The waitress set the drink down on the napkin, and the moisture began to smear the writing almost immediately. She didn’t look at me again, just handed out the other drinks. I checked my watch for the time and started keeping track of it. Was I supposed to go alone, or were there other people getting messages with their drinks? I was bad at undercover work for more than one reason. It made me antsy and gave me a huge urge to poke at things.
Edward got up first, though he had to make people move for him to get out. He didn’t announce he was going to the bathroom, but it seemed logical. If I’d had Magda or Fortune with me, we could have done the girl thing of never going to the bathroom alone and I’d have had bodyguards with me, but being the only girl made it sort of awkward. Flannery got up next.
At four minutes, I made my apologies and got up from the table to meet our mystery woman. Dev started to rise, but Nicky beat him to it. He followed at my back like a shadow with no apologies that he was doing anything but guarding me. So much for clandestine.
The bathrooms were in a narrow hallway of their own that had another exit at the end of it. Nicky and I started to have a discussion on him checking the room first, but the door opened enough that Edward was able to motion us both inside. Flannery was already leaning against the sinks, looking unhappy. Once the door closed behind us, he let me know why he was unhappy.
“You cannot trust them, Forrester. It’s why they weren’t at the other meeting.”
“If they are her animals to call, then they should know more about the local vampires than anyone we’ve interviewed so far,” Edward said.
“Who are we talking about?” I asked.
“The local Selkies.”
“Roanes for Ireland,” Flannery said.
“Roanes, Selkies, whatever—who are they?” Nicky asked.
“Seal people,” I said.
“You mean wereseals?” he asked.
“No, they’re more like the clan tigers, born seals, not made by an attack,” I said.
“They are also the animals tied to the vampire master of Ireland,” Flannery said. “They may give us information, or they may spy for her. Until we know for certain that she isn’t behind the vampires spreading through Dublin, we have to treat her as our major suspect for the mastermind behind all of it.”
“Why are you suddenly so reluctant to talk to another supernatural being?” I asked.
“Because Auntie Nim warned me that the Roane are so terrified of their mistress, they will do anything she commands. If they fail her, she tortures or kills them. If that was the price for disobeying her, then they cannot be trusted, Blake.”
“Or maybe that gives them the best reason to be trustworthy,” I said.
There was a soft knock at the door, and our brown-haired waitress stuck her head in, as if checking that we were all there. She looked even paler than she had before; she was scared. Was she a seal maiden like in the old stories? The next person through the door was a man. He was only a little taller than me, about Mort’s height, but he was more obviously muscled, as if he’d bulk up if he tried harder. His hair was black, straight, and long enough that he ran a hand through it to tuck it behind his ears. He had large, dark eyes so truly black that the color of his iris made it impossible to tell that he even had a pupil in the middle of that perfect liquid blackness. The eyes dominated his face the way that Nathaniel’s could, and he was almost as fair of face as my fiancé.
“My girl has put a closed sign outside the door, so we won’t be disturbed, but we still must be quick.” His voice held an accent that I hadn’t heard before, smoother or heavier. I wanted to hear him say something else, just so I could hear the cadence of it.
Edward made the introductions. “Riley, this is Anita Blake, Nicky Murdock, and you know Flannery, I think.”
“Not personally, but of him. Tell your aunt that we have nothing to do with this plague of the dead here in Dublin.”
“You as in your people, or you as in your master?” Flannery asked.
“I speak for myself and no one else, but my people are not involved. I do not believe our mistress has done this, but I stay as far away from her as allowed. I am not part of her inner circle, but one of many of us who work here and other cities to bring in money for our people and for her. Other than some rents from properties she brings in nothing, like some great bloodsucking parasite.”
“If neither you nor the Wicked Bitch of Ireland is behind the vampires in Dublin, then who is?” I asked.
“I don’t know.”
I frowned at him.
Edward saved me from asking, “Then why so much secrecy if you don’t know anything?”
“I knew that you were Anita Blake’s partner in the United States Marshal program. It’s her that I wanted to meet.”
“Why?” Edward said, and there was almost no happy Ted in that one word, just cold suspicion.
“We hear that Jean-Claude is fair and just, that he’s forcing the vampires to treat their animals with fairness. We also hear good things about Micah Callahan and the Coalition he runs. We need help.”
“What kind of help?” I asked.
“Our mistress has always been harsh, but lately she seems to have grown both in power and in cruelty. She is punishing us as never before. I fear—we all fear—what she will do next.”
“Is she breaking the law?”
“Human law, yes. Vampire law that says we are her animals to use and abuse as she sees fit, no.”