“What are you talking about?” Piper sobbed, her eyes and nose bright red. “Victoria is dead? Oh my God. What happened? Who did this to her?”
Deming felt a moment of pity, but she had seen this all before—suspects who could not admit to the horror of their crime, who honestly believed in their hearts that they had never harmed their loved ones. She continued her relentless interrogation. “Victoria came between the two of you, and you wanted to punish her. You wanted her dead, and you covered it up with a conspiracy threat to disguise the real reason. To hide your motive.”
When she had gone over Piper’s file again, Deming noticed that Piper was a junior member of the Conspiracy. As such, she had insider knowledge on the workings of the subcommittee; she knew which buttons to push and how to create the illusion of a real security breach.
“I don’t understand,” Piper whimpered. “Victoria . . . why . . . oh God, why . . . ?”
“Why is right. Why did you want her dead? Because she came between the most sacred relationship you had in the world. Because you and Bryce Cutting are bondmates.”
When it came down to it, everything always went back to the bond. Being bondless herself, Deming could never quite understand what the fuss was about. From what she could see, the bond just made everything more complicated.
This was just like the kidnapping in Shanghai, where instead of exposure, money was used as a smoke screen. The vampire who had taken Liling was convinced he was her bondmate, and wanted to hurt her for falling in love with someone else. He’d meant to take the Code into his own hands. Deming had saved the girl just in time. Good thing too, since in the end, the boy had been mistaken. There was no bond between them and there never had been.
Some vampires thought the bond was all about love stories and romance. Souls calling out to each other through the centuries. But Deming knew nothing was ever that simple. Not in the matters of the heart and the bond. Victoria Taylor wasn’t the first to suffer because of a bond, and she would not be the last.
After the shattering silence, Piper finally spoke. “Took you long enough to figure that out, huh?” she said bitterly, wiping away her tears. “That Bryce was mine. You sure didn’t care about that when you were hooking up with him at Rufus’s party.”
Deming blushed. “That isn’t important.”
“No? Well how about this, Venator? I don’t know where you got the stupid idea that Victoria ‘stole’ Bryce from me, and I killed her. You’re absolutely wrong on that count. Victoria was my friend. She was the best friend I ever had. She never came between us. Ask anyone in school. Victoria didn’t even like Bryce. She couldn’t believe he was my vampire twin. ‘Not that douche,’ were her words. Yeah, it pissed me off. But it pissed me off more that the night of Jamie’s party, Bryce wouldn’t acknowledge that we had found each other. He wanted more space, he said. He wanted more time, to be sure. I was so angry at him, and Vix was trying to calm me down, so I lashed out at her. But Vix was a real friend. In fact, no one has ever come between Bryce and me but you, you bondless freak. Get me a blood trial. Scan my freaking subconscious. I’m telling the truth.”
THIRTYFIVE
The Second Victim
Deming was shaking when she left the interrogation room. Ted Lennox looked at her with sympathy. “It’s clear as day in the glom.”
“I know.” She collapsed on the nearest chair. She’d seen it too, more clearly than they, who’d needed to be in the twilight world to see Piper’s affectus.
She had been so sure—Victoria going after Bryce explained everything—nothing was more anathema in the Blue Blood community than someone who came between the bond. Nothing. Just look at the Force twins.
When she’d asked him about Piper, Bryce Cutting had looked guilty and felt guilty and was guilty because he knew he was cheating on his bondmate. Bringing up Piper’s name while he was hooking up with Deming had spooked him. Bryce had reacted to Piper’s name, sure, but not for the reason Deming had believed.
Deming had been so certain of her talent for reading the affectus, she had immediately jumped to the conclusion that Piper was the murderer, that the threat of losing the bond had driven her to hatch an elaborate plot that entailed the murder of her best friend. She couldn’t have been more wrong if she’d tried.
Sam Lennox popped out of the glom and gripped her shoulder. “Sorry. It was a good guess, though.”
A good guess but not good enough. Not the truth. She was back to the beginning. Back where she had started. In the dark. Nowhere. The Lennox brothers were being kind, but their disappointment said it all.
“By the way, as soon as you can, the Regent wants to see you in her office,” Sam said quietly.