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“Who are you?” I demanded.
“Oh, love, I thought you’d figured that out by now.”
Love. My eyes bulged. “Mayhew.”
Bad Secret dipped her head and winked. “In your flesh. But if this look bothers you…” Mayhew’s skin bubbled like a bad sunburn, turning purple-red and peeling back to reveal a whole new face. My curls sloughed off and vanished when they hit the floor. My clothes burned away and were replaced by a gray Columbia sweatshirt and dumpy jeans. A mousy brunette with hunched posture and mild acne batted sheepish lashes at me.
The girl from the museum.
“It was you that night,” I blurted.
“Of course.” My voice was replaced with a meek, squeaky tone.
“Who is this?” I pointed an accusatory finger at the chubby girl who stood before me. “Whose life did you steal for this?”
“Ellory Marx from Lincoln, Nebraska.” The new form Mayhew had taken over blushed almost apologetically. “Wonder if anyone misses her.” Ellory’s skin bubbled like before, and this time the shift occurred faster. I didn’t need help to recognize the new incarnation. Trish Keller snapped gum at me and thrust a defiant hip out, her short skirt riding up a little too high. If I waited long enough, I was willing to bet Mayhew might show me the faces of every missing and dead girl from the Columbia campus.
Going back God knows how long.
“Why?” I asked, not sure what I meant specifically.
Mayhew-as-Trish shrugged and popped her gum again, rolling her eyes. “The young, pretty ones are best.” She spit her gum into the corner of the room and gave Holden a cheeky smile. The vampire bared his fangs at her. “They taste fresher, don’t they?”
Trish’s legs took on the texture of lizard skin, turned black and leathery, and Mayhew became me again. The effect was no less disturbing the second time around. He stepped closer, and I moved until my back was against Holden.
“You tasted different though, didn’t you?” Mayhew asked, though it wasn’t really a question. “You’re a special one, Secret McQueen. I liked the flavor of your mouth.” Mayhew licked his lips—my lips—and I suppressed another shudder. It wasn’t doing me any good to let him know how badly he was scaring me.
“What are you?” I managed to make my mouth form words instead of a scream. Point for me.
“Who or what I am doesn’t concern you, halfling. Give me the girl. I’ve barely tasted her yet, and I want more.” Mayhew reached out a hand for Lucy, but Holden didn’t budge an inch behind me.
“You took my memories,” I said stupidly.
“Of course.”
“Did you force Gabriel to seduce the girls? Why doesn’t he know anything about their deaths?”
“You ask too many questions.” Mayhew rolled his eyes, and it was eerie to see one of my own expressions mirrored back to me. “I’m not here for an interview; I’m here for what’s mine.” He paused. “Why do you care what I did to Gabriel? I know what he did to you. You should want him to suffer. That is the way human women think.”
Holden snorted.
“You’ve seen inside my head. You should know well enough by now I’m not exactly human,” I replied.
“Yet loyalty for betrayers isn’t a trait of weres or vampires, either.” Mayhew stared at me like he was seeing me for the first time. “You truly are an odd one.”
Normally I might have a glib reply for him, but it was hard to make basic conversation—let alone be a smartass—when you’re talking to yourself.
“You did something to him. That’s why he couldn’t tell me about you earlier. You destroyed him. Gabriel was a decent person once.”
“He still is,” Mayhew assured me. “Just easily led astray.”
Something about the way Mayhew said it, and the way he’d called children lambs for the slaughter, made an alarm bell go off in my head. A tingly sensation stung the synapses all over my body as my skin rose in a forest of goose bumps. “What’s your name?”
“You know my name.”
“I know the human name you have adopted to suit the form you wear. What’s your real name?”
Mayhew smiled, and I didn’t want to look, but I couldn’t turn away. My pearly whites were replaced with rows of sharp, pointed, sharklike teeth that appeared more than capable of creating the wound on Lucy’s neck and muc
