“Ana, please—”
My phone rang, cutting off Dimitri’s plea. His eyes widened. “Is it her? Is it Alice?”
I glanced out of the corner of my eye to the phone I’d laid on the side table. Caleb’s name flashed across the screen. With a pang of guilt, I silenced the call and shook my head. “No.”
Dimitri stood and ran his hands through his thick hair.
“Do you have a lawyer? Someone to advise you and Alice?” I asked as he began pacing the length of the couch.
He scoffed and a ghost of a smile graced his lips. “He told us to cooperate with the SPA agents and to stay in the haven.”
“Oh.”
“He said that without proof or an eye witness, they wouldn’t arrest Alice. But now, if this Connor comes forward … ” he trailed off, his expression locked into a cold sneer.
“Dimitri, I hate to ask, but is there a chance that maybe—just maybe—Alice did attack your mother?”
Dimitri froze mid-step and his jaw flexed. A tense energy swirled through the room and made me feel like I couldn’t breathe.
“Please, I don’t mean to upset you,” I protested, holding both hands out, my palms facing him. “I don’t think she did either, but I also don’t know where she was during the attack. When she was here the other night, she told me you were having doubts—”
“I was wrong to doubt her,” Dimitri said, his voice a low warning.
“Dimitri, she told me she was in the guest bathroom when it happened, but I checked all the bathrooms on the first floor. All the rooms, in fact. She wasn’t in that bathroom. So, where was she? Why didn’t anyone see her?”
He turned the question over as he resumed pacing. After a few laps, he paused and sat back down. “I don’t know,” he admitted, dropping his face into his hands. When he looked back up at me, he looked as though he’d aged five years--which was really saying something, considering he was a vampire and didn’t, in fact, age at all.
“I’ve run through it over and over in my head,” he said, whisper quiet. “I think about how I should have gone after her the moment she left. Either that, or I should have chased after my mother and given her a piece of my mind for making that insulting mockery of a toast. Everyone knew what she meant. That it was a threat to me, to Alice.”
“Do you think that was the deal she made with Rosalinda?” I asked. “She didn’t change the will prior to her death, but maybe she told Rosalinda you wouldn’t get the estate until you, well, you know …”
He shrugged. “I honestly don’t know what she told Rosalinda. I doubt we’ll ever know. Clearly, what she said and what she did were two different things, at least, based on Rosalinda’s antics.”
The phone rang again. Caleb again. When I didn’t answer, Dimitri’s phone chirped. He swore. “It’s that idiot, McCord,” he snarled, punching a button a little harder than necessary.
Heat washed over my cheeks and I was grateful I hadn’t told Dimitri about my date.
“This is Lord Vanguard,” he said, answering the call with a surly expression.
He listened to Caleb speak, and I scooted closer to the edge of my seat, straining to hear what he was saying.
After a moment, Dimitris’s brows rose half an inch. “She’s there?”
Not waiting for an answer, he jumped up and gestured at me to follow.
I faltered but stood when he beckoned a second time. “We’ll be right there,” he snapped before hanging up the call.
“What?” I asked, somewhat breathless. “What happened?”
“Alice is at the estate. She says she has proof she didn’t kill my mother, but she won’t talk until we’re there.”
“We?” I repeated.
He nodded. “That’s right. Let’s go.”
We stumbled into a tense standoff when we arrived at the Vanguard estate forty-five minutes later. Dimitri drove like a bat fresh from hell—no pun intended—and shaved fifteen minutes off the drive. He hadn’t waited for me when we arrived; instead, he barreled into the house, and I sprinted to catch up to him.
Caleb and his partner, Jessica, were in the formal living room, each dressed in SPA garb and wearing matching expressions of frustration. Jessica held a wand at her side, her fingers adjusting their grip every few seconds. Rosalinda and Connor stood side by side on the opposite side of the room. A smattering of household staff lurked at the edges of the room, all wearing anxious expressions of varying degrees.
