by Lucy Auburn
Naomi glanced over at me, a bored expression on her face. “We’re following a lead I’ve got on your classmate Todd. Apparently he has one angry ex-girlfriend.”
She passed her phone over to me, and I glanced down at the screen. It was open to some particularly nasty tweets from an “@LSUgrrl5272” who seemed quite angry at “that bastard Todd who F@!KED me over!!!!! HE BETTER leave that SK*#k Marissa or I swear... I’ll kill him ;) jk... Probs.” Her use of punctuation to censor her own curse words amused me.
We were near campus. When Naomi told me to meet her outside a restaurant I knew of as a hangout spot for some of the LSU sorority girls, I thought she just had a hankering for fried chicken and skinny margaritas. But it turned out she was looking for a girl named Sandra Chu, who used to date Todd and was a Delta Gamma.
“She usually comes here in the afternoon,” Naomi said, leaning up against the hood of her car without a care for its pristine condition. “I checked her Instagram.”
“I didn’t know that homicide investigations were basically just social media stalking. I could’ve done that.”
Naomi raised a brow at me. “You could have, couldn’t you? But you didn’t. And you shouldn’t try to investigate this case without me—whoever is on the other end of these demon possessions is way too powerful for you to face on your own.”
“I thought I was a dangerous murderer in the making,” I muttered. “Can’t have it both ways.”
Naomi rolled her eyes at my muttering. “Wow, Suck. You’ve got a lot to learn.”
“You keep saying that like it’s a nickname. I have a name, you know,” I pointed out. “It’s Suh-lee-nuh. Selena.”
She sat up suddenly and looked over my shoulder. “Hush. She’s coming.” She then lightly punched the side of my arm, which hurt way more than I expected. “Hey, so, about that party the other night..”
I stared at Naomi in confusion before I realized she wanted me to talk to her about other things so Sandra wouldn’t know we were on to her. Awkwardly, I giggled a bubbly laugh that just made Naomi shoot me a “what the fuck” face. “What are you doing?” she whispered.
“That party!” My voice was too loud; I could see it by the look on Naomi’s face, so I lowered my volume. “What a great party it’s gonna be.”
Naomi sighed and shook her head at me; behind us, I heard the door to the chicken place close. “You’re a mess. She’s gone inside, thankfully, because another second out here and she would’ve realized you sound insane. Next time try acting normal.”
“It was my first time.” For some reason I wanted to defend myself; Naomi’s approval mattered to me now for some reason, though I didn’t know why. “Okay, what do we do now?”
“Talk to her. Follow my lead and don’t say anything until prompted—seriously. You’re bad at this.”
“I’ll get better!” I called out to her back as she headed into the restaurant. “We’re not all natural masters of deception.”
“Hush. She’s over there.” Naomi motioned with her chin towards a booth in the back, where Sandra was sitting alone, playing with her phone. “She must be waiting for friends. That’s perfect—we won’t have to get her alone to talk to her. C’mon, let’s go.”
A waitress greeted us as we passed, and Naomi told her we were meeting a friend. The “friend,” of course, was really a murder suspect. That stood out to me as we approached her booth; for all I knew, the girl I was about to meet had not only killed a classmate of mine, but set my best friend up to talk the fall. Just thinking about it made me angry, so I tried to stay calm as Naomi greeted the girl.
“Hey there,” she said, her voice surprisingly light and relaxed. Sandra looked up from her phone, a confused but friendly expression on her face. “Can I talk to you for a sec?”
“About what?”
Suddenly Naomi’s voice turned biting as she slid into the booth. “About the murder of Theo Smith.”
“I already gave my statement to the police.” Her words sounded so rehearsed that I was certain I’d heard them in a dozen police procedurals on TV. “Who are you, anyway?”
“We,” Naomi motioned for me to sit and I reluctantly joined her, “are private investigators.” She pushed her foot down on top of mine to remind me to stay quiet. “I’m working with the lead detective on this case.”
Sandra looked back and forth between us, skeptical. “Okay, but I don’t think I should talk to anyone except the police.”
