Charming People

by A. L. Tyler

I turned back to the door with determination. This time, I pulled with a little more force, and the Vault swung open. When I stepped through, I heard a buzz in my ears like a backyard full of angry bees.

  The Vault didn’t like being used for these shenanigans, and somehow it knew I was the only member in the party who would hear its message. Still, though, it let me in.

  I stationed myself at the back of the party, facing the door with everyone between Nick and myself. The possibility that Cal wasn’t the killer and the real perpetrator would use the opportunity of Nick’s temporary incapacitation to kill the rest of us had been discussed. I mentally prepared myself and drew up several curses in my mind, just in case I needed them.

  “I’m waiting, Warren,” Cal said testily from his spot by the open door. “And as you mentioned, I’m hungry and quite irritable.”

  Nick fetched the vial from his pocket, uncorking it and pausing a moment to take a breath. His form in the doorway reminded me of the day we’d first met.

  He came to my aid after thugs jumped me in an alley behind a bar. I thought he was a handsome stranger... until he opened his arrogant mouth.

  It was lies then, too. We met on a lie.

  He lifted the vial to his mouth, giving me one last look.

  Then his eyes turned as dark as the night sky. He crushed the vial in his fist. He stood there, frozen, looking almost like a painting from my perspective—

  And then, in a flash—a blink of an eye—he was gone.

  Skyla gasped.

  “Warren!” Rogers called, stepping toward the door.

  I lowered my defenses for a moment and lunged to grab Rogers’ shirt. “Don’t go out there! Nick?”

  Thunder boomed overhead, but we could only hear it through the open door. The protection of the Vault dampened every influence of the natural world around us.

  The words that floated through the doorway were barely audible. “Did you kill Axel Hayden?”

  I squinted my eyes against the dark in the hallway. Cal was standing as stiff as a board, and I saw the muscle spasms that ran through his neck.

  “Did you kill Axel Hayden?”

  My eyes adjusted. The majority of his body was hidden by the dark color of his trench coat. The whites of his eyes were barely visible from the far side of the hall. His voice was rasping louder and louder.

  “Did you kill Axel Hayden?”

  Nick lunged at the doorway, hissing in frustration. Amos and Skyla drew back in terror. For a brief moment, I thought the Vault had nullified his hypnotism. Cal was fighting the questions.

  Nick lowered his chin, peering at Cal from beneath his brow, eyes bloodshot and cheeks papery thin and grimly colored as his heart stopped and his blood stilled. “Come here.”

  Cal took a step forward.

  I dove to grab his arms. “Nick! Nick!”

  His eyes flashed to me, and he was unimpressed.

  “Stop,” he breathed, closing his eyes. His voice evened out Cal stopped. “Did you kill Axel Hayden?”

  “No,” Cal choked out.

  “Did you poison Molly Wolffkyn?”

  “No.”

  The realization washed over me, and I let go of Cal, backing up fast. Only three suspects left, and I wanted every damn one of them in my line of sight.

  Nick looked as perplexed as I felt, but unfortunately, the vampire was winning—and our failure angered it.

  “Are you any use at all? Have you ever killed anyone?”

  I saw the cryptocrix click off in his eyes almost as fast as he’d finished the question. Our one shot and we’d wasted it.

  It wasn’t Cal.

  Cal was still compelled by hypnotism to answer the final question, and his answer did nothing to quell my anxiety.

  “Yes,” Cal murmured, dreamy-eyed and red in the face as he tried to fight his answer. “I’m useful. I’ve killed. I am an assassin.”

  I barely reacted in time to rebound Rogers’ spells away from Cal when he fired them off behind my back. They bounced around the space of the vault line wayward ping pong balls before absorbing into the silence.

  Nick reached for the door frame and fell against it, sinking to his knees and clutching his chest as his heart started again. Even so, I counted a full thirty seconds in my head before going to his aid.

  I knelt next to him but hesitated before touching him. Nick gave me an odd look.

  “You heard him!” Rogers said in an alarming tone. “He killed Shaina! He admitted to being an assassin!”

  Amos and Skyla were trying to push past us and out the door. Nick grabbed Skyla’s arm just in time. “Stop. No one is leaving.”

