Page 43 of Bent Out of Shade
Expecting a “You better or else” response, I watched the screen a moment longer, but our conversation was over. I ran my thumb over the screen. I’d said that I was going to treat him as Sabrina’s loved one first and a vampire second, yet I wasn’t doing so great at that. Asking if I’d found her was a perfectly reasonable question from a worried fiancé. I had to put my anger about the blood oath aside.
Eli pushed his scrambled eggs around his plate. “Stay strong. We need to follow through with consequences, but I feel so out of my depth. How do I parent something like this?”
“If it’s any consolation, I feel just as lost.” I leaned against the counter, blowing on the steam rising from my drink.
“Our darling child’s escapades must have been some end to your date, huh?”
“Actually, BatKian’s call was a high point of the evening.”
“Ouch.”
“Pretty much.” Given how jittery I was that Eli would tell me they’d found Sabrina’s body, I dumped my coffee down the sink. “Sadie wasn’t the only reason I wanted to speak to you.” I dug a coin out of my pocket and dropped it in front of him. “This is your signing bonus. Congratulations and welcome to Cassin & Associates.”
Eli pushed the coin away with his index finger. “Can’t be a police officer and work for that company.”
I took it as a good sign that the warning signal didn’t jump to life, except this was going to make questioning him and keeping the blood inside my body trickier.
“You sure I can’t get you another coffee?” I said. “You’ve been working like mad on those murders. Is it a power grab?”
He scratched his stubbled head. I could always tell how busy he was at work by how much his hair grew in, because he preferred his scalp shiny bald. “While I’m the first to say that nature and gangs abhor a vacuum, these killings aren’t from someone trying to take over.”
Sadie trudged into the kitchen, grabbed her lunch, and headed for the back door.
“Have a good day,” Eli said.
She half nodded, half shrugged.
“Come home immediately after school, okay?” I said.
“Yeah.” She left, her shoulders hunched. I almost wished for her attitude back, punctuated with a good door slam.
“I’m so glad it’s your week to have her.” Eli munched on his remaining piece of toast. “You’re way better at dealing with her sad face than I am.”
“Maybe if we give Tovah’s parents time, they’ll come around. Sadie does need Ohrist friends.” I joined him at the table, tossing my napkin over the remnants of my now-cold food, as I flipped back to our previous subject. “How can you be so sure these murders aren’t a leadership grab?”
“It’s not just the Hastings Mill crew that have been taken out.”
“I heard that on the radio.”
His gaze flitted to the window. “The vics had their necks snapped, but there were puncture marks.”
“Shit.”
“It’s why, as angry at Sadie as I am, part of me is grateful that BatKian offered her that deal, instead of any other consequences.” He paused, the half-eaten toast in his hand forgotten. “How fucked up is that?”
I could dance around Sabrina’s disappearance with Eli, but if the killer was one of Zev’s bloodsuckers and they’d taken the missing woman, then I had to secure his permission to continue pursuing this. However, if it was one of Vincenzo’s enemies who’d come to town, that was its own mess, since he wasn’t willing to discuss that possibility.
Luckily, Eli was lost in his own thoughts and didn’t notice my lapse in conversation.
I rested my foot on my opposite knee and leaned forward to stretch my hip and low back. “Have you spoken to Ryann?”
“Yeah, her dad has me acting as liaison with her. Unofficially, of course.” Right, since most cops had no idea that magic existed.
“Are any of the slain gang members Ohrists? Do they have ties to vampires?”
“Why the curiosity?”
I switched sides to stretch the other hip. “You know what gang wars are like, and if magic is involved and someone comes to Tatiana to fix their mess? It’s best to be prepared.”
