Sanguine shook his head. “No. It ain’t right. That guy should be ashamed of himself. I have to kill him. You know that, right? It’s a point of honour. Now it... it’s just a point of honour.”

“If the opportunity presents itself,” said Tanith, “you go right ahead and kill him.”

“I will.”

“Just be careful of his magic wand.”

Sanguine muttered something she couldn’t hear, and Tanith grinned again.

A man appeared at the window above, leaning out, talking to Kaiven. A man in his fifties, balding. Jackie Earl.

“And we have our target,” Tanith murmured. “You’d better head over to Annis, give her some encouragement. Let Jack and Sabine take care of the gunmen – you focus on Kaiven. He’s the only one who’ll pose a problem.”

“I still don’t like you going after the bow alone.”

“You don’t think I can handle one little mobster? Please.” She kissed him. “Go on now, scoot.”

Looking decidedly unimpressed, Sanguine disappeared into the wall, and Tanith turned back to Earl as he closed his window.

From where she crouched on the roof, hidden in darkness like she was, Annis could peer down into the courtyard and remain completely invisible. She watched the men walk with their guns slung over their shoulders, even caught bits and pieces of their conversation. Not very interesting stuff.

She heard something behind her and fixed a smile on to her face, but it was only Sanguine.

He frowned at her. “What’s wrong with your mouth?”

“Nothing,” she muttered.

“Have you had a seizure?”

“It’s nothing.” God, he annoyed her. Why did it have to be him? Why couldn’t it have been Jack? Then they could have crouched here, in the dark, waiting to kill people, and it would have been romantic. Jack wouldn’t have asked whether her smile was a seizure, she knew that much.

Or maybe he would have. There was no point lying to herself. She’d seen how he looked at that little blonde thing, Sabine. At first she’d mistaken the look in his eyes for hunger. Sabine was a tasty morsel, it had to be said. She was a meal waiting to happen. Annis herself had fantasised about it. It was perfectly natural. She wasn’t ashamed of her urges.

But the more she saw them together, the less sure she was that it was hunger in Jack’s eyes. Or at least that kind of hunger. Maybe it was a hunger of a different sort. And that little piece of trash, that floozy, that Jezebel, that blonde harlot, was stringing Jack along like this was all a game. Anger burned in Annis’s throat.

“Did you hear anything I just said?” Sanguine asked.

She blinked at him. “Whu?”

“Get your head in the game, Annis. You got a job to do.”

“I know,” she snapped. “I just have... things on my mind.”