The story she’d told him was that she’d been tracked down by a Cabal VP, Irving Nast, while Portia had been lunching with Jasmine. To avoid trouble, Adele had gone outside with Nast, promising to talk to him, planning to bolt at the first chance. Then, as she was remote-viewing Portia, she saw her snap a photo of Adele and Nast. She could only guess that Portia figured out Adele was the photographer selling those most unflattering photos of her to the tabloids. Adele couldn’t risk that photo getting back to the kumpania—the punishment for speaking to a Nast was death. So she’d tried to get it back. A plan that hadn’t gone quite as she intended . . .
Now Portia was dead. Adele had her cell phone . . . and had discovered that Portia sent the photo on to Robyn Peltier to be passed on to the tabloids. The same Robyn Peltier who’d seen her at the murder site. The same one who’d snapped her photo in the alley.
“We’ll take something from her apartment,” she said. “Then we’ll find her, get her cell phone, get that picture, and I’ll be safe.”
Colm turned, his freckles bunching as his face screwed up with worry. “What if she’s already sent it to the tabloids? If they print it, if the phuri see it—”
Adele lifted onto her tiptoes and pressed her lips to his. He pulled her against him and kissed her, hard from the moment their bodies brushed.
So young. So eager. So hungry.
That’s what made it so easy. A fifteen-year-old boy, expected to mingle in the human world but keep himself separate. Look but don’t touch. No friends, no girlfriends. Colm had never even been on a date. Nor would he. Not with anyone but her.
The elders—the phuri—had already decreed they were to marry when he turned eighteen. It didn’t matter that Adele was five years older. It didn’t matter that they’d been raised as brother and sister. Keeping the blood pure was all that counted.
Clairvoyants were the rarest of the races. Even within the bloodlines, there was usually only a 10 percent chance of inheriting the power. The kumpania boasted odds of 75 percent, through careful selective breeding. To most clairvoyant families, 10 percent was already too high, considering the eventual sentence of madness. But the kumpania’s training methods virtually eliminated that threat. They promised all the benefits of clairvoyance and none of the disadvantages . . . except for the small matter of surrendering your free will, living in a commune, supporting the group by working as a “celebrity photographer,” marrying whomever they chose, and breeding more clairvoyants.
Adele touched her stomach. She’d done the breeding part, all right. Just not with the right partner. Her child would be a more powerful clairvoyant than she could have produced with Colm—the Cabal was certainly convinced of that—but to the kumpania, what she’d done was an atrocity, her child an abomination.
Another reason for Adele to leave the group before they found out. But if she jumped at Irving Nast’s current offer, he’d see her eagerness and take advantage.
Adele was supposed to meet Irving again that morning. She hadn’t dared—couldn’t risk him smelling her fear. So she’d called his answering service, leaving a message saying she couldn’t make it and would call to reschedule. He wouldn’t like that. The longer she postponed, the sooner he’d sense trouble and try to find her.
She had to get those photos and eliminate every trace of them. If that meant killing again—or having Colm do it for her—that was fine. After all, they were only humans. Outsiders. Inconsequential.
HOPE
After getting all she could from the officer in the coffee shop, Hope made a pit stop at the True News office. Checking in, getting her mail . . . Hardly critical under the circumstances, but if Robyn was a fugitive and Hope was her best friend in L.A., eventually the cops were going to find their way to her door. And when they did, she might need to prove she’d been going about her day, business as usual.
After that token appearance, Hope and Karl returned to the club. He stood watch as she circled the exterior trying to find the place closest to the crime scene. If she could find it, she might catch a vision of what had happened last night. It took some fine-tuning to pinpoint the spot, but eventually the vision came.
Hope saw a dark room, with Portia leaning over what looked like a table. Doing