“You wished to speak to me.” One finger pressed lightly against my temple. My obedient head bent sideways, baring my neck. “So, speak.” Leaning down, Lady Eris inhaled deeply and deliberately. “Or not,” she whispered in my ear, her fangs grazing my earlobe. “I suspect that your blood must taste deliciously of brimstone and ichor, my dear.”

Such a cliché, right? What I wanted to say was that someone had been watching a few too many episodes of True Blood. And yet . . . gah! I couldn’t even begin to make myself formulate words. The blankness in my mind spread to make way for wonderfully depraved thoughts. I’d never really gotten how someone like Bethany could so readily enter into a blood-bond with a vampire, but I’d never been the target of an attempted seduction before. The shadows pressed in on me, a dark voice whispering how good it would feel when those fangs pierced my skin and sank deep into my flesh, those ice-cold lips pressed against my throat to drink—better than sex, better than anything, an intimacy and ecstasy beyond anything I could imagine. My blood throbbed in my veins, begging for release.

A rill of unholy laughter ran around the ballroom, amused and contemptuous.

It pissed me off.

I sat with my head craned at an awkward angle. “Okay, all appearances to the contrary, I do not consent to this,” I muttered.

“You’re sure?” Lady Eris sounded dubious.

“Very.” With a considerable effort of will, I shifted my left hand to dauda-dagr’s hilt, wrapping my fingers around it. It emanated a different kind of cold, clean and bracing. “You’ve made your point,” I said under my breath. “I’ll go along with the public humiliation if you accept my apology.”

Backing off a few inches, she stared at me without blinking. “And if I don’t?”

My neck was starting to ache. I nudged an inch of dauda-dagr free. “I’ll make it perfectly clear I’m not in your thrall, and you’ll lose face.”

For a moment, I wasn’t sure if Lady Eris would go for it. She sat without blinking or breathing, motionless and . . . just really, really freaking undead. I began to wonder what would happen if she refused. The idea of fighting my way out of the House of Shadows against an entire vampire brood wasn’t very appealing.

Then she drew a breath and released me. “Very well, Hel’s liaison. I accept your apology.”

A murmur of disappointment echoed through the ballroom.

I sat upright, exhaling with relief. “Thank you.”

Lady Eris arched one perfectly shaped eyebrow. “Consider it a much-needed lesson in diplomacy.”

Okay, what is it with the undead and the eyebrow thing? “Duly noted.”

She made a magnanimous gesture. “What brings you to come seeking audience at the House of Shadows?”