"Certainly."
"Do I get to see it?” she asked, somewhat exasperated by the vampire's less than forthcoming responses.
"Indeed, you do,” Raphael interjected easily. “That's one of the reasons we're here."
"And what's the other reason?"
"So you can see the crime scene, of course. That's what you humans do, is it not, Cyn?"
Cynthia sighed. It was going to be a long night. “Yes, it is, Lord Raphael,” she said, remembering Lonnie's advice. “I don't know any other way to run an investigation."
"Excellent. Then, come, Cyn.” Every time he said her name, he separated it out from the words around it, as if savoring the taste. Sin. “I think things will be much clearer to you after you've seen the security footage,” he continued, taking her arm gently and steering her back toward the doorway. “And do call me Raphael. After all, you're human. You've no allegiance to me ... as yet,” he added softly.
Cynthia turned and stared at him, uncertain she'd really heard those final words. Raphael seemed not to notice, guiding her down the side of the house in the dark, then pulling open the heavy wooden door with ease. As they went through, she saw the door had a double-keyed deadbolt, in addition to a keypad lockout inside. Which meant she'd been right in her earlier assessment. Whoever had taken this Alexandra, for whatever reason, had at least one accomplice on the inside. A thought occurred to her. “What time did you say it was when your ... when Alexandra was abducted?"
"It was nearly sunrise. She would have already been feeling the pressure of dawn. It would have made her, and her guards, slower, less alert."
Duncan stared at his Sire in alarm, and Cynthia wondered if this was one of those secrets vampires usually didn't share. And then it occurred to her to wonder why Raphael was being so free with this information. She pushed aside that worrisome thought and considered what he'd told her. “Humans,” she said.
Raphael smiled. Beautiful and deadly.
"It was humans who took her,” she repeated, breathless and a little aggravated he hadn't just told her.
"Very good, Cyn. This is why I believe you, a human, will be best able to find her."
"But if she was still awake, some of the other vampires must have been also. You wouldn't have left her here with only human guards, especially not at night."
Raphael's expression quickly turned blacker than a moonless night, his eyes pits of darkness that sucked in the light and gave back nothing. “No, indeed, not. But the traitor will be my concern.” She watched the fury roll out of his expression just as quickly, watched the moonlight sparkle come back to his eyes. “Your job,” he continued, “will be catching the human puppets, who will in turn lead me to their vampire masters."
"Okay,” she breathed, shaking herself slightly. “Let's uh, let's—"
He gestured toward a dimly lit hallway. “It's all set up for us."
Chapter Eleven
The house was dark inside, with only a faint light coming from the hallway. There was a slight smell of bleach in the air, like a cleaning solution. She looked at Raphael in question.
"Human guards patrol the house and grounds during daylight hours. They were murdered, their bodies dragged into the kitchen. My staff has already cleaned."
Cyn nodded. If this had been a regular forensic investigation, valuable evidence would have been destroyed by that cleaning. But there was little “regular” about this whole case. They continued on through the large French provincial kitchen, and Cynthia couldn't help noticing the big side by side subzero refrigerator/freezer. She didn't want to think about what was stored in that one. Ugh.
The hallway was brighter than the kitchen, though not by much, with some low wattage lights recessed into the crown molding along the ceiling. She noticed bracket-mounted candleholders all along the wall and shone her flashlight on one of them curiously. It was the real thing. Although the candles currently stuck in the fixture were fresh, she could smell the paraffin from previous burnings. Raphael had gone ahead of her, but he came back down the hall to see what she was looking at.
"Candles?” she asked.
"Alexandra preferred things as they had been. She never adapted well to the modern era. There are additional lights, of course.” He gestured above. “Mostly for the human staff. I forget sometimes what poor eyesight you humans have in the dark, Cyn."
"You know,” she muttered, half to herself. “You and I will get along a lot better if you stop pointing out all of my human deficiencies. I'm sure you all must have a few of your own."
He gave a soft chuckle. “My manners are a bit rusty, I'm afraid. I have so little direct contact with humans anymore."
Cynthia eyed him doubtfully. He said all the right words, but there was always the tiny hint of a smirk on that handsome face, as though he was playing along for his own entertainment. “Right. So where's this security setup then?"
"This way.” He continued down the hall, making a turn into a small foyer near what would have been the main entrance if not for the useless checkerboard courtyard. Cyn followed him past a winding stairway and toward the back of the house where a square of light on the wood flooring marked an open door. Raphael paused in the light to wait for her, then preceded her down the stairs to the basement.
Duncan was already there, seated at the hub of a very sophisticated security control center. Every console was lit up, and as she glanced from monitor to monitor, she saw there was precious little of the guest house that wasn't under surveillance. She did a quick survey of the room, noticing the locked gun cage and what looked like a closed bank vault door against the far wall. Curious.
"Nice,” was all she said, focusing on the security console. “Do you have any redundancy between the houses? The main gate?"