“It’s all got to be sorted out. For now, there’s no harm in watching him.”
She exhaled, looking back at the house. Trying not to be too pissed. “I guess not.”
“But they want him out of here. They’re pretty set on that. They’re going to talk about it tonight.”
“Great. Perfect,” she muttered and turned to go, again.
“Hey, Fee.”
“Yeah?” She didn’t look back.
“One more thing. Just so you know, going into it.”
She moaned. Halted. “Yeah?”
“They’re talking about sanctions.”
“Against me?” She turned to him, touching her breast bone. “For what? I’m doing everything I can to find this killer. We’re going back to the game preserve tomorrow. I think we might be onto something.”
“It’s not about the investigation. It’s him.” Arlan hooked his thumb in the direction of the house. At this distance, she could barely make out its outline. “You’re fraternizing with a human.”
“That a euphemism for screwing?” she demanded. “Why me? Don’t tell me you haven’t done it. Don’t tell me everyone in this town hasn’t done it at one point or another.”
He just looked at her.
“Ah,” she sighed, making no attempt to hide the bitterness in her voice. “This is still about Ian.”
“Fee, you can’t blame them for being—”
“Arlan, please.” She held up her hand. “Don’t make excuses for them.” She walked away. “You better get back on watch. You don’t want the human outsmarting you.”
Fia felt Arlan’s gaze on her back as she went down the street, but he didn’t follow her. Eventually, she heard him walk back toward the B and B, remaining in human form.
She made a left at the stop sign, thinking she would take a shortcut through a yard. Just as she was opening a gate, she heard a twig snap and she turned in the direction of the sound.
Someone was sneaking through a yard across the street. Just passing through the opening between two ancient boxwood shrubs. Fia knew the silhouette. Tall, thin. Pink sweatshirt, hood pulled up and over her forehead to cover her acne-dotted face.
Kaleigh? What was she doing out in the middle of the night? Surely not meeting Derek. They’d broken up.
Or were they reconciling?
Fia felt a stab of bittersweet pain. First love. It was so hard. For a Kahill, even harder.
She stood at the gate in indecision. As a sept member, was it her duty to stop Kaleigh from making this mistake? There could, of course, be no future in the relationship. Even to consider it was dangerous, not just for the teenager, but for the whole sept.
So how was this different than what Fia was doing? How was her relationship with Glen any safer than Kaleigh’s with Derek?
Kaleigh was still just a kid.
Fia had the benefit of past experience and Kaleigh didn’t yet have that. Of course, one could make the argument that maturity was a good reason for Fia not to get involved with Glen. She, of all people, should have known better.
To Fia’s surprise, tears stung her eyes. Was her relationship with Glen doomed? Were all her relationships doomed? Was that Ian’s parting gift to her?
Fia saw Kaleigh stop, turn. The silhouettes of two more slender figures appeared in the darkness. Katy and Maria, no doubt.
Well, at least Kaleigh wasn’t going out into the woods alone. At least she was traveling in a group. There was safety in numbers. Power in numbers.
Power in numbers.
The hair suddenly rose on the back of Fia’s neck and she was instantly covered in gooseflesh.
Power in numbers.
Was it possible?
Against her will, memories of the past flashed through her head. Black-and-white images emblazoned in her mind burst suddenly into brilliant color. The flames. The blood that puddled in the grass. A sound script was added to the image in her mind. She heard the screams of those she loved. The clang of swords. The swoosh, the thud…the sound of a head rolling in the street.
Fia’s tears gathered in the corners of her eyes as she opened them.
Power in numbers.
How had she missed it? She and Glen had been questioning how the killer was able to overpower his victims and so cleanly decapitate them. Fia, the entire town, had been trying to figure how one man could overpower a vampire, who had extraordinary strength. The answer was that it was not one killer.
And at that moment, Fia realized she had made a terrible decision a little over twelve hours ago when she made the decision to go to Philadelphia and meet Joseph. What she should have done was proceeded with the interviews. The interviews she lied to Glen about tonight.
Guilt washed over her. Heavy. Sour.
The girls moved up the street in a knot of quiet nervous energy.
Fia knew where they were going and a part of her wanted to call out to them. To warn them. It would be wrong to let them go. What if she was wrong?
She slipped her hand under her sweatshirt and unsnapped the leather strap that secured her firearm in its holster. She might be wrong.
But what if she was right?
Glen stepped into his wrinkled khaki pants and his belt buckle clacked so loudly that he thought for certain he had woken the entire house. He froze. Waited. He heard nothing but the usual night sounds of the old B and B. A ceiling fan clicking. A branch scraping an outside wall.
He glanced out the window beside his bed where the curtains had been left slightly parted. From there, he had just watched Fia disappear down the street. It was a dark night, no moon, and outside there was an eerie stillness. Though he had heard the branch and knew there had to be a slight breeze, nothing seemed to stir. Not the leaves on the silver maple tree outside the window, not a blade of grass.
Glen was not a touchy-feely guy. He didn’t rely on feelings. On hunches. He had no rational reason to believe anything was wrong. Except that he could feel it
