cops near the front steps and a mound of rumpled clothing.
She heard calls for her to stop. Ryan stood near the entrance door. He heard the commotion and turned to intercept her. Ari tried to push past, but Ryan grabbed both arms and held on.
“No, Ari. You don’t want to see this.”
She looked at his face, a sudden rush of fear constricting her throat. “Yana?”
Ryan’s face was ashen.
Anguish punched her in the gut. “No! Oh, please, no!” She struggled to get loose, and another cop came to assist Ryan. Her self-defense training must have kicked in, as she delivered sharp blows to bodies and shins until she broke free. Scrambling away, she dodged the reaching hands of the evidence techs.
By the time Ryan reached Ari again, she had Yana’s body clutched in her arms, rocking back and forth. Two cops tugged on Ari’s arms in an attempt to remove her from the crime scene, but Ryan waved them off.
A strange keening sound penetrated Ari’s pain. When she realized it was coming from her, she made an effort to stop. Ryan squatted by her side. He was talking to her, but somehow she couldn’t comprehend his words. The world was a red haze, confined to Ari and Yana swaying back and forth. And the metallic smell of blood. Everywhere.
After a while, Ryan pried her fingers loose. When she didn’t resist, he pulled her to her feet, and others moved in to place Yana on a gurney. Ari rode with the body on the way to the morgue. She spoke only once, her voice lifeless, saying she’d wait for the family.
As she sat by her mentor’s body, Ari stared at the savage, gaping wounds. She didn’t need an evidence lab to tell her what happened outside her apartment. Yana had been ambushed—attacked and mutilated by werewolves. The Canadian pack had come looking for Ari, found Yana instead, and left a terrible message. Ari should be the body on the slab.
Ryan returned to his investigation as soon as Claris and Brando arrived to sit with her. After awhile Ari sent them home, promising to join them soon. She needed to be alone, needed to get her head wrapped around this.
Another hour passed before the clan arrived. An hour in which images floated through Ari’s head in a continuing slide show. Yana and Great-Gran. Yana and eight-year-old Ari having tea. Yana in her garden, walking through the woods, appearing before the Magic Council in her white uniform, calming a drunken dwarf. A million pictures, but Ari wanted a million more. Yana had been an anchor in her life as long as Ari could remember. She couldn’t imagine a world without her.
Yana’s wood nymph family took her body home to be prepared for burial. Tonight was for them alone; tomorrow, a small number of close friends would witness Yana’s return to the earth. Ari faced a long night ahead with nothing more to do, except think.
She wandered out the morgue doors and crossed the hospital parking lot. As she approached the grove of trees at the end, Andreas stepped into the streetlight.
At first, Ari just looked at him. “Why are you here?” she asked, her voice flat.
The vampire hesitated, seemed uncertain, and Ari cut off his explanation. “Let me guess, before you start making up some excuse. Ryan called you. And the two of you decided I need protection from the bad guys. He’s busy with the…investigation.” Ari couldn’t yet say the word murder. “So you got guard duty.”
“Something like that. Why else?” he agreed levelly, watching her face.
“I wish they would come after me. Settle this now. Here, tonight.”
“Not the time, Arianna. You are not yourself. Perhaps an escort is warranted, under the circumstances.”
And Ryan sent a vampire, instead of a cop? Or had Andreas volunteered? Ari tilted her head and thought about it. Her magic stirred and, without conscious effort on her part, reached out to touch his. Finding strength, even reassurance. She raised questioning eyes to meet his.
“I am sorry, little witch.”
The simple words breached the last of Ari’s defenses. She moved toward him, Andreas opened his arms and wrapped her inside. She sighed against his chest, safe, secure, for the first time in hours. Not needing to be the strong one for a while. And then the tears came. The grief bottled inside poured down her face. They stood like that for a long time.
Eventually, Ari started talking about what happened, about her love for Yana. Andreas listened without comment to