He hadn’t even showered.
He had to have been exhausted.
I knew I didn’t deserve to be the one who told him to get some rest or wash up. Not now. Maybe not ever again.
That made my eyes sting, so I looked down at my hands.
They were clean, but only physically.
“She was screwing Velour on and off,” I said quietly. “We’re advised not to do that—take a human partner. It’s dangerous, and we’re supposed to stay in control, always. Getting comfortable with someone weaker than you isn’t a good way to do that. I told her, but she didn’t take it seriously. He didn’t either. I didn’t stop it.”
I gave Maverick a moment to interrupt. To tell me to get to the point. He didn’t.
“I didn’t know what had happened to her when Steven’s body was found. I’d been at the office all night, focused on paperwork, and I only saw her for a minute in the morning. You bit me, and I spent the week in that guest apartment. After your driver dropped me off at home, she told me Velour accidentally drained her. He panicked afterward, and turned her to save her life. She came to find me in the office, but ran into Steven. He was being his normal, difficult self when she lost control and killed him.”
“What did you do when she told you?”
“I was in shock, mostly. I tried to get information about turned vampires out of my family. From what they told me, I knew we had a few weeks before she devolved, if we had a way to get her blood. I’m sure you’ve put together how we did that.”
“I want you to say it.”
I lifted my gaze back to his. Mine wasn’t apologetic. Just… sad. “I found myself in possession of an assload of werewolf blood. The Guild doesn’t give out blood bags, so yours were our only option. I knew I could feed at the gatherings, or starve if I had to. Harper only had a few weeks, and I obviously hoped we could find a way to avoid her devolving.”
“That’s why you didn’t want to bite me, and why you asked for extra blood. You needed it for Harper.”
“I didn’t want a mate bond either, but yeah. I felt bad about it, but she was my best friend, and I had no other options.”
Maverick nodded slowly. “So you ignored the note in the bag and went to that gathering, letting me think it was a party. And you drank someone else’s blood.”
“Three humans’. Two were women. One was a man.”
“You didn’t smell like them.”
“I washed my hands afterward, and bought garlic pasta to help hide the scents. Outside of you, I barely touch someone’s arm when I feed from them, so the garlic wasn’t really necessary. I just played it safe.”
His jaw clenched. “And my blood?”
“Sat in the freezer until Harper’s hunger started to flare again. She drank one of the bags every time it did.”
“She killed Steven, but not Arthur or Celeste,”he stated.
“Yes.”
“Keep going.”
“I made a plan. Velour was going to find a way around her devolving. They weren’t together, but the Guild would’ve killed him too, for turning her. I was going to make your company compliant because I had to. And, I was going to figure out who the murderer was. I didn’t manage to do any of those things, obviously. Except a lot of the paperwork. My one and only skill.”
“You give a mean bath. That makes two.”
He was teasing me, even though there was no playfulness behind it.
Maybe he didn’t hate me completely.
I continued the story.
Maverick asked questions as I did. Mostly to clarify what had happened with Harper when he wasn’t there, and whether I’d bitten anyone else.
When I finished explaining, he studied me.
