Shadowlands out of her reach. Custo pummeling the wolf in view of the audience. And Jasper gone. Both her life and her dreams were disintegrating around her.
Annabella didn’t trust mood swings. She’d just had the performance of her life. She knew as high and as happy as she’d been not ten minutes before, the opposite low was not far off. What had she been thinking? She was an idiot to believe she could’ve sustained that kind of euphoria forever. And she knew her low had not yet reached bottom. Not nearly. Bottom would be when they found Jasper’s body.
“Where is she?” Custo said, shoving a Segue soldier out of his way. The idiot was rummaging through a first-aid kit to patch him up. He didn’t need medical care. His body was on fire, healing on its own.
He wanted Annabella. He had to see her before Luca dragged him to who-knows-where.
Was she okay? Had she been hurt? Had she realized how close she’d come to disaster? His mind swept the theater but he was too keyed up to concentrate on individual people.
The sight of that…that thing…with Annabella in his clutches made Custo want to tear apart the wolf-turned-Jasper. At least Custo had hurt him, burned him bad, if the smell were any indication. Custo’s touch had the same effect as Talia’s voice—forcing the wolf back into the shadows. One moment solid, the next evaporating into absent light. What he would give to drive him all the way into Shadow itself.
He found Annabella in her dressing room, her expression stricken. Thin tracks of pink through her white makeup and twin flush-colored smudges under her eyes told him she’d been crying.
Stay back, she thought, but didn’t voice, when she saw him. Don’t get near me.
So Custo stayed by the door, while Adam sat next to her, a little beat up and bloody himself.
Adam rose and approached Custo. “The director, Venroy, has been by. He had some words about the ‘lovers’ quarrel’ that took place onstage during the bows. There will be some repercussions for that, but he still wants Annabella and Jasper to attend the reception tomorrow night.”
“Jasper’s been found? Alive?” Custo couldn’t believe it.
“He was out cold in his dressing room, but he will be fine. I told him that he had an amazing performance in spite of the drugs he was taking.” Adam shrugged. “It was the best I could come up with, but he’s taking congratulations now so I guess he’s decided to believe it. There’s a considerable ego on that one.”
Custo flicked a probing glance at Annabella. Her head was full of my-fault grief. “But someone died,” he said. “Who?”
Adam’s expression grew serious. “A man named Peter Wells, Annabella’s neighbor. I got a call from a contact in the NYPD, which is why I was late tonight. The police want to question her in conjunction with his murder.”
“Coincidence?”
“No,” Adam said, “I don’t think so. I’ve started a Segue inquiry, heard the preliminaries from the police report at the scene. We’re going to blame it on the wraiths and hush it up quick.”
“I’m going to be sick,” Annabella broke in. She made a grab for the garbage bin at her feet and dry-heaved.
Custo moved forward and stroked the column of her neck with the back of his fingers, then rested his palm on her shoulder and squeezed. “It’s going to be okay.”
“Not for Peter it isn’t,” she said and shrugged off his hand. Don’t touch me, she thought as she turned away and started to pack her makeup in her tackle box. With her hands trembling as bad as they were, she wasn’t making much progress.
“You have a team at your disposal to get her back to Segue,” Adam continued. “I’ll do the cleanup here.”
If only it were that easy. Custo backed Adam into the hallway. “Adam, I don’t know if I can. Someone is here to collect me, to drag me back where I came from. I’ll try to reason with him, but I don’t think he’ll listen. This is probably it for me.” He hated to ask, but he forced the words out anyway. “I may need you to take care of Annabella the best you can until Talia can destroy the wolf.”
Talia wouldn’t deliver for weeks. What protection could Segue possibly afford Annabella from a creature who could stalk her in the shadows?
Adam’s frown deepened. “Your…cousin?”
Here it comes. Custo braced and nodded. Luca was a relation of some sort. Probably great uncle a couple times removed or some such.
“He asked me to give you this.” Adam handed over a crisp white business card, smeared at the corner with blood. In small lettering, it read THE WHITE TOWER. “He said to meet him there tomorrow morning, nine A.M.”
“Luca’s gone?” Custo couldn’t believe it. No address on the card. Probably wasn’t in the phone book either. “And the rest of them?”
Adam shrugged. “They took off as soon as the last wraith was put down. Wouldn’t answer my questions. Wouldn’t acknowledge me beyond giving me the card.”