Soul Sucker by Kate Pearce Page B

thanks. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth.”
    Ella’s gaze wandered over his body. “I bet you work out, don’t you?”
    “I try to keep in shape.”
    She smiled and he couldn’t look away. “Of course you do.” She opened the box, took out a donut covered in white glaze and purple sprinkles and bit into it. “Mmm...”
    He watched, fascinated as she licked the frosting off her lip with the tip of her tongue and then slowly chewed.
    “May I have one, please?” Alexei asked.
    Ella nodded, and kept eating as Alexei pondered his selection. The Fae could eat just about anything and still retain their beauty. Alexei only accompanied Vadim to the gym to look good rather than because he needed to go. Ella started on her second donut, pausing occasionally to slurp at the disgusting orange concoction.
    Vadim had to look away, instead concentrating his gaze on the Fae-Web that still hovered over Alexei’s head. It took him a while to interpret the Fae symbols and gain entry, but soon he was enmeshed in the beauty of the web. It took on the dimensions of a tunnel he could walk through with information covering every surface, constantly offering new pathways, new analogies with all roads leading to a central rune that glowed blood red.
    Death.
    Being immortal, the Fae preferred not to deal with the consequences of death. Only those who weren’t purebred could cope with the ramifications of the Fae-Web, of its predictions for the future, of a mortal’s ultimate fate. Vadim carefully avoided all avenues that addressed himself, concentrating only on the trail of the elusive killer and the far brighter light of Ella Walsh. But Alexei was right. The red stones of death were definitely drawing closer to Ella, and so was his lifeline...
    God , no .
    “What are you doing?”
    Vadim jumped as Ella poked his arm. He was snapped back into reality with a speed that made him want to vomit. He glanced down at the sleeve of his jacket where a large yellow blob of frosting now rested.
    “Give him a second, Ella. He was in the Fae-Web,” Alexei said.
    Vadim swallowed hard and refocused on the offensive frosting.
    “You can see into those things, Morosov?”
    He got out his handkerchief and tried to decide whether he would make matters worse by trying to rub the stain off. There was really no other option. He’d have to get the hotel to dry clean the jacket for him tonight.
    “Morosov?”
    He dabbed at the stain, then wet his handkerchief with water to blot out the stickiness.
    “What, Ms. Walsh?”
    She rested her chin on her hand and studied him. “I was asking if you could see into the Fae-Web. Liz tried to tell me what it was like, but I couldn’t really understand.”
    “It’s...different.”
    She snorted. “That’s a lot of help.”
    “It just is.”
    Her brown eyes narrowed. “So what percentage of Fae are you exactly?”
    “I have no idea.”
    “If you’re more than fifty percent Fae, Morosov, don’t you need a permit to live on this side?”
    “You should know, gatekeeper. Isn’t it your job to police Otherworld creatures?”
    “One of my jobs. I can’t tell with you. Your shields are too good.”
    “What a shame.” He returned her earlier smile with interest.
    She looked across to Alexei, who was still helping himself to the box of donuts. Vadim noticed they’d managed to eat about half-a-dozen between them already.
    “How much Fae do you have to be to make that thing work?”
    “To operate it? At least thirty-three percent. To see it?” Alexei shrugged, his gaze skipping over Vadim. “That depends on your line.”
    “Your Fae line?”
    “Yes. Some families are more powerful than others.”
    “I’ve noticed that. Sometimes it’s harder to remove one memory than another, although they initially seem the same.” She turned back to Vadim. “Can you create one of those things?”
    He repressed a shudder. “No.”
    “I wish I could see into one. I bet things would make a lot more sense on a