Alice was at the center of the room, a silver gun in one shaking hand. Her eyes were beady and darting from face to face.
“Baby, don’t do this,” Dimitri pleaded, creeping closer to her one tiny step at a time. He held his hands out. “Give me the gun. We’ll all sit down and figure this out. No one needs to get hurt.”
Tears streamed down Alice’s cheeks, and her hand shook more violently.
Jessica pulled her wand up, but Caleb subtly pushed her arm back down. “Alice, please, do as Dimitri asked. Put the gun down. You’re not under arrest. We came here to listen to what you have to say.”
Across the room, Rosalinda snorted loudly. “What is there to say? All that we’re missing is a confession.”
Dimitri shot his aunt a murderous look. “Stay out of this! You’ve done enough damage as it is.”
Rosalinda returned his glare with a contemptuous smile. “Oh, Dimitri, you still have so much to learn. This is precisely why I told your mother you weren’t ready to lead House Vanguard. You’re weak.”
The word sounded like a hiss as it echoed through the room.
“You,” Alice snapped, swiveling the gun toward Rosalinda with newfound resolve, “shut up!”
“Alice,” Caleb said, keeping his own tone even and low. “Alice, listen to me. If you hurt someone, then I can’t help you. Right now, I’m on your side. I want to know what you have to say. But I need you to put down your weapon and kick it over to me. Then we can sit down and talk.”
Alice let out a nervous laugh. “Yeah, right. Like you wanted to talk at the station? You didn’t listen to a word I said.”
“I did, Alice. I’m sorry if I made you feel any differently.”
I took a cautious step into the room, shuffling toward Caleb, though I kept my back pressed against the wall. I didn’t think Alice would hurt me, but the room felt like it was a breath away from exploding. If that happened, I wanted to be beside Caleb—or, preferably, behind him. I wasn’t sure what his magic allowed him to do, but considering his position in the SPA, he had to have some pretty serious fighting training in one fashion or another.
“Alice,” Caleb said when she didn’t respond.
Alice didn’t look away from her target. For a moment, I wondered if she’d even heard Caleb. She placed her second hand on the gun, wrapping it around the grip, and then clicked it one degree to Rosalinda’s right, training it on Connor. She licked her lips nervously. “Tell them the truth,” she demanded. “Tell them what you really saw.”
Connor balked. The gregarious man was reduced to a twitching mess under the barrel of Alice’s gun. He glanced at Rosalinda and ran a hand over his forehead, wiping at the beads of sweat breaking out across his skin.
“Tell them!” Alice bellowed.
Connor cracked, holding out both hands. “It was all a lie! I didn’t see you in the hall with a wooden stake. She--she paid me to say that!”
Dimitri let out a low growl, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. “It was you,” he said, closing in on his aunt.
Caleb stepped forward, and his hands changed into claws, the way they had at the restaurant when he told me he was at least part-shifter.
Despite the predatory movements of her nephew, Rosalinda merely looked put out, as though someone swiped her parking spot at the mall on a busy Saturday.
“Why would I kill my sister?” she asked, her tone cool, almost patronizing.
“Because you didn’t think she was strong enough,” Dimitri fired back, his eyes shining pools of molten pitch. “You
thought you’d convinced her to cut me out of the will. If you took her out, you would automatically be placed at the head of House Vanguard.”
Rosalinda’s eyes flashed but her haughty smirk remained in place. “Unlike you, nephew, I have patience and self-control. I didn’t need to kill Lucinda. I would have convinced her to cut your inheritance and remove you and your little chihuahua from the family.”
“What did you call her?” Dimitri asked, his fangs sliding into place as he bore his teeth at her.
Alice shivered and adjusted her grip on the gun as she turned it back toward Rosalinda.
Rosalinda smirked at the young woman, apparently pleased she’d frightened her. “That’s what she is, after all, your little, yappy bitch.”
Dimitri roared with fury and launched himself at his aunt.
