Page 93 of You’re So Vein

His eyes widen. “You… noticed me?”

I shake my head and turn away. Beth slides her arm around me, and I let her help me up and lead me away. I need to find the Nevermore Coven.

“What happened?” Beth asks.

I can’t tell her. I can’t. Beth is relying on me to get her rebuild approved. I can’t let her see the mess I’ve become.

And I don’t have to, because I figured something out.

Winnie is on Alaric’s arm, making the rounds, charming the vampires with her sunshine-y Winnie-ness. For someone who doesn’t want to become one of them, she sure does make an effort to be part of their world. I don’t want to disturb her. The vampires must see her as part of their community.

Wouldn’t it be easier if she gave in? Wouldn’t it make everyone happy?

I guess that’s the difference between Winnie and me. If a hot vampire wanted to bite me and make me immortal, I’d say yes in a heartbeat, if only so I didn’t upset him. That’s what I do. I give everything to a relationship until I don’t know myself anymore.

And look where that’s got you in life. Look at what giving in to everyone’s demands, and trying to fix every problem, has given you.

I spy the rest of the Nevermore Coven huddled in the corner, clutching human drinks while Isis gestures dramatically, and Dora rolls her eyes so far back in her head that she looks haunted. I shove my way through the crowd.

“… this idea that if I enchant a Roomba, it could draw a sigil on the floor around the husker and they wouldn’t even know—Komal, oh my god, what was that all about?” Isis drags me into the circle. “You were getting awfully close to Dante, and then Augustin threw him through a table, but you didn’t seem pleased—”

“I wish a man would hurl someone through a table for me,” Celeste sighs.

“I was fishing for clues, and Augustin interrupted. But not before I learned something,” I whisper, skipping over the bit where I nearly fainted from panic in a room full of people. “Dante told me about the machine he uses for extracting blood: the di Sangro Siphon. It pierces the skin like fangs and would leave faint, circular marks on the skin if someone pushed it in hard.”

“The marks around the husker’s wounds,” Mina whispers.

“Exactly.”

“I’ve had five of these.” Maisie holds up an empty glass with a tiny umbrella with fangs drawn on it. “Explain to me like I’m drunk.”

“You are drunk, Maisie,” Mina says. She reaches down to touch Oscar’s head, as if to reassure herself that he’s still there. “Komal’s saying that the killer could have used this machine on the victims, which means that they might be storing their blood, rather than drinking it.”

Beth’s cheeks go white. “That–that can’t be true, can it?”

“It fits the evidence.”

“But the attacks were vicious,” Beth says. “What you’re suggesting – the killer saving the blood – feels too calculated.”

“True, but it does explain a few things,” Mina says. “Such as how the killer goes for so long without another victim. If they’re not draining the victims in the moment, then they’re not experiencing that unquenchable thirst that a true husker feels. Perhaps that’s how they’re able to wait months between victims.”

We all, as one, look over at Lilac, who smilingly hands a vampire a bloodtini.

“She was sired without consent,” Mina whispers, clutching Oscar’s lead tight to her chest. “Danny O’Hare was famous for pushing himself on women.”

“Patrick was going to reveal the existence of vampires,” Winnie adds. “But why kill Alyra? And why keep the blood…”

“For magic?” I suggest, remembering what Lilac had told us. A vampire must spill blood to perform a spell. Perhaps the blood doesn’t need to be their own.

And Arabella told us that drinking the blood of a fellow vampire would transfer some of their magic and power to the drinker.

“Her cocktails are sinfully good,” Arabella says forlornly. “I put it down to her Dusk Court magic, but what if they contain vampire blood…”

Her question hangs in the air, too awful to contemplate.

“We can’t afford to jump to conclusions,” Maisie adds, sounding surprisingly sober. “We have no evidence to suspect her except for Dante’s warning. Plus, this new information means that the killer isn’t necessarily a vampire.”

My hand flies to my mouth. She’s right.