by L. J. Red
He said nothing, just watched me go, and I could feel his gaze, heavy on my back all the way up the stairs.
Chapter 9
I called Jazz and she came over a little while later to poke me awake throughout the rest of the night and left sometime around breakfast the next day. I drifted in and out of an uneasy sleep for a few more hours, haunted by unsettling dreams: Visions of Valerian with his teeth in that man’s neck, only sometimes it wasn’t the man, it was me, and sometimes it felt exhilarating like my entire body was on fire with pleasure. Other times I was screaming and beating at him but he wouldn’t let me go. Finally, sweaty, achy, and feeling even more exhausted than when I had gone to bed, I pulled myself up and into the shower.
Jazz had left a bowl of apples on the table with a note to eat something, but I couldn’t face food. My stomach was clenched like a ball of lead so I fixed myself a coffee as the sun went down and was ready to go as the last rays faded. I pulled on my leather jacket and slid the wooden bladed knife into the holster around my waist. It was about as long as my forearm, edged in steel, which wouldn’t do shit against vamps but stayed sharp better than wood. I had a set of three. Detective Pierce had gotten them for me after the last case I did with Seattle PD had ended in a showdown with werewolves. A silver blade for wolves, the wooden blade for vampires, and cold iron for the fae. Guns weren’t always as reliable against magical foes. These knives were a last resort. I tried not to need them. I wasn’t a fighter, I was an investigator, but tonight I wanted the edge.
Valerian was waiting for me downstairs, leaning against the wall like he hadn’t taken a bullet just last night. His smile was wicked as he took me in.
My hair was wet from the shower and curling dark around my shoulders. My jeans were formfitting with enough stretch that I could kick someone in the face from standing. For a moment, under his eyes, I felt naked, taken apart. Then I recovered and shouldered past him, ignoring the shiver that went through me as we brushed. “Come on then,” I said. “The night’s a-wastin’.”
“After you,” he said, and clicked his keys. There was a muted chirp from down the street and I followed the noise until I saw the sleek, smooth lines of his car. I had to hold back a whistle of appreciation. I gave him a look from under my eyelashes. “Boys and their toys,” I said sarcastically, walking over. Still, I couldn’t help myself from reaching out and trailing my fingers along the smooth side as I slid in, surrounded by the scent of leather and musk. The sound of my belt sliding home was like key sliding into a lock, and for a moment I wondered if I’d made a terrible mistake. Valerian slid in beside me and it was too late, the engine hummed, almost silent as we drove through the city streets like another night shadow.
The familiar lights blurred as I stared out the window. It was a new car but something about this was painfully familiar. I glanced down at the space between the seats. The only difference was, if this had been four years ago, I’d be holding Valerian’s hand. Fuck, was I ever so painfully naive? I turned back and leaned my head against the cold glass. “The victims,” I asked without looking at him. “Did you know them?”
“The woman, by sight. The man, no.”
“Did you drink from them?” I asked, my throat tightening, aware of the choker around my neck, but the question came out steady.
He was silent for a moment, then, “Perhaps once or twice. I don’t keep track.”
Right. Because why would he? Do you really care which mug you drink out of? You might have a favorite one. The one you make your morning coffee in, but when it cracked you didn’t exactly mourn it, did you? You just bought a new fucking mug. I realized my hands were clenched into fists and I deliberately stretched my fingers out flat against my legs.
“This PR thing,” I continued after a moment. “Sevda. She work alone?”
“With other humans perhaps. The queen put Gloria in charge of our public image; you’ll have to ask her.”
Gloria, great, because she’d always been my biggest fan. This entire night was going to be hell. Why had I agreed to this? Sevda’s dead face slipped into my thoughts. Oh yeah, I thought, stomach heavy. That was why. Mercer Island crept up on me, and suddenly there was water on either side of us, lights glinting and reflecting against inky black, and then we were driving through familiar streets. Buildings no longer close-clustered to each other, but expensive mansions on the waterfront. Everything brightly lit so that even the darkest point of the night would feel like daytime. Artificial sunlight for the vampires, all glitz and glamour, all fake.
