Several of the rooftop partiers jumped to their feet. They glanced around, as if searching for someone. One of the men, an older guy with salt and pepper hair, strode into the center of the patio and addressed the crowd.
“Everyone just needs to remain calm. I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation for—”
Serena rushed onto the rooftop like a tornado. Her gaze latched onto mine, and she visibly sighed. “Thank god. You’re okay.”
“What’s going on, Serena?” I asked, keenly aware of the silence. Everyone was watching us.
“There’s been another murder.” Her voice shook with raw emotion. “A werewolf. A girl who dances at Az’s club.”
“What?” My blood rushed from my face and formed a lump of coal in my gut. “Who? What was her name?”
“Willow.”
Fevered whispers rippled through the crowd on the roof. Someone sobbed. My heart squeezed tight as I remembered the girl. We’d barely had a chance to speak last night, but she’d been kind and welcoming, vibrant and alive. Now, she was dead.
My hands fisted. “Who is doing this?”
“I don’t know, but it has to be the same guy as before,” she whispered back, our voices now drowned out by the roaring buzz of conversation that filled the night air. “The, um, body was in the same position. And her throat was cut like the others.” Suddenly, she seemed to notice I stood alone. “Where the hell is your demon?”
“I don’t know,” I replied. “He got an alert on his watch and vanished just before…”
Serena’s eyes narrowed. “Just before the murder? Mia.”
I pressed my lips together. “It looks really bad, but I don’t think it was him.”
“Why not? It makes sense.”
“I don’t know. It’s just…a feeling I have. I can’t explain it. Trust me, I’ve had my doubts and my questions. But every time I wonder if it’s him, it just doesn’t fit right. It’s like a puzzle piece that doesn’t fit the gap.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“I know it doesn’t, but I don’t know how else to explain it.” I glanced around. Half of the roof had emptied now. No one wanted to stick around at a party where people got murdered.
The distant sound of sirens blared through the night air. They were drawing closer. My stomach dropped, and I latched onto Serena’s arm. “The cops are coming.”
She nodded. “Someone must have called them.”
“Don’t you have, like, supernatural cops or something?” My voice was rising as the panic clawed at my gut. I couldn’t help myself. Rational thought rarely stuck around when my old fears rose up from the ash.
“Not really,” she admitted. “We should. They’re going to want to speak to everyone at this party, and there are things they aren’t going to understand.”
“I can’t be here, Serena,” I breathed. “If I talk to them, they’ll look me up, and they’ll find a way to blame this on me. A girl, our age, dead, at a party? The media will get ahold of it. It will be my senior year of college all over again!”
“Okay, calm down.” Serena glanced over her shoulder at the crowded hallway that led to the elevators. Everyone else heard the sirens and had similar thoughts. I tried not to think about what that meant. I wasn’t the only one here running from the cops. “We’ll get you out of here before they arrive. Dammit, Asmodeus, where the hell did you go?”
“I don’t think we have time to find him,” I whispered, my stomach twisting into knots. “I can’t stay here, Serena. I won’t go through all that again.I can’t.”
“I know.” Serena pressed her forehead against mine, and a sense of calm settled over me. A feeling only she’d ever been able to give me when I got like this. “The hallway is packed. You’ll never even reach the elevator in time. We’ll have to go another way.”
Together, we pushed through the lingering crowd. Serena led me down the hallway in the opposite direction of the elevators. When we reached another door, she flung it open and strode inside. It was a small, cluttered office, likely for the manager of the bar. There was a single window overlooking a courtyard below. Sirens drifted through the cracked panes.
“You’ll have to go down the fire escape,” she said quietly. “Do you think you can manage it by yourself?”
My stomach dropped. “Aren’t you coming?”
“I can’t. I have clients here, and some of them might need me when the cops start to ask questions. If I leave now, my firm will not be pleased.” She pressed her lips together. “But I don’t like the idea of you running through the streets by yourself. As soon as you reach the bottom of the fire escape, head to the next block over. There are a few bars there, and they’ll be open. If you can’t find a taxi, call for one and wait inside one of the bars. Don’t stand around in the street. And for the love of god, Mia. Don’t walk home.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not an idiot.”
