Falling into his strong body, Helania wept for everything. For Isobel.
For Mai.
For what would have happened if, God forbid . . . she had missed.
* * *
As Boone held Helania against his body, his brain tried to catch up with reality: Marquist was slumped on the floor, part of his brain and a splash of his blood on the front door. Rochelle was collapsed onto a chair, her hands to her face as if she were holding in a scream. Thomat and the doggen had rushed in from the kitchen, their bodies together in a clutch as they held on to each other.
Outside the house, the winter storm raged, winds rattling the shutters, snow lashing at the windows. But that was nothing compared to the frozen chaos inside the silent, still foyer.
Rochelle lifted terrified eyes. “He tried to kill me. Helania . . . saved me . . .”
“Why?” Boone asked. “What the hell was he thinking—”
“He said it was for his master.” The female looked at the body, which had finally stopped twitching. “He said . . . he refused to let shame come unto this household.”
“So he was the one stalking you?” Boone repositioned Helania against him. “He must have found out—”
“About Isobel,” Rochelle finished. “But you and I had already ended the arrangement and she was killed after that. Why did he have to take her if it was already done?”
Boone could only shake his head. “He told me he would do anything to protect this house and my sire. He must have worried that if you were seen with Isobel, the truth would come out and the shame wouldn’t have been solely on you.”
Helania lifted her head off his chest. “He killed my sister for social propriety?”
“And Mai,” Rochelle added. “He said that Mai had been threatening to come forward with details about the killing, details that would prove he was the one who did it. She had been determined to discover who was trailing me and had found him through the coat check girl. Somehow, that human knew him from a self-defense training course they had taken together. He told me he thought that was ironic . . . he was babbling incoherently.”
“Poor Mai,” Helania said. “She was really good to my sister.”
“She was my dear friend.” Rochelle shook her head. “She knew that ever since Isobel died, I’ve been utterly heartbroken. Part of that was not knowing who had killed her and why. Clearly, Mai was trying to solve the mystery and get me answers.”
“I wish she’d asked for help,” Boone said sadly.
“There are too many secrets in the glymera,” Rochelle gritted out.
“Too many things that our class refuses to talk about. And silence is deadly—”
The banging on the door was loud.
“Do not come in yet!” Boone shouted. “Hold on!”
Looking down at Helania, he smoothed her hair back. “Are you okay to stand.”
“Yes,” she replied. “I have my own two feet to hold me up. And they will do the job.”
After dropping a quick kiss on her mouth, Boone went into the study. The workmales who had been fixing the damage there earlier had mostly finished with the window, but they hadn’t completely sealed up the hole before they’d clearly gone home due to the storm. The piece of bright blue plastic tarping had been secured against the panes, and he ripped it free.
“Over here—come in here!” he called through the vacancy in the panes.
Not that the Brothers couldn’t have just materialized in anywhere—but if Butch had taught him one thing during the investigation, it was that crime scenes needed to be protected and he knew it was safer for the Brothers, however many were coming, to gather in his sire’s study first.
And sure enough, one by one, they appeared: V was first. Then Tohr and Phury. Last was Qhuinn. Butch entered from one of the parlor’s French doors when V went over and opened it up for him.
The former cop looked through into the foyer. “What the hell happened here?”
Boone glanced back at Rochelle. When she nodded, he went through it all: Their broken arrangement. Her relationship with Isobel. The stalking. The killing of Isobel to keep the secret. Then Mai’s threatening Marquist and him murdering the female and desecrating her in a fury.
As he spoke, Butch and the Brothers walked over and took a look at the body.
“And then Marquist tried to attack Rochelle,” Boone said. “But Helania . . . took care of the problem.”