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“You’ll have more when we’re satisfied you’re speakin’ the truth,” he said frankly, stepping back from her.

“Why would I lie?” she replied. Her tongue flicked over her teeth, seeking every morsel.

“Tell us everything. From the beginning,” I told her, watching as her face regained some warmth.

Solace dragged her broken legs around in front of her before answering, already stronger than she’d been minutes ago. I winced as she eased up her dress and pushed the exposed boneof her left femur back into place, where it had been snapped in two.

“Like I said, this is all because of you,” she croaked, waving a hand at the room. “All I knew was there was a new power in the city, and more of us were dying than usual. Which is what I told you when you came asking, since I clean up enough damn bodies for you.” She pushed her tongue into her cheek, her jaw working. “Turned out my people weren’t as loyal as I’d hoped. April and Will were taking their orders elsewhere, using my organisation as a cover.”

“Organisation?” I scoffed. “Is that what you think this is?”

Solace threw me a dirty look. “Regardless. My guys got it back to me they’d seen you withhim,” she indicated Nicholas without looking at him. “I decided not to worry about it. I figured you’d have killed him by now, though from the energy I’m sensing it looks more like it’s going the other way,” she paused. “Anyway. The deaths didn’t stop. The bodies started to pile up, and I had to start digging.”

“What do you mean?” Nicholas asked.

“Haven’t you noticed what’s been going on lately?” She laughed half-heartedly. “I suppose only the redheads matter to you, right?”

Nicholas snarled low in his throat, the threat clear. I ignored him, thinking.

I normally made it my business to keep track of the death toll in the city – Tom and I had set up a program that pulled information from local hospital databases and collated it so we could investigate anything unusual; locate hotspots and such. Ihad to admit; I hadn’t checked it in weeks. But Solace had said vamps were dying, too.

“They’ve been feeding,” I said flatly, understanding. “Not just on the ones we know about.”

“Whoever this is, there’s more to it than just a frame job,” Solace addressed Nicholas. “They’re killing three and four times a week. And they’re not hiding the evidence, either. It got to looking too suspicious for my liking, so I had some people investigate. They didn’t come back.”

“But what has this got to do with… April and Will?” I wasn’t a fan of humanising scum like that with nice, normal names.

“They’ve been getting information from them, from all my people. About you two and Wyatt. From what I can tell, they’ve been listening in from the empty place next door to your shop, tracking when Chowdhury’s online – you name it, they know it. And now they’ve got everything I had, too.” She stopped speaking to cough up blood for a minute, before continuing. “Either the two guys I sent are dead, or they were working for him as well. It doesn’t matter. Seems like he decided I’d gone too far. A woman came by this morning. Half of us were sleeping, a few guards keeping an eye out…”

“One woman did all this?” How strongwasshe?

“I think so. I thought it was Wyatt at first, but the vibes were all wrong. She wasn’t as old, but she was… hungry. Crazy with it.”

“Shefedon them?” Disgust laced Nicholas’s tone.

“I’ve been losing people for weeks,” she coughed. “And notjust killed, either – drained. The woman who did this… she walked in here in broad daylight. No one should be able to do that. She’s stronger than anyone I’ve ever come into contact with.” She took Nicholas in. “So far.”

Her eyes lingered on the other pouches Nicholas still held, and he handed one over without speaking. Solace tore it open, swallowing loudly.

My hand twitched for my sword hilt. A vampire that could walk in daylight and take down an entire nest single-handedly? Everything I thought I knew about hunting them – about their limitations – was so far beyond inadequate it was actually almost funny. Even Nicholas’s presence beside me couldn’t reassure me. I shuddered, though it wasn’t the cold that was the problem – my blood was on fuckingfire.

“It’s taboo. It’s… it’s no done,” Nicholas murmured as Solace discarded the second pouch. “You’re sure this was one woman?”

“Yes,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I trust my senses.”

Unfortunately, I trusted her senses, too.

“What does it mean?” I asked.

“That our enemies are more dangerous than we kent, but there’s a limit to their spyin’, at least.” He stood, throwing the last pouch at Solace and pushing his hands deep into the pockets of his coat as he walked away.

“You’re not going already?” Solace protested, groping for the blood. “You can’t leave me like this!”

I glanced back at her with a shrug as I pulled the door closed. “You’ll live.”

27: My Black and Deep Desires

Once outside, I stumbled to the car and leaned hard against it, gulping in clean night air that didn’t taste of copper and death. The stars wheeled overhead, impossibly bright and clear compared to the horror we’d left behind. My skin still crawled, but the light breeze began to cool the fever-heat beneath.