by Elle Adams
He stepped close to me. “That’s right, you and your hunter friend.”
“He has nothing to do with this,” I interjected. “I’m not involved. I have no arguments with anyone.”
“And the fact that you’ve been seen fraternising with the vampires on more than one occasion is nothing?” Callie’s cousin asked softly.
“What is this, school?” I rolled my eyes, pretending his loud voice and intimidating stature didn’t bother me at all—to say nothing of the wolf beneath the surface. “I’m not getting involved in your cliques. If every one of you hadn’t been outright rude to me except for Callie, maybe I wouldn’t mind socialising with you and not the vampires.”
If hell freezes over, I thought, but didn’t say that last part aloud.
Madame Grey cleared her throat loudly. “I would advise you to be careful in the forest at this late hour,” she said. “Let the police take control of the investigation, and ask me if you have any other concerns. I’m not about to step into the middle of your feud with the vampires, but remember how long our peace has lasted, and why. Go, now.”
The werewolves sloped off, muttering angrily. Madame Grey swept back into the meeting room, too, without so much as a glance at me.
Rita turned to me. “Blair, I would go home. I don’t expect you to concentrate on wand-work today.”
“But I need to talk to—"
And she was gone. Leaving me and my left-handed wand behind.
Great. I wouldn’t push Madame Grey right now, and considering there was a killer out there, wandering around alone at night wasn’t the smartest idea. Even for Nathan. I hoped he’d been warned not to go anywhere near werewolf territory tonight.
In my dream, I was flying… flying…
The flat door crashed open, and I jolted awake. “Sky?”
No response came from the cat, but footsteps sounded in the living room. I checked the time—two in the morning—and opened my bedroom door to find Alissa standing in the living room, looking utterly lost.
“Sorry I woke you, Blair.” She looked a mess, hair dishevelled, clothes wrinkled, yet her tone was surprisingly sober. “I’ve had a night of it.”
“You weren’t hauled in by the police again?” She hadn’t been in when I came back, because she was working, so I’d assumed she was safe. I’d texted her with news of the murder, but received no response before I’d fallen into an exhausted slumber.
“No,” she said. “Bryan found the body.”
“Oh,” I said.
“Exactly.” She grimaced, flopping on the sofa. Roald rubbed himself against her face, obviously picking up on her distress. She lifted her head. “The werewolves think the vampires retaliated against them. You know… vampire bites are lethal to werewolves. They haven’t done a full autopsy yet, so all they’re doing is yelling accusations. But Bryan called me with a warning that since he found the body, the police have him listed as a suspect.”
“What, for murdering another werewolf?” I hadn’t known vampire bites were lethal to werewolves, either.
“The police don’t think it’s part of their feud,” said Alissa. “I’ve heard a dozen theories, but the most common one is that it’s some independent killer targeting paranormals in general, not one particular group.”
I thought this over. It made sense, but the feud was a more obvious explanation. “What, like the monster in the woods? But the wolves said that there were no obvious signs of the cause of death.”
“When Steve has a target, he goes all-out, and unfortunately, he’s convinced that one of the vampires is attempting to stoke tensions between the werewolves and their fellow vamps. He’s likely to drag Keith in for questioning tomorrow, on top of Bryan, who’s under suspicion from both sides. It’s his own fault, though. If he hadn’t taken it upon himself to come to the hospital that day in the first place, he’d be in the clear.”
“It seems weird that he did that to begin with,” I said. “Unless it’s not the first time he’s tried to win you back?”
Alissa’s mouth twisted. “What you saw at the New Moon? Picture that, every night for the first two weeks after our breakup. All his tragic love songs are based on our relationship.”
“That’s creepy. Really creepy.”
“It’s not like he crossed any visible lines,” she said. “The hospital is open to the public. But he’s only visited me at work twice, and the first time, I nearly gave him a reason to make it a permanent stay. Let’s just say it involved needles.”