We drove up to the biggest building on the island, sprawling gardens stretching around us. Manicured lawns and perfect, primped bushes and trees. Valerian drove us down into the depths of a subterranean garage, the concrete lit up with strip lighting and enough cars to fill a showroom all gleaming under the lights. He slid into a free space and cut the engine the two of us, for a second, in a cocoon of silence. He turned toward me but whatever it was he wanted to say, I didn’t want to hear it. I unbuckled my seatbelt and climbed out before he could speak. He didn’t try again as we walked toward the elevator.
The doors closed on gray concrete and opened on lush glamour. Shining hardwood floors and chandeliers that poured out enough light to make a mockery of sunlight. I looked around and the memories came thick and fast, overwhelming me for a moment, so I couldn’t even move. I remembered seeing this place for the first time, my breath taken with the grandeur of it all. I hadn’t seen it for what it really was—a mask.
Soft music and conversation wound through the air, punctuated with the clink of champagne glasses. I crossed the threshold and the noise suddenly muted, half the people in the room stilling then turning toward me. Not people. The humans were left staring in confusion at conversations left half broken. It was the vampires. Every one of them staring at me. The room was still but the veil to the half world was rippling and I could sense every vampire around me, as aware of them as they were of me.
Had Violet felt this? Had my sister been just as aware of the dead? Was that how she had got caught up in their court so quick and so deep? I slammed my walls up, threw myself into the real world, and muted my awareness of the half down to a hum. The spell was broken. The vampires turned back, fake smiles and empty laughs. My skin was chilled.
“You didn’t say there was an event on,” I accused Valerian out of the corner of my mouth. He was silent, and when I turned I saw he was staring at me, a light in his eyes I couldn’t define. Once I might have called it desire.
“I was going to tell you as we got out of the car. You didn’t let me speak,” he said.I rolled my eyes as if he hadn’t had a hundred chances to tell me before then. “But this is a good thing,” he went on. “You can interview anyone you like.”
Yeah, I thought. Great. I just have to brave the lion’s den. Before I could reply, a blond vampire broke off from the group he was with and made his way toward us. Here was someone I recognized from before, and for once my past self and my present were in complete agreement. “Kyran,” I said, my lips drawing back from my teeth. “How have you not been staked yet?”
“Well if it isn’t the little death witch,” he said, his mouth twisting into an ugly sneer that ruined any chance at handsomeness his blond blue-eyed face might have. “What did you bring her here for?” he asked Valerian.
“Hey,” I snapped, “I’m right here, you know.” He cut his eyes to me, then back to Valerian. Great, I thought, back to being ignored again. How did I not get sick of this the first time around?
“The queen wishes her to have every access to our court,” Valerian said, his voice cold. There was no love lost between these two.
Kyran transferred his sneer back to me. “Asking questions didn’t get you very far last time, did it?”
I growled, leaning forward and reaching for the half world. Valerian pressed a warning hand to my shoulder, the touch going right through me. “Back away, Kyran. She’s under the queen’s protection. And mine.”
I shrugged of
f Valerian’s grip. I had my knife. I’d very much like to christen it by shoving it through Kyran’s throat.
“Yeah?” Kyran stepped forward and Valerian moved me out of the way until his body was blocking mine.
“Fucking move,” I hissed, slapping at his arm. It was like hitting rock. He was so tall I could barely even see the room beyond him.
He ignored me. “Don’t push me, Kyran,” he said, his voice a low growl.
“I thought you didn’t care about the little human bitch, but here you are, all protective over her. Like she matters.” I could hear the sneer in Kyran’s voice, I didn’t need to see it. His words made me shrink in on myself, taking a step back from them both. Valerian didn’t care about me. I knew that. He’d made that painfully clear, and not just to me apparently.
