I dropped my gun to my side and covered my mouth with my other hand, swallowing back a sob. Audrey was weeping enough for all of us. The duke’s scion-to-be stood just inside the south wing, not ten feet from where Yoshiko had fallen. Her back quivered as she sucked in a ragged breath. She turned at the sound of our footsteps and rushed into Dante’s open arms, burying her face against his chest.
“I was... I was playing the piano, and I heard a crash.” She sniffled and eased away to look at him with her watery, Bambi eyes. “It’s just awful.”
“This wasn’t an accident,” Murphy said, his voice raw with grief. He held up Yoshiko’s arm, revealing a pair of fresh scratches that began at her wrist. His eyes turned up to the staircase next, his fangs sliding free with a lethal hiss as he laid Yoshiko’s lifeless body on the floor again.
“Murphy—” I began, but he was already off, climbing the stairs three at a time. “Shit!” I holstered my pistol and raced after him.
“Lock down the house,” Dante shouted to the other guards as I disappeared up the stairs after Murphy.
Screams sounded from the harem lounge, and I ran faster, my own fangs extending from a stab of adrenaline. It wasn’t until I reached the top floor that I realized the duke was right behind me. His eyes were dilated, fangs budding beneath his upper lip.
“Escort the donors to their rooms,” he said. “I’ll take care of Mr. Murphy.”
I nodded, unable to speak between my fangs and the tightness in my chest.
One of Audrey’s donors-in-waiting appeared first, rushing for the stairs as Dante headed into the lounge. I grabbed her by the shoulders, drawing a squeak from her when she noticed my fangs.
“To your room,” I hissed, redirecting her through the galley kitchen to the back hallway that housed the harem bedrooms. Two more donors charged in my direction but quickly changed course when they saw where I’d pointed the first. The rest had already filtered out of the lounge—all except for one.
Murphy had the man pinned to the floor in front of an overturned sofa. I recognized him as one of the newcomers Yoshiko had introduced as the Alaskan. His face was swollen and red, likely from his lungs being crushed flat by Murphy’s weight.
“Did you do it?” Murphy screamed in the man’s face. “Was it you?” The man gurgled and shook his head, unable to offer a more substantial reply without oxygen.
Dante took Murphy by the shoulders and heaved him upright and back a few steps as if he weighed no more than a Halloween prop. Murphy hissed and reached for the man still laid out on the floor, while I rushed across the room and dragged the donor to his feet, helping him to the back hallway and into his room.
“Mr. Murphy,” Dante said, his voice loud but calm. “We will get to the bottom of this, but not in this manner. You will not terrorize my harem in your quest for vengeance.”
Murphy jerked his shoulders out of the duke’s grasp, but he didn’t head for the hallway I guarded. Instead, he turned and placed his hands on the fireplace mantel that divided the wall of windows spanning the length of the room. I caught sight of his face in the reflection of the glass, his fathomless, black eyes and the rivers running from them.
He rested his head on the mantel between his hands and loosed a gut-wrenching wail.
Dante waited for the sound to die and the sobs to begin before he rested a hand on Murphy’s back. He didn’t say anything, just offered a comforting presence while Murphy’s world finished imploding.
FOR ALL MY WANTING to help with a murder investigation, this was not how I’d anticipated it would come to pass. Not where I lived. Not with someone I consider a friend as the victim. And not with a whole lot of jack and shit to work with.
Since the security system was undergoing an upgrade, the cameras in the manor were down, and they would be for another hour at the very least. There were over forty donors upstairs at the time of Yoshiko’s death—if my quick headcount was correct—and I didn’t need Mandy to confirm that they would all smell like the harem manager. She drew their blood on a regular basis, spent time in their rooms, getting to know them on a level personal enough to play matchmaker with the vamps in the house.
Murphy was clearly devastated in the worst possible way, but Yoshiko’s death affected everyone who lived at the manor. From the humans she considered her flock to the vampires she kept well fed. She was even friendly with the wolves—especially Mandy.
