From Jenks came an eyeball-hurting pulse of ultrasonic surprise.

“Cash up front,” Quen added, pulling a narrow wad of bills from somewhere on his person and throwing it at my feet.

I looked at the money. It wasn’t enough. A million dollars wouldn’t be enough. I shifted my foot, and it slid across the wet floor to Quen. “No.”

“Take the money and let him die, Rache,” Jenks said from the sun-strewn windowsill.

The black-clad elf smiled. “That’s not how Ms. Morgan works.” His pockmarked face was confident, and I hated the self-assured look in his green eyes. “If she takes the money, she’ll protect Mr. Kalamack down to her last breath. Won’t you?”

“No,” I said, knowing I would. But I wasn’t going to take his lousy ten grand.

“And you will take the money and the job,” Quen said, “because if you don’t, I’m going to tell the world about your summers at that little camp of his father’s. You’re the only person who has a ghost’s chance in hell to keep him alive.”

My face went cold. “Bastard,” I whispered, refusing to feel afraid. “Why don’t you just leave me alone? Why me? You just smeared me into the floor.”

His eyes dropped from mine. “There will be vampires there,” he said softly. “Powerful ones. There’s the chance—” He took a breath and met my eyes. “I don’t know if—”

I shook my head, somewhat reassured. Quen wouldn’t tell. Trent would be mildly ticked if I was packed up and shipped off to Antarctica; he still had hopes of luring me to his payroll himself. “If you’re afraid of vampires, that’s your problem,” I said. “I’m not going to let you make it mine. Ivy, get him out of my kitchen.”

She didn’t move, and I turned, my ire evaporating at the blank look on her face. “He’s been bitten,” she whispered, the wistful faltering in her voice shocking me. Hunched into herself, she leaned back against the wall, closed her eyes, and took a slow breath to scent him.

My lips parted in understanding. Piscary had bitten him, right before I clubbed the undead vampire into unconsciousness. Quen was an Inderlander, and so couldn’t contract the vamp virus and be turned, but he might be mentally bound to the master vampire. I found my hand covering my neck, my face cold.