  I confronted Cal, almost too happy to escape my proximity to Nick. “Would you care to explain?”

  “He killed Shaina!”

  “He didn’t kill Axel or Molly,” Nick said, glaring at Rogers properly for the first time since our arrival. “The chances he killed Shaina and not the other two are next to none.”

  Cal rubbed his hands over his face, sinking to the floor where he stood. I couldn’t blame him. Interrogation by vampire was an unmatched ordeal.

  “I’m a world traveler. I have an excellent cover story,” Cal groaned through his hands. “I was approached by the Bleak—”

  “Lies,” Rogers said mournfully.

  “—some years ago. They wanted me to take an odd job here and there to assist in keeping the social order.” He finally lowered his hands, but he didn’t look at anyone. “You don’t say no to the Bleak.”

  Nick hoisted himself to his feet. The color returned to his face.

  “Can you verify that?” I asked him.

  “It’s a lie!” Rogers bellowed. “He’s the killer! He’s an assassin, put two and two together!”

  “No, I can’t verify it,” Nick groaned. “Not even if it’s true. You’d be asking the Bleak to admit to killing their supposed political allies. They won’t do it. Not if he’s the type of recruit he’s claiming. They’d let us all die first.”

  “I cannot believe this!” Rogers was at the brink of hysteria.

  “Believe it,” Cal said miserably. “I’m not even that successful of a biologist. Do you think cataloging wildlife pays my bills, Woodrow? Sweet gods, do you think the Bleak even care, unless I manage to find something they can weaponize? I pay my bills doing light spying and murder from a distance. I fund my travel with it. And yes, I absolutely loved hearing about how Axel had been showering Molly Wolffkyn with his easy money for years while I sold my soul to stay alive. He wouldn’t give me a red fucking cent after the whole thing with Natalie! I was jealous of Molly, but I didn’t kill her. I didn’t kill Axel. And I didn’t kill the maid you were screwing behind the scenes—!”

  Nick had to separate the two men and hall them out of the Vault by their collars.

  “This is your fault, Warren!” Rogers growled. “You botched the interrogation, and now we’re all going to die! We’ve no way of knowing if anything he says is the truth now!”

  Nick ignored him. “Jette, please escort Skyla and Amos back to their room. We need a new plan.”

  But Rogers’ words had struck a chord with me. There were two things we knew to be true: Cal was an assassin. Assassins had been sent to this island before.

  My gaze landed heavy on Skyla, and her secret rang fresh in my mind. Her sadness and confusion turned to rage.

  “Why are you staring at me?”

  I looked away. “I’m not—”

  “It’s not the first time!” She looked ready to slap me, but settled for kicking shut the Vault door instead. “Out with it! Whatever it is you’re not saying, out with it!”

  Chapter 20

  I closed my eyes and cringed. As much as it must have vexed him, Nick acted like we’d planned it all along. I really was a lousy subordinate.

  He looked Skyla directly in the eye, still holding Cal and Rogers by the scruffs of their shirts. “Ms. Wolffkyn, your mother had a very dangerous secret. It would behoove you if we kept it a secret.”
/>
  “Bullshit.” Skyla’s lips twisted in anger. “She’s dead now. I’m guessing you know why. If it has anything to do with this secret, then I think we should all know. It’s not fair that we’re all waiting to die here and you have all the information. I want all the cards on the table, Mr. Warren.”

  Rogers cringed. He pulled away from Nick, running both hands over his face and through his hair. “Warren—Nick—I don’t know how you know, but don’t. Don’t.”

  I looked at Rogers in shock. “You know?”

  Rogers looked ready to have another nervous breakdown as he glared at Nick. “She knows?”

  “Of course Rogers knows,” Nick said, keeping his eyes on Skyla. “He drew up the will. He knows who Axel wrote into it, and I’d wager he knows where the necessary documents are to prove anything that might need to be proved.”

  “Fuck all of you,” Skyla said. She took a step away from Amos, looking ready to maul him. “Do you know what they’re talking about?”

  Amos shook his head violently. “No, I have no idea!”

