“You like secrets,” I said, “both keeping your own and ferreting out the secrets of others. Walter is better at that than most vamps. A human has no chance against him.” A rare moment of sadness flashed through me, and I knew he would see it. “Here’s a secret for you. I killed a vampire. Her name was Tiffany and she thought she was important and powerful and that she should be Asshat’s woman. I walked in from a trip to visit my family in Asheville and found Asshat in bed with a rowdy group of humans and a female fanghead. She challenged my position as wife. My…husband…He didn’t interfere. He seemed amused at my naïveté, at my shock, at my rage. He didn’t defend me. So I accepted the challenge.”
Villetti’s eyes didn’t change.
“In Sangre Duello, the challenged gets to set the particulars. I distinctly remember saying, ‘Accepted. One hour. In the fighting ring under the trees. Two swords. Sangre Duello rules. To the death.’ ”
Villetti’s mouth swept down, frowning in shock.
I laughed. “Yeah. Asshat’s expression looked kinda like yours. I locked my husband out of his own room and dressed. Called the queen—not my Aunt Jane. I called thequeen. And told her what I was doing. I expected her to try to talk me out of it or forbid me to fight.” My laughter faded into a grim grin. “Instead, she said, ‘When you’re done, take the asshat’s head.’ And she hung up.”
Villetti’s body softened. Gently, he said that endearment that had won my heart, so many years ago. “Amore.”
“We fought under the stars, on a hot sweltering night. She had never seen me fight. No one at Asshat’s clan home had.” I let a twisted grin fade away as I remembered the femalevampire’s reactions when I walked into the ring wearing fighting armor in my own colors—not the queen’s as princess—my own. I was carrying a single-edged longsword and a double-bladed shortsword, the flat and fuller of the blades silvered, both custom-made to my specifications.
“They expected me to call the queen forhelp. Or Mama and Daddy. Or to use magic when I had used fanghead language to challenge. Theyexpectedme to beg family or the queen to fix my marriage. To ask for rescue. Expected me to bestupid. They didn’t know I understood exactly what they were doing. Using me to create political waves.
“There were no cams in the garden, so nothing could be videoed.
“I took her head in four moves, and only because I let myself hate her, and wanted to play with her a bit. A demon came out of the stump of her neck.ThatI couldn’t fight. The fighting ring cleared vamp-fast, little pops of sound. The humans scattered. And it was just thatthingand me. It was noncorporal. It wanted a living body.”
“What did you do?”
“I threw up the strongest portableblood gauntlet hedgeI knew.”
Villetti was watching me, his blue eyes holding mine. His had calmed. Grown softer. Almost…tender. And something long forgotten began to warm me.
“To make thehedge, I used the blood Tiffany had drawn from a prick on my pinkie knuckle. First time I ever was happy to have been wounded.”
“Then what?”
I shrugged, a vamp shrug, barely there. “Since the war started, I always carried amulets, weapons. I always wore a silver charm bracelet that Aunt Jane gave me when I was kid. Itwas set with a few amulets. Last-ditch stuff, mixed with various glamours. Wired onto it was the bit of magic I had stolen from Aunt Jane, a rocklike nugget holding a blacker-than-nightsomething. I had never figured out what kind of magic it was, but I knew I couldn’t hold thehedgelong against a noncorporal. It would either wear me down and possess me or it would leave and find someone else.
“It poked at thehedge. And then ripped at it with its claws. I used more of my blood to strengthen thehedge. And then more. But it poked one of those claws through. Right through my strongesthedge, made with my blood.
“I raised my hands and placed them against thehedgeand the bracelet slid through the blood on the back of my hand. And I—”
I stopped, not sure how to explain how my magic had worked. I made a small swirl with my dead-skinned hand and reached forward, to explain what words couldn’t. “I hadn’t had access to raw magic in decades. But it was suddenlythere. Power of the queen’s stone, in me and all around me, a black power so raw it was like holding on to a corner of hell. That power reached through thehedgeand grabbed the demon. Mixed it with the magic in the bracelet’s stone. And the demon was sucked into it. It also pulled in the workings and the power in everything magical on me and around me. All that was left was the stench of open sewers and charnel pits.”
I dropped my hand and cocked my head. “And I had no idea how it had worked. Except that it needed my blood. At that point I was alone in the clan home. I packed my things, activated a few amulets I had filled with preset workings, and loaded my car.
“Before I left, two vampires raced in and attacked. I took both their heads. Made a mess of the entry,” I said dryly. “I wastrying to get the hell outta Dodge, but when I walked out the front, there were blood servants outside watching. And four more of Asshat’s scions.” I laughed, hearing the bitter ice in my soul. “Idiot me. I walked out and yelled the official bloodsucker dissolution of a relationship. Called Asshat a few names. It was all very dramatic.”
“I imagine,” he said, his lips barely moving.
“That part was caught on the security cams. I’d forgotten that at least some of Asshat’s security devices were monitored by vamp central, so the queen’s people were on the way, and had been ever since I left the house to kill Tiffany.
“The last four vamps ran away like the sun was rising and they were already on fire. I got in my car and drove down the drive. I had no idea where I’d go. What I’d do. I hadn’t thought that far ahead. The queen’s people started calling my unicom. Asshat started blowing it up, leaving apologies and desperate pleas. When Alex finally drilled his way into my unicom and synced to the speakers in the car, he told me to pull over. That a helicopter was overhead and would land in the street to exfil me because there were now two cars hot on my tail.”
“Asshat’s goons?”
I tapped my nose. “I pulled over. The helo landed behind me. Koun killed four of Asshat’s scions while Walter loaded my gear and me into the helo. They took me home to Mama and Dad. And when Asshat came looking for me, I met him at the front door and challenged him to combat for his blood clan. He ran away like a scared little puppy.”
“That had to be satisfying.”
“Infinitely. It would have been more satisfying to take his head, but at least Daddy caught his popping away in terror on the security cam. No audio, sadly, so no one knows I challenged him. No witnesses.”
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
