“We had time left,” I said, my voice flat despite the anger that surged through me. “But he never intended for us to save her. He was just playing games.”
“Perhaps, but this death was meant to be.”
As Azriel spoke, the gossamer shape of Dorothy’s soul rose from her flesh. She looked happy and content, offering her hand without qualm to the white-haired, white-winged reaper who suddenly appeared beside her body. It really didn’t surprise me that she’d chosen the more traditional version of the reaper. Despite her words on the astral plane, there’d been nothing out of the ordinary to be seen in her house. Certainly nothing that suggested she liked her life to be anything other than vanilla.
So why had she become a vampire?
I watched them walk onto the gray fields and disappear, then glanced at Azriel. “Why would a woman like Dorothy be the target of someone so dangerous? She may have been a vampire, but if the information Stane uncovered is to be believed, she was harmless in every other way possible.”
“Perhaps it was nothing more than a weak astral spirit unwittingly attracting a darker soul.”
“Perhaps.” The image of the faceless man ran through my mind, and I shivered again. He’d called me a huntress, but he’d been the one hunting, not me. “But I have a suspicion that his choice of victim was deliberate, not one governed by chance.”
“Yet he offered you the opportunity to save her. Even if that was never to be, it seems an odd decision for one who takes no chances.”
“I know.” My gaze swept Dorothy’s body and came to rest on her calves. Cuts ringed them both, the wounds gaping. I frowned. “Why would he cut her tendons like that?”
“There is a belief in some cultures that cutting the tendons in the legs prevents the soul from rising.”
And he’d staked her because she was a vampire. “Then why bleed her out? It seems a little overboard.”
“Perhaps he merely wished to be triple sure of his kill.”
“Perhaps.” I scanned the concrete again. Azriel had said earlier that he’d sensed magic, but there was little indication of it. No protective circle, no candles, nothing that in any way suggested there was ever a practitioner here.
“What do you wish to do now?” he asked.
“What I wish to do is go home, eat the biggest steak I can find, have a long soak in the bath, then catch a week’s worth of sleep.” I grimaced and dug my vid-phone out of my pocket. “What I have to do, however, is ring Uncle Rhoan.”
His expression, when he answered, was resigned. “So tell me where the body is.”
A wry smile touched my lips, although—sadly—his presumption was all too correct. Most of my calls to him of late had been about the dead or the about to be dead. Still, I couldn’t help saying, “Hey, I might just be ringing to say hello to my favorite uncle.”
He snorted softly, amusement crinkling the corners of his gray eyes. “We both know if you just wanted a chat, you’d ring my sister. Who, by the way, is a little peeved that you missed the weekly get-together.”
Damn, so I had. Mom and Riley had met for coffee and cake every week for as long as I could remember, and it was a tradition Riley and I were determined to continue.
While I did have a good excuse—I’d still been in the process of recovering from the fights with both my sword and the Rakshasa, the spirit who’d answered the call of ghosts desperate for revenge at one of the blood whore clubs run by the high vampire council—I couldn’t exactly tell Riley that because she didn’t know about my connection with the vampire council. If she ever did find out about it, she’d hit the roof, not to mention shove me somewhere safe while she confronted Hunter and her cronies. And as strong as Riley, Quinn, and Rhoan were, I had a suspicion it would take more than the three of them to outmaneuver Hunter.
“You need to ring her,” Rhoan continued. “She’s worried. We’re both worried.”
“Then you need to not tell her so much about what’s happening.”
He snorted again. “Yeah, like that’s going to work. You know she can smell trouble a mile away.” He paused. “Okay, I have your location and will be there in twenty. Don’t disturb any evidence.”
“I won’t. See you soon.”
I shoved the phone back into my pocket, my gaze on Dorothy’s body. Why on earth would anyone go to so much trouble to destroy someone who was, it seemed, totally harmless? It made no sense, and part of me—a small, insane part—wanted to unravel the puzzle.
“Let your uncle find whoever is responsible for this,” Azriel said. “It is not something we should get involved in.”