  “You truly don’t know,” Nick said with a small nod. He released his grip on Cal, dropping his hand to his side. “You want to know, Ms. Wolffkyn?”

  “Could it get me killed?” she demanded.

  “Yes,” Nick replied.

  “Nick...” Rogers said in warning.

  “I don’t know if it got your mother killed,” Nick said. Skyla looked pensive. Calculating. “But if anyone outside of this house knows this secret, it is, in my professional opinion, most likely the reason she’s dead.”

  “Someone in this house killed her, and people here obviously know.” Skyla’s shoulders slumped. She took a deep breath. “Tell me. Please.”

  He didn’t hesitate or blink. His voice wasn’t accusing or apologetic. “Axel Hayden was your biological father.”

  Skyla’s jaw went slack as she stared at Nick. She turned away from all of us and started walking, but stopped ten paces away to seek what little privacy the dark hall provided. With on hand resting firmly on her hip, and even in a moment of vulnerability, she still struck an intimidating pose.

  “Skyla...” Amos stuttered, pointing back at her. “Skyla’s my sister?”

  “Gods...” Cal said in a low voice. He shook his head. “That’s what he meant. That asshole. He said he was making changes to his will to add someone, and I thought he meant me. Sticking it to me one last time—”

  “Skyla,” Nick said, his voice silencing everyone else.

  She raised a hand to stop him, turning back. She gave Amos a strange look, raising a hand as she hesitated. “I kissed you that one time. When I was thirteen.”

  Amos made a face and shook his head. “Never happened. Not that I recall.”

  She dropped her hand. “Good man, Amos.”

  Rogers was sullen. “Warren, how the hell do you know about that and fail to ask an admitted assassin the obvious question? For all we know he works for Sergio Wolff, but now, we’ll never know!”

  Nick started walking down the hall and gestured for everyone to follow. “That’s a pointless question and you know it. He didn’t kill anyone here, and at the moment, I could care less who he freelances for.”

  “He did,” Rogers mumbled. “I don’t know how he got around your hypnotism, but he did. He lied. It’s him.”

  Skyla suddenly stopped. I almost ran into her from behind as Amos frowned in dismay.

  “Skyla?” he said, grabbing her shoulders like she would try to flee the building.

  She blinked twice and smiled. “I’m going to be an aunt.”

  “Congratulations,” Nick said from the front of the caravan. We continued walking.

  “If you want my opinion—” Cal started.

  “I don’t,” Nick responded.

  “Rogers seems awfully keen to pin this on someone. Perhaps he should be under a little more scrutiny.”

  Rogers stopped walking, his eyes practically popping from his skull. “I beg your pardon?”

  Nick hardly broke his stride as he reached back to grab Rogers’ arm and keep everyone moving.

  “He knew each victim personally. He had access,” Cal went on.

  “As far as I’m concerned, you all had access. End of discussion.” The look he cast over his shoulder killed all further conversation.

  One by one, Nick dropped off the remaining guests at their rooms, reinstating the wards to alert us if anyone left and adding a few more barriers to slow them down. We left each one with the basic preventative potions I had made, hoping it would end the hex in progress. When we got to the room that Amos and Skyla had previously shared, he looked at them both frankly.

  “I’m glad you’ve both found something good in all of this,” he said, looking from one to the other.

  Amos looked confused. Skyla shifted her weight to the other foot and crossed her arms. She’d given up on her makeup since her mother’s death, but she hardly needed it. Her dark lashes kept her daring blue eyes looking as sharp as ever.

  Even under her intense scrutiny, Nick didn’t falter. “I think it would be safer if you each occupied a different room.”

  “You think it’s one of us,” Skyla accused.

  “I think money is a possible motive for these killings,” Nick said. “If Axel treated you as equal heirs in his will—and I don’t know if he did—then each of you stands to double your fortune should the other pass. As his brother and best friend, it’s also likely that Axel gave Cal and Rogers a mention in that will, in which case it would benefit them if you both died. I’m simply trying to keep the Faberge Eggs in different baskets, Ms. Wolffkyn.”

