Page 19 of White Raven (Nevermore Duet #2)

“Rhaena, where is Sykes?” Athan asked, rounding the hood of his car.

“I—I dunno, why? What’s wrong?”

“She’s not who we thought she was. If you see her, don’t ask questions, just fucking shoot.”

“What?!”

“You heard me. You and Jenkins meet me at Sarah’s in ten minutes. Hurry up.”

He hung up before Rhaena could ask anything else and slid into the driver’s seat. Sarah continued to cry, breathing heavily and staring at her hands.

“We have to go back,” she heaved. “I can give him my blood. We could turn him, and—”

“No. We can’t.”

Her pleading eyes locked onto his before he threw the car in reverse and backed down the alley, turning around after he passed the dumpster he nearly hit coming in. “She’s not fucking here, Athan! We don’t have to play by her rules anymore! Why can’t we go back in there and—”

“Sarah!” Athan shouted, startling her. Her lip quivered and he eased his hand to her exposed knee.

“Listen to me…it’s not about Dahlia’s rules, okay?

It’s about what he’ll become if we do that.

He was an addict. His mortal life was spent in desperation for a fix.

If we turned him, what do you think he’d do with a hunger like yours?

More people would die, Baby. We can’t save him.

You’ve got to calm down. If we went back down there, I’d have to kill every witness that’s in there trying to figure out what happened.

As bad as it sounds, one life is better than dozens.

I know you’re dying inside…I—” He loosed a heavy breath through his nose and squeezed his eyes shut, smoothing a hand across the side of her face. “We have to go.”

He switched gears, and pulled back onto the street, heading for their apartment.

Sarah spent the rest of the ride in shock.

Silent…broken. Terrified and morally crushed in spirit.

She wasn’t going to take this well at all.

He hadn’t either his first time. About a block away from the gallery, several cops passed them with their lights on, and sirens blaring.

Athan swallowed hard. He pulled into an empty parking spot next to Rhaena’s truck, and she stood on the curb next to Jenkins, turning towards him as her phone slowly lowered from her ear.

She knew. The look in her eyes told him she knew.

He didn’t waste time getting out and stepping around the car.

Athan reached an arm behind Sarah’s back, the other under her knees and pulled her across the console, raising himself to stand and clutching her to his chest while he carried her to the door.

Rhaena and Jenkins looked on in shock at the blood that covered his mate.

Nobody breathed a word as they headed upstairs.

“What does he know?”

“Nothing more than there being a reason for his bird that he’s gonna have to work out for himself. She didn’t see me at all.”

“That’s good enough. Where is the raven?”

“On his way back to you. Where I should be.”

“No. Not yet. I want you to stay out of sight. Keep eyes on her for the evening. Report back to me and catch the next flight in the morning. We need to see how the rest of the pieces fell on the chessboard.”

“I don’t think we’ll have any issues.”

“Keep your promiscuity to a minimum, Ryan. And don’t make contact or go back to that precinct. Understood?”

“Understood, sir.”

“Kane…” Rhaena urged as he started stripping Sarah out of her bloody dress. Brandon turned away, making himself as scarce as possible in the small apartment. Sarah stood motionless and hollow with her arms dangling at her sides. Athan ignored her. “Athan!”

He finally stood, tossing her ruined black tights aside and shrugging off his suit jacket.

There were several bloodstains on the front of his white dress shirt.

“I’ve gotta get her cleaned up, Rhaena. Give us a minute.

” He led Sarah to the small bathroom beside the kitchen in nothing but her underwear and slammed the door.

Rhaena stared at the lone black heel by the bed.

“I can’t keep ignoring these calls, Babe,” Brandon turned around from the bookshelf in the corner, his phone steadily firing off in his hand. Rhaena nodded, swiping open her own phone and dialing Sykes. There was no answer. His phone buzzed again. “It’s Foley.”

“Answer it.”

“Jenkins.” His eyes flashed worriedly at Rhaena, and her stomach sank as she glanced at the bathroom door. “Alright, send me the location. We’ll be there in a minute.”

They just dropped a body. It had to be them.

Judging by the look of Sarah, and the rhythmic way that Athan was looking after her—Sarah just lost control.

She’d seen Athan like this after one of those nights.

Heard the ungodly racket of thrasher music on the other side of the wall when he was lost in his grief afterwards.