She had a point there, and I couldn’t really blame her. Naomi looked over at me, which was when I realized she probably didn’t have a plan for this particular discussion; she seemed like the sort of woman who was more into stabbing things with the pointy end of a knife than talking to sorority girls.
Voice low, she muttered, “Use your powers of seduction or whatever,” in my ear.
I blinked at her, not wanting to point out that she’d kind of gotten mad at me the last time I’d done just that. But she had wanted to keep an eye on me, and here she was to do just that while I tested my powers out on people—again.
Holding in a sigh of frustration, I turned to Sandra and smiled. “We’re not saying you’re a suspect or anything,” I reassured her, trying to put that same look in my eyes that had worked on Salvatore. “We just want to talk. Gather evidence.”
“Oh-kay.” She tilted her head at me in confusion. “You’re intense.”
It wasn’t working. Whatever chemistry I’d had with Salvatore, it had come naturally. I glanced at Naomi for help but she just elbowed me in the side in response—clearly she was hoping I would step up here. Sighing, I decided to switch tactics.
“Sorry if you were intimidated by my partner,” I told her, smiling sweetly and trying to look less intense. I glanced down at Sandra’s hand, which was lying there on the table, and got an idea. “I’m sure that it’s tough, losing someone you knew. Todd was your ex-boyfriend after all.” I put my hand over hers in a gesture of comfort, and reached for that same feeling that I’d gotten when I took Tae Min’s hand. “I hate my exes, but I wouldn’t want them dead.”
Something came alive between us where we touched. I saw it when her eyes widened a little, pupils dilating as she let out a breath and relaxed all at once.
“Yeah, you’re right,” she said, voice soft and pliable. “I didn’t want Todd dead. I wanted him to take me back.”
I had to push down a whoop of joy—I’d done it! I used my powers to subtly seduce someone. My fingers tightened slightly on her hand to make sure we didn’t lose contact; I had no idea how this worked just yet, after all.
Naomi gave me a little smile then turned towards Sandra to question her further. “So, you wanted to get back together with Todd.” Sandra looked over at Naomi, still under my spell. “But your tweets made it seem like you hated him. So which is it?”
Sandra licked her lips and sighed, her voice forlorn. “Todd and I were high school sweethearts. It was never supposed to work out—his parents are rich Cape Cod people, mine are the Chinese owners of a restaurant chain. But we stayed together through college. We were happy.”
I prompted her, “Until?”
“Someone told me that Todd cheated. I didn’t believe it at first but there was proof.” She looked down, her cheeks scarlet. “I was so angry. And I’m not proud of it, but I decided I would get back at him—tit for tat. So I slept with his best friend Marshall. Except it turned out later that Todd never cheated, which meant I was the only one who did anything bad. I tried to explain the truth to him, but he wouldn’t listen. He said that if I’d loved him I never would have believed those lies.” Two tears slid down her cheeks, smearing her mascara. “And now he’s gone. I didn’t even get to say goodbye!”
All of a sudden she was full-out sobbing into her hands. I leaned back and glanced over at Naomi—I doubted my spell was still needed. The crying, sobbing mess in front of us didn’t seem like she’d killed her ex-boyfriend.
Once Sandra had gotten herself together, Naomi asked her one more question. “W
ho told you that Todd cheated on you?”
“That’s the thing,” Sandra said, pulling her face out of her hands. “It was his best friend. That’s why I believed him—he showed me messages and photos and everything. I didn’t think Marshall would lie about Todd like that. But he did.”
It wasn’t hard to figure out why. “He wanted you to sleep with him, didn’t he?”
She nodded. “Getting revenge on Todd by sleeping together was his idea. Afterwards, he wanted to be together, but there was no way—I wouldn’t do that to Todd. Sex was one thing, but dating his best friend? Not on my life.”
Sandra certainly had some interesting moral concepts that she believed in. I was about to mutter as much to Naomi when three girls our age stepped up to the booth and ran to comfort Sandra. These were the friends, clearly.
They glared at Naomi and I until we slid out and left them to hug their friend and dry her tears. “What did you do to her?” one shouted at us as we hurried away.