I laughed, despite myself. “You should have done that this time.”
“I would have done if he’d reached me before the nurses threw him out. They know what he’s like. Honestly, I wouldn’t shed a tear if he gets locked up, but he’s no murderer.”
Hmm. “Let them figure out the cause of death first. Then…” Then what? Did we have a vampire-werewolf feud playing out, or something more? There was no way to get an unbiased answer from either the vamps or the werewolves. And it wasn’t fair for the newbie vampire to keep getting dragged into it either—though the question remained of whichever vampire had been the one to bite him. I’d forgotten all about that, in the wake of everything else that’d happened.
Alissa got to her feet. “I’m going to bed. Maybe I’ll think of a plan in the morning. Don’t you have to be up for work?”
“Yep.” I yawned. “I didn’t even get to explain my wand situation to Rita, so I’m still off the list for classes. I can do some poking around after work.”
“No more poking around,” she said, making for her bedroom door. “I don’t know what to think, but I’m inclined to agree with the police. This person is after paranormals in general, and it might not be a coincidence that he picked the two most volatile groups in town.”
“Three, if you count the elves.”
But the only link between the two cases was that the bodies had been found in the woods. What kind of killer set a monster on some of his victims and poisoned others?
I returned to my room, finding Sky sprawled on my pillow. “How did you get in?”
“Miaow.”
I stroked him. His fur was ice-cold. “What were you doing, hanging around with vampires again?”
The cat dug his claws into my bed, forcing me to squash onto the bed next to him. It was like trying to sleep beside a fluffy ice block. “I don’t suppose you know who our killer is?”
“Miaow.”
“Thought not.” My eyelids fluttered closed.
I woke with a resounding thud as I hit the floor on my side. Groaning, I crawled upright and saw Sky sitting on the windowsill, his fur on end.
I gasped. The little pixie from the vampire’s house was outside my window.
“Wait!”
I grabbed my slippers and ran from the flat, barely remembering to snatch up my keys on the way out. I wore only thin cotton pyjamas, but I hardly cared. My feet skidded in the hallway as I sprinted to the back door.
But he’d gone. There was no sign of the pixie, just the merest sprinkling of fairy dust on the lawn.
9
Shockingly, my focus levels at work that day were at an all-time low.
“You look like a pixie just crapped in your coffee,” said Bethan from behind a stack of papers.
I nearly dropped my coffee. It’s just a figure of speech. “Yeah, right. Rough night.”
“I heard,” said Bethan. “That’s the only reason I’m not taking you to task on the boss’s behalf for calling the last three clients the wrong names.”
I winced. “Sorry. Alissa came back in the early hours of the morning panicking about the werewolf’s murder. She’s worried about getting arrested again. Since her ex found the body.”
“Ugh, that guy,” said Bethan. “I remember him. He wasn’t on the suspect list for the vampire, was he?”
“Only because he got caught trying to sneak into the hospital to give her flowers right before the vampire died. Do you think he might have done it?”
“No clue
,” she said. “I don’t like him. I also can’t say I’m much of a fan of the elder vampires, either.”
“As opposed to the younger ones?” I asked. “Your mother said the same. Aren’t all vampires more or less the same, give or take a few centuries?”
“Not the ones who didn’t use to play by the rules,” Lizzie said from across the desk, her chin in her hand. “Laws change with the times, and the vampires were never happy when they brought in the stringent new laws against biting normals. Most of us who were born in the last twenty or thirty years didn’t know that it used to be legal, but the older residents do. They remember.”
“Oh,” I said. “What, did it used to be legal to bite people whenever they wanted to?”
“Normals,” said Bethan. “Yeah. It’s bad. Our history isn’t that pleasant. There were paranormals who wanted power and were happy to abuse it. And then there were some elder vamps who thought vampires were superior to humans, and for that reason, they should be allowed to use that power to take whatever they wanted. The hunters were part of the force against that… which is why the elder vampires don’t get on with the hunters.”
