Ian gave Spade an unfathomable look. "I did. You refused to trust me."
"For good reason, else Crispin wouldn't be here," Spade replied with a disbelieving snort.
"Um, guys..." Cat began.
"I know I'm a rotten bastard, but there are four people in the world I'd never see come to harm, even at the cost of my own life," Ian said in a steady voice, turquoise gaze clear. "Two of them are here, yet neither of them trusts me. Believe me, even ruthless sods like me can be hurt by that."
"Yet you do lie, Ian, and you do manipulate, even the two of us," Crispin said quietly.
"Over little, insignificant things. Never over something that could mean your lives. Blimey, Crispin, you humiliated me over Cat, yet did I seek revenge? No. I went to bloody war for you less than a year later. I'll own what I am, but don't label me what I'm not when it comes to either of you."
"You know I don't like the man, but he has a point," Cat said, shaking her head. "He was there for Bones when I never thought he'd be, and it did end up almost getting him killed a few times."
"Thanks so much for the accolades, Reaper," Ian replied in a caustic tone.
Spade thought back over his long history with Ian. It had been thorny from their first meeting on the convict ship to when Ian had him changed into a vampire by calling in a favor, despite Spade not wanting that. Over the next centuries, there had been countless other incidents when Ian was as likely to bite the hand Spade extended to him as take it, but whenever things were truly dire...Ian hadn't betrayed him. He was right about that.
Denise caught his eye. "If you insist we keep going after Nathanial, we're going to need all the help we can get," she said.
Spade gave Ian a measured stare. "If you betray me on what I'm about to tell you, it will likely get me killed. And if it doesn't, I will find you, and I will kill you."
Ian shrugged. "Acceptable terms, mate."
Spade looked at Denise again. Her dark brown hair mixed with Cat's crimson strands in the wind, and for a second, seeing that flash of red by Denise's face brought the memory of Giselda's blood-soaked, lifeless image. Not Denise, he promised himself. Not this time.
"The source of Web's Red Dragon industry is probably a demon-marked bloke named Nathanial. I'm stealing Nathanial away from Web in order to give him back to the demon that marked him, and I need to do that before anyone realizes Denise is now a source, too."
Denise tried not to think about the last time she was in a house with Spade and Cat under perilous circumstances - not to mention, there was a ghost here, too. She was already rattled enough without those awful memories turning this into a PTSD attack. For the umpteenth time, she looked at the clock. Almost two A.M. What was keeping Ian? Or Bones?
"Don't you want something to eat?" Spade asked, squeezing her hand.
Her stomach let out a yowl of the affirmative, but with how tense she was, Denise was afraid if she ate anything, it might come back up.
"No, I'm fine."
Cat was clearly wired, too. She'd wanted to go with Bones, but he said it was better if she stayed back. Not because he was worried about her, but the sight of Cat would arouse too much suspicion. Alone, with his power cloaked, he had a chance at not being recognized as he lurked around the streets by Web's property. With Cat, those odds diminished.
And Cat couldn't read minds like Bones could to pick up if Ian was in any danger as he crashed Web's house under the pretense of being in the neighborhood. It was plausible that Ian had come to Monaco to see Spade, and Ian knew Web from a few shady dealings in the past. Denise questioned the wisdom of Ian doing reconnaissance at Web's house, but he brushed it off.
"Web knows I'm a scoundrel," Ian had said with a slanted grin. "He won't think anything of me asking for an illegal substance, whereas Charles or Crispin would make him right nervous. But who'd ever confuse me with an honorable man?"
He had a good point.
"Gotta say, I'm getting hungry myself," Cat remarked, standing up to pace.
"Oh, Spade has a ton of food left over from the party," Denise said, stopping at the look Cat gave her. "What?"
"Crap, I forgot you don't know..." Cat began.
"What?" Denise asked with more emphasis.
Cat's gray eyes turned green. That was nothing unusual; it was a mark of her half-vampire side that Denise had seen countless times. But then Cat opened her mouth in a sheepish smile to reveal two upper fangs that had never been there before.
"Holy shit," Denise breathed. "You did it. You actually did it."
"A few months ago," Cat said, those fangs retracting until just her normal teeth showed again. "At first things were too crazy for me to tell you about it, but then..."
Denise looked away. Yeah. Then she wasn't taking Cat's calls. "I'm sorry," she mumbled.
"It's all right, I knew you needed time," Cat replied softly. She gave Spade a harder look. "You'd better be good to her."
"Or you'll shove something silver in me where the sun doesn't shine?" Spade asked, grinning at Denise.
She looked away in embarrassment at the threat she'd hurled at him just this morning, but Cat nodded.
"You've got it, buddy."
"And same to you with Crispin, Reaper," Spade replied in a mild tone.
Denise stifled her snort. As if Spade's chivalry would allow him to do anything to a woman. The harshest punishment she could imagine him dishing out to Cat would be refusing to open a door for her.
"Shh," Spade said suddenly. His eyes narrowed. "I hear something."
Denise strained her ears, but came up with nothing. Cat cocked her head and then threw Spade an incredulous glance.
"Is that singing?"
Spade let out a snort. "Appears so."
Denise still couldn't hear anything, to her frustration. Again she cursed her brands for not giving her any useful abilities. Finally, after a solid five minutes, she caught the sound drifting from outside.
"...I am the very model of a modern Major-General..."
Ian's voice, loud and off tune. Denise blinked. "Is that code?"
Spade shook his head with disgust. "No. It's Pirates of Penzance."
Bones soundlessly came through the door a moment later, startling her. "He's so bloody pissed, he can hardly walk," he announced.
Denise knew enough English slang by now to know that didn't mean Ian was mad, and there was only one thing that could inebriate a vampire. Had Nathanial been in Web's house? Or had Ian gotten the Red Dragon from a vial, as Black Jack distributed it?