Henrik owed me a favor, and it was time to call it in.
I pulled on a dark sweatshirt for a tough, ballsy look, checked my hair, and slammed the door to my apartment on my way out. Down the hall I went, down the stairs, and into the dining room. Then up to the drawing room, the card room, the music room, and into the west wing. Dammit. Where was Henrik? And why the hell had I ever decided to live in a forty-room château?
Outside the library, I screeched to a stop, spotting a tall, pale figure standing by the windows with a book.
I stomped in, gnashing my teeth.
“The library is off-limits,” I snipped.
“Is it?”
Yes, it was, as Henrik knew perfectly well. I glared.
“What a pity,” he said in his usual half yawn, half sigh.
He closed the book slowly, and I felt a corner of my mind prickle. The bastard was trying to thrall me into changing the rules for him, wasn’t he?
I gritted my teeth and threw a thousand expletives over the wall in my mind.
He grimaced and stuck the book back on the shelf.
“Not very ladylike.”
No, I supposed sayingFuck off, Henrikwasn’t. At least, not in the era he’d been born in, centuries ago. But this was the twenty-first century, dammit, and this was my château.
“Don’t break the rules, and you’re more likely to see the proper lady in me,” I snipped.
He shot me a sour,I doubt itlook, which was probably justified.
Then his eyes wandered to my neck and sparkled, making me shiver — and not in a good way. I made a mental note to ask Madame Picard to double the amount of red meat she served with meals. Anything to help a vampire stave off his craving for blood.
Henrik yanked his eyes away and turned to the door, grumbling, “I’ll be going, then.”
The top row of windows in the library was stained-glass, and he looked paler than ever stepping through the red and yellow shafts of light.
“Don’t,” I said a little too sharply. Then I cleared my throat. “I mean, please stay. I have a question for you.”
He smirked. “Ah, but I may not have an answer.”
Vampires. Always such jerks.
“Remember that favor you promised me in Mallorca? I’m calling it in.”
He frowned, and his fingers curled. Not a happy vampire, but hell. I wasn’t all that cheerful today either.
He shrugged. “Go ahead.”
“I need you to answer a few questions.”
He shook his head. “One favor, one question.”
“Five questions,” I estimated. “Small ones.”
He snorted. “Three at most.”
I held my ground. “Five.”
“Four.”
