"He has Aelen, why does he want me to be involved in this?" she demanded hours later when she had found the vampires in their basement, having burst in to exclaim her irritation at Alaric and the deal he had forced out of her. She conveniently forgot the reason for the deal and she knew they didn't believe her, but she wasn't about to tell them about Alaric threatening them if she didn't obey. They were smart men, they could probably figure it out but no one wanted to discuss it.
"He has been involved in an inquest into the deaths of a very large number of people under the city for the last several months," Kai said slyly and she snorted her amusement.
"That makes sense I suppose, but it doesn't mean I have to like it,"
"No, it doesn't, but it does give you the opportunity to get on his good side and maybe he will loosen the leash a little bit. If he thinks you are on his side, he will likely back off you."
Pursuing her lips, she considered that before she plopped down on the couch beside Versalis who had her family tree out and was studying the various species on the list.
Some of them were beings none of them had ever heard of and it was curious to try and learn what they all were. Versalis seemed to be a little obsessed with figuring her out.
"When will you be leaving?" Kai asked and she made a face, his grin returning it.
"In a few days. Just enough time to get you lot enough blood and recover in case it takes a few months to get close to him. I imagine he's going to be quite paranoid. Why isn't Alaric waiting until after things settle down? Do you suppose there will be another attack?"
"Unlikely," Versalis said with a quill between his teeth as he flipped through the pages on the book and scowled. "They would be fairly demoralised after a loss like that. They didn't expect to come up against what we had to offer them,"
Chewing on her lower lip, she recalled the titan king and the destruction he could cause, not to mention the army of the dead.
"Yes, that makes sense. But does that mean they will be coming eventually, or do you think they have entirely given up?"
"Temporary seems a good assumption," Jaia said and she let out a slow breath.
"What about Winter?" she asked and Versalis let out a low sigh.
"I tend to feel that we will get a break there while they transition, but it is impossible to tell with the Fae. Perhaps you could ask what Uzo thinks if he's still lurking around?"
Nodding her agreement, she made a mental note to hunt the man down when she got the chance.
"So, it seems like taking him out is the best option. So long as they don't suspect Alaric."
Leaning forward, she considered her options as she picked up a book and flipped through it, pausing at the strange looking creature with long, black fingers and an evil grin. It was human shaped and almost entirely black. Snapping the book shut, she looked at the blank cover, and then put it down.
"Something to stop his heart. Injected between the toes," she was thinking out loud. "Quick death, looks like natural causes…" She picked over the books and frowned at another, lifting it up with index and thumb. The binding felt oily and it made her skin crawl. "Kissing leaves a mark, bite would suggest vampire and there were no vampires there that I saw. Knife is obvious, that would never work. I could replicate a snake bite but with those covers a snake getting inside would be illogical. A sabotage?"
Letari perked up in the back of her mind, grinning widely.
'What about deadly nightshade?'
"No, it would take too long to concentrate and I don't have a supply."
'Cyanide?'
"I do have cyanide, but it can take time and we need this to go quickly."
'Do you remember that little yellow frog in the rainforest?'
"Oh yeah, we always meant to go back there and find it again. But again, we would need more time to find it and then get its poison. We should go there soon, having that would be handy."
'Aconite?'
"Aconite," Etani agreed finally, thinking hard. "Already in stock, easy to obtain and a small amount is all it takes. He'd be what? Ninety kilograms? Five milligrams should be plenty, but we can up the dose to make it quicker."
'Yes, that will work. If you want to really get back at him, go for the groin.'
"Tempting, the Femoral would be ideal, but he's more likely to suspect that and it means getting closer. We can get to the dorsal venus easily enough from the foot of his bed, he will hopefully ignore it if we go under the toe."
Putting the book back down, she looked up and found all three vampires looking at her with various expressions of confusion, fascination and horror.
"What?" she asked defensively.
"You were talking to yourself. Detailing how to kill the king," Kai said slowly and she flushed.
"I didn't realise I was speaking aloud. Letari." She made a vague gesture to her head and they nodded slowly, but still looked wary.
"How do you know all of this?" Jaia asked.
"I have a lot of experience in this sort of thing."
The twins exchanged a look and she set her arms down in her lap, thinking.
"The other option is to aim for the external jugular. Inside the hair line. But it's sensitive skin and he might wake up. Any signs of a struggle would be bad."
She watched Kai for several minutes, thinking about her options and he was starting to get nervous about her staring.
Versalis touched her arm and she looked at him, confused while he smiled at her in amusement.
"Should we go with you?" he asked.
She laughed gently. "No, darling Versalis. I can do this on my own."
"I wasn't implying that, it's just that you're valuable."
She silenced his concerns by kissing his cheek and stood, moving to collect the supplies they would need to draw her blood.
The jingling of her bell seemed louder than normal, a reminder that no matter how relaxed she seemed, she was very much a prisoner.
***
Setting up the supplies, she got herself comfortable on the couch and began to squeeze the pump, feeling the gentle pull that was her blood being sucked from her body by the tube in her vein.
Humming softly, she rested her head against the corner of the backrest and armrest, staring up at the ceiling while the vampires calmly went about their business.
A gentle hand lifted her feet and rested them in a lap, his fingers warm and soft as he gave her a tug and she slid into a more comfortable position.
Rolling her head to the side, she saw Versalis smiling slightly, though his eyes were still on his studies.
Sitting up to replace the bag with a fresh one, she listened in silence to the work going on around her. It was a moment of peace they rarely got to enjoy.