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The door shut behind her. I straightened from the bed, the little brown bottle in my hand.
I was almost certain that had been Clarisse Dumas, the enforcer I’d met in the Bite Club. But was she working with Kuro or on her own?
I took the bottle into the bathroom so I could examine the contents. The liquid inside was odorless and nearly colorless, but I’d bet all the money in my new bank account that it contained colloidal silver.
The bitch had tried to compel me to poison Brien.
It was fucking diabolical, actually. A small dose of silver acts on a vampire like a flu virus on a human. If I’d sprayed it into Brien’s mouth and nose, within an hour he would’ve been feeling sick and feverish. But if he’d called off the challenge, he would’ve appeared weak.
A lose-lose situation.
In the bedroom, Brien mumbled something under his breath. I hurried back to him. The recessed lights were growing brighter; he apparently had them timed to come on at sunset.
“Brien? You up?”
He grunted and rolled onto his stomach.
I put the bottle on the nightstand and shook his shoulder. “Wake up.”
“Twilight?” he muttered without opening his eyes.
“Yeah, it’s me. Wake up.”
He caught my wrist and before I could stop him, pulled me onto the bed and nuzzled my neck. “Mm.” He rolled so I was beneath him. He was naked and aroused, his sexy musk filling my head. “You smell good.”
“Wake up. I have something to tell you.” I shoved at his shoulder, but it was like trying to move a granite cliff.
“I am up.” His hard body pushed mine into the mattress. His eyes were open now. He settled his hips into the cradle of my thighs, rubbing his cock against my jeans and teasing my throat with his fangs. “Very…up.”
I swallowed and turned my head. “Stop it, Brien. This is important.”
“So’s this.” He came to his knees so he could undo my jeans. “Too many clothes.”
I let out a frustrated laugh. “Listen to me, damn it!” I smacked his chest. “While you were sleeping, someone tried to compel me to poison you.”
He closed his eyes, then reopened them, the irises a brilliant green in the low light. “Someone tried towhat?”
“Compel me to poison you,” I repeated. “With colloidal silver.”
He withdrew his hand from my waistband and sat up. “You left the apartment?”
“No. It was Kerry, when she brought my dinner. At least it lookedlike her—”
“Not Kerry.” He shook his head. “You’re wrong. She wouldn’t.”
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you.” I rebuttoned my jeans and sat up as well. “Whoever it was looked like Kerry, but as she was leaving, I saw a shark tattoo on her neck. The air wavered, and for a second the shark was visible. You know, like she was holding glamour and lost control for a few seconds.”
“You’re saying someone glamoured themselves to look like Kerry?”
“Yeah—a woman. In fact, I think it was Clarisse Dumas.” I quickly explained what had happened, then indicated the nightstand. “See for yourself. There’s the bottle she gave me.”
He snatched up the small brown bottle and held it to the light, then pulled out the spray pump and sniffed the contents. His face tightened as he replaced the pump.
“You’re right.” He returned the bottle to the nightstand. “I can smell the silver. You say this woman was disguised as Kerry? That’s how she got inside?”
“I think so, yes. After I sprayed the liquid into your mouth and nose, I was supposed to throw the bottle in the trash.”
A muscle jumped in his jaw. “They wanted your fingerprints on the bottle so that if I realized I’d been poisoned, you would’ve been blamed.”
