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He traced her lips, something he liked to do because he knew how sensitive they were. At her shiver, he murmured, “The only duty I care about is what you want me to do for you.”

She shivered even more, knowing that so many women would have sold their souls just to have someone like Alexandru say that to them. And yet those words were for her, the one who didn’t deserve him.

ZARI

Although the walls of La Scala Legaturia were behind us, this part of the land still belonged to the school. A dense forest made treacherous by its poisonous plants, it was one of LSL’s first lines of defense. Humans like me could so easily die just passing through it, but all of us there knew the forest wasn’t to blame in this case.

The dead man on the ground was unkempt, his clothes frayed at the edges, his shoes worn. The flesh on one side of his neck had been ripped apart, but this was no vampire’s doing. It was worse. The bite marks, the way the flesh had been torn – no, this was done by another human. It meant this man had to suffer prolonged agony. No death made quick and painless by a vampire’s razor-sharp fangs. Instead, his last few minutes on this earth had been made excruciating by dull human teeth.

The crowd parted on the other side, Sir Richard, our school’s headmaster, coming forward with a worried frown on his rounded face.

I quickly stepped back, hiding behind other students. Sir Richard was one of the few persons who knew what I was. Like other students, I was human, tasked to master the ways of becoming an ideal pet to my Master. But unlike other students, I was also a soul seer, possibly the last one left in this world. Being a soul seer meant seeing the past and the future, a skill that some otherworlders or non-humans wouldn’t hesitate to kill for.

LSL was to be my temporary sanctuary, a way to keep my identity secret. One of the few rules that my Master had asked me to follow was toneverget involved in anything that could expose what I was. Going to a crime scene? That would definitely qualify.

“Who are the suspects?” Sir Richard asked as he crouched down to inspect the corpse more closely.

I moved further away, not wanting him to catch my scent. If he knew I was here, he would surely tell my Master about it.

“Two students, sir,” the enforcer replied. Enforcers worked like vampire police, tasked to solve crimes involving otherworlders. “A Miranda Donnelly and the other one is Rhapsody Norwood.”

The first name I easily recognized. Miranda was often referred to as the school’s Madonna. An ideal human pet, in many ways, was like a geisha, trained to serve and please her Master and find honor in her ability to do so. Miranda, who was in her last year of training, certainly excelled at that. Demure and soft-spoken, graceful and gracious, she was said to make even vampires’ hearts skip a beat – and that was saying a lot when most vampires didn’t have hearts to speak of.

“Miranda?” Sir Richard repeated, visibly surprised.

“It’s been confirmed, sir. Several students saw her leaving through the school’s exit closest to the forest.”

The headmaster straightened up with a shake of his head. “That doesn’t make sense.” After telling another enforcer to cover the body and have it autopsied, he asked, “What about Lady Rhapsody?” His gaze strayed, and following his line of sight, I realized that most of the students in the crowd were looking at the same person, too.

The girl was tall and slender, with black hair and incredibly fair skin. She would probably be beautiful if she smiled, but right now her face was so pale and expressionless it was like looking at a ghost.

Murmurs rose from the crowd. It made me wince because they weren’t being exactly quiet or discreet about what they were saying.

It’s the new girl.

I’ve always thought she was weird.

That Miranda came out here is just coincidence, I’m sure. She could never have done something like this. But that girl?

She’s the killer. I’m sure of it.

Rhapsody started walking away, and the murmurs grew louder, as if they all wanted her to hear it. I found myself following her.

When she was past the gates of the school, she suddenly turned around, making me jump in surprise.

“Why are you following me?” I had expected her to hiss, shout, or maybe even cry. But instead her voice was calm. Soft. Soothing. Like her name.

Her question had me shrugging awkwardly. “I’m not exactly sure why,” I confessed honestly.

She blinked at my answer.

I offered my hand. “I’m Zari, by the way.”

She took it. “Everyone knows who you are.”

I grimaced, knowing it wasn’t because I was near-perfect like the Madonna. Rather, it was because my Master was Alexandru, the greatest hunter among vampires, and someone, despite having lived hundreds of years, who had never acquired a pet...until I came along, that was.

She cocked her head to the side. “You don’t seem to think I’m the killer.”