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“Carly Montgomery. ”
The girl was untouched. Her skin—with the exception of the usual teenage blemishes—showed no signs of damage or struggle. If we hadn’t known better, it would be easy to assume she’d died of natural causes. She hadn’t. Like Petey before her, something had literally sucked the life force out of her body, leaving her a sad, empty husk.
“You’re sure you believe your Oracle? Even looking at this?” Keaty asked.
“Calliope doesn’t feed off girls,” I informed him. “And she also pointed out to me she isn’t the only fairy in the world. It was just easy for us to accuse her because we know what she is. ” I was ashamed with myself for believing Cal had been guilty of something like this. She might not have the same respect for human life as I did, but that didn’t mean she was going to run around murdering teenagers. Especially if she could feed without them dying. She was immortal, and she could be cold, but she wasn’t murderous.
I zipped the bag higher to keep Carly’s body decent. No sense in adding insult to injury by showing her chest off to strange men after her death.
“And did you find out anything useful in your jaunt to the fae world?” If Keaty didn’t tone it down with the sarcasm, I was going to start thinking he’d picked up a thing or two from spending too much time with me.
“Yeah. I found out fairies are assholes. ” And no good at keeping promises. Aubrey told me no one else would die in my territory, yet I was looking at another kill.
“Helpful. ”
“I also found out there’s a second fairy gate in New York. One that doesn’t go through Calliope. ”
“Well, that is useful information. Where is the second gate?”
“At a Bath & Body Works in Harlem. ”
When Keaty didn’t reply, I looked up from Carly’s body to meet his astonished gaze. He said, “I’m sorry, it must be old age. I thought you sa
id—”
“You’re really going to question the authenticity of that statement? I get blood in takeout baggies from a Starbucks. Let’s assume the fae probably built these gates long before there were chain retailers parked on top of them. ”
“Obviously. ”
“I love Bath & Body Works,” Brigit said. “They have a candle that smells like bread. ”
Keaty wasn’t paying attention to her. I could tell his mind was hard at work processing the new knowledge and what it meant to his case. “If we go on the theory the fairy committing these murders isn’t living in our world full-time, this knowledge will be very useful,” he said.
“What are you basing your theory on?”
“The small number of deaths. And if it is a fairy and doesn’t live in our world, it might explain why they think they can take human life. ”
“I’ll admit fairies can be pretty stupid when it comes to the sanctity of mortality, but I don’t think we can give a serial-killing fairy a free pass because he was like, ‘oops, my bad, I didn’t know human beings didn’t like to die!’”
Keaty shook his head. “I’m not suggesting it’s a good excuse, I’m just not seeing a motive to these murders otherwise. ”
“Does there need to be a motive?”
“I feel better when there is. ”
I zipped Carly’s body bag all the way up, covering her pale face so I didn’t keep looking at it and feeling guilty. “I don’t think you’re going to like whatever motive you find here. Just because she was killed by a fairy and not a vampire doesn’t mean the logic behind it was any more highbrow. The fairy was hungry, and she was food. The end. ”
“I take offense,” Brigit interjected.
“How could you possibly take offense to that?” I had to ask.
“I feed on people all the time. ” She ignored the hateful glower she got from Keaty. “But I don’t kill them. ”
“You’re a vampire. You’re a killer by nature,” Keaty said, obviously not caring whether or not Brigit’s feelings were hurt by the comment.
If she was offended, it didn’t show. She shrugged one shoulder and looked from Keaty and me to Desmond. “Dogs are killers by nature, but people still keep them as pets. Wolves are killers by nature, but you don’t hunt down werewolves. ” She gave Desmond a small smile, which he returned. “Of everyone in this room, you’re more of a killer than us monsters combined,” she told Keaty.
He was silent. The most badass bounty hunter and private investigator I’d ever met had been schooled by a petite blonde vampire who thought eggplant was really made of eggs.
