“I’m sorry, cher. I wish I could tell you she felt no pain, but it would be a lie.”
Still having trouble processing the horror of it, she focused on him, pressing a kiss to his temple and running her hand down his back. “I’m sorry you had to see that.”
Leaning forward, his shoulders taut, he blew out a breath. “This drug is appearing more and more like a poison intended to cause this effect.”
Ashwini heard more than Janvier said. She knew how protective he was of women, knew part of him would be going over and over every interaction from the previous night, trying to figure out if he could’ve prevented this. “Rupert was a good person until he took the drug,” she reminded him, thinking of how she’d found herself liking the vampire from Lacey’s description of their relationship. “He made the choice to use the drug, no one else. Not even Raphael could’ve stopped him unless he was in the room at the instant Rupert decided to eat Umber.”
Janvier put his hand on her thigh. “Thank you,” he said after over a minute. “I needed to hear that—you expect the ones who go to vampires like Khalil to die, but this . . .”
She curled her hand around his arm, her head against his shoulder. Lacey had died in horrible agony, but as a woman who loved, Ashwini knew the worst pain would’ve been of Rupert’s betrayal. Lacey’s heart would’ve broken long before her body. “She was so harmless, Janvier.”
He shifted to wrap an arm around her, pressing his lips to her hair. “At times, I forget I’m not human. Not today.”
Ashwini wasn’t about to let that go. Lifting her head to pin him with her gaze, she held the raw honesty of the eye contact. “Humanity is what we make it.” She’d seen too much horror done by mortals to believe them free of the taint of evil. “You’re sad about Lacey. You’re sad about Rupert, too. And you’re angry at the loss of life that didn’t have to happen.” Two happy flames snuffed out because someone had decided to create a seductive poison. “That’s humanity and it lives in you.”
His throat worked, his eyes red rimmed. “Be in my arms,” he said at last. “I need to hold you.”
She slipped into his embrace in silence and that was how they sat until they heard voices from the back of the café. Breaking reluctantly apart, the two of them were on their feet by the time Aaliyah, Carys, and Sina came in as a group.
It was obvious that Carys, a brassy blonde with cool blue eyes and a sprinkling of freckles across the bridge of her nose, was the leader. Aaliyah, dark skinned and model tall with delicate bones, spoke in a soft tone heavy with grief. Sina, in contrast, her emerald green hair cut in a blunt fringe above slanted eyes set in a broad, pale-skinned face, smiled easily but it didn’t reach her eyes.
“Please,” Janvier said after the café employee showed them in, “take a seat.”
The women hesitated, but then sat side by side on the sofa that faced the one Ashwini and Janvier sat back down on. When the café employee came in with a tray of orange juice and cookies, the three women exchanged raised eyebrows. Ashwini rose and thanked the young vampire, made a quiet request in his ear. The small bottle of blood appeared moments later.
This time, Sina’s smile was assessing. “Most people don’t realize I’m a vampire.”
“I’m a hunter.” Even then, it had taken her a minute—Sina’s fangs were the smallest she’d ever seen, small enough to be mistaken for human canines.
“Fangs work fine, in case you were wondering,” the lushly curved vampire said, opening the bottle to take a sip while the others picked up the unopened bottles of juice and twisted off the lids. “Just a weird genetic thing.”
Ashwini didn’t ask the other question she wanted to know the answer to, but she caught the understanding of it in Janvier’s eyes, knew they’d discuss it later. For now, she showed the women the facial image created by Janvier’s contact. “Is this your friend?”
“She never looked that flat, was always moving her hands when she talked. Used to drive me nuts.” Her voice hard in an effort to hide the tremor beneath, Carys pushed away the photo. “Her hair was dark gold, not white-blonde, but yeah, that’s Felicity. Big bluey-green eyes and all.”
Identity confirmed as far as possible, Ashwini asked the women to go over the details the three had shared with Ransom. Afterward, she said, “Do you remember exactly when she began talking about her new boyfriend?”
Sina frowned. “Eight months ago.”
“You sound very sure,” Ashwini said.
“She told me on my birthday, that’s why. We’d gone out for a drink, the four of us, and she was bursting with news. Do you guys remember?”
The other two women backed up her recollection.
It was Aaliyah who spoke next. “Few weeks after that, Felicity was so happy because her guy had said he’d take her to Europe, buy her things in Paris, Milan, Rome. She was always into the fashion magazines.”
Carys rubbed at the faux-fur collar of her thigh-length coat like it was a worry stone. “Girl used to blow too much money on the rags, but she said it made her happy to look at that stuff.”
“Any idea when she was meant to go to Europe?” Ashwini leaned forward, forearms braced on her thighs.
All three women shook their heads. “She just said it’d be soon.” Sina rolled her lips inside, bit down with her teeth. “That was the last time I saw her—about seven months ago. Does that help?”
“We’ll check airline records.” Ashwini would bet her entire year’s income that Felicity had never left the country, the promise of Europe a lure designed to lay a false trail.
“Do you know where your friend lived before she found her lover?” Janvier nudged the cookies toward Aaliyah, received a small smile in return.
“Yeah.” Carys told them an address in a not particularly nice part of Queens.
“And Felicity never mentioned her lover’s name, where he lived, anything?” Ashwini asked, wanting to be certain. “Even the color of his hair.”
Carys and Sina shook their heads, but Aaliyah suddenly sat up straight. “One time she said she’d be moving into a nice Quarter house like the rich bitches, and that she was going to invite us for coffee and cakes, and we’d have to wear fancy hats and say ‘oh, yes, my dear’ and ‘toodles.’” Blinking rapidly, Aaliyah whispered, “We laughed so hard.”