It’s just a bite—only a bite, I told myself over and over. But he hadn’t even bitten me yet. I didn’t know what I might do when he did.

  “Michael, please…” I didn’t like the begging note in my voice but I needed him to hurry up and do this—to hurry up and get it over with.

  He looked up at me and nodded—reluctantly, I thought. Apparently he was enjoying kissing my mark and he didn’t want this moment to end.

  “All right.” His deep voice was slightly hoarse. “I’ll try to make it quick.”

  He opened his mouth wider and I had a moment to see the tips of his fangs pressing at either end of the pale cross high on my inner thigh. I could feel the heat of his cheek radiating against my crotch, through the innocent white panel of my white cotton panties. Then he slid those sharp points home inside me, as smoothly as he had slid the needle into my flesh the first time I met him, when he stitched me up in the ER.

  Something happened the moment his razor sharp fangs pierced my flesh. A jolt of pleasure hit me, tightening my already hard nipples further and making my pussy throb and swell with need.

  “Ah!” I gasped, gripping his broad shoulder to keep my balance. The whip-crack orgasm rolled through me, as quick and violent as being struck by a bolt of sexual lightning. I was suddenly incredibly wet between my legs—I felt certain my panties were soaked. The pleasure was so intense, I could barely keep my balance.

  “Kate?” Michael drew back, his eyes wide. “Did you just—”

  “No,” I lied quickly, panting and trembling from the intense aftershock. I started to shut my legs but a hiss from the snake-lady made me stop.

  “He hass only pierced the flesh…he has not yet drunk of your blood, little Sslayer.”

  “Fine,” I snapped. Looking down at Michael I said, “Look, just…just finish all right?”

  Still eyeing me doubtfully, he went back to the twin wounds he had made at either end of my slayer mark, fastened his mouth over my thigh, and began to suck.

  I’m ashamed to say that pleasure rolled through me in crashing waves. It wasn’t as intense—as almost painful—as that first lightning bolt of an orgasm I’d experienced when his fangs first pierced my mark, but it was plenty distracting for all that. All I could think about was the throbbing in my pussy and the way I was so wet. I had to keep hold of Michael’s shoulder as he drank, trying not to betray the need that was building inside me with each draw of his hot mouth against my thigh.

  It was damn embarrassing but I tried to pretend it wasn’t happening—tried to pretend everything was all right despite the very public way I had shamed myself. I just had to get through this, I told myself. Just had to let him finish drinking and then I could go back to the safe house and disinfect the bite and pretend none of this had ever happened.

  At last the snake-lady seemed satisfied.

  “Enough. I am ssatiated of this vision.” Her voice sounded bored, as if she truly had seen it all now. Well, so glad I could help her make her bucket list.

  Michael withdrew, lapping my thigh one last time, as though to clean up the last traces of blood. Then he stood fluidly, as if he hadn’t just been kneeling on a hard stone floor for what felt like forever.

  Clumsily, I smoothed down my skirt and shirt and took my foot off the couch. My legs still felt like overcooked spaghetti and the dull throb of pleasure echoed inside my body. The sensory overload made me stumble and I nearly fell.

  “Whoa!” Michael caught my arm, keeping me upright and giving me a worried look. “Kate? Are you okay?”

  “Fine,” I mumbled, trying to clear the buzzing hum of pleasure and need that filled my head. What I had felt—what I was still feeling to a certain degree—was ten times, no—a hundred times more intense than what I’d felt when he just drank from my neck. I wondered dimly if the snake-lady had known what would happen when he bit me on my mark.

  If so, she was more bitch than snake as far as I was concerned.

  “All right.” Michael gave me one more anxious look and then wrapped his arm around me, both protecting and supporting me since I seemed to be incapable of doing either for myself. He looked at the snake-lady. “We paid your price. Now what about the completed family tree and the prophesy Kate heard The Monsignor talking about?”

  She shrugged, her bare shoulders moving fluidly.

  “Alass, I have neither tree nor knowledge to give.”

