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"I have not fed, so it will take a few moments. " He felt the burn of the blade against his skin, and the coolness of his blood oozing from beneath it. "If you mean to kill me, you must stab me in the heart or cut off my head. " When she didn't move, he added, "All the way through, love. Half measures don't work on my kind. "
"I am through playing this game, Robin. "
"So am I. " And her wrath aroused him in a perverse way, Robin realized. He had not thought she would try to attack him with the blade. He had no idea what she would do next, and it excited him. Even with a dagger at his throat.
Somewhere near them metal hit the floor, and porcelain shattered. "Bloody hell. "
"Stay where you are, Will. Whatever she does to me, you will not touch her. " Robin kept his eyes on Chris's flushed face. "Kill me and it will be over. My seneschal will not harm you. But the contessa will see to it that hundreds will die—humans and Kyn, my entire jardin. One of them will be your partner. "
She shook her head slowly. "I don't believe you. I don't believe any of this. "
"If I give you proof, will you help me get the book?"
Chris straightened and drew the dagger away from his neck. He felt the wound on his neck close and disappear as she watched. Her eyes took on a glassy look, and she didn't protest when Will came over and carefully removed the dagger from her hand.
"It can't be real. " She pushed herself off him and stood, her body swaying. "You can't be. " She reached for a handhold, and then her eyes rolled up.
Will caught her before she hit the floor. "I'll make more tea. "
Robin wanted to take her to bed, lie with her, and hold her until she awoke, but he had to strike a new bargain with the contessa. "Put her in my bedchamber," he told Will as he stood. "And bolt the door. "
Chapter Nine
Robin didn't waste another moment on impossible schemes, but called the contact number the contessa had given him at the gallery. She greeted him as if the events of the night had never happened, and listened without comment as he related what Will had discovered.
"Nottingham will be landing in Italy in a few hours," Robin said. "He is beyond my reach now. I cannot retrieve the manuscript for you. "
Salva made an amused sound. "But of course you can, my lord. I am not an unreasonable woman, and it is perhaps better that we finish this where it began. I shall allow you more time for your journey. "
"My journey. "
"You will travel to Rome at once," she said smoothly. "Nottingham will think he has succeeded, so he should not be difficult for you to find. You and I will meet at my palazzo outside the city in forty-eight hours. You will deliver the manuscript to me, or I shall give the order for my men to execute all the hostages. "
Images of defiant men being forced to their knees in front of a hooded executioner filled Robin's head. "Permit me to contact the high lord. He has people—"
"You will tell no one, my lord," Salva said, her voice sharp and cold. "Not if you wish your people to survive the night. When you journey to Rome, you will also take that mortal female, the FBI agent, with you. "
Why would she wish him to take Chris to Italy? "We need not involve humans in our business. "
"She is already involved," she replied. "Permit her to escape you and all she will do is alert the authorities here or in Italy. No one is to know about the manuscript or Nottingham. You will take very good care to keep her at your side. "
"She will be a hindrance to me. " Robin looked at Will. "I shall leave her here with my seneschal. He will keep her sequestered until my return. "
"You do not think I shall act on my promises, my lord?" There was a pause, and then the contessa said, "Watch the screen on your phone. "
The video she sent began to play on the view screen. It showed two of the contessa's warriors holding a large, wounded black man between them, and a third Kyn beating him. Blood dripped from the human's nose and mouth as he reeled under the blows.
"I've seen enough," Robin said. "Stop before you kill him. "
The contessa's beautiful face appeared. "I shall see you and your human lover in Rome in two days. Be sure you have the manuscript, my lord. If you do not, her partner dies, and you will revisit every one of the happy memories you have of the jardin war trials. "
The screen on the phone went blank.
