That statement was loaded with implications.I considered carefully what each of us knew before responding. “Whywould she have known the past Leandra?” I asked finally. My actingskills, not super strong in the first place, were certainly beingstretched to the limit here.
“Did I not tell you?” she asked. “It’s dumb,but the younger me attacked her. New vampires can be so hard tocontrol and I’d only been turned recently at that age. So she wouldknow what I smelled like back then—people’s smells change overtime, there’s not much in common with my smell now—but she’s fine,don’t worry. Made a full recovery and all that.”
I watched for any sign Leandra was hidinganything, or whether all the research crowding her brain had addledher sense of what she needed to share with other people. Didn’t sheknow I’d been investigating that whole case? Why would she neglectto tell me something that important?
She must have recognized the betrayal on myface. “Oh, Olympia, honestly, I am sorry. I didn’t want to springmy whole plan on you without knowing how you’d feel about it. Iguess I didn’t tell you when I was still concealing my goal, when Iapproached you to try to find the younger version of me thatFrancesca Gallo pulled out of the past.”
I had no doubt now that Leandra had nevereven been close enough to the golem-goose-feather version of her tosmell it—everyone seemed to thinkthatLeandra had neversmelled like a vampire, and having not used her fangs, she didn’tattack like one either. The real reason Leandra wanted to inviteMelanie out—to use her to detect the right goose—made a lot moresense, and a wave of guilt washed over me that I’d just assumed shewould want to kill the werewolf off.
“Leandra, there’s something I need to tellyou,” I said, taking a deep breath. “I—”
Natasha Beddingfield’sUnwrittenblasted over my voice. Leandra extracted an iPhone from her pocketand held it to her ear, extending one finger to me to tell me tohold off on whatever I was going to say. “What is it? Did you seehim?” she asked into the phone.
There was a tinny voice on the other end,too quiet for me to make out.
Leandra stroked The Scale & Ale on hermap with one finger. My stomach did a little flop. “How long was hethere for, Mac?”
My stomach did a bigger flop.
“Who was he with?” she asked.
“Leandra!” I said urgently, grabbing herarm. She lowered the phone, concern knitting her brow.
“This’ll be just a second,” she said tome.
Damn it. How was I going to explain thataway? “I have to tell you something really urgent. It’stime-sensitive.”
“So is this,” she said, gesturing to thephone. I swore under my breath. I should’ve paid off Mac to sayhe’d never seen me before. I wouldn’t think that he’d be reportingtoLeandra, though, of all people. How did she get one of mybest contacts for apprehending supernatural mischief?
“I want you,” I blurted, apparently thefirst thing on my mind.
The vampire considered me a moment, thenvery slowly and deliberately tapped the “end call” button. “Youwant me,” she repeated. “And that’s why you need me off thephone.”
Stupid, stupid, stupid. I was in shock anddisappointment at myself that I had come up with such a flimsyexcuse. Still, she’d hung up, hadn’t she? “Yup.”
A smile spread across her face. “Well,then.”
As though I weighed nothing, Leandra liftedme and deposited me on her desk, shoving aside a keyboard andmonitor. Her hand parted my legs.
“Usually I like to play hard-to-get,”Leandra whispered in my ear. I shuddered at the intimacy of herbreath. Of course I would use sex as a distraction tactic. I’d hada taste and I wanted more. Much more. There was no use denying it.Damn Unseelie blood. “I’ll make an exception for you.”
Her fingers trailed up my thigh. She leanedin and brushed her lips against my neck. I pushed her back andlifted off my shirt and began unrolling my pants. When I glanced upat her, she was shaking with silent laughter.
“What?” I asked, cheeks burning withembarrassment.
“Oh, nothing,” she said, looming over me andlooking stunning. “I was just thinking that you like to playhard-to-get, too, and here you are, in the palm of my hand.”
“You don’t know anything about me,” I said,indignant.
“On the contrary, I know a lot,” she said,and proceeded to show me just how in-the-palm-of-her-hand Iwas.
?
Later, when I had peeled my clothes off theground and slipped them back on, Leandra sat completely naked infront of her map. It was dark out finally—which I would have knownfor sure if there had been any windows—since it was now after six.I’d stalled enough from Mac’s phone call, but it was only a matterof time before she found out. With her back turned, I clicked thehome button on her phone and saw she had two missed calls from him,a PayPal invoice for $50, and a text that said simply:He waswith Olympia Carter. Call when you can for more details.
“So, the geese. We could maybe check on themtonight. I guess we forgot to discuss if you got the werewolf tocome out with us,” Leandra said, seemingly forgetting that she’dbeen the one who let me slide away from that conversation.
I licked my lips. “I did get to talk to her,actually.”