After Murphy had finished crying his eyes out, Dante asked me to accompany his top guard downstairs and requested that I track down Ursula and Belinda while he addressed the donors. I didn’t remember seeing his assistant or the princess in the foyer. Of course, Belinda’s office and the library, where Ursula spent much of her time, were in the north wing so it would have taken them longer to reach the scene.
Murphy and I found them both downstairs with Audrey, lingering around the spot where Yoshiko had fallen. One of the guards was collecting a sample of the blood from the floor with several evidence swabs.
“Where is she?” Murphy rasped, his calm on the verge of shattering again.
“Downstairs,” the guard answered. “The harem produce cellar. It’s the coldest room in the house—the best we can do until...other arrangements are made.”
Murphy swallowed and nodded as another guard began cleaning the remaining blood on the floor.
“What has happened, my scion?” Ursula demanded. “Was this an unfortunate accident or an assassination? No one is giving me a straight answer.”
“She was murdered.” Murphy’s fangs began to lengthen again, and I squeezed his shoulder.
“All of the donors who were upstairs are in their rooms now,” I said. “We’ll question them until we get to the bottom of this. In the meantime, the house is on lockdown.”
Murphy blinked stiffly, coming out of his daze long enough to bark a few orders at the guards. “I want two men on this stairwell and two on the north. If any of the donors try to make a run for it, I want to know right away.”
“Yes, sir,” the guards gathered in the south wing answered.
“The duke asked me to find you,” I said, eyeing Ursula and Belinda. “Maybe we should wait for him in his room.”
Audrey took a step toward me in silent inquiry.
“Oh. You, too. I guess.” I turned and followed Murphy through the foyer and down the back hallway to Dante’s room. Ursula, Belinda, and Audrey filed inside behind us. The duke’s bedroom was the largest in the house, but it suddenly felt cramped.
Murphy dropped into one of the armchairs in front of the fireplace and stared absently at the floor. I was certain the duke wouldn’t allow him to question the donors—not after the scare he’d given them, and not while he was so emotionally unstable. But I supposed keeping him in the loop was the best way to keep an eye on him.
“This is a disaster.” Ursula huffed and plopped down on the edge of Dante’s bed. “And I’m starving. Why does stress always make me so hungry?”
Audrey sucked her bottom lip and eyed the other side of the bed. Then her gaze slid to me, and she wisely took a seat on the bench pushed up against the footboard instead. Now was not the time to wonder if she was sleeping with Dante. The moment I’d shared with the duke was tarnished enough as it was.
Belinda dug her cell phone out of her pocket and punched in a number. “We need two pots of wolf blood delivered to the duke’s room,” she said into the receiver. “No, the harem is locked down, but there should be several tea service sets in one of the storerooms. Thank you.”
“Thank you,” I said once she ended the call.
“Don’t thank me just yet.” Belinda grimaced. “Security is already stretched thin with the system upgrade and the lockdown, and we’ll be relying pretty heavily on those anemic, sleep-deprived wolves come sunrise.”
“But the cameras should be working by then, right?” I asked.
She shrugged. “What will it matter if there’s no one to watch them?”
“Surely some of the donors will be wi
lling to give blood even if they’re quarantined,” Audrey said. “And I’m well enough to feed the duke again—” She bit her lip and shot me a nervous glance as if sensing the wrath that bubbled up in my chest. I did my best to ignore it, and her.
“We’ll question the donors until sunrise,” I said. “And again after sunset if that’s what it takes.”
Dante entered the room, and we all turned our heads toward him.
“Well...” He blew out a crestfallen sigh. “I believe we are in for a very long night.”
WEREWOLF BLOOD HAD been a good call on Belinda’s part. One of the guards delivered it shortly after Dante’s arrival. It soothed my nerves, and it seemed to calm Murphy’s agitation, too. But it also made me feel guilty about the vamp guards who would have to go without until we came up with a plan.
