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When I came to, I was lying on one of the leather sofas in the living room. Cole was close to my left side, a bloodied cloth in one hand and a take-out cup of coffee in the other.
"What the hell happened?" he said the minute he saw I was awake.
"Lack of caffeine in my system," I muttered, sitting up somewhat gingerly and reaching for the coffee. I took a sip, felt strength and heat begin to flow through my body, and sighed contentedly before squinting at the cloth he was holding. "Why are you holding a wet cloth?"
"Because you collapsed into a puddle of body bits, and I didn't think you'd appreciate it being left on you."
My stomach turned at the thought, though at least it explained why my jeans were clinging to my legs. I resisted the urge to strip them off and gave Cole a wan smile. "Thanks for that."
He nodded. "So what happened?"
"The soul sort of merged with me."
"What?"
"Yeah, surprised the hell out of me, too." I grimaced. "I saw everything she saw. Felt everything she'd felt." I shuddered at the memory. "Hanna Mein did this."
"Then we can take her out," Cole said.
"Except that we have no hard evidence." I might know that Hanna had killed this couple-and probably the other vampires-but knowing and actually proving it enough to justify a kill was another matter entirely. Hanna Mein might be a sorceresses, but she was also listed as human, and there was a whole different set of rules for humans. Even humans gone bad.
Now had it been Jessica who'd done this, it would have been kill first, ask questions later. She was a shifter, so all bets were off when it came to her crimes. It might not be right or fair, but it was still the humans who made the rules in this world, and there was nothing the rest of us could do about it until the status quo changed in government.
"Proving suspicions may not matter in this case. Not when one of the victims was a close friends of Jack's."
"These women have been killing vamps in other states, possibly for a very long time. I don't think either will be easy kills. They will have taken precautions of one kind or another."
He grunted then pushed to his feet. "Are you feeling better?"
"Well enough that you can stop baby-sitting and get back to your job."
"Good." But he said it with a smile in his blue eyes.
I swung my feet onto the floor and sat up. Weakness washed through me and, for a moment, the room spun. Being infused by the dead had taken more out of me than I'd thought.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Cole asked, standing back but looking ready to catch me should it be needed.
"I'm fine. Really." I glanced at my watch and saw that it was after five. "I'm going to be late for my new job if I don't get a move on."
And I couldn't not go there, even if Jessica now suspected me. We needed concrete evidence before we could move against the two women, and to get that, I needed to be near them. And at least if she was watching, and worrying, about me, she wasn't out there sending zombies after innocent kids. I doubted she'd try anything in the club. There were too many possible witnesses.>Chapter Nine
"I thought you were going to bring in the teenager with the birthmark to stop her being used," I said, voice sharp.
"We did. And we tracked down the five vamps who I know like body imperfections. This isn't one of them. I think it was a last-minute deal."
Or an outpouring of anger that the sorcerer's plans had been frustrated.
"So how much worse than decapitation and body parts being hacked away can it be?" I said, half wishing I'd stayed in bed and not answered the phone.
"Lots, from what Cole is saying. He's there now. I want you to head over and see if you can feel anything."
"I haven't felt any souls up to now, so why do you think I'd feel one at this murder?"
"Because this time, they killed the woman who was with him. She was human, and she just might be confused enough about her death to still be there."
"We don't know that both women are involved in the vamp killings. You'd think Cole would have found some evidence of wheelchair use in at least one of the murder scenes by now."
"Not if she was using her crow form."
