Bloodlust Read Online Free Page A

couldn’t afford to buy two silver daggers just last month.”
    “I’ll get you the money, alright?”
    Damn it. I’d just have to talk to the council and get them to free up some funds from somewhere. How hard could it be? I knew the mages were pretty broke, but the shifters had plenty of spare cash hanging around, and I reckoned that the Fae had to be minted. It’d be easy. And if I spoke to the council then I could avoid having to deal directly with the Summer Queen or the Arch-Mage. Or Corrigan. He’d said he didn’t want to ever see me again, and I was going to respect those wishes. For now. Once Endor was out of the way, however…I pressed my lips together.
    “I’ll sort it out and get back to you. Is there anything else?”
    He craned his neck up at me. “I think your bruise is still growing.”
    I scowled. “Whatever. I’m going off to talk to Wold.”
    “Tell her to shut down her shop or else you’ll turn into a dragon and breathe fire all over her!”
    “That’s meant to be a secret,” I said petulantly.
    “Not a very well kept one.”
    I growled and turned on my heel, showing myself out of the shop.

 
    Chapter Three
     
    It took me an hour or two to travel across the city via the Underground to where Wold’s shop was located. I garnered more than a few odd looks, no doubt as a direct result of the large bruise that was beginning to throb across my cheek. My eye was continuing to swell up to the point where my vision was becoming limited. I’d have to hope that the loss of my periphery focus wouldn’t allow anyone – or anything – untoward get the jump on me. At one point, a kindly looking woman, with laughter lines at the edges of her eyes which masked a deep pain from within, handed me a card for a women’s shelter.
    “It’s never too late to ask for help,” she said softly.
    I just smiled slightly and said thank you. Getting into an explanation with a complete stranger about how I really had walked into a door seemed far too ridiculous, even for me. I hoped the bruising would subside enough before I had to venture back to Alcazon to meet the council again, or indeed any other Otherworlders. The last thing I needed was for my badass reputation to become even more inflated. I was aware the result would probably just be a bunch of irritating challengers trying to take me on to prove their own prowess. That was indeed a hassle I could do without.
    I did need to contact the council about the money to procure enough palladium to create an arsenal of devastating weaponry, however. A carefully worded email would probably do the trick. That way I wouldn’t have to bother talking to any of them. I didn’t think my head could cope with the onslaught of their complaints again today. Deciding that I’d sort out that little problem once I finally got home again, I focused on the matter in hand: getting the Batibat onside to help me with locating Endor. The success Alex had had with her the previous week seemed to suggest that he would be a good person to include so, as soon as I’d hopped off the train, I cast around for a phone. I really needed to get myself a bloody mobile.
    Eventually finding a familiarly red phone box just outside the station gates, I dug inside my pocket for some change and inserted it into the machine. The customary beat of the Beach Boys thrummed from across the line, then the phone clicked into voicemail.
    “Hey dude. I’m not available to take your call right now, but if you leave a message I’ll get back to you before the surf is up.”
    Rolling my eyes, I left a quick message. “Alex, it’s Mack. I need you to meet me at the Batibat’s shop as soon as you can. Definitely sooner rather than later. I need to talk to her again about Endor and your expertise would be appreciated.”
    I hung up. It was less his expertise than the fact he was an apparently virile young man that had probably made the Batibat spill her secrets to him. It didn’t really matter though.