  Amos raised his eyebrows, looking down. “I suppose that makes sense, dark as it is. We’re easier to kill in one swoop if we’re in the same place.”

  Skyla turned her gaze on me. “I don’t want to be alone.”

  “You think you’re next.” Nick hooked his thumbs into his belt.

  “I do,” Skyla said without hesitation. She cast a weary glance at Amos. “I don’t want Amos to be left alone, either. He’s all I have now.”

  Nick considered for a moment, pacing past the wainscoting on the soft gold carpet. “Protocol says we can’t take both of you. Two on two is a fight too close to call.”

  “You’re a vampire!” Skyla said in disbelief.

  “Protocol,” Nick growled over her. “It’s the only thing I have left in this situation. I am sorry. I’m not leaving you alone together. I can only allow one of you to stay with Jette and me.”

  “Skyla,” Amos said automatically.

  Skyla glared at him. “I can take care of myself—”

  “You just lost your mom,” he said. “You shouldn’t be alone. I’ll be fine. You go through life with a lot more security concerns because of your... dad. I don’t, Skyla. If someone wanted to kill me, they could have done it any time before I got here. You’re more likely to be a target. And if one of us has to inherit everything, it should be you. I wouldn’t know what to do with it, especially without you.”

  She rolled her eyes and walked past Nick and me, headed toward our room. She called back over her shoulder, “You’re an idiot, Amos.”

  I handed Amos a vial before hurrying after her. Nick finished his wards before joining us at the door to our room.

  “There’s only one bed,” I said sheepishly. “You’re welcome to it.”

  “You’ll take turns sleeping,” Nick said authoritatively. “Agent Driftwood needs to sleep. She was up all of last night.”

  And most of the night before, but it didn’t matter. Nick didn’t even look at me as he opened the door to let us in. I didn’t like him speaking over me.

  Once we were inside, I was uncomfortably aware that I had kissed Nick in this very room—on that very bed—not too long before. The case and the hard hours made it feel like it was weeks before.

  “Agent Driftwood will sleep first,” Nick announced. He grabbed the remote to turn on the television and flicked a glance at me. “If you wa
nt to shower first, go ahead.”

  Skyla tilted her head, looking from me to Nick. “Are you always this big of a douche to her in private?”

  Nick paused, remote hanging in his hand.

  “He’s working,” I said. “They’re all douche bags when they’re working.”

  “She started it,” Nick said lamely.

  I crossed my arms and pursed my lips, nodding. “I’m taking a shower. And if I’m required to have the first turn on the bed, I’m just going to throw out there that I don’t mind sharing.”

  “Really?” Nick dropped the remote on the bed. “You’re going to do this in front of a suspect?”

  “Oh, I’m not doing anything—”

  “Nope!” Skyla held her hands up. “Nope, not doing it. I will wait in the hall, at my own risk—”

  Nick twisted his ring and murmured the spell for a ward on the door. It locked and sealed itself with the sound of flapping bird wings. “You’ll wait in here, safely.”

  He opened the bathroom door for me and waited. When he clicked the door shut behind us, I realized it was going to be incredibly awkward to fight in front of a mirror.

  And just like that, I was sure he had manufactured the situation on purpose.

  Nick crossed his arms. “You’re being unprofessional.”

  “Per the second opinion just offered, you’re being a...” The mirror was already freaking me out. In his dress shirt and coat, he looked more professional than I did, and I couldn’t bring myself to repeat it. “Not nice.”

  “You started it.”

  “I did not—”

  “I tried to kiss you, that night you came back from investigating Molly’s murder, and something was off.”

  I shrugged. “Yeah, I was investigating Molly’s murder. You could have had better timing.” And wow, I needed better work clothes. Something that at least looked ironed.

  Nick tilted his head with a small smile—he was sure of his conclusions already. “That wasn’t it. You work in an evidence room. You were a breaker. You don’t stay in a job like this unless you can compartmentalize, and you didn’t mention Molly at all that night. Tell me what’s going on here.”

  He took off his warded jacket, and I could see the gun in his shoulder holster, stark black against the bleach white of his shirt, from all angles with the mirrors. He was using psychological warfare against me, and we both knew it.