Vick and Hempstead exchanged a look. “You were in there for four minutes, Milly,” Hempstead said. “We timed it.”
Lightning-quick, Milburn pulled out his pocket watch, consulting the face. It was too dim for me to make out the time, but I knew what he’d see.
“What about the secret?” Vick asked. All three of them looked at me.
“Beau dyes his hair,” I said as quietly as possible. “To hide the gray.”
“That’s correct,” Milburn said, looking down at me with new worry on his face. “This is deeply unsettling, Miss Luther.”
“Lex.” I spread my hands. “Now that you know, do any of you recall missing any chunks of time?” I angled my body to include all three of them.
The vampires shook their heads, looking troubled. I sighed. “Shit. I guess that would have been too easy, huh?”
“At least now that we know,” Hempstead pointed out, “we’re more likely to notice if it happens again. We can keep a closer eye on ourselves.”
“Do that,” I said. “Until I find out who’s behind this, check the time frequently, and it’s not a bad idea to be with each other as much as possible. Pressing multiple vampires at once is possible, but it requires more power and skill.”
All three men nodded, and began discussing their schedules in low voices. Over Hempstead’s shoulder, I caught a glimpse of unusual movement, and I leaned sideways for a better look.
A column of women wove their way through the crowd, led by Warton. Beau’s bodyguard was wearing his sunglasses again, but a smug smile played at the corners of his mouth. A black woman in her sixties strode behind him, her head held high. She was holding the hand of a younger Hispanic woman, who looked around with eyes as big as saucers. The second woman’s face was red and blotchy like she’d been crying. She stumbled on the brick path, and I knew she wasn’t a vampire.
Eight more women trailed behind them, in various stages of distress or defiance, and the last two women in line were so young that I sucked in my breath. There was no way in hell they were old enough to drink, but they were being paraded down the main road in Oakland like they were meat.
Vampires on either side of the road called out to them, jeering and catcalling, and I felt Milburn’s hand on my upper arm before I realized I’d stepped forward. “You don’t want to do that,” he said quietly. Over his shoulder, he asked Hempstead, “Isn’t it a little early?”
I glanced back and saw Hempstead nodding, stroking his beard again. “And they don’t usually come through the north entrance.”
“What the hell’s going on?” I hissed at Milburn.
He tilted his head in the direction of the women. “They’re here for the blood tribute.”
From the Horsemen’s comments earlier I’d figured there were going to be humans here to feed the vampires, but I’d assumed they’d be willing volunteers, with witch bags to get past the wards. “Why haven’t they been pressed?” I demanded.
Milburn raised an eyebrow, clearly not liking my tone. “Because they’re witches.”
I stared at him for a moment, hoping it was a joke, but Milburn wasn’t backing down. “You can’t interfere,” Vick said, hands clutching his lapels like a pompous cartoon mayor. “Everyone loves the tribute.”
“Those witches don’t,” I snapped.
“They’re not killed,” Milburn said with a touch of scorn. “If we did that, we’d run out of witches.”
Vick and Hempstead guffawed. I hated that the two Horsemen were talking as though I wasn’t a threat. More than anything, I hated that in this particular situation, they were probably right. I glared at Milburn. “Let go of my arm.”
He tightened his grip instead, stepping very close so he could speak to me in something even lower than a whisper. His hollowed-out face had hardened. “The thing about an oath of mutual safety,” he said, “is that it doesn’t apply to Beau himself. If he kills you and makes the body go away, do you really think anyone here is going to tell your boss what happened?”
Maven’s spy would.
I tried to keep the thought off my face, but Milburn’s eyes widened slightly. Before he could say anything, I tore my arm free of his grasp and stalked down the path after the line of women.
They were being led to the Bell Tower building, twenty yards away, but I didn’t catch up before they reached Beau. He greeted the lead witch with a broad smile. The band had stopped playing,