Silver blood pooled beneath Sylvania’s body on Adrian’s damaged floor. So much blood. Luminous and stunning, it was a terrible contrast to the dark teak wood and the pale, naked woman laying in the middle of it. Racing in without a care for the blood as Adrian and Dusk worked, Rikyava knelt, her fingers to the woman’s throat, feeling for a pulse as the rest of her cadre raced through Adrian’s apartment with pikes brandished to sweep for an assailant.
But after a moment, Rikyava growled, looking up at Adrian and Dusk, her brimstone eyes bleak. “She’s dead. Stop. She’s dead Adrian, Dusk. She’s gone.”
Dusk roared, rattling vases and hanging votives all around. Rising, he slammed a fist into Adrian’s apartment wall, shattering blue tiles in a massive shockwave. Adrian rose also, his face pale and shocked, and reached out, gripping Dusk’s shoulder. Dusk shuddered, breathing hard, something wild in his all-diamond eyes. But it was Adrian who took command of the situation, gripping Dusk’s shoulder and guiding him close so they could speak.
“Use the Orb. Call the Madame and the Head Courtier. I need you calm, Dusk. Can you do that for me?”
As Dusk shuddered under Adrian’s firm grip, he closed his eyes. Still breathing hard, he seemed to master himself, though Layla saw tears leaking from beneath his dark eyelashes. Retrieving something from the inner pocket of his white tux jacket, Dusk set it to the center of his brow. A small opal stone, it was no larger than his thumb, but emanated an unearthly light as he held it. Layla could feel Dusk concentrating his vibrations; pouring them into the opal stone like pouring water into a thimble. Taking another breath, he lowered it to his lips, then murmured the names of the Madame and the Head Courtier.
Placing the stone back inside his jacket, he opened his eyes as Adrian gave him a small shake and let him go. Staring at Sylvania’s dead body, Dusk’s gaze was terrible. Layla followed his sightline, staring at the body also. She’d seen dead bodies before, both when Mimi had died and when she’d had to identify her parents in the morgue after their car crash. Those had been awful, Mimi’s body shriveled like burned paper from the cancer, Layla’s parents little but pulped meat beneath the morgue drape with only their faces recognizable.
But this corpse looked almost divine. Haloed in moonlit blood upon the dark floor, Sylvania’s lovely face and silver hair were angelic, flowing around her in a beautiful shroud. Her starlight eyes were open, her silver irises burst with a stippling of blood yet still luminous. Stepping in with tight eyes, Dusk hunkered and set one palm to the dead woman’s chest, gently. Producing a low hum, he sent a deep pulse into the body, his head lifting as he closed his eyes.
Rikyava hunkered at his side, her violet irises brimstone red as she watched Dusk.
“No blade wounds, no talon or claw marks.” He spoke to Rikyava at last. “Her skin’s unmarred, and she wasn’t raped. She’s been vibrated apart from within. Her heart’s burst; all the blood came through her ears, her lungs, and digestive tract.”
“Can you find her last memory? Any imprint of the magic that did this?” Rikyava growled. Her Guardsmen trotted back from the far corners of Adrian’s apartment, shaking their heads.
“Apartment’s clear, no sign of a break-in, no sign of struggle,” one strapping, big-shouldered Guard with Viking-red hair spoke.
“Check the Sphinxes,” Rikyava growled to them tersely. “Run a diagnostic on Adrian’s guardian Dragons. Send Riko, Guy, and Hermetta to the other Department Heads down the hall, knock on doors but keep it discreet. Find me a witness. Go.”
The man nodded tersely, flicking his fingers at his cohort. They departed fast, leaving a cadre of four behind inside the apartment.
Still kneeling by Sylvania with his hand on her chest, Dusk closed his eyes. Throwing back his head, he vibrated a brief tremolo through the body, pulsing it in waves, but varying the pitch and duration in musical notes that trembled through the air. They were tightly controlled and as Layla listened, she thought it was almost like a kind of sonar Dusk created from his magic.
Rikyava had bent over the body also. Lips parted and blood-red eyes keen, she looked ferocious as she inhaled air over Sylvania’s bloody ears, nose, lips – even down at her groin. Closing her eyes, the Blood Dragon breathed deeper, and with a sudden shock, Layla realized the Head Guardswoman was actually smelling the scent of Sylvania’s blood and deducing something from it. Placing her fingers in the starlit blood, Rikyava lifted it to her lips, tasting it. Her eyes widened at the same time Dusk finally opened his eyes.
Their gazes connected.
“This can’t be right.” Dusk murmured softly.
“Damn straight.” Rikyava breathed back. Her gaze shifted to Adrian. “I smell it, but I don’t believe it.”
“Neither do I.” Dusk spoke, a dark frown devouring his features. Pushing up from the floor, he glanced at Adrian also.
“What?” Adrian asked, frowning. “Did you find anything?”
“Oh, we found something.” Rikyava rose, turning to face Adrian. “And what we found… was you.”
“What?!” Adrian’s eyes flashed gold, astonishment cascading over his face.
“Your scent’s all over her, Adrian,” Rikyava growled low. “Your magical imprint is all through the blood, along with her own.”
“I managed to dredge up her last memory from the fading recesses of her mind, Adrian,” Dusk’s gaze was level. “The last face she saw was yours. Here. In your apartment.”
“When did you last see Sylvania today, Adrian?” Rikyava had moved toward Adrian, one hand carefully at the rapier on her hip. “Was it when she came up to tend you after the Owner’s party with Dusk?”
“Yes, but Dusk was still here when she left. She left first, and she didn’t come back afterwards.” Adrian’s eyes had gone wide, fear flashing through them. “I didn’t do this, Rikyava. My magic… it can’t do something like this. It’s never done anything like this before!”
Rikyava frowned. “Dusk. Is that true?”
“It is.” He spoke quietly. “And I was still talking to Adrian when Sylvania left. I don’t know if she came back after I went down to find Reginald, though.”
“She didn’t, I swear it.” Adrian shook his head. “I haven’t seen her since we were both here in my apartment together, Dusk. After you left, I went out for a long walk through the forest, out by the barns to clear my head. I haven’t been back to my rooms since you were here.”
Rikyava and Dusk shared a long look. Layla could feel tension simmering through the apartment like live electricity. “Did any witnesses see you out on the grounds tonight, Adrian?” Rikyava asked.
