“Logical. He certainly wouldn’t want to accuse Zoe, Harley, or any of our groupies.” Wickham frowned.
“Exactly. If he had noticed a stranger stalking us, he would have called the police. I hope.” I tried to place myself in Tim’s shoes. “But if it was someone familiar, he may have been unsure and checking things out first.”
Wickham shook his head. “I wonder if he confronted the killer when they broke into our cabin?”
“Or, if he saw them enter and thought they were reasonable, he may have just knocked on the door.” It creeped me out to realize the killer had broken into ourcabin and riffled through our things while we were getting married.
“Oh, I hope we’re not getting another blizzard. We can’t make it back to Austen Heights in this weather.”
“Speaking of blizzards...” That sounded wrong. “I mean, I did a little investigating during the blizzard last night, and I need to tell you what I found.”
“What?” Wickham’s jaw tightened. “I’d hoped you would stay in the cabin and not put yourself in danger. I was worried all night that you were at the resort with a killer.”
“That crossed my mind. But I had an opportunity and took it. I used a transformation spell, so I looked like the receptionist, and I found out which cabin the murderer was in and peeked inside their windows.”
Wickham’s brow rose, and he clenched his car keys. “You did what now?”
“Just a little investigating.” I shrugged, unbuckling my seatbelt.
Honestly, if he knew anything about me, it was that I was going to do whatever I wanted. He shouldn’t be too surprised. “I have some photos. As we suspected, the reddish hair was a wig. This woman waspretty messy—left her clothes and stuff on the floor. She had some the Grey Doors fliers spilled across a desk. I wonder if a groupie or the girls in the band had a connection to Alex.”
“Lydia, you could’ve gotten hurt.” Wickham furrowed his brow. “Whether the girls or a groupie had some special relationship with Alex, I really don’t know. I mean, he coached Harley with some stuff, and he and Zoe worked on lyrics together. But that was it."
“Well, if you know what type of car each of them drives, we might have this solved. Whoever it was cut me off in the parking lot in a blue sports car. It was random, really. We happened to be leaving at the same time.”
“Harley drives a silver sedan, and Zoe has a truck. But I’ll double-check.” Wickham was oddly pale.
“Are you feeling alright?”
“Yeah, I just need to eat . . . I hate this . . . this condition.” Wickham mumbled.
I guess marrying a vampire was going to have its challenges. “We should carry a cooler around with rare steaks for you. Why don’t we stop by the diner and get you lunch? You’re not, like, tempted to bite me or anything, are you?”
“I was a vegan before I got this issue.” He got out of the Jeep and walked around to open my door. Fresh powder sparkled in the sunlight, coating the trees, buildings, and cars. “I’d say I have a pretty good handle on it.”
“Let’s get you something to eat before we investigate anything else.” Getting out of the Jeep, I pulled my coat close and leaned over to kiss my husband’s cheek. “I’m sorry you have to deal with that. You’ll have to explain sometime how much your condition lines up with the stereotypes. I feel like I have a lot to learn, and I don’t want you to have to go through it alone anymore.”
He nodded. “It’s certainly not like the movies.”
I was fully aware that my family and most of my friends thought I was a little superficial at times, but it was really just that life was so exciting to me. I could be serious, and when I was truly devoted to something or someone, I was extremely attentive and observant. Despite his anemic complexion, I kissed Wickham again, this time on the lips, and he kissed me back.
“We’re going to make it through this, right?” I asked.
He pulled me into a hug, and I could hear his heart beating. "It's the only option we've got."
Chapter 12
Wickham’scomplexionimprovedashe worked his way through a rare steak at the lodge diner. I sat next to him in our booth at the diner, nibbling on my lunch, and spoke quietly. “I was thinking we should scope out the parking lot and see if the blue sports car comes back. If they came all the way from Austen Heights, there’s no way they’d make it there in this weather, not with those sleek tires. Maybe they just stopped by the grocery store or something. I doubt they want to eat at the diner and blow their cover.”
“We could. Right now, I’m more worried about keeping you alive than solving the murders. Even if whoever is doing this is trying to set me up, who knows what they’re capable of,” Wickham kept his voice low. “I can see why the police think our band members may be getting targeted. We’ll need to be super careful.”
“We could try going back to check out that cabin. One advantage we have is that the killer doesn’t know that they're up against a witch and a vampire,” I whispered, then took a bite of my gluten-free turkey sandwich. “We won’t be easy targets.”
Wickham put down his fork and stared at his food. “I don’t think your identity is much of a secret. But only Bradley knows about me, and I completely trust him. So yes, we have that advantage.”
Even though he assumed Bradley was trustworthy, I wondered exactly how well Wickham knew everyone in the band.
“Except everyone is always surprised when someone they know turns out to be a killer. We think we really know people, but sometimes we don’t.” I shuddered. “One thing I’ve picked up on when reading auras is that people try to hide their authentic emotions all the time.”