Kyran was still talking. “Maybe this time I’ll take a sip.”
Valerian’s growl cut through the room, raw and dangerous. It raised the hair on the back of my neck. A pool of stillness rippled out around us, vampires watching out of the corners of their glittering eyes. Even the humans close by had stilled, some animal part of them recognizing the sound of a predator on the edge of violence. Then the crowd rippled, parted, and a woman glided forward.
“Now, now, Kyran,” she said in a voice like cut glass. “Valerian is right. Ms. Waters has our complete cooperation.”
Queen Alexandra, the leader of all the vampires in Seattle. The most powerful vampire on the west coast transferred her icy gaze from Kyran to me and I felt my spine pull taut.
Chapter 10
She was exactly what you would expect a vampire queen to be: lips blood-red and her hair an icy blonde. The waves were glassy and perfectly smooth, falling in a cascade down one shoulder and pinned in place with tiny glittering stars that were probably real diamonds. More clustered at her throat, drawing the eye down to some impressive cleavage. Her figure-hugging dress skimmed her body like a spill of blood. She moved with that same vampiric grace that they all did, but concentrated and honed into a weapon. Her eyes were sharp and missed nothing.
“Ms. Waters, welcome back. I hope the court is as you remember it.”
“Yeah, I growled, exactly like.”
Her gaze flickered between Kyran and Valerian. “I do hope the unfortunate events surrounding your exit from the court have not affected your opinion of this case.”
“I think my previous experience has given me exactly what I need to find out which of you vampires is killing these people,” I said bluntly.
Her eyes flashed and she took a step closer, putting herself between the rest of the visitors and me. Did she not want me coming here during the party and asking obvious questions about the murders after all? “I had not realized you would be investigating the case today,” she said. I didn’t look at Valerian. He hadn’t told me he was breaking rules. My jaw tightened. I didn’t like being made a tool in the game of vampire politics.
“Well, I’m here now,” I said.
“Indeed,” Alexandra responded, and her smile was as empty as her eyes. I swear I felt it cut straight through me and into Valerian. I turned to look at him, feeling like a spectator at a tennis match. His eyes were dark and pitiless. Where Alexandra was all ice and glass, Valerian was a hulking, brooding darkness, and for the first time I felt the true edge of his power. The air between them thickened. Oh, I so did not want to be in the middle of this fight. I’d always assumed Alexandra ruled because she was the most powerful of the vampires. I was beginning to wonder if that was the case. From the look in Alexandra’s eyes, she was wondering it too. “Whatever we can do to assist you, I’m sure Valerian will be only too happy to oblige,” she said, neatly turning the conversation. She glided past us both, slipping her hand into Kyran’s arm. “Come, Kyran.”
He didn’t move and I saw her hands tighten imperceptibly. A nothing of a gesture unless you were magical and could sense the deathblow she dealt through the half world. Kyran paled and swayed, muscles standing out thick in his neck as his entire body went rigid then slumped. “I did warn you about your behavior, Kyran. Do not disappoint me again.” He swayed, his head bowing, and for a second I actually felt sorry for him. Then he jerked his head up, his eyes almost red with hatred, and I took an involuntary step back. “Come,” she said again, and swept him along beside her. The crowd filled in around them and I finally took a deep breath. Fucking vampires.
“Shall we?” Valerian said, offering his arm, which I ignored and stepped forward into the crush.
It was easy to pick out the vampires amongst the humans even in a crowd studded with movie heartthrobs and rock stars. They had a preternatural beauty that set them apart. Valerian cut through the crowd like a shark through water, with more than one admiring gaze lingering on his back. They ignored me as I followed in his wake. Had it always been like this? The vampires only concerned with their own kind. The humans that flocked around them little more than entertaining playthings. Alexandra had tried hard to rehabilitate their image since the scandals of violence and death but nothing really changed. Just a new lick of paint on a rotten building.
