Immortal Devices by Kailin Gow

at finding things as you think.”
                Scarlett bristled at that. “I have done well enough tracking down the bow.”
                “Better than you could possibly think. You are holding it, girl.”
                Scarlett stood there, dumbfounded, trying to work out what the vampire meant. The only thing she was holding was Gordon’s sword stick. Which couldn’t possibly be…
                Rothschild snatched it from her in a single swift movement. He leaped back through the crowd of women to the doorway, leaving Scarlett stranded in a still empty circle of protection. “It is a difficult choice, isn’t it Scarlett? Leave that circle, and they will rip you apart. Don’t, and…”
                He didn’t finish that, but lifted the stick to one side instead, flourishing it. Somewhere in that movement, it ceased to be a stick and became something golden and curved instead. A bow. A beautiful, golden, curved bow with a string that seemed to be made from light. It was magnificent.
                “First,” Rothschild called out, “because I wouldn’t want you to accuse me of never giving you anything, dear Scarlett…”
                He pulled back the bow string and an arrow appeared on it. Rothschild lifted the bow and fired it over the crowd of women still pawing at Cruces. The arrow seemed to burst into a shower of golden dust, and where that dust fell, women stopped, looking down at themselves with a mixture of confusion and embarrassment. With no women to fight off, Cruces and Tavian were free to look over to Scarlett, but there were still too many people in the way for them to get to her.
                “And now,” Rothschild said, “you will remember that I said everything has a price? Well, this is mine for helping you, Scarlett.”
                He lifted the bow, pointed it at her, and drew back the string. An arrow appeared. Before Scarlett could think to throw herself aside, he shot the arrow, and it flew into her. She looked down. There was no sign of it. Then she looked up again.
                Rothschild was… he was everything. He was the most perfect man Scarlett had seen. He was more beautiful than anything she had ever known before, and she knew in that moment that she loved him. She had thought she loved Tavian, but in that instant, what she had felt was gone, replaced by her true love for Rothschild. The vampire beckoned, and she ran to him. Rothschild met her with a passionate kiss, but it wasn’t enough for Scarlett. She actually groaned when he pulled back from her.
                “Cupid’s bow?” Cruces’ voice rang out over the sudden silence.
                “Of course it is Cupid’s bow,” Rothschild said, with contempt. Scarlett did not care about that. Her beloved could talk to Cruces any way he wanted. “And the beauty is that Scarlett here did not know that she had found it. I assume that the king of the fey must have transformed the bow and placed it here in the home plane of Aphrodite as a way of spiting her and that son of hers. He always did have a sense of humor.”
                “How did I not find it?” Scarlett asked, leaning in to kiss Rothschild’s neck.
                “Oh, but you did find it, darling,” Rothschild replied, and just to hear him call her that made Scarlett go weak with desire. “You came here, and you found it. You even found a way to take it. You simply did not know that you had. That is all right though. You have still given me a very powerful artifact.”
                Scarlett pressed herself closer to Rothschild. Part of her wanted to know what he would do with the bow, but more of her simply wanted to feel him pressed to her. She could trust him, that part argued. He was the man she loved, after all.
                She glanced up to see Tavian and Cruces with