Dante offered me the empty armchair in front of the fireplace, but I opted to sit on the bench at the foot of his bed. Beside Audrey. She’d scooted to one side as soon as he’d come into the room, and now that I was thinking clearly, I was more than happy to squash her cuddle party plans.
This was no time for her Darkly charms. It was also no time for my pettiness, but if I had to watch her fawn over Dante, there was no way I’d be able to focus on what needed to be done—for Murphy’s sake and everyone else’s.
“Belinda,” Dante said, lifting his cup of blood at her in thanks before continuing. “I know I count on you for a lot, but I am putting you in charge of harem management until we find a suitable replacement.”
Murphy snorted. “Good luck with that.”
Dante gave him a guarded look. I wasn’t used to the guards or staff showing any disrespect toward the duke—that seemed to be something he only tolerated from Ursula and me. “It will be difficult,” Dante finally said. “And it is doubtful that we will find someone as proficient as Ms. Onishi was, but we must make do as well as we can.”
Belinda nodded, and her fingernails clicked swiftly over the screen of her phone. “I have a list of donors who are handy in the kitchen and good at finding veins—Yoshiko left it with me when she took a weekend off over the summer. I know she kept a planner with the donor matches and dates, too.”
“It’s in her room,” Murphy said. He sniffled and then cleared his throat. “Top drawer of her desk. It has the chore schedule in there, too.”
“Thank you.” Belinda gave him a sympathetic smile. “You wouldn’t happen to know where she wanted to take her...forever rest, would you?”
“Yosh was human. She wanted to be cremated and to have her ashes scattered over the lake out back.”
Dante set his empty espresso cup down on the table between the armchairs. “We can certainly do that for her.”
“Yeah?” Murphy snorted again. “You wanna do something for her, find the sorry fuck who did this.”
“I fully intend to,” Dante said. The lines of his face tightened again at Murphy’s tone. “But we will go about the task with level heads—while you tend to Ms. Onishi’s final requests.” Murphy looked as if he might refuse, but then Dante added, “She would have wanted it to be you.”
“Yes, Your Grace.” Murphy stood and sighed heavily, his gaze veering for the door. “I should be with her now.”
Dante nodded. “Go.”
I waited for Murphy to leave the room before asking, “Where are we interrogating the donors?”
“We, Ms. Skye?” He gave me a hesitant frown.
“Belinda made a good point right before you joined us.” I stood and crossed the room, stopping behind Murphy’s vacated armchair. “The guards are stretched thin right now, and we really can’t afford to overwork the wolves and then expect them to hold down the fort after sunrise.”
“It’s a setup!” Ursula wheezed in a tight breath, and then another, sounding as if she were on the verge of hyperventilating. She crawled across Dante’s bed and dropped to the floor on the opposite side from the wall of windows. “It’s Kassandra. She’s trying to kill me again.”
“Kassandra?” Audrey gasped. “The Duchess of House Lilith? Are you ill? Have you been poisoned?” She climbed off the bench and pressed her back against the armoire to get a better view of Ursula’s act taking place behind the bed.
“She’s fine,” I said, rolling my eyes. The princess’s dramatic outbursts had gotten stale for me, but I remembered my initial panic the first few months after Imbolc. “You’ll get used to this shtick soon enough.”
“You could at least pretend like you care,” Ursula snapped, pausing her labored breathing long enough to scowl at me.
“You’re a vampire. You can’t die from a panic attack.”
“My office,” Dante said, heading off our familial bickering. “We’ll question the donors there. Belinda, have one of the guards on the south stairwell bring them down one at a time.”
“Yes, Your Grace.” She lowered her phone and dipped her head in a small bow. “I’ll have the guard fetch Yoshiko’s planner while he’s upstairs, too.”
“W-what about me?” Audrey asked. “Is there something I can do to help?”
“It is late, my dear.” Dante went to the armoire and took her by the elbow. “I will escort you to your room where you’ll be quite safe,” he added, shooting an unamused look down at Ursula where she sat on the floor.