I remembered Lord Anderson’s reaction to Nathan. Now him wanting to talk to me instead made slightly more sense. Didn’t exactly explain why the wolves hated him, but I guessed that his own actions in bringing rogues to justice probably spoke for themselves.
“Right,” I said. “So… might it be an elder vampire behind this? I guess it depends how the werewolf died. They didn’t mention finding bite marks.”
“I wouldn’t have thought so,” said Bethan. “It was humans they felt superior to, not other paranormals. Wild werewolves were even worse than the vampires were when it came to attacking humans… and I’m going to stop talking before Callie overhears.”
“Wise idea,” said Lizzie.
I turned the new information over in my head as I forced myself to read over the client list more carefully this time. An elder vampire had died. Had that been deliberate? What was the connecting factor between the two deaths?
I jumped when the boss appeared behind me. “Callie has gone home to her family,” she announced. “I’ll need one of you to watch the desk in her place.”
“I’ll do it,” I said. I think the clients would probably agree.
Also, if I admitted it, I kind of hoped Nathan would walk in so we could have a proper conversation.
Ten minutes into watching the door, I wished I’d stayed in the office instead. We rarely had visitors unless someone was running interviews, and I had too much pent-up energy to have any patience for sitting inert at a desk. I opened the desk drawer and found a device shaped like a spinning top and picked it up—and jumped when it grew wings and flitted around my head like a tiny hummingbird. I lunged to catch it and missed, nearly knocking the desk over.
Of course, that’s when the door opened and Nathan walked in.
Before my brain quite caught up with my actions, my wand was in my hand—my left hand—and I’d executed a perfect summoning spell. Nathan’s eyes widened as the bird-thing shot over his head, back into my hand.
I gaped at it. Whoa.
“Blair?” he said. “Is that—?”
“I have no idea what it is.” I put the bird-thing down on the desk. “It’s Callie’s. I’m on desk duty today.”
His gaze dropped to my hand and a frown marred his face. Of course, he was too observant not to notice my surprise display of witchcraft wasn’t quite right.
“Ah, Nathan,” said Veronica, sweeping over to him before I could offer an explanation. “As you may have heard, my receptionist has been inconveniently detained in a murder investigation again. I have Blair watching the desk, and I’d like you to keep an eye on things outside in case anyone else decides to make trouble.”
It looked like Veronica’s paranoia was back in full force. She returned to her office, and I set the hummingbird-thing back on the desk.
“Are you going to the police station later?” I asked Nathan.
“When they need me. Why?”
“Alissa.” I explained our encounter early this morning. “She’s worried Keith will end up accused again.”
“You’re going to get yourself into trouble if you keep worrying about other people more than yourself,” he said, but not in a reprimanding tone. “You don’t have to feel responsible for their decisions.”
A lump grew in my throat. “I guess… in my life before this, people didn’t need me to worry about them. They had everything already figured out. Also, my cat is equally concerned, and I have absolutely no control over anything he does. I’d just like to know… did they ever work out the cause of the werewolf’s death?”
“They did,” Nathan said. “Poison.”
“The same poison that killed the vampire?”
I already knew the answer.
Steve the Gargoyle was about as pleased to see me as I was to see him.
“You interfering little busybody,” he said, crowding the doorway to the police station. “Get out.”
“She’s with me,” Nathan interjected.
“Not good enough. You’re in the employ of the council. She’s a… nobody.”
“That’s lovely,” I said. “Is Alissa here?”
“Your little witch friend is lucky she’s not in our cells with her vampire friend.”
“You can’t just lock people up on a whim!” I said. “You actually locked Keith in jail? Why?”
“Because he’s a major suspect,” he growled. “And for your information, I can lock people up on a whim.”
“You’re being absurd,” I said. “Keith was under watch when Lord Goddard was killed. And he can’t have killed the werewolf. He’s new to being a vampire and isn’t even part of their group.”