Caleb let out his own roar and jumped into the fray.
Alice tumbled back out of the way as Dimitri and Rosalinda clashed in a flurry of fangs and unnaturally sharp nails. Caleb shifted, his body human one moment, beast the next. The bobcat jumped between the warring vampires and let out a howl as Rosalinda’s claws sunk into his side.
Jessica raised her wand and fired off a spell, her aim directed at Rosalinda.
Someone screamed and it took me a moment to realize it was me. “No!” I screamed, watching with horror as Rosalinda delivered a crushing blow to her nephew’s head. She shoved him aside and slashed at the bobcat.
Jessica’s lips moved, uttering another curse, and a blast of red light sparked from her wand. The spell surged through the room, but at the last moment, Alice surged forward, going to Dimitri, but instead, stumbling right into the spell’s path.
Alice’s eyes widened as the red light hit her square in the chest, and then, she crumpled to the floor.
Chapter 17
“Alice!”
I raced forward, not thinking of Jessica’s wand being at my back. My purse slipped from my shoulder as I dropped to my knees by Alice’s side, and the packet of pictures dumped out onto the floor. In my hurry to leave, I’d shoved it and my phone in my purse and chased after Dimitri. As I saw the photos scatter across the dark wood floor, I wondered why I’d even bothered with them.
Jessica swore and joined us.
“What did you do?” I asked, my voice shaking. “What spell was that?”
She didn’t take the time to answer; instead she surged back to her feet and fired off another spell. I looked over my shoulder, keeping one hand on Alice’s lifeless shoulder, and saw Rosalinda fall backward. Caleb rallied and threw himself atop her, pinning her to the floor with his huge paws. Jessica’s spell hit the right target this time and Rosalinda went still.
Caleb waited a beat and then backed down. In the blink of an eye, he shifted back to his human form. A blaze of heat ignited at the sight of him and I quickly tore my gaze off his muscled—and nude—profile. Jessica hurried to give him the clothing he’d shaken off off post-shift. If he had any qualms about his nudity, it didn’t show as he dressed.
As soon as he was back in his black pants and undershirt, Caleb came to Alice’s side. “What spell did you use?” he asked over one broad shoulder.
“It—it was a … a hex,” Jessica stammered. “Is she …”
She didn’t finish the question.
Caleb placed his fingers at Alice’s throat. He swore.
“It—it wasn’t supposed to kill anyone,” Jessica said, her voice paper thin.
“She’s dead?” I interjected, a wave of hysteria rising in my chest as my own heart beat out of control.
Caleb closed his eyes and dropped his chin in a single nod.
A lump swelled in the back of my throat and tears blurred my eyes. “And … Rosalinda?”
“Stunned,” Caleb said. “The hex works on vamps. On a human … ” he let his voice trail off.
A few yards away, Dimitri stirred. He sat up, one hand pressed against his head. His eyes looked unfocused as he blinked a few times. When he fully came to, his eyes locked on Alice, ignoring the lifeless body of his aunt beside him. He scrambled in a half stumble, half crawl to Alice. “What happened to her?” he choked out, running a finger over Alice’s throat in the same place Caleb had checked. When he was unable to find her pulse, his eyes went black and his fangs slid over his lower lip. He careened around and spotted Rosalinda.
“It wasn’t her!” Jessica yelled.
Dimitri stopped, his body freezing in place. “What happened?” he ground out between clenched teeth.
“She was trying to get to you,” I told him, my voice thick. “She got in the path of a hex. It’s meant to stun vampires, but with Alice being human, it … it was too strong.”
Dimitri crumpled over Alice’s body, a mournful howl ripping from his chest.
Caleb rocked back onto his heels, still squatting beside Alice’s body. He scrubbed two hands over his face. “Jessica, call for backup,” he told his partner, not looking at her. When he dropped his hands, he blinked a few times, clearing his vision, and then frowned. “What are all these?” he asked, taking in the pile of photographs surrounding us.