  “What?” Her words cut through some of the sexual hang-over I was experiencing. “But we made a deal! You told us if we…if I let Michael bite me that you would give us the completed genealogy!”

  She shook her head. “No, I told you I could point you in the right direction. And for you, that direction lies acrosss the ssea.”

  “Where across the sea?” Michael demanded.

  “To meet the other keeper of recordss…my ssister. She lives in Waless. On the coast there is a craggy, unforgiving cliff called The Gower. My ssister lives there, by the place where the black ssheep are herded. You may call on her and tell her that Welissandra ssent you. Sshe will open her sstore of recordss to you and tell you what I cannot.”

  “What? All the way in Wales?” I demanded. “As in across-the-Atlantic-Sea-in-the-United Kingdom-Wales?”

  “The ssame.” The snake-lady seemed undisturbed by my outburst. “There you will find what you sseek. When you find the son of Niccolo you will also find the truth of the prophesy and all will be made clear. So you ssee, your two quests are bound—the genealogy and the prophesy are two in one. But you must seek my ssister, Cassandara to find them out.”

  “Great,” I muttered. “Cross-Atlantic road trip here we come.” Except how could we? My passport and identification were tied to The Monsignor, not to mention the money situation which was, I had none. But it looked like this was the most we were going to get from her.

  “Come on, Kate,” Michael took my arm. “Let’s get out of here.”

  “Fine.” I frowned at the snake-lady. “Thanks for basically nothing, Medusa.”

  She smiled serenely, my insult rolling right off her scaly back.

  “I have given you more than you imagine, little Sslayer. In time you will ssee. For now, remember thiss—that which harms may also heal. Farewell. And tell my ssister, Cassandara that I think of her often. I have not sseen her in millennia.”

  “Yeah, we’ll be sure to give her your love,” I muttered. The throbbing in my thigh where Michael had bitten me had joined the sexual ache between my legs making me wonder how in the world I was going to hike back down the side of the mountain. It wasn’t going to be easy, that was for sure. But we had to get going because I sure as hell didn’t want to spend the night on snake-lady’s blood red sofa.

  Turning, I headed for the door—or rather, the opening to the long tunnel. I had to get out of here and
tend to my wound—I just hoped that when I was finished the weird after-ache of pleasure would fade along with the pain.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  I don’t know how I got down the side of the mountain. I was a stumbling, bumbling mess completely different from my usual calm, collected self. I felt weakened—both by pain and by pleasure. It irritated me but there didn’t seem to be anything I could do about it. Several times Michael had to catch me by my arm when I stumbled. It was a good thing he had vampire reflexes—I would have pitched over the side of the cliff otherwise.

  The third time it happened, Michael swung me into his arms without a word and continued down the steep path.

  “Hey! Put me down,” I protested, but my voice sounded weak and ineffectual in my own ears.

  “No.” He glanced at me briefly, his eyes glowing softly green in the darkness. “It’s not safe for you to walk right now. It’s like you’re drunk.”

  “I’m not drunk,” I protested. “I just feel really, uh, weak for some reason.” I hated to admit that—hated to admit to any weakness. But the fact that I wasn’t strong enough to walk down the side of the mountain by myself pretty much said it all. I didn’t know what was wrong with me—what had caused this strange reaction. “Just need to get this damn vamp bite cleaned,” I mumbled, thinking aloud to myself. “Then I’ll be all right.”

  “I’m truly sorry about that, Kate. You know I didn’t want to bite you again.”

  The pained look on Michael’s face gave me a stab of guilt. That ‘damn vamp bite’ had come from him—a fact I’d managed to forget in my pain and pleasure haze.

  “It’s not your fault,” I told him. “Snake-lady made you do it and I said yes to it.”

  “But it had some kind of weird effect on you,” he protested. “I mean, you didn’t go all weak when I bit you on the neck. And you didn’t, uh, lose control when I bit you there either.”

  “Lose control?” I raised an eyebrow at him challengingly.

  “You know what I mean, Kate,” he said quietly. “You didn’t orgasm when I bit your neck—you didn’t come.”