He raised a single, judgmental brow. “Yes. Obviously.”
“Given your previous involvement with SERC, would any testimony you offered be considered reliable evidence?” Because if authorities wouldn’t trust his findings, there was no point wasting precious minutes or hours gathering clues at the breach location.
At that, he paused. “Probably. I left under”—another hesitation—“fraught circumstances, but my honesty was never in doubt. And like I said before, I still have a few contacts there.”
Her curiosity pricked at her, but there was no time to discuss what, precisely,fraught circumstancesentailed. They had an immediate decision to make.
Further delays to their alert-the-authorities mission wouldonly hone her impatience to a killing edge, but…dammit. “I was wrong. We do need to inspect the breach ourselves and gather any remaining scent evidence there. It’ll cost us time we don’t have, but at least the main zombie pack has already crossed into Zone C. We should be able to get to the site and back relatively quickly.”
“Agreed,” he said.
His big, cool hand dropped from her nape and gently squeezed her knee. Then he reached for the gearshift, faced forward, and executed a quick U-turn on the access road. Soon enough, they were zipping back toward Wall Two while she devoured another cinnamon roll from her white bakery bag.
The SUV hurtled through the wall and onto the bridge just as she swallowed her last sticky-sweet bite. The water below was more a blur than anything else, and the low barricade between the vehicle and the moat wasn’t even visible through her window, not from only a handsbreadth away. He was driving absurdly fast, absurdly close to the concrete barrier.
That should probably make her nervous, shouldn’t it? Somehow, though, she just couldn’t seem to get there. At this point, only a fool would believe he didn’t care about her survival, no matter what edgelord nonsense he spouted. He wouldn’t willingly endanger her. In fact, when it came to Max, she had another, much more salient concern jockeying for her attention: namely, what he might risk to keep her safe.
His own safety, definitely. His stupid sword-swinging stunt on the zombie-covered bridge had proven that. Would he risk his immortal life too?
Now,thatpossibility did scare her. More and more with every passing hour.
She didn’t want him in danger, and if he landed there anyway, she wanted to help him escape unscathed. But if she didn’t understand his capabilities and vulnerabilities, didn’t grasp how his species functioned, she couldn’t assist or protect him as she needed to. For her to become an asset rather than a liability as his companion, she required far, far more information.
Luckily, she knew just where to start digging. “I’m surprised that Riley was able to identify you as a vampire so quickly, black clothes or no black clothes. How did she know? What signs am I missing?”
With a slight jolt, the SUV cleared the bridge and reentered the main access road through Zone A. Max immediately eased the vehicle closer to the center of their lane and slowed slightly, his brow furrowed in seeming concentration.
“I was surprised too,” he said slowly. “Like most vampires, I am, of course, spectacularly hot—”
Edie feigned an enormous yawn.
“—and as a species, we do traditionally wear black clothing, due to countless centuries spent hiding our existence in darkness. But there are quite a few good-looking humans who wear black as well. Notasgood-looking, clearly, but…”
This time, she regaled him with a loud retching noise, which he ignored as he contemplated her question.
“Supernaturals and Enhanced humans can reliably identify one another if given a few moments for study and consideration,” he finally said. “The exact mechanism still isn’t clear. It might involve pheromones or sensory capacities not yet discovered by researchers. But for whatever reason, almost all of us can do it. The means of identification and level of specificity differ among various groups, though.”
Unable to locate any unused wet towelettes, she wiped her sugar-crusted fingers on her coveralls. “What does that mean?”
“As I mentioned earlier, vampires can usually recognize every Supernatural species by scent, but most of us can’t be quite so specific with the Enhanced.” His sideways glance lingered on her new stain before he shook his head and returned his attention to the road. “When it comes to witches and oracles and so on, the average vampire can only say with certainty what they’re not. I.e., common humans or Supernaturals.”
“But you’re not an average vampire.”
He scoffed. “As should be more than evident by now.”
“So if Riley were either a Supernatural or Enhanced, you’d have known, and you’d have been able to pinpoint her exact designation by smell alone.”
“Correct.” Apparently unable to help himself, he reached into his console and plucked out a pristine wet-wipe packet, which he tossed in her lap. “Different species have different identification mechanisms. Elves, for example, primarily recognize other Supernaturals and the Enhanced by appearance. They can typically see through glamours and distinguish visual differences that are too subtle for even vampires to detect.”
“Huh.” Edie cleaned her fingers and contemplated the new information. “That wet wipe was hiding from me, by the way.”
“Sure it was.”
In retaliation, she hummed the opening bars of the Gaston song, enjoying his pained expression and faint groan. Once she felt he’d suffered enough, though, she returned to the matter at hand.
“Okay. I get everything you’re saying.” Shifting in her seat, she angled her legs toward him. “But that still doesn’t explain howRiley identified you at first sight, and it doesn’t explain what happened with the other girls.”
His brows drew together. “What about the other girls?”
