“I’m engaged, Cass.”
“So you continue to remind me.”
“I can’t put on free shows with you in public without the risk of it getting back to him.”
“With a reputation like his, I doubt he would blink at his fiancée bringing a friend to the party.” She studied me. “For sex.”
“I get it.” I swatted at her. “You don’t have to break it down for me. So loudly. And in public.”
Leaning in, she smiled, slow and wicked. “I worry all that virginity is clogging your ears.”
Again, the temptation to yank her ponytail itched my fingers. “Did you find anything?”
“Other than you rekindling old friendships?”
“Yes, aside from that.”
“No.” She thinned her lips as we started walking. “There are several vampires in attendance, but they had the poor taste to wear booster shirts in public, so I must assume their wards are enrolled at this school.”
Most vampires in rural parts of the country blended with humans in order to survive. They kept their clans small, their resources hidden, and their members in line. Otherwise, folks like Cass and me paid them a visit. And no clan master wanted that.
The wind shifted, carrying with it the scent of charred burgers and greasy fries that left me salivating.
“Addie…” Cass dug her fingers into my side. “I smell blood.”
Heart kicking up a notch, I reminded her, “There’s a game happening several yards away whose only point I can tell seems to be boys running up and down a field while knocking the crap out of each other.”
Head angling toward the away team’s locker room, she said, “No player bled this much.”
And lived went unspoken.
“Let’s hope you’re wrong.”
But I got a bad feeling she was right.
Eleven
Boaz stood over Twyla Thorn, careful to avoid the coagulating puddle of her blood, and examined the gash across her slender throat that had ended her life. Her pale eyes stretched wide, even in death, as if she had never considered the reaper might actually come for her. And keep her. To be fair, raised among vampires, she would have had no fear of her mortal life ending. Most often, vampire fosters were excited for their new lives to begin.
Twyla wouldn’t get that second chance at walking the midnight path. She wouldn’t be walking anywhere ever again.
“This makes no sense.” Honey, who had a niece in marching band, had been the first on scene. “She’s human.”
Boaz played devil’s advocate. “Fostered by vampires.”
“She wasn’t made into a statement piece either.”
The girl had a phone in her hand, but no music played, and her eyes had been left uncovered.
Compared to the other victims, she was given a clean and swift death.
“You said it.” He rolled a shoulder. “She’s human.”
The last human to be killed hadn’t gotten off this easy, though. He had been stabbed in the heart. Repeatedly.
“You think our killer didn’t know?”
“Maybe didn’t know or maybe figured it was a preventative measure.”
The girl was a vampire-to-be, no bones about it. Killing her as a human was ten times easier than waiting until after she had been resuscitated. She made a much more tempting target like this. She knew Angelo, and Ron. They were clanmates. That was enough of a connection to stick to pattern. Plus, this stunt left her alone and vulnerable, easy prey for a seasoned killer.
“Who found her?” He backed away from the body. “Please tell me not another kid.”
Kids and teens were more malleable when it came to swiping their memories or imprinting new ones, which meant they could also warp what was seeded into their subconscious, merge it with bits of the truth, and create a whole host of new problems.
“You’re going to love this.” She checked her notes. “Cassandra Desmond.”
“Why does that not surprise me?” He scanned the locker room one last time. “I don’t suppose she stuck around for questioning?”
“Nope.”
“Are her fingerprints on file?” He doubted she was their killer, but he wanted her eliminated before this blew back on Addie. Until he understood the nature of his fiancée’s relationship with the vampire, he had to proceed with caution. Especially after prints found at both Ron and Angelo’s murder scenes had been matched to the others from out of state. He doubted Twyla’s would break pattern either. “Has she been in any trouble locally?”
“Nope and nope.” Honey exhaled. “She’s clean as a whistle.”
Thinking of Addie and her Zumba class, he asked, “Did you notice anyone with her?”
“No.” Honey glanced around again. “You think there are two of them?”
“Killers or bounty hunters?”
“Either.” She looked back at him. “Both.”
“I’m not sure on either count.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Any witnesses?”
“Yeah.” She referred back to her notes again. “A Ms. Nunez followed Cassandra to the locker room. She’s a teacher and intended to warn her off wandering the school grounds, but she saw the body and started screaming her head off.”
Easy enough to guess why Cassandra had gone to the locker room. She smelled the blood. But why had she been at the school in the first place? A bounty on a runaway? Seemed likely.
Her crossing his path during the course of this investigation once was coincidence, but this made three times. He couldn’t let that slide without questioning her.
Scratching his jaw, he eyed the door. “Nunez is still here?”
“Waiting on the cleaners to arrive,” Honey confirmed. “She’ll need her memory altered a smidge.”
Spells to alter human minds and memory were illegal, not that it stopped those in power from using them for the greater good. That was the company line, anyway. Boaz had seen enough folks garroted by policy to have his doubts, but he had the good sense to keep them to himself.
“I’m going to talk to her before that happens,” he decided, knowing she would be useless afterward. “Let me know when the
