Suddenly I sensed him, a maelstrom of decay and fury, gusting down the tunnels toward us.

“He’s coming this way,” I told Barrons. “I think he needs food. He said he has to eat constantly.”

Barrons gave me a sharp look.

I knew exactly what he was thinking. “Not because it’s addictive,” I defended, “but because parts of him had turned Fae from eating Unseelie and the spear poisoned those parts.”

Barrons stared at me. “Parts of him had turned Fae? And the spear poisoned him? And you knew this before you ate Unseelie?”

“Bear in mind the alternative, Barrons.”

“That’s why you left the spear in the box and tucked it beneath your arm. You’re afraid to carry it now, aren’t you?”

“Before, I had a weapon. Now I am a weapon.” I turned and stalked from the cavern, not about to reveal how deeply it disturbed me that I might have gained the power of a Fae—and the weakness of one. I never wanted to touch the spear again. If I accidentally pricked myself, would I, too, begin to rot? What had I become? Kin to my enemy in how many ways? “He’s on the way,” I tossed over my shoulder. “I’d rather he didn’t eat again.”

Barrons stepped through behind me and closed the door. He slipped a vial from his pocket and I realized he’d been pilfering some of the vampire’s things. He splashed a few drops on the door and spoke again in that language I didn’t understand. He glanced around, and I could tell he didn’t like what he saw. “A good soldier chooses the terrain of his battle. You’ve shared the same flesh with him. If you can sense him, I’ll bet he can sense you. He’ll follow.”

“What are we looking for?”

“A place with no way out. I want this over with fast.”

The cavern we chose was small, narrow, and spiked with stalactites and stalagmites. There was a single entrance that Barrons planned to bar once Mallucé had entered. I handed him the box with the spear. He gestured for me to conceal it behind a fall of rubble. There was no way I was giving Mallucé the opportunity to use the weapon against me. Besides, I’d already established that it only killed parts of him, and parts weren’t enough. I wanted all of him dead.

“How do I kill a vampire?” I asked Barrons.

“Hope he’s not.”

“I really don’t like that answer.”

He shrugged. “It’s the only one I have to offer, Ms. Lane.”

I could feel Mallucé approaching. Barrons was right, somehow the meal we’d shared had linked us. I had no doubt he could sense me as clearly as I could him.

The vampire was incensed…and hungry. He’d been unable to enter his larder. Whatever Barrons had done had successfully sealed the entrance. I told you my inscrutablehost has a bottomless bag of tricks. I’m really beginning to wonder where he gets them.

He was near. My body hummed with anticipation.

Mallucé stepped into the opening. His hood was down and his smile was beyond gruesome. “You’re still no match for me, bitch.”

He was framed in the doorway, backlit by torchlight, his dark robes rustling, and I could smell the emotions wafting from his rotted flesh. He smelled as fearless as I felt. He believed what he’d just said. I would prove him wrong. I narrowed my eyes, assessing him. He might think himself my superior, but my escape bothered him and he wasn’t going to step into the cavern until he knew how I’d managed it.

I taunted, “Come and get me then.”

“How did you get out of your cell?”

“You left it unlocked,” I lied.

He considered that a moment. “There’s no way you could have moved. I broke both your legs. And your arms. How did you get the Unseelie?”

“The same way I spelled your little ‘refrigerator’ down there. I did a good job, didn’t I? You couldn’t get in. I know a little black magic of my own. You underestimated me.”

He studied me. He knew how powerful the spell on his larder was, and if I was capable of performing black magic to that degree, I was capable of a great deal. I felt him relax infinitesimally. “This makes things much more interesting. You know, I toyed with this idea. Now we’ll rot together. I’ll feed you more and stab you with your own fucking spear.”

Obviously he didn’t know it was missing yet. “Bring it on,” I purred.

He unfastened his robe and let it drop to the floor. His frothy lace shirt was badly stained. He was wearing stiff, tight leather pants, I suspected for the same reason he wore the stiff gloves. I needed him inside the cavern. Then Barrons would spell the exit and there would be no way out.

I did my boxer dance. “Come on, Johnny, let’s play.”

He lunged through the entrance with inhuman speed, and closed one of his stiff-gloved hands around my throat. I saw Barrons loom up behind him and shot him a wordless command: Don’t interfere.

I grabbed Mallucé’s wrist and kneed him in the groin with the strength of ten men. The flesh between his legs was too soft. My knee slid a few inches into his body.

“No feeling there, bitch,” he spat.

“What about here?” I punched him in the ear with all my strength. Blood spurted from his skull, and he reeled sideways and staggered. I watched the wound heal as quickly as it had opened. Would I do that?

I found out soon enough. He broke my nose. It reassembled itself. I nearly tore his arm from his shoulder. It dangled uselessly for a few moments then he punched me with it again, strong as ever.