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“You realize assaulting an officer is a crime, yes?” Leif asked, sounding rather unaffected for someone whose face had almost just got burned off.
Willa jerked sideways as if to run, but I held her in place.
“It’s okay,” I said. “He’s okay.”
Leif shut the door behind him. “Depends who you ask, really. You may not think so in a few minutes.” He didn’t look nearly as irritated as he had the last time we’d spoken. But Leif’s expression was hard, his eyes tight. He was bringing nothing but bad news.
My jaw set hard. “What do you want? You let me go yesterday.”
Willa glanced over to me. “What’s that mean?”
Leif shifted his long coat jacket to reveal a NYPD police badge on his belt. “Unfortunately, the same thing I wanted yesterday. Aisling, you’re under arrest.”
I jabbed a finger his way. “Yesterday you said—”
Leif held up a hand. “There’s a new body. And you’ve got yourselves a bloody weapon between you.” He gestured to the dagger in Willa’s hand.
“That’s a completely different situation,” I said, a streak of overprotectiveness blooming within me. “She’s not involved in anything.”
“Except that you two were in the same feeding community,” Leif said darkly, almost like he didn’t even want to say it. “Under Lazarus, right? Was that his name?”
I stepped in front of Willa. “What the fuck does a New York City cop want with survivors? We’ve done nothing wrong.”
Leif nodded toward Willa. “She’sdone nothing wrong. You, however…”
He reached into his coat pocket. For a second, I thought he might’ve been grabbing a weapon. Fire churned in my palm again, but something told me that’d be a bad idea. A gut feeling that there was more to this situation than I knew.
Of course there was. I was always perpetually and often purposely left in the dark. Even Mrak had kept secrets from me until I’d confronted him yesterday.
Leif put photos on the table in front of him and slid them closer to Willa and me. “Another body has turned up, and you were placed at the scene.”
Sure enough, the photos were of me standing over a burnt body. Walking into an alley and then out of it. Leif had a full series of photos showing a nighttime escapade that I didn’t remember going on.
“This is last night,” Leif said as he looked up at me. “And you look more shocked than you should for someone who burned a man to death."
“I…” What was there to say? I hadn’t done that. As far as I knew, I hadn’t even left the apartment last night.
Mrak had done this. After all our talk yesterday about his true form, his story, and what he had wanted for himself and me… he’d gone and used my body again. Without permission. Without me being in actual danger.
Betrayal stabbed through me. Breath left my lungs as my stomach sank.
Maybe Leif had been right. Maybe Mrakwasdanger. Or maybe I’d known that all along and had chosen to ignore it because… well, because Mrak cared for me—because of duty or choice, he did. He’d shown me kindness after a decade without. And if I was being honest with myself, it was also because of the attention. The way I craved his touch. And maybe also a bit because I found escape, both actual and figurative, in Mrak.
“Who was the person you’re accusing me of murdering?” I asked.
Willa’s mouth opened and she gaped at both Leif and me. “You can’t be serious. You’d never kill anyone, Aisling. At least not like—”
I held up a hand. “I appreciate you defending me, but it’s true. That’s me. It’s more complicated than that, Willa. But it’s me in those photos.”
“Sort of,” Leif amended. “I had a feeling you didn’t have a part in this, but I had to be sure. Because that’s Hunter Greenwood.”
Willa gasped loudly. “He was after me last night. He…” She looked to me for confirmation. I had none. I didn’t remember going into that alleyway to kill Hunter because all I remembered was going to sleep. Mrak must have taken over my body sometime after, when my mind had already been vulnerable. Which begged the question of how many other times had Mrak taken over my body at night without me knowing? Had he only offered information about himself and justification for invading my body after he’d finally been caught?
Fuck.I hated these thoughts. I hated being mad with Mrak. He’dsavedme. He’d given me a new life, with magic that could both defend me and earn me money. And just last night, Mrak had said I could go with him back to his home.
It was perfect. Too perfect. And maybe I’d known that all along and had chosen to believe in it anyway.
Why? Because after being used for ten years by vampires and losing everything, Mrak was all I had left. Him and Willa and this workshop. But I’d have had neither of the other two without him.
