“Yes.”
“During your army days?”
“And as an Elite, yes.”
As the tension in me uncoiled, I realized this was what I had wanted to hear. Proof that black and white were myths. That only shades of gray existed. That good people did bad things, accepted malignant stains on their souls, when all other choices were stripped from them.
Linus was as much a soldier as Boaz, even if his battlefield was defined by city limits, and I had no right to judge either of them unless I picked up arms—made those same life-or-death decisions—too.
“You sound off.” A throaty horn that reminded me of a container ship blew in the distance. “Where’s Linus?”
“He’s disposing of a body.”
“Not funny.” A car door slammed, cutting off the background noise. “I’m serious.”
Tears threatened. “So am I.”
“Grier?” Linus called, and I sniffled before lifting my head. “Are you ready to go?”
Knuckles white, I clutched the phone like a lifeline. “We’re leaving. Call me later?”
“Sure.”
I signed off without saying goodbye, not seeing the point when I could hear the lie in his voice.
“Amelie?” Linus asked after I got to my feet. “How’s Woolly doing?”
“Boaz,” I corrected him.
The cleaners, whoever they were, worked fast. No signs of a life snuffed out marred the tiles. The corpse had been moved, and the floor glistened where it had been polished to a high shine.
Reardon, the coward, had escaped at some point. Vampires his age, made poorly or not, ought to be in control of their bloodlust. That he wasn’t had me questioning if this was his refuge or his prison.
“Ah.” Linus locked the office behind us then turned and painted a series of warding sigils on the door.
My jacket, splashed with coffee, bothered me, so I tossed it in the trash. “We’re done?”
“You are.” He paid the crumpled jacket more attention now than while I was wearing it. “Are you all right?”
“You beheaded two vampires last night.” I hadn’t meant to blurt it out quite like that, but there you go. “You executed a necromancer tonight.” I unclasped my red accessories and ditched those too. “Your life here isn’t how I pictured it. You—as this person—is not how I imagined. I’m not sure what to think.”
“I warned you.” Disappointment rang out loud and clear. “I explained there was a cost.”
“You did.” I owed him that much. “But this…” the killing, the darkness, “…it’s not you.”
“How can you be sure?” His honest curiosity made my heart ache. “Maybe this is who I am.”
“No.” I refused to believe this was the core of his apple. “This is a thing that you do, not who you are.”
“The city is unsettled.” The abrupt change in conversation left me no wiggle room to get us back on topic. “Part of that is due to my absence.”
“And the rest is my presence.”
“Yes.” He didn’t sugarcoat the truth. “Whispers about a goddess-touched necromancer are spreading faster than the Society can contain the rumors.”
The elegant neckline of my blouse might as well have been a noose. “I won’t be locked in a cage.”
Confinement made the most sense. It would be the next logical step once the streets became too dangerous for me to roam freely. Though Cletus negated that. Free wasn’t free when you were watched and reported on every second you spent outside your house. Still, it was a pretty illusion.
“It won’t come to that,” he vowed, and I believed him.
Holding tight to that hope, I had to ask, “Why did he attack you and not me?”
Hindsight, as always, brought clarity. The shadow near the amphitheater. Goddess, I should have asked Cletus to investigate. Going for coffee had given the would-be assassin a few precious minutes to bump into me. But there had been no time to mention the incident to Linus. Everything had happened so fast.
“I’ve been asking myself the same thing. He isolated you. He could have taken you at any time. There was no reason to confront me. Unless he was afraid of the wraith. But it doesn’t track that he wouldn’t fear me more. And yet he did escort you to the classroom.” Linus touched his chest, where blood stained the front of his shirt. “Incapacitating me appeared to be his top priority. Any designs he had on you were secondary.”
The bull’s-eye was still painted on my back, though. Not his. “He went out of his way not to harm me.”
“I wish I had a better answer for you,” he said, sliding a look at me, “but I don’t know.”
Unable to glance away, I couldn’t hide the truth from either of us. “All these deaths are on my head.”
Linus stopped in his tracks, and I paused at his side, glancing around the quad to see what he’d spotted that I hadn’t, but he turned to me and framed my face between his cool palms.
“None of this is your fault.” His thumbs stroked my cheeks, and I should have cringed away, the death still so fresh on his hands, but I couldn’t move. His open expression, all masks removed, held me rapt. “I killed those people for the choices they made, the actions they took. Their blood is on my hands.” As if realizing he meant it in the literal sense, he dropped them to his sides and left my face tingling. “The Society wants you seen as untouchable. For that to happen, an example must be made of those who try and fail to obtain you.” His dark blue eyes held mine. “I’m happy to provide that example.”
Heart crumbling around the edges, I linked my arm through his and led him to the parking lot in time to watch Tony cut off two cars and bump his passenger-side wheels on the curb. He raised his eyebrows and mouthed what before turning up his can of energy drink.
Linus and I didn’t speak during the drive back to the Faraday, and I hoped the silence wasn’t becoming a habit with us. He helped me out onto the curb, and I eased around him while he tipped the driver. I was making time toward the entrance when the spectacle unfolding in front of the building pulled me up short.
A frazzled man was being assaulted by one heck of a pissed-off woman. The pair blocked the front door, and Hood, who peeled from the shadows where he had been content to watch, seemed to notice this too.
“Take your domestic issues elsewhere,” he growled. “You’re blocking the entryway.”
“He pays your salary,” the woman sniped. “We can fight wherever we damn well please.”
A warning rumble pumped through Hood’s broad chest.
“Vi,” the man soothed. “This isn’t the time or the place. Let’s go upstairs and talk.”
“Upstairs?” She jabbed a finger toward one of the higher floors. “I saw that hussy napping on your bed. Naked. How could you? You better not have bought her that collar. Those were real emeralds, Ian.”
Oh, goddess. There had to be more than one collared hussy in the building, right?
Surely Meiko didn’t spend her days amusing herself by popping up in bed with Linus’s neighbors.
Then again…
“Ah, excuse me.” I hated to butt in when things had gotten so heated. “About the naked woman?”
That was as far as I got before the crazy lady whirled on me.
“Are you another of his girls?” Her fevered gaze swept over me. “How many are there?”
“Move aside,” Hood ordered, lumbering toward us. “Or I will clear her a path myself.”
Reaching the end of her rope, the woman swiped out with her arm, claws shining on her fingertips.
Our proximity allowed me to knock her hand aside without Hood getting shredded in the process.
Taz would have been proud of my quick reflexes.
Gently, he ushered me out of his path until he loomed over the woman. “This is your final warning.”
Sucking in a lungful of air, she screeched, “Bite me.”