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But we all know you will, which is why I’m here and ready to help if you get into trouble, Belle said.And by here, I mean in Monty’s car, parked outside the building. Don’t you dare say that could be dangerous, because we both know it’s far less so than opening that goddamn door right now.
A comment that had amusement stirring, despite the situation.It might be nothing more than my imagination being overly dramatic.
Though the bloody handprints very much suggested it wasn’t.
Exactly the point I was about to make.
I smiled, though it quickly faded as I stepped onto the landing and edged toward the door. There was a thick streak of blood on the ornate handle. Our bleeder must have been seriously injured to be leaving streaks like that, but if that were the case, why weren’t there any blood spots on the floor?
If there’re vamps waiting inside, maybe they’ve already licked them all up.
A delightful image I could have done without. Besides, surely even the newest vampire wouldn’t be that desperate.
Hey, after discovering Maelle loves to bathe in the remains of her victims, nothing would surprise me.
I swung my pack around and tugged a glove from the side pocket. My psi senses had in the past pulled images from blood spots, and I really didn’t want that happening in a vampire’s lair.
After tugging on the glove, I reached out and gripped the door handle. The smear still warmed against my palm, and vague images of pain flickered across the outer reaches of my psi sense. I had no sense of death, but would I if the bleeder was a vamp? Technically, theywereactually dead.
I warily pressed gloved fingers against the door to open it, then sent my light sphere in.
I didn’t get a chance to see anything more than the black glass opposite, because the blood scent hit like a hammer, overwhelming my olfactory senses and sending me reeling back toward the stairs. I regained my balance before I fell down them, but remained at the top of the landing, desperately sucking in the “cleaner” stairwell air to clear the stench from my nose and throat. Otherwise, I was going to puke all over what might yet be a major crime scene.
Though in truth, Aiden was going to be unhappy regardless, given I hadn’t called them in the minute I knew something was wrong.
He’s resigned to you doing shit like this, Belle said.Besides, you’re better than you used to be, and you’re hardly alone right now.
A statement I’m not sure he’ll agree with. I pushed fully upright and returned to the door, resolutely pushing it all the way open.
And discovered our bleeder.
He lay in a pool of blood facedown on the floor in the center of the room, but I didn’t have to see his face to know who it was.
Roger.
It was fucking Roger.
ChapterTen
Is he alive?Belle asked.
I don’t know.He wasn’t breathing, but then, he was a thrall and maybe didn’t need to.
He does breathe. I’ve seen him breathe.
Doesn’t mean he actually has to.
I scanned the rest of the room warily. There was no sign of magic, no sign of Maelle. The latter didn’t really surprise me, because I knew she had escape routes in both this room and the stairwell. She’d have known the minute Roger was attacked and been ready for anything that came at her. The question was, why had she not retaliatedthroughhim? Surely an attack on her creature would be considered an assault on her, thereby shattering the restrictions.
Maybe it doesn’t work like that,Belle said.
Maybe. I sent the sphere skimming through the room, just to ensure there was absolutely nothing here that shouldn’t be, then warily approached Roger, breathing through my mouth rather than my nose in an effort to prevent my olfactory senses being overwhelmed again. My stomach didnotneed another dose of bloody foulness.
There was a thick gash across the back of his head, but the wound no longer bled, and the blood in his hair was already stiffening, suggesting he’d been attacked not long after he—or perhaps Maelle—had called me.
I hesitated, then bent down and pressed two fingers against his neck.
The bastard let loose an inhuman scream and somehow leapt to his feet from the prone position. I screeched and pushed back, landing heavily on my butt several feet away. Wild magic automatically surged, forming a protective net around me even as it danced across the blessed knife. The blade shimmered with a deadly blue fire that reflected brightly in his pale eyes.
