It was a little trick I’d picked up from my Fae clients during my courier days. Deception was okay as long as you didn’t stray into outright falsehood.
I was adept at riding that line.
“I never lied,” I told her.
Rather than anger, Callie looked proud. “Very good, little niece. You’re learning.” Before I could relax, she continued. “We’ll try this again. Have you seen your biological father since returning from Noctessa?”
Damn. A direct question.
There was no room for obfuscation either. Lying carried consequences. So did not lying.
Choices, choices.
Before I could make my decision, the door of the bar was thrown open. Silence fell as a man staggered inside.
He pointed back the way he’d come, hysteria making him difficult to understand as he repeated over and over again. “It killed him. He’s dead. The devil ate him.”
eleven
Beforeanyonecouldreact,the man folded to the ground. Whimpers crawled up his throat as he rocked back and forth, muttering incomprehensibly.
Shock set in.
His skin was pale, making his freckles stand out in stark relief. The orange of his hair looked unnatural, a bright splash of color among the chalky white.
No one moved.
He kept rocking, repeating the same words over and over again. “He’s dead. He’s dead. He’s dead.”
I sniffed. “It’s faint, but I smell blood on him.”
The stench of fear nearly overrode it, but it was there. Subtle but unmistakable.
Caroline lifted her nose and took a sniff before nodding. “I smell it too.”
The crowd shifted, murmurs running through it as those with a superior sense of smell picked up on what we had.
I frowned, scanning his body and finding no wounds. “It’s not his.”
Unless he was injured somewhere I couldn’t see, the smell had to have gotten on him some other way. From its faint scent, I was guessing he’d been standing near someone who’d lost quite a lot of it.
Callie’s shoulders brushed mine. “Little niece, you always have the most intriguing things happen around you.”
Not because of anything I did. I swear.
I looked over my shoulder, searching for the djinn.
Dahlia waved a hand at me. “I’ve got your sister. Go check out the situation.”
I didn’t need to be told twice as I followed the crowd. Callie and Connor joining me.
The scent of death smacked me in the face as soon as I stepped outside. My fangs dropped; Connor snarled.
“No wonder you smelled blood on him.” Callie whistled at the scene that greeted us. “It looks like a slaughter took place.”
Yeah, right before the barbecue the killer started afterward.
The dead person sat in the middle of the lot, a pool of red liquid spreading from the body. His hands were bound behind his back and there was a silver stake protruding from his heart.
