I can’t—
There’s commotion in the corridor. A cascade of women fill the narrow space, tripping over each other as they rush towards me.
“Gideon.” Winnie throws her arms around me. “Are you okay?”
“I’m not the one lying on a slab, so yes, I’m as dapper and delightful as ever,” I answer, my breath hitching as I catch Arabella’s eye. She quickly looks away.
“It’s not easy to kill a vampire, right? How did this even happen?”
“I guess we can cross Alyra off our list of suspects,” Mina says. “We’ll have to review all the information once Jo gives us a report, and redo our murder boardagain…”
“We should wear our vampire-repelling charms,” Isis pipes up. “For added protection. Oh, and maybe you should hire me to cleanse the estate of bad magic, just in case—”
Dora grabs her sister and shoots Arabella a meaningful look. “I think what Isis istryingto say is that we should get in there, in case there’s an important clue.”
“Er, right, yes.” Isis pumps her fist in the air. “Ladies, to the vampire autopsy!”
The Nevermore Coven shove their way through the door, leaving me and Arabella in the empty basement corridor. A memory flashes – another time we were stuck in this basement together, with scattered board game pieces and her body quivering beneath me…
“No Catan puns?” Arabella asks, her voice the lightest I’ve ever heard it. “I was expecting a ‘wood-n’t you know it’?”
“Alyra’sdead,” I snap. “She died within the walls of Sanctus. This place was supposed to be a sanctuary. I was supposed to keep her safe, and instead I was passed out on the floor of my empty bar while the woman I love stole from me—”
“Gideon,” Arabella says.
For once, my name on her lips doesn’t affect me. My whole body is numb.
“Gideon, please, can we—”
The door opens with a creak, cutting her off. Winnie pokes her head out, shooting me an apologetic look. “Jo says she’s finished, if you want to hear her conclusions.”
“I have some interesting things to report,” Jo says.
Jo has Alyra’s body beneath a white sheet on top of a large trolley used for transporting supplies from the loading bay. The Nevermore Coven gathers around, shoulder to shoulder. Winnie hugs me, resting her head on my chest in a way that would have Alaric brandishing his testicle-severing sword if he were here. Iris’s face is as white as the sheet. Maisie has her pad and pencil ready to take notes.
Jo looks haggard. She clears her throat and wipes a smear of blood on her PPE. “Okay. Unlike the last two victims, who were human and easy for a vampire to overpower, Alyra was Upyr, and an older model at that.” Jo glances down at the corpse. “Although she looked amazing for her age.”
“She’s a long-time client,” Beth pipes up, her face pinched. “My beauty elixirs work wonders for vampires as well as humans, and my latest formulation is set to revolutionise skincare—”
“Beth,” Dora hisses.
“Sorry.”
“The cause of death is simple.” Jo lifts the edge of the sheet to reveal two fang marks in Alyra’s neck. “Exsanguination. Alyra has been husked, just like the others.”
Winnie buries her face deeper into my chest. Across the room, behind a horrified Komal, Arabella’s eyes bore into mine. I look away from her, down at Alyra’s body. Her eyes are closed, and she looks peaceful, like she’s asleep.
She was supposed to be safe here.
This is all my fault.
Jo consults her notes. “One of the questions I had was how the killer overpowered Alyra, considering there are no visible signs of a struggle. I know that vampires heal quickly, but I’d expect to see something – a torn sleeve, rumpled clothing, blood splatter, but there’s nothing. So my hypothesis is that she was drugged.”
My stomach drops. “Drugged?”
“An analysis of her stomach contents will tell me which drug, but that’s going to take a few weeks because I’ll have to somehow sneak the sample through our lab. It would help if you knew some vampire chemist with a handy lab I could use.”
I think of Lilac. “And what’s the second thing?”