“That was interesting,” I said to Naomi as we stepped out the front door. “Sounds like this Marshall guy wasn’t much of a best friend at all.”
“He’s next on the list.” Naomi glanced over at me. “Until then, go back to your normal life. This was fun and all, but you’re still a baby suck, not my partner.”
“But I was so helpful in there!” I objected.
“So I won’t kick you off the case,” Naomi said as she slid her sunglasses on and unlocked her convertible. “Count your blessings, Selena. I’ll text you when I find out more about this Marshall guy... if you’re lucky. It shouldn’t take long to find him.”
That’s when I realized she didn’t know who he was—and she was about to get in her car and drive away. “Wait!”
She was about to close her car door, so I ran over and grabbed her to stop her, hands around her forearm. She shot me a glare and ripped her arm out of my grip. “What the hell, Suck?”
“I know who Marshall is!” She gave me a death glare, so I held my hands up to show her I wasn’t going to grab her like that again. “He’s kind of infamous on campus. He and his friend Jayla hold a lot of parties—including the one Todd died at.”
“You’re sure?”
“Definitely.” I’d checked the Facebook invite as soon as I was released from the police station; Talia and I hadn’t been invited, technically, but it was still public for everyone to see. “His name is Marshall Hastings. I can help you find him, I’m sure of it.”
Glancing around, Naomi sighed. “Fine. Get in the passenger seat. And don’t touch the radio! I have it set to my favorite stations.”
Excited, I rushed around to the other side of the car and slid inside, the smell of fresh leather hitting my nose as soon as I’d settled in. Naomi gave me a look, so I tried to squash down my excitement, sensing that I was annoying her. She didn’t seem to be used to the idea of a partner.
But I couldn’t completely kill all my excitement. We were so close to finding out who killed Todd—and as soon as we did, Talia would be free and my life would go back to normal.
Well. Mostly normal.
I was still a sex vampire, after all.
Chapter Fourteen
“What I did back there...” I glanced over at Naomi in the driver’s seat. “What was that, exactly? It’s like I hypnotized her.”
“You’re asking the wrong woman, Suck.” Naomi switched gears with ease, guiding her classic convertible into a smooth stop at a red light. “I don’t have abilities like yours.”
“You seem to know a lot about how it works, though,” I pointed out.
Naomi shot me a wry look. “Only from putting down darkside fae who started killing and wound up on the wrong side of my knife.”
That sobered me up. As much as Naomi and I were getting along right now, she was obviously never going to forget the fact that people like me used their powers for evil—no matter how much restraint I just managed to show her.
Peeved, I muttered, “Are you ever going to drop that?”
“Only when I’ve seen which way you go,” she said, easily pushing down on the clutch and switching back into first, then second gear as the light turned green. “Young fae like you have choices, you see. And none of us will know which one you’ll choose until you have all your power. Either you stick to the rules like the rest of us around here, or you turn and someone like me has to stop you.”
“You make it sound like the difference between good and evil is black and white.”
“In my experience, when it comes to fae who feed off humans—it is.” Her voice sounded grim. “Don’t mistake me, Suck. I’m rooting for you to turn out good. But I’ve learned the hard way not to get invested early on. It’s my job to hunt down evil, not pardon it.”
I paused to consider her words. “So you’re okay with me feeding as long as I don’t... kill anyone?”
“Or enslave them,” she added blithely. “Putting your hand on some grieving sorority girl and giving her good feelings isn’t all that different from doing the same thing with a nice song or a good cop bad cop routine. It’s when you make them addicted to you against their will that you will have crossed the line.”
Defensively, I told her, “I don’t even know how to do that.”
“That’s what worries me.” As we pulled up to Marshall’s building, Naomi looked over at me with an expression like she was weighing my soul in her hands. “You don’t know much now, but that’ll change. You’ll grow stronger. Pretty soon, you’ll be capable of doing just about anything to a human who’s weak enough. We’ll find out then who you really are. Now c’mon—let’s go catch a bad guy.”