She watched him drink heavily, and break things.

Sometimes he wouldn’t speak for days. Rhaena clacked towards the bathroom and opened it without knocking…

her heart nearly shattered at the sight of them.

The shower was running, but Athan stood shirtless with Sarah on the bathmat, their foreheads touching and his hand clutching hers to his chest. The way he was holding onto her…

the person he became since he fell for her.

It was still strange to see this side of Athan Kane.

He whispered something to her that Rhaena couldn’t make out over the sound of the shower, but Sarah nodded, listening intently.

“Athan, I know the timing sucks, but our phones are blowing up. We’ve gotta go to the crime scene.” Sarah’s head turned, and her lip wobbled. “Are you okay, Sarah?”

Her voice was like gravel, and the hoarse edge to it was heartbreaking. “Do I look o-fucking-kay?”

“What can I do? I can’t stay. I can come back, but we can’t wait.”

Athan pulled Sarah close, and she laid her cheek against his bare chest. “Treat it like any other crime scene. I don’t need to tell you it was us.

You’ve already figured that out. I didn’t have time to clean up behind us.

There were people down there. Do what we always do.

I’ll explain everything when you get back. ”

“And Sykes?” Rhaena asked, shrugging her shoulder against the door frame. “You told me to shoot her if I saw her. That’s not gonna go well with Cap if I don’t have a good excuse. You haven’t told me what the fuck is going on with her.”

“We can’t trust her. I don’t know who she’s working for, but she’s not a detective. Keep your eyes open.”

“Were there any witnesses?”

Athan’s eyes turned cold as death. “Just Sykes.”

Holy shit. This was insanity. Rhaena gave him a curt nod and backed out of the doorway. “Be ready when I get back. I’ll cover up whatever I can.”

“Rhaena…” Sarah croaked, raising her head. Rhaena turned back and faced her. “I’m really sorry…I didn’t—I—”

“It’s alright, Sarah. We’ll fix it. Just breathe, okay?” She offered her friend a comforting smile and shut the bathroom door. Sarah’s muffled crying sounded on the other side.

It took a little less than ten minutes to get to the crime scene, and the sun was starting to set over Boston.

Lights from every patrol car reflected off the walls of the alley, and the M.E.

waited at the entrance to the taped off terminal.

Displaced homeless stood outside, all of them either stricken with disbelief, or high as kites on whatever they’d been taking.

If there were any dealers that had been down there, Rhaena was sure they’d be anywhere but here right now.

Brandon kept her pace as they approached a uniform standing with the forensic team.

“What have we got?” Rhaena asked, gloving up. Before any of them could answer, Foley trudged up the steps to the subway. The look on his face said enough. He knew it was a vampire attack. Now all she had to do was make sure he didn’t find out which one.

“You know…I thought I could finally tell Boston that it was safe, Gloves.” His voice was low, and he shook his head. That stare was heavy. Truthfully, she shouldn’t care seeing as she knew something as well. But now wasn’t the time for that.

“Show me.” Rhaena and Brandon ducked under the tape and followed the captain down to where the forensic team was snapping photos of the body.

There were several tags placed around him, and the sight of his neck nearly made Rhaena lose her lunch.

If this had been Sarah…she nearly decapitated the man.

She’d never seen the bodies that Athan had disposed of when he had these episodes, and now she was glad for it.

One of his eyes was half-open and glazed over—the other was missing.

The newspapers that he had covered himself with were soaked in blood and falling apart.

His pockets were turned out and the shock of his assault was still etched on his face. “That’s…strange.”

“Other than the fact that he was bled dry, and half his neck is missing? What are you seeing that I’m not?” Foley asked, roughly.

“Look at his eye. In all the cases that Kane and I have had…I’ve never seen one of these victims missing parts.

Mutilated, maybe. But that doesn’t look like—” Rhaena stopped herself, meeting eyes with her captain.

Some part of this felt ultimately better now that they didn’t have to hide the truth from him anymore.

“Northwood,” Brandon called, kneeling down at one of the nearby tags. “This could be why.” A black feather.

Oh fuck…

Foley’s head turned slowly towards her and Rhaena couldn’t hide the dread in her face.

He was putting it together. Athan was involved.

“That’s too big to be a Starling. Do you and I need to have a conversation in private, detective?

And where is your partner? Or did you successfully have her running for the hills? ”