“Would you...could you, perhaps, interview Kate and Polly first?” Audrey asked as Dante opened one of the double doors. “I’d feel much better if I knew they were safe in my room with me—especially if there’s a murderer in the harem.”
“Yes, of course,” he said, ushering her into the hallway. Belinda slipped past him and joined her as Dante looked back at me. “I’ll meet you in my office.”
Chapter Fourteen
“KATE TILLMAN?” I ASKED, fingering through the file Belinda had left on Dante’s desk.
The girl in the guest chair gave me a weak smile. She wasn’t the one I’d bumped into at the top of the staircase during Murphy’s meltdown, so I now guessed that had been Polly.
“Yes, ma’am—I mean, Your Grace.” Kate’s face flushed at the blunder, and she wrung her hands in her lap. The mannerism and her politeness reminded me of Audrey, and I wondered if it was a Darkly Hall influence that all their prodigies acquired.
I paced behind Dante’s chair, not feeling brave enough to claim it. A single kiss didn’t mean what was his was mine or vice versa. He was still the Duke of House Lilith, and even a fledgling duchess like me knew certain lines shouldn’t be crossed.
“The duke will be here any minute,” I said. “But I see no reason why we can’t get started without him.” I glanced up from the file, waiting for her to protest. When she didn’t, I continued. “When was the last time you saw the duke’s harem manager?”
Kate touched her fingertips to her chin and blinked a few times. “I believe it was just after dinner. She came to Polly’s and my room to draw Polly’s blood.”
“The other donor from Darkly? Why would Yoshiko take her blood?” I asked.
Kate bit her lip—another Audrey mannerism that annoyed me. “Our mistress offered to take us to Denver with her to see the queen’s estate, but she said we must donate blood to her future sire to secure a seat on the flight. I declined, but Polly agreed. The harem manager was collecting a small taste for the duke to sample.”
I doubted that the blood pot found beside Yoshiko’s body contained Polly’s blood. Dinner was served in the harem before sunset so the donors would be ready for the vamps in the house as soon as they rose for the evening. The Polly sampler had probably been the duke’s first meal of the night.
If Kate weren’t bleeding—beverage-wise—and Polly had been drawn off earlier in the night, that left...thirty-eight donors to question. Very long night, indeed.
“Was Ms. Onishi acting differently than usual? Did she say anything that struck you as odd? Complain about anyone in the harem?” I said, falling back on the generic questions every detective knew to ask.
Kate gave a small shrug and cocked
her head to one side. “I’ve only been here a week, so I’m afraid I wouldn’t know about the way she usually behaves... She was nice, if that helps? And she didn’t speak ill of anyone.” Her brows knit together. I waited, thinking perhaps she remembered something useful, and then she asked, “Do donors go missing around here often? Are we...safe?”
“Missing?” I blinked at her. Shit. She didn’t know. “Yoshiko is dead.”
Kate gasped and covered her mouth with both hands. “Was it that guard?” she whispered. “The one Polly said attacked the harem?”
“What? No.” I slashed my hand through the air. “He discovered her at the bottom of the south stairwell and was looking for the one responsible.”
“So, there’s a killer in the harem?” Her voice cracked, and she bunched the front of her skirt in her hands, anxiously kneading the material. “And you left us upstairs with them?”
The office doors opened, and Dante entered the room. He looked tired, but a neutral mask smoothed his features as he took in Kate’s mounting panic.
“Ms. Tillman?” he said gently. “Are you all right?”
“No, I’m not all right!” She pinched her eyes shut. “You told the headmistress at Darkly that you would protect us from harm, and now there’s a killer loose in the house?”
“We do not know that for certain.” He shot me an accusing stare. “We are questioning everyone—”
“Wait, am I a suspect?” Kate gasped again, and I thought she might dissolve into an Ursula-esque meltdown. Great. Another drama queen. That was just what we needed.
“You and thirty-nine other donors,” I said dryly, earning another look from Dante.
“No one is a suspect yet,” he assured her. “For all we know, this could have been a simple yet tragic accident.”
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