She seemed to turn on a dime, from threatening a future, hypothetical evil me to acting like we were buddy detectives on some straightforward case. I had the feeling that I could spend hours with Naomi without understanding her any better than I had that first moment we met.
Marshall lived in a nice condo, no doubt bought with his parents’ money. He was one of those LSU kids who probably was pushed to go to Harvard but never had the ambition or interest—so instead his mom and dad put him here, close to home where they could keep an eye on him. Or at least that’s what they thought.
“I still don’t get how you know this kid,” Naomi said as we walked around the building searching for the right condo unit. “Are you two friends or something?”
“I told you, it was a freshman orientation thing.” I sighed. “Marshall was in my group. He hit on me a lot, but I had a boyfriend. It didn’t stop him though—he texted me his address at least three times late at night. I think it was a drunk mass booty call.”
“This kid sounds delightful,” she muttered sarcastically. “What, it didn’t occur to him that giving out your home address is dangerous?”
“I guess the worst thing he thought would happen is sex.”
“I swear, they make some of these guys on a frat bro assembly line. Makes me glad I date women.” We came around a corner, and Naomi crowed, “Ah-ha! Here it is. 107. Ready to do your thing?”
I blinked at her. “My thing?”
She shot me an exasperated look. “You didn’t think he would confess to murder without a little magic, did you?”
“Oh, right. My thing.” I felt nervous just thinking about. “Sure, I think I can do it again. Probably. Is it the same with every human?”
“Like I said, Suck, hell if I know.”
“I don’t know if I can—”
Instead of giving me time to prepare, though, Naomi strode forward and knocked on Marshall’s door. Loud. I glared at her a little, and she just shrugged. “Everyone learns to swim by being thrown into the deep end.”
I was pretty sure I remembered my parents starting me out in the kiddie pool with floaties on my arms, but it wouldn’t have surprised me to find out Naomi’s parents threw her into the ocean during a hurricane to teach her to dog paddle. She seemed like that kind of woman—impossibly tough, forged in flame.
Marshall answered the door and b
linked his blue eyes at us. He gave Naomi a winning smile, leaning up against the door frame. “What can I do for you, gals?”
In answer, Naomi pushed him back and strode into his home like it was nothing. “Hey!”
“C’mon, Suck.”
I rushed forward to follow her, watching as she grabbed Marshall’s arm in a vice grip and held him tight. He struggled, but she was somehow stronger than him despite the considerable size she had on him. He cursed at her, saying things my father would’ve told me gentleman never said.
I stared at Naomi. “What are you doing!?”
“Do your thing,” she said, motioning towards the angry and confused frat bro. “Hurry up already, I can’t hold him forever!”
“Oh God.” Next time I teamed up with Naomi, we apparently needed to have a discussion about things I was and wasn’t capable of. But there wasn’t time right now—I had to take care of this, since she’d left me with little choice. “Okay, Marshall, calm down!”
He cut off his stream of curse words to look at me in confusion. “Selena Pierce? Is that you?” Suddenly he was switching gears into a greasy kind of charming. “Damn, girl, the dark hair suits you.”
“It’s my natural color.” Something about Marshall just made me feel greasy, like he’d somehow gotten his gross on me. “Let’s just get this over with.”
I reached out to touch his arm and he waggled his eyebrows at me. “Hell yeah baby.”
Grimacing, I looked over at Naomi, who was holding both his shoulders now in a looser grip. “Are you sure I should be...”
“Hush, Selena, and just do it,” she snapped. “Unless you don’t want to find the real killer and get your friend out of jail?”
She had a point. I could do anything—even deal with this sleeze hitting on me—if it got Talia out of prison. So I screwed up my courage and stepped closer to Marshall, grabbing one his hands between mine.
“Put ‘em a little lower,” he said. “Where it counts.”
I filtered his obnoxious voice out and concentrated on the thread inside me, the same one I’d tugged on when I got Sandra to talk to us. It was there, connecting me to Marshall but in a somehow different way. I grabbed onto it and dove in, crossing my fingers that this didn’t make him more gross—if that was even possible.