Page 15 of The Salted Sceptre
‘I dare you,’ he said. ‘I can teach you a little blood magic, if you like. You can see what it’s like.’
‘Fuck off.’ I shoved a forkful of cold pasta into my mouth. Athair chuckled.
I swallowed the mouthful. I was nearing the end of my tether. ‘What did you mean when you said you were going to ask your man? Were you too chicken to come here alone? Did you feel the need to bring back-up?’
‘I wondered if you’d pick up on that.’ He smiled slyly. ‘Despite the current mood, there are some enlightened beings who understand that fiends are not all bad. I can introduce you.’
I scowled. ‘There’s no need.’
Athair dabbed at his mouth with a napkin. ‘No, I insist.’ He pushed his chair back and waved through the restaurant window towards the dark car park. ‘He’ll only be a moment.’
‘If you think you can bring a mindless vampire in here…’ I began.
Athair pulled a face. ‘Please. Vampires have their uses but their scope is limited. Vargas was far fonder of their kind than I’ve ever been.’ He was referring to the fiend I’d killed when I’d time-travelled back to 1994. ‘But then you know that already. This … friend of mine is something quite different. He’s not very bright but he’s far better at conversation and far more useful than a mere bloodsucker.’
I heard the bell jangle as the restaurant door opened, followed by several gasps from the diners at the tables around us. Against my better judgment, I yielded to my curiosity andlooked around. When I saw who was lumbering towards us, I froze.
Hester and Otis, who’d never had the dubious joy of meeting Arbuthnot, frowned at each other. ‘I didn’t think this would be the sort of place a bogle would frequent,’ Otis said.
Hester eyed my erstwhile drug dealer. ‘And he doesn’t even look like anicebogle.’
He wasn’tthatbad – at least, that’s what I’d thought when I’d needed his services. I wondered if Athair had threatened him, or if Arbuthnot had joined the side of pure evil of his own free will.
Whatever his reason for being there, he certainly wasn’t trying to conceal himself. He knocked over several chairs on his way to us and jostled three wide-eyed customers, one of whom choked on her glass of wine. He didn’t pay them any attention; his focus was entirely on us.
The second waiter who’d served us might have been relaxed around the brownies but he didn’t feel that way about bogles. He stumbled over and twisted his hands together before he fixed his anxious eyes on Athair. ‘Uh, is this gentleman joining you?’ he asked. It was obvious what he wanted the answer to be.
Athair, still presenting himself as a kindly older gentleman, smiled benevolently. ‘Yes.’
The waiter swallowed, his anxiety growing by the second. ‘I’m not sure that we have a chair that will accommodate him.’
‘Told you,’ Otis muttered. ‘This is probably the first bogle that’s ever walked in here.’
Athair’s expression changed dramatically: his gaze hardened and despite his genial features there was now a definite air of menace about him. This was the real Athair, I was certain of it.
‘What kind of establishment are you running here?’ he snapped at the poor waiter.
It wasn’t so much that bogles were large creatures – although they were – but that their bone density was far higher than thatof most other beings. I didn’t need to see Arbuthnot sit on any of the restaurant’s chairs to know that they would collapse under his weight, and I doubted that would go down well with either him or Athair. Neither did the restaurant staff deserve to be killed because their chairs weren’t reinforced against bogles.
As much as I wanted the bogle to disappear as quickly as possible, I couldn’t afford a confrontation so I sprang up and pointed to an empty table. ‘Why don’t we move there?’ I suggested. ‘He can sit on the window seat.’ It would be stronger than any of the chairs.
And then, because I didn’t want to give Athair the satisfaction of thinking he’d discomfited me by producing my ex-drug dealer, I forced a brilliant smile onto my face. ‘It’s so wonderful to see you again, Arbuthnot.’ I even stood up and kissed his rough cheek, much to everyone’s astonishment. When I glanced at Athair, however, instead of disappointment that I remained calm, I saw amused pride at my antics. Damn it.
We shifted over to the new table without too much faff, although everyone in the restaurant held their breath when Arbuthnot sat down on the window seat. It creaked ominously but didn’t collapse. Praise be.
He ordered a fruity cocktail, of all things. When the waiter had gone, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small silver box. He didn’t smile but he did waggle his eyebrows suggestively and my stomach sank to my shoes. Oh no.Oh no.
‘Go ahead,’ Athair told him, proving that the bogle was nothing more than a puppet dangling on his fiendish strings. Arbuthnot grunted and opened the box.
There were no prizes for guessing what was inside. I allowed myself one fleeting glance before I looked away. I didn’t need to taste the bitter fizz on my tongue to know that these were high-quality pills. Whichever illegal lab they’d come from, the techs had taken the time to brand each one with a tiny spider and givethem a glossy white finish. Only the most expensive and well-made spider’s silk looked like that.
My fingers twitched and a gnawing hunger attacked my whole body; it would take a lot more than cold mushroom pasta to satisfy my physical needs now. Wishing that my hand wasn’t trembling, I took a sip of water and resolved to pretend that the pills didn’t exist.
Neither Otis nor Hester had any such compunction.
Otis hissed and spat at Arbuthnot like an angry cat. ‘You don’t need spider’s silk, Daisy! You’re clean now!’
Hester took a different approach. Setting aside her fear of Athair in favour of action, she floated down from my shoulder and grabbed the pill box. She clamped it to her body, even though it was practically the same size as she was, and flew away from the table.