“Sorry,” I said, moving away from Alice and started gathering the photos. “They’re from the rehearsal. The photographer had these proofs delivered to my office earlier today.”
Something caught the corner of my eye and I reached for the photo beside my shoe.
“Wait a second …”
The photo was focused on Alice and Dimitri, in each other’s arms on the dance floor. It was taken just before Lucinda’s call for a toast. In the background, Lucinda and Connor stood in an alcove, yards away from the rest of the crowd gathered to watch the happy couple. It was hard to see the details of their faces, but Connor was leaned in, using his size to tower over Lucinda, and one of his large hands clutched her elbow in a hostile manner.
I blinked, not quite believing what I was seeing. Speechless, I flung my hand out and shook the photo. “Look!”
Caleb frowned at me, but took the photograph and scanned it. His mouth tensed into a thin line and something dangerous flashed in his eyes. “When was this taken?”
“Right before Lucinda’s speech,” I answered, barely able to hear my own voice over the sound of my pulse slamming in my ears.
Caleb stood, his shoulders locked. “Where is he?”
A woman in black stepped forward and extended her hand, gesturing at the doorway.
Caleb swore again and tore into action.
Jessica looked ready to go after him, but then stopped short and hovered over Rosalinda, her wand still drawn. I had no idea how long the hex would render Rosalinda unconscious, but from the nervous look on Jessica’s face, we likely didn’t have long.
The woman who had pointed in the direction Connor had gone took a few steps forward. She stopped at Dimitri’s side and placed a steady hand on his shoulder before lowering herself to her knees. “There’s only one option,” she told him. “But there isn’t much time.”
Dimitri’s eyes widened but then narrowed with resolve. “Looks like my mother is getting her wish after all,” he said, a bitter twist to his mouth.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
He swallowed hard and his eyes switched once again, returning to the dark, bottomless pools of black.
The woman looked at me and removed her hand from Dimitri’s shoulder. “Come, dear. It’s best you not watch.”
Only then did I realize the meaning of Dimitri’s words. He was going to turn Alice.
Into a vampire.
Chapter 18
I was in the mansion’s kitchen, sipping at a piping hot cup of lemon tea when a pack of SPA agents arrived. Everything happened in a blur around me as I sat at the kitchen table with the tea. I heard voices barking orders and a stampede of footsteps just outside the doors, but I didn’t move from my perch on the stool beneath me. It was my island, and I wasn’t leaving it for uncharted waters.
Whispers swirled around the kitchen as household staff came and went. I h
ad a feeling the woman who’d brought me to the kitchen, a vampire named Hannah, had told the other staff not to disturb me, because none of them gave me more than a second glance as they came and went.
I wasn’t sure how much time passed before Caleb returned. He came into the kitchen, looking more ruffled than he had before, and the staff scurried for the exit. “Anastasia,” he said, my name sounding like a sigh of relief. He crossed the kitchen and took the barstool beside mine. “Are you all right?”
I nodded and licked my lips. “I—I think so.”
He ran a hand over the side of my face but quickly dropped it to the table and placed it over my hand. “We got him.”
“Connor?” I asked.
He nodded. “He still had the wooden stake in his car. It looks like the handle part of one of the weapons from the Vanguard crest hanging in the study just down the hall from where Lucinda was found. I think he must have been keeping it as some memento or something.”
I shuddered. “Why? Why did he do it?”
Caleb exhaled. “Lover’s quarrel, I suppose. He claims Lucinda had promised to marry him and turn him into a vampire—”
“Wait,” I interjected, “he isn’t a vampire?”
“No. He’s a badger shifter.”
I don’t know why, but I suddenly laughed, the sound bursting out before I could think better of it. “All that fuss about Dimitri marrying a human, and meanwhile, she’s sneaking around with a badger-shifting gigolo?”
“Apparently.”
I covered my mouth with the back of my hand and tried to reign in my hysterical giggles before I went completely unglued.
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