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“This area looks a lot different from the rest of the city,” Commander Torin murmured, still craning his neck to see the tall residence towers which were unique to Region Twelve. Almost all the other structures in Hx’lss were single story and much more modest than the spires that rose around them.
“This is where the money lives,” Sky told him bluntly. “The Ruling Council, all the most famous actresses, and of course, the nobles of the Inner Courts—they all live here. Not to mention the Princess herself, who rules the entire planet.”
He frowned and glanced at her—keeping his eyes on her face, Sky noted.
“How do you have a Ruling Council and a Princess—which one is really in charge?”
Sky shrugged.
“They share power—the Council acts as a balance to the Princess and vice versa. It works well enough.”
The giant Kindred shook his head.
“So much power—all of it female—and all gathered in one place,” he muttered to himself. “At least on Yonnie Six the killer had to travel to different parts of the city to kill the Sacred Seven…”
Sky frowned.
“So you really think our leaders are in danger?”
“Any female in power is—yes.” He nodded. “That’s the killer’s MO—his style. He kills the female Kindred ambassador first and then he goes on to kill the female rulers of the planet.”
“I assure you, all of the people I mentioned are very well protected,” Sky said. As she spoke, a security guardian in a blue and gold uniform approached them.
“Excuse me, Officer,” she said formally, nodding at Sky. “I can see you’re with the Peace Keepers but we have orders to stop any strange or unusual persons traveling through the Region today. And I can’t help noticing that your, er, companion is both.” She stared up at Torin, her slitted yellow eyes narrowing at his immense size.
“Yes, I’m aware he’s an anomaly, especially in this area,” Sky said dryly. “But he’s with me—he’s actually a Peace Keeper from another world.”
The guard hissed in surprise.
“A male Peace Keeper?”
“As strange as it seems, yes.” Sky shrugged. “We’re here to investigate the murder of the Kindred Ambassador— Lady Allesandra WinterBright.”
“Oh yes—a horrible occurrence.” The guard shivered, her tongue flickering in agitation. “Her official residence isn’t far from here—that’s one reason we’re keeping an eye on anyone coming or going who looks…different.” She glanced up at Torin again.
“You’d better double your guard,” he rumbled, looking down at her seriously. “Past patterns indicate the killer will still be in the vicinity and he will strike again if given the chance.”
The guard hissed in surprise again—doubtless being spoken to in that way by a male was a shock to her. But she nodded her head and said,
“I will pass along the message to my Superior Officer.”
“See that you do,” Sky told her. “Good hunting, Sister.”
“Good hunting.” The security guardian nodded at her in solidarity and moved on to question other people coming from the tube.
“It’s good to see the Serpentines are patrolling the area, though I’m not sure how much good it’s going to do them,” Torin remarked.
“What? Why do you say that?” Sky glanced up at him. She was getting used to looking up to talk to him, she thought, though it still irritated her.
“Because they tried all kinds of security measures on the other two planets where he struck too,” he said. “Especially on Yonnie Six—all the Mistresses who were members of the Sacred Seven were incredibly wealthy. They could afford the best security systems money could buy and all of them had armies of body slaves—and yet somehow he got past them all.” He shook his head. “Whoever he is, he’s a fucking master at breaking into locked and guarded areas.”
“What surprised me was that the Captain said the murder occurred after the final call last night,” Sky remarked.
“Final call?” He frowned. “What’s that?”
“It happens around thirteen o’clock every night,” Sky told him. “It’s a Serpentine tradition—not exactly a law, but almost. After the ha’man horns sound, everyone locks their doors and nobody goes in or out until the morning hour. So the killer was either already inside the ambassador’s residence or somehow found a way in through a locked door.”
“That fits with the profile—being able to bypass locks,” Torin muttered. “He’s a slippery son-of-a-bitch, all right.”
Sky frowned.
“All this time you’ve been saying ‘he’ and yet you don’t know who or what the killer is. How are you so sure he’s male? Did they find male seed at the other scenes?”
“As I said, I haven’t been given access to the other crime scenes, but no, from what I was able to find on the Outernet there was no actual semen,” he admitted.
“Well then, what if it’s a female, faking the forced penetration with a phallus?” Sky asked.
They were almost to the ambassador’s residence now—a tall spire of dusky-rose stone whose center spike rose nearly to the high ceiling.