"She would do not this thing unless she felt sure she could get away with it," Will said slowly. "Once she has the manuscript, she will kill you and Agent Renshaw. Then she can blame your deaths on Nottingham, or make up any story she likes. "
Robin opened the weapons cabinet and took out his bow case. "Contact Jayr and Lucan, and tell them only that I am in Europe, and in my absence refugee Kyn have captured my stronghold. Ask them to send as many warriors as they can spare. Surround the keep, but do nothing for two days. If I do not call you by the end of the second, you must lead them in and save as many as you can. "
Will's pale eyes narrowed. "While you die alone in Rome. "
"I have lived more than seven lifetimes, old friend, and I am certain that death is ready for me. My task is to do whatever I must to protect Chris. " Robin put a hand on his seneschal's shoulder. "You helped me build the stronghold; no one knows it as well as you. That gives you an advantage over the contessa's men. Use it. Remember how we routed the king's men in Sherwood. I know you will prevail. "
"I shall earn your faith in me," Will promised. "But that bitch will not get away with this. As soon as our people are secure, I shall call the high lord and make him aware of her treachery. Then I shall hunt her down and take her head. "
"You will be too busy for that. " Robin checked his bow and adjusted the protective pads around it. "If I am slain, you are to take my place as suzerain. "
He scoffed. "That is as likely as my assuming the throne of England. "
"I have already advised Cyprien," Robin said as he closed the case. "He agreed with my choice. There will be no opposition. "
"You are not jesting. " Will's jaw sagged, and then he closed it with a snap. "My lord, if you have forgotten, my father was a smith and my mother a laundress. The only noble blood in my veins came from the mortal gentry I fed on whenever I could lure one of them into the woods. If not for you, I should have ended dangling from a rope at a crossroads. Pledging myself to you, taking vows, fighting in the Holy Land, surviving death, being made Kyn—it surely saved me, but it did not make me another man. I was an outlaw. A thief. "
"So was I. " Robin handed him the case. "I am not dead yet, Will. There is still hope. " He heard the door to his bedchamber rattle. "It seems my special agent has awoken. Call the airport and have a plane standing by. "
Chris was looking for something she could use to pick the dead-bolt lock when Robin walked in.
"We are leaving now. We must go to Rome. "
He was a raving lunatic, or a real live vampire. Which made him a raving lunatic, because Chris would commit herself to a mental hospital before she believed the latter.
Right now she had to get as far away from him as she could. "We're going after Paul Sherwood?"
"Nottingham. " He said the name as if it were an incurable venereal disease. "I convinced the contessa to give us more time. We have two days to find him and retrieve the book before she executes the hostages. "
He sounded rational, and Chris hadn't tried reasoning with him. He might be in a better emotional state to listen to her now.
"What if the contessa doesn't actually have any hostages?" she asked carefully. "Maybe she only told you that because she knew you'd believe her. Sometimes if you spend a lot of time playing fantasy games, they can seem very real. "
He gave her an impatient look. "What must I do to convince you?"
"Robin, real crimes have been committed," she assured him. "Someone stole the manuscript. You're incredibly strong, and fast, and you can somehow control people. I saw the cut on your neck heal in a few sec
onds. Or maybe you made me think I did; I don't know. "
"I cannot influence you," he said very calmly. "If I could, you would not be wasting my time arguing with me. "
"Right. " She didn't want to piss him off again. "Whoever you are, whatever you're involved in with these other people, I can't be a part of it. I'm a federal agent. My job is to arrest you. I don't think I can, not by myself, but it's my duty to try—and to keep trying. I can't help you commit more crimes. I can't go to Rome with you. "
"I would leave you here if I could," he said, walking toward her. He stopped when she backed away. In a harsher voice, he added, "The contessa will have your partner killed if you do not accompany me to Rome. "
"You're just saying that to make me come with you. " When he said nothing, she threw up her hands. "Hutch is probably downtown right now, wondering where the hell I am. Robin, I can't just disappear in the middle of an operation like this. When I don't report in, they're going to assume that I've been abducted or killed. If the news gets wind of it, which they usually do, my face will be all over the television. "
He took a mobile phone out of his pocket and tossed it on the bed. "I received a video from the contessa fifteen minutes ago. Watch it. "
Chris didn't want to pander to his delusions, but she reached for the phone, flipped it open, and replayed the video sent with the last call. Bile surged in her throat as she watched her partner being beaten, and then the recording of the contessa's final message.
"Be sure you have the manuscript, my lord. If you do not, her partner dies…"
She closed the phone. "He has a wife and two kids. Does she know that?"
"She cares for nothing but the book," he told her. "Chris—"