Bloodfever
Page 59

Fiona had disappeared after attempting to harm his OOP detector. An inspector whod been snooping into his business was killed. People that interfered with Jericho Barrons had a convenient way of vanishing or dying. StillI had no proof hed done anything nefarious in either of those cases.
He didnt seem to want more Unseelie in our world. Nor, however, did he seem to have any interest in trying to save our world. Was he really so mercenary and ambivalent? Did he genuinely want the book just to sell it to the highest bidder?
Then there was the question of how he planned to touch it, assuming we found it. The Sinsar Dubh was so evil it corrupted anyone who came in contact with it. Did he believe he could tattoo protection spells into his skin that would permit him to touch it without it corrupting him? Could he?
I rubbed my forehead and tossed back my shot. It burned all the way down my throat. I thumped my chest with my fist and drew a scorched breath.
The only thing that was certain about Jericho Barrons was that nothing was certain. With far more questions than answers, I couldnt place him on either side of the board.
With Vlane tentatively on the good side, and Barrons on the sidelines, next was Rowena. What a piece of work. Rowena should have been someone I could position firmly on my side of the game, and in terms of single-mindedly opposing the Unseelie and the Fae in general, I could. The problem was I didnt feel I could in terms of my welfare.
I knew Vlane and Barrons both wanted me alive, and had the ability to keep me in that condition. However, I wasnt so sure about Rowena. If she believed there was someone more qualifiedand more malleable than Ito honor her holy triumvirate of See, Serve, and Protect with my spear, to what lengths might she go to take it from me? If humans met Fae ruthlessness with equal ruthlessness, how were we different from them? Didnt there have to be some defining factor? Was I really supposed to walk up to a human woman and kill her because a Fae had stepped inside her, without first trying to see if there was some way to get it out? Tonight when I went to sleep would I dream about the deaths Id caused by letting her walk away?
Thinking about Rowena sucked. I added a little note with an asterisk: if she isnt the Grand Mistress, who is?
I moved on to making notes about the minor players like Malluc, whod been working for, and two-timing, the Lord Master. According to Barrons hed still not been seen or heard from during the month Id been gone, which I decided meant the vampires memorial service had been for real, and he really was dead. If hed survived what Barrons and I had done to him, he would have been back among his worshippers long before now. I wondered if the Lord Master had someone new serving his purposes. I brushed Malluc off the board. One down!
I decided the McCabes,OBannions, and sundry collectors of Fae artifacts werent part of the game. Only those seeking the Sinsar Dubh or working for someone who was merited their own square.
I accorded all the Unseelie in our world pawn status. It seemed their primary purpose was to indulge their twisted appetites, spy on humans, and create general chaos. To keep things stirred up while the Lord Master pursued his private agenda, and when hed ultimately achieved his ends, serve him. If there was any single Unseelie more significant than another, either I hadnt yet encountered it, or was too dense to see it.
I paused with my pen above the page, wondering about the players behind the scenes, as yet unseen.
The Seelie Queen, I wrote. According to Vlane she wanted the Sinsar Dubh, but why? Did she need it to recontain the Unseelie? Were there spells in there that governed their darker brethren? What was the Sinsar Dubh, really? I knew it was a book of black magic authored by the Unseelie King, but what did it do? What did everyone want it for? Did each player have a different desire/use for it? What spells and enchantments were scribed in its pages that were so heinous they could corrupt anyone who came in contact with it? Could words and symbols wield such power? Could mere scribblings on parchment unmake a persons moral fiber? Werent we made of sterner stuff?
I was in no hurry to find out. My two brushes with the Dark Book had pushed me beyond pain into unconsciousness, left me weak as a baby and wishing desperately that Id never found my way onto this game board.
Where was the Unseelie King in all this?
Did he signify or was he an absentee landlord?
If my book of dark magic had gone missing, you could bet your petunia Id be out there looking for it. Was he? Why hadnt he tracked me down, too? Everyone else had. How had his book gotten away from him in the first place? For that matter, indulging myself in perfect paranoiawhich, in the world I inhabited, seemed perfectly reasonablehad it gotten away from him? What if it was nothing more than bait at the end of a very long fishing line? If so, what was he fishing for? Was the Lord Master himself a pawn, being moved about by a much darker, unspeakably ancient hand? Was the playing board bigger than I could see? Were we all pawns of something much larger than we knew?
Somewhere out there on the game board, the Sinsar Dubh was moving around. Who was moving it? How was it being moved? And why?
And what kind of prankster benevolent beingthis was the one I really wanted to knowwould create something like me that could sense the most dangerous of all relics, then give me a fatal flaw that caused me to pass out every time I got near it?
I ordered another shot and tossed it back, indulging myself in a ritual Id witnessed too many times across my bar: swallow, shudder, breathe.