To Go's relief, he had managed to talk Beni into some sort of agreement.
Sending Lara back was not the best thing to do, but the only thing. Having secured Beni's concurrence, however, Go found himself faced with two further problems: Lara's kindred did not want her back, and Lara herself did not want to go.
Delicate negotiations were therefore called for. And probably a large bribe. It was not an issue that Go had anticipated when they first met Lara: kidnapping, yes, okay. That could be dealt with. He'd foreseen tears, threats, maybe even some kind of Stockholm Syndrome, but not quite the degree of enthusiasm that Lara had actually displayed. The idea of a ransom, which hadn't even been in Go's mind in the first place, was summarily dismissed when Go had had a visit from Lara's sister.
At first, he'd thought it was Lara herself, standing in the window of his hotel room at midnight, and his heart had leaped and stuttered in his chest.
"Lara! I—"
"I'm not Lara." A long tail twitched, rustling the curtains. Yellow eyes glittered in candlelight. And he could see now that she was shorter, her long hair a slightly different shade to Lara's jet black, a little russet.
"Then who—"
"I'm her sister. Askenjuri." At least, that is what he thought she said. The name was a hiss and a sigh. She moved toward him and his knees buckled. The light of the candle illuminated her body against the transparent folds of her loose sari and that was wrong, he thought, the candle was in the wrong place, as though she had stolen the light, but he did not care. She opened her mouth and he saw the points of tiger teeth. The sari fell to the floor and she was striped, night-and-firelight-colored, all along her thighs and then that was gone and her skin was the shade of dark honey. She smiled. Her eyes were brown and gold.
"Am I like her, then? Do you think we look alike? People always think she takes after Mother." Now, the voice was a purr. She was right in front of him and he had not noticed that she had moved. She smelled of musk and jasmine and blood.
"No," he'd said in an instinctive croak. "You're much prettier."
Askenjuri's smile widened. The lie must smell, Go thought, rank as a day-old dead goat. But she didn't seem to mind, though the smile was mocking. "Ah, ah, ah . . . I'm sure you're just being kind." Definitely mocking. But it wasn't just mockery. There was something behind it and he did not know what it was. That made him nervous.
"How did you get in?" Think, man. You have to think. But the blood was beating in his head like the sea, in out, in out, and his body was heavy and hot, gravity pulling him down and down . . .
The carpet was surprisingly comfortable. She was standing over him and there was the distant engine of a purr. "Why, through your little fire." She gestured toward the candle. "Did you light it for her? Are you expecting my sister?"
"I think she's screwing her agent tonight," Go managed to say out of a dry mouth, and Askenjuri threw back her head and laughed. Her throat was golden, the stripes only faint.
"Ah, but, my sister screws everyone, you see. Has she screwed you, I wonder? She will. We were all so pleased when you took her away, my mother, our sisters, the princesses—everyone."
"Princesses?" He and Beni had aimed at someone—well, humble. They thought it might lead to fewer complications.
"We're all royal, you know." Again, the twitch of a tiger tail. "But some of us think we're more royal than most. Like little Lara."
"What are you telling me?" Go said thickly. There didn't seem to be much love lost between them; this didn't seem to be some kind of revenge trip. Thank God. If that was the right thing to think anymore . . .
"We don't want her back, little man. You can keep her. If she grows tired and wants to go, let her go. But don't send her back where she came from. We've all had quite enough."
"Oh," Go said, and that, and variations upon it, were all that he said for the next five minutes or so, because Askenjuri was flicking open the zip of his jeans and licking her lips with a tongue that really wasn't anything like a human being's, and then she sank down on top of him.
In the morning, she was gone. Go woke, feeling as though he'd been beaten with hammers. There was a long lacerated bruise down his chest and stomach—it looked as if an elephant had sat on him—and his head pounded. It was like the flu, but worse.
He did not, naturally, mention Askenjuri's visit either to Lara or Beni. Lara simply did not need to know—it might upset her, like he really cared—and any information that he possessed and Beni didn't was useful information, to Go's scheming mind. At first, he'd been afraid that Askenjuri might have marked him in some way—magically, as with a psychic bruise—but if she had, Lara did not appear to notice. Just as well.