As an almost physical invisibility nudged against her, she felt how he was attracted to her questions, how his essence was seething around as if to request entrance.
I need you to do the work I can’t do, to uncover them so I can do the dirty work, he whispered, breathing into her. A pulse thudded in her belly, flowing lower, hotter. You know I can’t go outside, Dawn, because if I were to expose myself too early, I would never gain the initiative again.
As he swirled inside of her, churning, escalating her hunger, she thought about all the seeds of mistrust that had been planted by The Voice’s betrayals: his using Frank to lure her to L.A., his refusal to share information. What he wasn’t telling her could even be worse….
Get out, she thought. I’m not giving you permission to come in.
And he left, forming a freezing void that weighed her down, left her feeling abandoned.
But that was nothing new. Her mother had done the same thing, preparing her for times just like this.
Once again, Jac’s makeover—from redhead to blonde—smashed into Dawn. Eva, she thought. Dead. Gone. Accept it.
Breisi’s voice snatched Dawn back. As she blinked at the other woman, her vision solidified to reveal Breisi talking on the phone, brows drawn together in concern. She was just as invested in this case as Dawn was because she’d fallen in love with Frank before he’d disappeared.
We’re going to find him, Dawn thought, repeating a mantra they both clung to.
Breisi got off the phone, tucking it into a pocket of her cargo pants. “My friend at the coroner’s is going to let us into the office in a couple of hours. And tomorrow morning, I’ll see if Lee Tomlinson is open to talking with us. I suspect his lawyer, Mr. Crockett, has advised him not to, but even a long shot will occasionally pay off.”
“We should use fake IDs and disguises for that ’cos Crockett probably knows we’ll be around.” Kiko rubbed his hands together. “But tonight, we can go to the Cat’s Paw since we have time to do a sweep there before getting to the coroner’s. Let’s go.”
They’d been checking at Frank’s favorite bar regularly, taking the chance that someone new would be hanging around with information regarding his last days among the nonmissing.
“Kiko,” said The Voice. “I need you here.”
It was as if the psychic had been smacked across the face—not hard enough to hurt, but gentle enough to sting.
“But I…”
“Your talents are too valuable to send you out at night before you’re physically able to defend yourself. Additionally, Jessica Reese is dead, and you’ve never gotten a reading from a corpse before. It is not worth the chance.”
“What about the clothes she was wearing—?”
“Part of the chain of evidence, Kiko. After they are examined by the bloodstain-pattern analyst and a forensic scientist, then we’ll see if you can get a hold of them, just like you eventually did with Klara’s clothing. We cannot risk contaminating the evidence before it’s processed, especially if we’ve got additional options to explore first.”
As Kiko’s posture slumped, Dawn wanted to look away, but she couldn’t. He seemed so lost, just like she’d felt so many damned times.
The Voice continued. “However, we can arrange for you to visit the crime scene later, when morning breaks.”
“Whatever,” Kiko said, turning to leave the room. “I’ve got a million things to do here anyway.”
As he exited, Dawn and Breisi looked after him, their gazes connecting. Kiko felt useless, rejected, and neither one of them knew what to do.
“And you,” The Voice said, addressing them now, his tone hardened, “report any vampire activity immediately. That’s essential.”
Callous bastard. “What about Kiko? Can’t he just—”
“He’s not ready, Dawn.”
“At first, you said I wasn’t, either….”
But he was gone, leaving the room in stretched silence.
“Here we go then,” Breisi said, already on her way out.
Sure, here they went, off to the Cat’s Paw and then to gape at another casualty of a surreal war Dawn couldn’t even begin to fathom.
They loaded up on weapons. Vials of holy water, crucifixes, stakes, and Dawn’s shuriken throwing blades, among other things. She also had her.45-caliber revolver with silver bullets, which she carried illegally since she was still waiting for her CCW permit. Not even Jonah had been able to secure it through his connections yet.
After rubbing themselves down with garlic, the two of them climbed into the 4Runner and hit the road, unaware of another party tailing them.
It was someone who knew about the murder, too, waiting, hoping that Dawn would eventually come out.
THE EXTRA