Free Fury's Kiss by Karen Chance

didn’t want to know. Mircea was being too nice. This was really going to suck.
    If I’d had any doubts about that, the looks the others exchanged around the room would have clued me in. “On a scale of one to ten, how bad is it?” I asked Radu, because he was the least likely to lie to me.
    He pursed sculpted lips. “Sevenish? Perhaps eight?”
    Wonderful.
    But I might as well get it over with. “Lay it on me,” I told him.
    “Yes, well, it’s a little involved. Perhaps you could start by telling us what you recall from last night—”
    “She doesn’t remember a damned thing,” Marlowe said sharply. “She wouldn’t have asked that question if she did. I told you—”
    “Anything at all could be helpful,” Radu added, ignoring Marlowe with aristocratic ease. “Even small details.”
    And then everybody looked at me.
    Claire had set a glass of orange juice at my elbow, because the arrival of unwanted guests was not going to interrupt her morning routine. I took a moment to sip it, as if gathering my thoughts, which I wasn’t really doing because there weren’t any to gather. But I somehow didn’t think that was going to go over well.
    “We know you made it as far as the marina—” Radu began, before Marlowe cut him off.
    “Don’t help her! If you compromise the memories, they’re of no use to us!”
    “The marina,” I repeated blankly, and then something did stir. Something about me and a vampire and a job we were supposed to—“Crap.”
    “What is it?” Claire asked.
    “Headache.” Which was putting it mildly. A stabbing pain had just run ear to ear, like an ice pick through the brain. And why did that sound familiar?
    “We need whatever you can give us, Dory,” Radu said. “The smugglers are bad enough, but with the Black Circle—”
    “Damn it, Radu!” Marlowe exploded.
    “Oh, pish. She already knows they’re working together.”
    “But other people don’t!”
    “Such as?”
    “Such as a yard full of fey, not one of whom we know a damn thing about!”
    “They’re my security,” Claire said indignantly. “And part of the royal guard.”
    “Oh yes?” Dark eyes flashed. “And would that be the same royal guard who betrayed you and almost got your son killed—what? Two weeks ago?”
    “I’ll vouch for them!”
    “And who will vouch for you?”
    “Kit, please. This lovely young woman isn’t going to say anything,” Radu said, patting her hand. And therebysaving Marlowe a world of hurt without even knowing it.
    Not that he was grateful. “How the bloody hell can you—”
    “She is the daughter-in-law of one of our senior fey allies,” Mircea murmured. “Is she not?”
    Marlowe did not look pacified, maybe because the first time they’d met, Claire had thrown him out of the house. And judging by the narrowed emerald eyes, she was contemplating an encore. “Not to mention that this area isn’t secured,” he continued. “There could be listening devices all over the place!”
    “Like the ones you left in here that we had to remove?” Claire snapped.
    “Why bother to remove them if there was nothing to hear?” Marlowe snapped back.
    Claire flushed almost as red as her hair. But before she could say anything, Radu broke in. “And what if people
are
listening? Our allies already know what we’re doing and our enemies…Well, after last night, I think it’s safe to say they have figured it out.”
    “All right. What happened last night?” I asked, dropping the pretense. Because it was starting to look like maybe I did need to know.
    “Well, that’s what you’re supposed to tell us,” Radu said reasonably. “But I’ll see what I can do to jog your memory—without compromising anything,” he added before Marlowe could intervene again.
    He waited a moment, but the chief spy didn’t say anything else. That had a little smirk flitting around the edges of Radu’s mouth that shouldn’t have been there, because Marlowe was perfectly capable of delivering