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I aimed a finger at Nick.

“Are you telling me Nick wouldn’t notice bite marks all over Jem formonths?He wouldn’t notice another vampire’s venom in Jem formonths?”I saw Nick flinch, right before he frowned. “His own boyfriend? He wouldn’t pick up on that?”

Black’s pupils contracted slightly.

His expression remained hard, though.

“They could have hidden the marks,” Black said. “They did on me.”

Now Nick looked openly skeptical, though.

I frowned, and vehemently shook my head.

“No,” I said. “Black, Nick isn’t me. I didn’t know anything about vampires, but Nickisa vampire. He would have smelled the blood, if nothing else. He definitely would have noticed.” I looked at Nick, waiting for him to back me up. “Right? There’s no way Brick or one of his coven could have been grooming Jem for weeks, or even days, without you noticing. Black’s told me how insanely sensitive your nose is. You would have smelled the other vampire on him.”

There was a silence.

I could see from Nick’s face that I’d reminded him of something his mind couldn’t refute. He knew I was right. He knew there was no possible way Brick could have done this, certainly not in such a short time, not the way he and Black had been saying. There was no way Nick wouldn’t have seen the signs. Hell, he likely would have sensed another vampire’s presence around his mate, even apart from the smell.

He would have tasted the venom on him.

He would haveknown.

“Jem wouldn’t do this,” Nick repeated, stubbornly. “He wouldn’t.”

“The fuck he wouldn’t,” Black muttered. “He already did.”

“––Whoever did it,” I broke in, giving Black a warning look. “We have to try and figure that out usingonlythe facts. We can’t let what wewishto be true get in the way,” I said, looking at Nick. “And we can’t let what we’reafraidmight be true get in the way, either,” I added, giving Black a meaningful stare.

I glanced at Mika, and she nodded to me, eyes serious.

She motioned subtly with her hand for me to go on.

I exhaled, feeling like I still had a metaphorical hand on Black and Nick’s chests, keeping them apart in some way.

“Look,” I said, subduing my voice with an effort. “We can all agree that it was likely Jem’sbodythat did this, right? Maybe not his will, in whole or in part, but his skillset, his sight, and his mind did this? Right?”

I looked between Nick and Black again, looking for agreement.

I saw it, grudgingly on Black, and more angrily on Nick.

“Whoever did this, they knew our tech,” I pointed out. “They hacked our semi-organic security system. They enacted a comms and phone blocker over the entire building, even the garage. They looped our CCTV seamlessly with past recordings, and changed the time signature on the one showing Jem entering our penthouse. They set off the alarms and shut down the building remotely… likely after they were safely away. He didn’t hurt anyone,” I added, quieter. I met Nick’s gaze. “He hasn’thurtanyone, Nick… not yet. But none of our seers can get past his shield. We need your help to find him.”

Nick’s eyes remained stubborn. “I just don’t think he would do this––”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Black growled. “How manygaos-damned seers do we know whocouldhave done it? Yarli couldn’t have pulled this off. Even with the Dragon thing in me, I couldn’thave done it, either. Or the doc. Your boyfriend’s skillset is all over this.”

Without waiting for Nick’s answer, Black looked at me.

I saw a faint apology in his eyes, and his voice lost its punch when he spoke next.

“Miri’s right,” he said. “We’ll figure out thewhyof this, and who’s to blame, once we’ve found Jem and the others. Right now, our priority has to be bringing them all back. We need to find Angel, Javi, Jem, and the girl and bring them in, alive and unharmed.”

Nick scowled.

His crystal, vampire-clear eyes were now tinged with a darker bloom of scarlet.

I still didn’t get the sense that Nick’s aggression––or fear, most likely––was aimed at us, but I saw a lot of eyes looking at Nick nervously now, and watching his vampire irises change color. Like Mika, they were letting me talk to Nick and Black for them, but I suddenly wondered how they all saw Nick in this moment. It struck me that they were looking at him like he was somehow less human, and a lot more vampire, with Jem gone.