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In the weight of his guilt and remorse, he’d left Iris alone and unprotected.
Instinctively, he reached for his sword, but it wasn’t there. He hadn’t taken it with him or his Glock.
Evan laughed softly.
Connor saw movement from the corner of his eye and suddenly Evan was next to him as well as two more vampires who grabbed his arms. He tried to fight them, but the dark cloud suddenly descended, confusing his mind. A split-second later, he felt a sharp prick in his neck.
A fiery chemical entered his body.
Once more, nothing.
~ ~ ~
Iris sat at the dining table. She’d opened the folder and wept at the sight of her sister.
She felt ill. She’d made love with the man who’d killed Violet. He’d probably raped her as well.
Rage rose once more, swirling through her. She wanted revenge on Connor and on Evan as well, on anyone involved in her sister’s murder.
Iris, you must listen.
The female voice was strident, not gentle like before. Iris grew very still. Violet?
Yes, but you don’t have much time. Look at the pictures again. You’ve missed something critical.
Iris opened the folder once more, to the photo of Connor and Violet in the same picture. Connor’s fangs dripped with blood. To the right of him was a severe bite on a thigh, the flesh ripped out, leaving a gaping, bleeding hole.
But it wasn’t Violet’s thigh!
She stared at it for a long moment. The skin of the victim was very white, but not as though the body had been drained of blood. This was the pale skin of drug-induced emaciation, the kind involving the use of blood flame.
She kept staring at the wound, knowing she needed to figure something out. Then she understood. She wasn’t looking at a woman’s thigh, but a man’s, a vampire’s.
“Oh, my God.” Connor had been trying to protect Violet, maybe the others as well. In this case, he’d used his fangs as a weapon to tear at the rapist’s leg.
She flipped through several of the other photos and found one of Connor lying on his back though only his side, arm and shoulder were visible. In fact, she wouldn’t have recognized the man as being Connor if she hadn’t known his tattoos as well as she did. The upper right shoulder bore a large spiked vine and she knew every point and angle of the intricate design, as well as where it rested on his body.
But his skin showed severe bruising, a lot of it.
Save Connor. Violet’s voice once more moved through her mind. Don’t you see? He tried to help us and they almost killed him for it. Save him, Iris.
She sat back in her chair, stunned. She thought back to seeing the horrified look on Connor’s face and feeling the depth of his despair. He believed he’d participated in the massacre as well and hated himself for it.
This was the darkness that lived in his soul, what she’d been sensing from the moment she’d stood beside him on Sentinel Bridge. He actually believed he’d done these terrible things, that he’d hurt and killed some of these women.
He’d tried to tell her. In fact, she was sure he meant to, then Evan and Seraphina showed up.
Now suddenly, everything had changed and the photos had enough information to prove not only had Connor been a victim of a crime, but he’d tried to help the women until he’d been beaten almost to death.
Even high on blood flame, he’d proven his character and his worth. He was innocent after all, but he was also completely in despair. What had been shown to him just now would confirm his long-held belief of his unworthiness. He couldn’t live with himself if he’d thought he’d killed her sister. And that part of him with a death wish would look for a way to end things.
She had to go to him, to show him the truth, to help him see he’d been lied to.
“You need to work on your spellcasting, Iris. Your protective shield was far too easy to penetrate. But then, I am the most powerful witch in Elegance.”
Iris rose to her feet and whirled to face the witch. Seraphina had returned to the living room. Only this time, she’d brought four vampires with her. “Get out of my house.”
“Sorry. Can’t do that. Not in the plans. But I have to say, I’m a little peeved with you, witch. You’ve been holding out on your kind. We’re always looking for new talent for our coven, and you’ve got a boatload.”
