Feng pressed her lips together so hard all the color drained from them. She stood for a beat, her almond-shaped eyes challenging mine, before she hissed over her shoulder, “Come, Xian.”
Xian reluctantly set ChaCha right on her feet, then stood up, straightening her puffy pink skirt and trudging behind her sister.
“Your puppy is absolutely adorable,” she whispered to me.
Feng’s nostrils flared and her whole body stiffened as if she had just smelled something awful. She leaned into me so her nose was just a hairbreadth from mine. “When you find what is left of your friend after I tear him apart, just remember that I came here, offering you the opportunity to turn him in and give him a respectable, single-bullet death.”
I blinked, working to absorb the weight of Feng’s words. “Wha—?”
“Don’t worry.” She grinned, pushing aside a sliver of baggy T-shirt to show me the gun at her waist. “I’ll be sure to tell him that Sophie Lawson said ‘game on.’”
I stood, dumbstruck, watching Xian and Feng disappear down the hall when Nina snapped the door shut. “I don’t like your new friends, Soph.”
I glared at her.
“Sorry!” She pulled me close to her in an ice-cold embrace. “I know how hard this must be for you. I know how much you love Sampson, and it must be killing you to think about turning him in.”
I struggled out of Nina’s hug and pushed her back. “You actually think Pete Sampson is guilty? You think he’s capable of something like this?”
Nina shoved a lock of dark hair over her shoulder. “I just don’t understand why you insist on putting yourself in danger all the time.”
I felt my jaw drop open. “I don’t insist. I’m helping a friend.”
Nina looked back at me, quiet.
I shook my head. “You always think the worst of people.”
Nina’s expression didn’t change; it remained soft, with the slightest bit of yearning sympathy in the eyes. “I’ve been around a long time, Sophie. I’ve had more experience than you have.” She reached out and touched her hand to mine. “You know what I love about you breathers? No matter what happens, no matter how much evil and ugliness you see every day, most of you still hang on to this unyielding belief that people are basically good.”
“And once you lose your soul you lose perspective?”
Nina licked her lips. “No. You gain it.”
Nina turned on her heel and was gone in an instant, her weightless body not making a sound.
I sighed, and leaned against the closed door. ChaCha came trotting over and stood on her popsicle-stick hind legs, doing her the-world-is-a-happy-place dance. I swooped her up.
“People are good,” I whispered into her fuzzy muzzle. “Right?”
I waited a good twenty minutes until I was sure that Feng and Xian had left the building—and the general vicinity—before changing out of my sundress and swapping my floppy hat for a Giants cap. I stuffed my shoulder bag with my bass knife, a Taser, a granola bar, and two packages of Juicy Fruit before I paused, my hand hovering over my gun.
I wasn’t chasing demons this time.
I snatched the gun and the bullets, swung the bag over my shoulder, and closed my bedroom door.
“Geez, Nina, you scared the crap out of me.”
She was standing dead in front of me, silent. She blinked at me. “You’re going to need this.” She opened her hand, a flashlight rolling in her palm. There was a glossy black and white SOPHIE LAWSON label stuck to it.
“Why do you think I’ll need a flashlight?” I gestured toward the bright sliver of light that was peeking through the blackout curtains.
“Because I know that you’re going to do whatever it takes to prove that Sampson is innocent, that I’m jaded, and that you can save the world.” Her cherry-red lips quirked up into a knowing smile that showed off her sharp incisors. “I count on it.”
This time the lump in the back of my throat wasn’t accompanied by fervent terror or a weighted bladder. “I love you, Neens,” I said, pulling her into a hug.
I poked my head into the stairwell in true sleuth fashion, craning my head to see if there were any traces of Xian and Feng still lurking in my building. I found a stack of discarded Thai menus and someone’s left shoe but no Du sisters, so I tapped gently on Will’s door.
“Sampson?” I stage whispered into the jamb. “Sampson, are you in there?”
I pressed my ear up against the door when I got no response and listened intently for any movement inside. Nothing.
If I was going to take Sampson out of the prime suspect spot, I was going to have to do it on my own.
I hiked up my shoulder bag and headed down to the underground parking, feeling the adrenaline begin to trickle through my body. By the final flight of stairs I was doing my own Shaft walk, my own personal soundtrack blaring “Eye of The Tiger” in my head.
I was less enthusiastic when I got to my car, unable to recall any awesome crime fighters or sleuths who drove dented in Hondas with the word VAMPIRE spray-painted across the hood.