Fire Within - By Ally Shields Page 0,10

her defenses had been down. At least Jules hadn’t lived to make Lorraine regret it.

“My family hoped I’d get over him. I guess that’s why the bonding upset them so much.” When Lorraine looked at Ari again, the dreamy look was gone. “I will never get over him. He was everything I wanted.” Her voice grew firmer. “I know what you’re thinking. He was a vampire, and, yes, I knew he had a dark side, a scary past. I didn’t think about it much. I accepted what he was, because I loved him. It was that simple for me.”

The two women stared at each other for a moment. Ari was the one who looked away. Such acceptance wasn’t easy for everyone, she thought. Not so simple at all.

“You know, the fact he was a vampire makes it harder to deal with his death,” Lorraine confided. “I’d gotten used to the reality of his long life. He had so much, so many years, ahead of him. He…no, we…should have had them all.”

Lorraine’s face appeared to be an open book. Either she was an accomplished liar, or she would never have killed her vampire lover. She had loved unconditionally.

Ari frowned. She couldn’t let herself get caught up in this romantic stuff. “If everything was so great, why the counseling with Mr. Shale?”

“It wasn’t us. It was the people around us. Every couple has issues. Family, in my case. And Jules’s old girlfriend, Rayden. Harold provided a place for us to talk it over and maybe come up with solutions.”

Ari pounced on the information. “This ex-girlfriend, what kind of trouble did she cause?”

“She wanted Jules. Rayden’s a vampire, and they’d been together off and on since the 1940’s. She thought they’d get back together, until Jules met me.”

“So, what did she do?”

“Broke into my apartment. We came home from a late movie and found ‘Die, Bitch’ written in blood on the bedroom mirror. I was terrified, and I’ve never seen Jules so upset. The next night the same message was left on my phone. Jules recognized her voice. He talked to her, and she stopped.”

Hmm. Ari would like to have heard that conversation. “You’re sure it was blood?”

“Yes, that’s what Jules said.” Her lips puckered. “She must have pricked a finger or something.”

The doorbell rang, and Mrs. West escorted two young women into the room. Since that signaled the end of any private conversation, Ari said her goodbyes and left.

Lorraine’s name moved to the bottom of the list of suspects, Rayden went to the top. At the very least, the vampiress should be able to name Jules’s enemies. And, it was possible Rayden was one of them. It wouldn’t be the first time a woman scorned had killed a lover.

Ari stood on the sidewalk outside Lorraine’s apartment and considered her next stop. She couldn’t talk with Jules’s ex until dark. That left her with time to stop at her office, re-schedule her appointments for the next three or four days, or at least until she had a better handle on this investigation. With Eddie sitting in jail, she needed to free up as much time as possible. With that plan in mind, she started toward her car.

Her cell rang. Caller ID indicated it was Claris. “Hi! What’s up?”

Claris had been her best friend since second grade, when the blonde witch and the full-blooded human girl in pigtails formed a sister-like friendship that had survived the last seventeen years.

“What time are you going to be here?” Claris asked.

“Ah-h, was I coming over?”

“Ari, don’t you remember? Tonight’s the Charity Auction. You and I and Brando and Steffan. You forgot, didn’t you?”

Oops. It was probably a case of selective memory. Ari hadn’t been eager to go. She didn’t have much time for dress-up social events and often found excuses, but this was different, she’d promised. She kind of owed Claris. Her best friend had put up with a lot from her in the last year. Ari had grieved her mentor’s death, been shot in a fight with an Uzi-wielding werewolf…and then there was the whole mess with Andreas. Ari stifled a sigh. No excuses. Not even a murder investigation.

“Of course, I didn’t forget,” she said. “Aren’t the guys coming at 8:00? So, I should be at your place by what? 7:00?”

“Ari! We can’t get ready in an hour. I’ll expect you at 5:30.”

“Sure.” Resigned to the inevitable, Ari agreed. “I’ll be there.” While she liked to shop and buy cool things as well as the next