Page 79 of Be Still My Unbeating Heart

“Who are you?” the mayor asked, tone fearful.

“We are—” Ling began.

“—the vampire council,” Emmeline finished. “This is your husband?”

Mayor Moretti nodded.

“He doesn’t want to kill. He has me lock him up when the thirst grows too much. But sometimes his treatment plan needs amending, and when that happens, his control slips.”

More than slips,Bastian thought. The dead body in the center of the ballroom was impossible to miss.

It suddenly made a kind of sense. The infinity pins that were found at each crime scene…the mayor must have her own stockpile, given her affiliation with L.O.V.E. Her husband could havedropped them during the attack. Careless to do so at two different crime scenes, but Bastian knew what it was like when the blood fever gripped. Althoughwhythe man was carrying infinity pins at all was a question Bastian didn’t have an answer for.

A wheezing sound came from the doors as Commissario Zappa appeared. He was sweating, his eyes bloodshot as they took in the scene, going from the body on the floor, to the mayor, then, finally, Bastian.

“Don’t move, vampire!” he cried. “You have killed your last!”

“Back off, buffoon!” Whitby yowled.

“It appears we have all been mistaken,” Ling murmured, floating by the chandelier.

Zappa frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“The killer—” Emmeline began.

“—is caught,” Jared said.

“Now he will face the consequences for his crimes,” Ling concluded.

“NO!” the mayor cried. “You can’t!”

Bastian seized her arm. “Do you know what the Obliterati do to a town when they’ve rooted out the culprit? They burn it to the ground. We have to convince them that Vernazza is a place worth sparing.”

“I’d rather it burn than let them take him,” the mayor said, and he saw in her eyes the mad look of a person who knew they were about to lose everything. He released her and turned to face the Obliterati.

“This town has suffered enough,” he said. “You have your killer. That is all you need. You will do Vernazza no further harm than it has already endured.”

“We do not take orders—” Jared began.

“—from anybody,” Emmeline finished.

“It’s not an order,” Bastian said, trying to keep his tone level,thinking only about De Luca and all the good he could still do in Vernazza. “Only a request. Please. This town is full of decent people just trying to get by. They have suffered enough. Believe me.”

The council members hovered on the spot, considering him the way a god might inspect a bug.

A scream broke the silence.

The mayor’s husband had leapt from the chandelier, claws outstretched as he flew at Commissario Zappa. Zappa staggered backward as the vampire went for his neck, but his fangs snapped around thin air because Bastian had seized hold of the creature’s shoulders. He spun on the spot, tossing the vampire up into the chandelier again.

The light cable trembled. Cracks spidered across the ceiling, and then with an almighty crash, the chandelier came smashing down.

The mayor’s husband was crushed beneath it.

Dust and debris mushroomed through the ballroom, making it almost impossible to see anything.

Luckily, Bastian only needed to see two people, and they were already by the ballroom door.

He hurried to De Luca and took his weight once more. He plucked Whitby from the floor with his other hand. Then he bore them all away from the scene, away from the mayor, the dead body, and the vampire council, out into the night.