“Now she’s dead. Three deaths. Your members must be getting nervous.” Eve smiled thinly at Trivane. “I would be.”
“Martyrdom isn’t new, Dallas. People have been killed because of their faith for centuries. And still, the faith survives. We’ll survive. We’ll triumph.”
Eve took out another still, slapped it on the table. “He didn’t.”
It was Lobar, his mutilated body caught it the garish lights of the crime scene. The wound on his throat gaped open like a scream.
It was Trivane who Eve watched. His eyes blinked rapidly, horror flickering through. His skin went pasty, and his chest rose and fell in jerks.
“He didn’t survive,” Eve said softly, “did he, Selina?”
“His death is a symbol. He will not be forgotten.”
“Do you own an athame?”
“I own several, naturally.”
“Like this?” She took out another photo, this one a close-up of the weapon left pinned into Lobar. Blood crusted the blade.
“I have several,” Selina repeated. “Some similar to this, as one might expect. But I don’t recognize this particular one.”
“Hallucinogens were found in Lobar’s system. You use drugs during rituals.”
“Herbals, and some chemicals. All legal.”
“Not everything found in Lobar’s system was on the legal list.”
“I can’t be responsible for the choices other people make.”
“He was with you the night he died. Was he using?”
“He had taken the ritual wine. If he took something otherwise, it was without my knowledge.”
“You have priors as a chemi-dealer.”
“And paid my debt to so-called society. You have nothing on me, Lieutenant.”
“I have three bodies. And they’re yours. I’ve got a dead cop, and he’s on you, too. I’m closing in on you, Selina. Step by step.”
“Keep out of my face.”
“Or?”
“Do you know pain, Dallas?” Selina’s voice went low and thick. “Do you know the pain that eats at the stomach like drops of acid spreading? You beg for relief, but none comes. The pain becomes agony, and agony almost pleasure. The pain becomes so intense, so unspeakable that if a knife came to your hand, you would gladly slice through your own guts to cut out the source of it.”
“Would I,” Eve said coolly. “Would I really?”
“I can offer you that. I can offer you pain.”
Eve smiled, and her smile was slow and humorless. “That slips into the area of threatening a police officer. And that’ll get you some time in a cage until your lawyer finesses you out again.”
“You bitch.” Furious that she’d been trapped so neatly and with so little effort, Selina sprang to her feet. “You can’t hold me for that.”
“Sure, I can. Selina Cross, you’re under arrest for verbal threat to physically harm a police officer.”
She was fast, but Eve’s reflexes were sharp. She blocked the first blow as Selina flew at her. But the second rapid swipe caught her along the throat with those lethal dark nails. She smelled her own blood and indulged herself by bringing her elbow up to ram Selina’s chin.
The dark eyes rolled back, went glassy. “Looks like we add resisting arrest. You’re going to have your hands full for the next couple hours, counselor.”