Page 33 of Blood & Ash

She moved without answering. Luca knelt beside the vampire at the door, while the older man upstairs lowered his crossbow and stared at the place where Sable had spared him.

Marcus worked until the hallway smelled of blood, antiseptic, and scorched silver. One of the wounded died before he could stop the bleeding. The vampire on the steps survived, as did Luca, although resetting his shoulder required two people to hold him.

The front door opened again shortly before dawn. Sebastian entered alone, his coat buttoned and his gloves tucked into one pocket. He stopped at the covered bodies beside the stairs.

Luca rose from the chair where Marcus had ordered him to sit. “Where were you?”

Sebastian didn’t answer. His gaze moved over the broken ward, the claw marks, and the blood on the floor. Then he found the silvered burn left where Del’s binding had caught Sable’s ankle.

His jaw tightened.

Marcus watched him cross the corridor and crouch beside the mark. Sebastian touched two fingers to the scorched wood, lifted them, and smelled the residue.

“You know her,” Marcus said.

Sebastian stood. “No.”

“That wasn’t the face of a man seeing something unfamiliar.”

Sebastian looked toward the open door. Dawn grayed the trees beyond it, erasing the path Sable had taken. “Seal the house before sunrise.”

Luca stepped into his way. “Answer him.”

Sebastian’s gaze settled on Luca. “I can’t answer a question until I know whether the answer is true.”

He crossed the hall and went upstairs, leaving blood on the floor and the living below him. Marcus watched until he disappeared around the landing.

Del came to stand beside him. A bruise darkened along one side of her face from the fall, and dust streaked her coat. She looked toward the stairs, then at the broken ward.

“He recognized the magic,” she said.

“Or the woman.” Marcus bent to retrieve the scalpel Sable had knocked from his hand. “Either way, he’s going to tell us.”

Marcus took Del back to Nightshade & Nettle after sunrise. He inspected the front and rear doors before allowing her inside, then examined every window while she relit the lamps. The precautions wouldn’t stop Sable, but they gave his hands something useful to do.

“You’re bleeding again,” Del said.

Marcus looked down. The wounds beneath his ribs had closed, but his torn shirt remained wet and dark. “It’s mine this time.”

“Take off the shirt.”

He raised an eyebrow. “That sounds less medical when you say it.”

“Sit down before I make it an order.”

Marcus removed his coat and shirt and lowered himself into the workroom chair. Four punctures marked his side, newly healed skin pink around each one. Del cleaned the dried blood with warm water and a cloth scented faintly with rosemary.

“You could have stayed at the clinic,” he said.

“Then Luca might be dead.”

“You could have died on those steps.”

Del rinsed the cloth. “We’re both very talented at describing things that didn’t happen.”

“I watched her throw you through a doorway.”

“And I watched her put her hand through your ribs.” Del wrung out the cloth and returned to his side. “I didn’t enjoy it either.”