Death's Rival by Faith Hunter

know why. Beast didn’t have the olfactory memory of a bloodhound, but she was no slouch
     either. She remembered this scent, though it was much stronger than the last time
     she had scented it. It was peaty and spicy and, oddly, a little beery. The servant
     also had a funky chemical top-note, acrid and clear as a desert sky, in Beast’s synesthesia.
     A nonguest in the house of a deposed master . . .
    I put it all together and looked over at Rosanne. She was leaning her weight on her
     elbows on her desk, as if it took all her strength to hold herself upright. “This
     is your treatment, isn’t it? You suck on him and his blood fights the disease in you.
     Kill him and you die.” When no one disputed my claim, I looked up. “Back off, Nikki-Babe.
     I’m not gonna kill your mistress’ antibiotic.”
    Nik took a single step back but didn’t let his eyes bleed back to human. I grabbed
     Blue Eyes’ head and banged it against the floor again. Leaped to my feet before Nik
     could react. Shrugged. “Didn’t say I wasn’t gonna hurt him a little. I want him out
     until I’m ready to go. Is he the only one for Ro to feed on?”
    “Yes,” she whispered. “And he is not enough.”
    “And he’s to call his master at prearranged times,” I said, “to let his boss know
     everything is okay here, right?” When she nodded again, moving as if her neck and
     head hurt, I asked, “Are you going to be able to handle this—my being here and knocking
     your new boy around—or do you need backup?”
    “We will be fine,” she whispered. She sounded certain, unwavering, and maybe it was
     just her trying to get rid of me, but I nodded.
    “Okay. I’m gone. If you change your mind and need help—”
    “We need nothing from you,” Nik said through his fangs.
    I looked him over, thinking,
You let your mistress get defeated in a Blood Challenge. And now someone else has
     to fix your screwup.
Seems to me you needed
something
, Nikki-Babe.
But I didn’t say it. If I had given in to temptation, I’d have had another fight on
     my hands and I’d done enough for one night.
    I walked between the score of blood-servants and clan-vamps and out the front door.
     The night smelled wonderful here. Huge and free and heated. Beast wanted to hunt,
     but even she wanted to get down off this cliff first. I got in the car and fished
     out the key, drove down the drive and out through the soundless gate. Following the
     GPS directions, I made it back to Sedona proper without incident and pulled in next
     to a FedEx drop box. I labeled the blood tubes and bottles, wrapped them in bubble
     wrap, taped them up, boxed them, added more tape, and affixed Leo’s mailing label
     to the front. There were laws about putting biohazardous materials through the mail,
     and I was breaking all of them, which is why I used Leo’s address as both return and
     sender. If my plane crashed, at least the blood wouldn’t go down with me. I dropped
     the blood into the drop box and heard it hit other packages with a soft, slithering
     thump.
    I texted my ETA to the pilot, with the question “Can we use current plane?” at the
     bottom. With the police involved, Leo’s personal jet might be grounded. Unless Leo
     pulled strings, I might be getting on a charter. Satisfied, I whirled the steering
     wheel and pulled back onto the road. Following the directions of the GPS voice, I
     headed back to the airport. The pilot texted back a succinct “Yes,” which I read before
     tossing the phone into the passenger seat.
    My primary mission was accomplished, which meant a nice fee would be electronically
     deposited into my account as soon as Leo got the package. Mentally, I calculated my
     payment for the travel part of this gig. I was getting a base fee for each visit,
     travel pay, hazard pay, and I was getting a bonus for each sick vamp who let me bleed
     him or her. A
very
nice bonus, because vamps didn’t give up their blood to anyone who wasn’t