It looked like the murders of two powerful paranormals in a short space of time had sent Steve over the edge. “Unfortunately for you, I’m the one in charge,” he said, slowly and clearly. “Get out.”
Nathan walked me to the door like he was afraid Steve would pounce on me and arrest me the second he turned his back—which was starting to look worryingly likely.
“Alissa’s going to be mad,” I said. “Lord Goddard’s house… did the other vampires get in?”
“No idea,” Nathan said. “Why?”
“Well, we haven’t cleared up if the first murder was to do with his inheritance or not. I mean, if it’s the same killer, then I guess not. Who was the murdered werewolf?”
“You won’t get near them, Blair,’ said Nathan. “They’re fiercely protective of their own, and it took long enough for them to get the police to look at the body. In the end, they only cooperated because Steve is an ally of theirs.”
Ugh. He would be. Despite having no respect for him, I’d bet Chief Donovan had figured that he needed the police on his side. Since the gargoyles feared the vampires, siding with the werewolves was a natural choice. But it wasn’t fair of him to lock Keith up without a trial, and Alissa couldn’t intervene without putting her neck on the line again.
But… there might be one person who could help us.
“Do you think the vampires will react as badly as the werewolves when they find out someone targeted both of them in the same way?” I asked Nathan.
“Not unless the werewolves directly strike,” he said. “The elders don’t want war, but they respond to any threat immediately and with violence. It’s why they’re one of the more unpredictable paranormal types.”
“What about fairies?”
I didn’t know where the question came from, except that now the words were out there, hanging in the air between us. Horrified at myself, I hoped, stupidly, that the wind had caught my words at that precise moment and he hadn’t heard.
He arched a brow. “Fairies? They don’t have a council representative. Including the elves. We have yet to hear their opinion on the murder, but they haven’t declared war on anyone.”
Oh. He must think that I’d meant the killer monster in the wood
s. “Are you going to the forest now?”
He inclined his head. “Yes. I’ll be patrolling again this evening. I’ll see you later, Blair.”
He returned to the police station, while I mentally berated myself for not taking the opening and telling him what I was. But helping Keith, and Alissa by extension, was more important than chasing pixies.
Leaving the police station, I didn’t head home, but up the road past Lord Goddard’s mansion. It seemed the vampires had given up on trying to break in, because there was nobody around. One look at the newly reinstated wards told me they wouldn’t be getting back inside. So Peter had reset them after all, or they’d switched back on. The vampires wouldn’t be pleased, though they were probably a little preoccupied defending themselves from the werewolves’ accusations. Hopefully, word wouldn’t have reached Vincent yet.
I didn’t know if he’d be as easily pushed into action as the others, but Steve feared him, and that was reason enough to ask for his help. As a new vampire, Keith had no reputation to use as a defence. He needed another vampire’s help, and while Vincent was out for his own self-interest, surely he wouldn’t want an innocent newbie vampire to languish in jail while Steve threw his weight around.
Keith aside, the town’s safety was at stake, not to mention the peace that had lasted for centuries here. Hmm. Probably best not to use an expression involving the word ‘stake’ when I made my case to him.
I walked past the mansion and continued uphill. I’d never been to this part of town before, but I’d been told the cemetery was the place where the vampires’ council met. Unless Vincent happened to be in one of his usual haunts—and given the level of paranoia surrounding the vampires lately, it didn’t look likely—then he’d be there.
The houses on this side of town were larger, grander, and more spread out than those in the witches’ territory. It wasn’t hard to spot which one belonged to the council, because it was the only house that wasn’t surrounded by several layers of warded fences, and stood alone next to the cemetery gates. They presumably didn’t keep anything valuable in there. Not that the sooty black bricks and windows curtained in dark shades looked particularly inviting either way, but when I reached the door and knocked, no wards exploded in my face.