Instead, I sat uncomfortably as Thomas’s gaze turned inward.
Liam loomed over his shoulder, his face just the slightest bit pensive as he watched. The faint worry in the lines around his mouth told me how important this was. As if I didn’t already know.
I’d missed it upon first waking, too distracted by the awful way I felt to notice it, but now, with Thomas’s power calling my attention to it, it was impossible to miss—a piece of magic, wriggling as it burrowed into my shoulder. It felt alien and wrong there. Almost physical as it hunkered down.
I briefly considered finding a scalpel and trying to cut the offensive piece of detritus out, like it was a tumor I could get rid of.
I doubted it’d be that simple. Spook-related things rarely were.
“What happened to the woman?” I asked in an effort to distract myself.
“Dead.” The words were grim.
A soft sigh of regret escaped me. I hadn’t known the woman, hadn’t wanted to either, if I was being honest with myself. I wanted no further ties binding me to the vampires and would have resisted any overtures of friendship from her, would have hardened my heart and erected my barriers so high she never would have had a chance to scale them.
Still, it was sad to think her open gaze and happy smile had been erased from this world. She would have left people behind, people who no doubt cared for her and would miss her now she was truly gone.
Wrapped in all of these thoughts was the belief her death lay at my feet in some way. If I’d been faster, handled things differently, maybe she wouldn’t now be dead.
“She wouldn’t have survived even if you hadn’t brought her to Liam’s attention,” Thomas said, his eyes closed, his power still questing.
I didn’t know if I believed that.
His power began to withdraw and he looked at me, his silver-gray eyes startlingly clear. “Think it through. She was killed as soon as it became apparent she wouldn’t complete her mission. If she had managed to do as ordered, she would have faced the same fate.”
I was quiet as I processed that statement. “Is that what happened to the other vampire?”
He inclined his head, his gaze steady. “His strings were cut as soon as it was clear he was no longer of use.”
I blew out a breath. The thought of being responsible for a person’s death lifted just slightly. I hadn’t realized how heavy that burden had been until it was gone.
Thomas stood. “The person controlling him took care of the task for us. Had he survived, my enforcers would have ended him shortly afterward.”
“It wasn’t his fault. They were being controlled.” My gaze went between the two of them.
It was the only explanation that made sense. I’d seen that blank, vague look before in other victims of compulsion.
“Right?” I asked Liam.
He hesitated before nodding. “I had Makoto look into both of them. Neither one displayed any indications of disloyalty.”
Thomas didn’t look affected by the words. “It doesn’t matter. We can’t afford to let people know vampires can be so easily compelled and the public nature of the attacks would have forced my hand.”
I didn’t like that answer, but I understood it in a way.
Thomas had taken over the city not too long ago. He couldn’t afford to appear weak, and having his own people try to assassinate him did not send the right kind of message to his enemies.
“Beyond that, it is difficult to lift a compulsion. Unless we found the person responsible and killed them, we would never be able to trust them again,” Thomas said, appearing unaffected at the thought of killing his own people.
“How did she die? I thought we were nearly indestructible,” I asked. Beyond severing our heads or burning us alive, it was very difficult to kill most vampires. The older one was, the more difficult.
“We don’t know,” Liam said, folding his arms over his chest. “I have Joseph going over the bodies to see what he can find.”
Joseph was a doctor and understood more about supernatural physiology than anyone else I knew. A benefit to being nearly immortal—it gave you a lot more time to study the topics that interested you.
Thomas stood and circled to my back. I edged forward in my seat, preparing to stand.
A hand on my shoulder pressed me back. A fact I was grateful for when the edges of my vision darkened, dizziness threatening to send me back to unconsciousness.