I had brought the photos with me, the ones of Oliver and Sevda alive, not the morgue ones and I got them out and started showing them to people. With Valerian looming over me like a dark cloud, the vampires clammed up tight, their lips pressed in unyielding lines. I sighed. “You’ve gotta leave me to work.”
“I am your protection.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. I get it. Alexandra forced you to do this as part of whatever power game you’re playing with her, right?” I’d finally figured it out.
His face was a mask.
“Whatever, don’t tell me. I don’t care. Go loom in that corner for a while.” He didn’t move. “For fuck’s sake, Valerian. You don’t really want to be here, I get it. You don’t have to pretend. Alexandra isn’t here right now so give me some space.”
He stared down at me. “Thirty minutes,” he said finally.
“Okay, sure, whatever.” I turned away. I’d take what I could get.
I didn’t have as much luck catching people’s attention without him, so I decided to be rude. What could I say? It came naturally. “You kill this woman?” I snapped, shoving the picture in a vampire’s face. They jerked back as if my general attitude was contagious.
“No, of course not.” They didn’t even look at the photo.
“You recognize her then?” I asked, toning it down slightly.
It took me a while to get a balance between pushy enough to break into their tittering conversations and not too pushy that they just clammed up, but even with the ones that spoke to me I didn’t learn anything new. Nothing more than what Valerian had already given me in the file. Yes, some of them recognized the photos. The humans had been hanging around the court for a while. No, they weren’t attached to any specific vampire, but they would come to some of the parties. There for the glitz, for the glamour, for the bite. I shivered. They weren’t the only ones. There were enough humans around sporting glittering earrings or little bracelets. The usual pretty gifts a vampire might offer in return for a suck and fuck.
It was a heady mix being bitten and having sex, I should know. You could lose yourself right up until the moment you died from blood loss. A pleasant way to go? You’d have to ask Oliver, Sevda, or my sister. The lights were too bright, the noise jarring. I needed a break.
I turned and saw Valerian coming toward me, alerted by some vampire sense of my change in purpose. I raised my hand to ward him off. “I just need a minute,” I said and walked away as the crowd shifted and moved between us. I didn’t make it to the doors.
“What are you doing here?” an acid voice said from by my shoulder.
I felt her vampiric presence pressed close and I spun just before she could put her hand on me, her long, red-painted nails closing on air.
“Gloria,” I said, “just what this night needed.”
Chapter 11
“What the fuck are you doing back here?” Glor
ia said, the scowl on her face marring the perfect beauty of her appearance. Her hair was a rich dark brown, verging on red, and where Queen Alexandra favored diamonds, Gloria clearly preferred rubies. She was glittering with them. “I thought we’d seen the last of you four years ago.”
“Yeah, well,” I said, “I live to surprise you, Gloria.”
I was surprised at the level of hatred on her face. We had never got on before but I had always counted Kyran as the only real threat in the court. Gloria had been sitting on a lot more hatred than she had ever let slip. Vampires were good at masking their expressions when they thought they needed to. Apparently, she didn’t think she needed to anymore.
“Trying to get your claws in Valerian again? Well, it won’t work this time.”
Ah, there it was. She didn’t know why I was here. Foolish Gloria. “Oh?” I asked. “Why won’t it work?”
“Because he finally realized a human wasn’t enough for him.”
“Oh, is that how it is?” I barked out a laugh. “I hope you both are very happy together. I’m sure you deserve each other.”
Her mouth twisted.
“Oh, I’m sorry, did he reject you?” I put on an expression of mock sympathy. “ I hope the experience wasn’t too bruising for your fragile ego. Don’t worry, I’m sure Kyran will say yes. Of course, he’ll fuck anything that stands still long enough, so…”
“Shut up,” she hissed. “You’re not supposed to be here; this is an invite-only event.” She gripped my arm tightly and tugged me toward the doors to the courtyard.
