“Yes,” she hissed. Annoyance gave her words a sharp edge. “Aside from being naked and dead, she looked exactly like the damn doll.”
Damian growled a warning.
Varik’s mind brushed hers. Behave yourself.
She met his stern gaze and dropped hers, sighing. “Yes, the girl looked like the doll. No, I don’t know a name or a location, but I saw someone moving in the shadows beyond the candlelight.”
“Could you see who it was?” Varik asked.
“I never saw his face.”
“But you’re certain the person was male?” Damian asked.
“I could hear him chanting. I think it was Latin, but I couldn’t understand it.” The memory of the scene that played out before her turned her stomach. Her eyes closed in a futile attempt to block it.
An arm snaked around her shoulders, and Varik’s natural scent filled her senses, giving her a renewed feeling of security.
“The chanting got louder.” Alex forced her voice to remain level. “Then it was as though I was no longer watching this … ritual from across the room. It was like I became the girl in the circle.” She opened her eyes to stare up at Damian’s impassive face. “I felt like my soul was trapped in that girl’s body.”
Varik gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze.
“This is the part where it gets really fucked up. I couldn’t see the room anymore but I could still hear the chanting. I tasted blood, lots of blood. Then it felt like someone was pulling me up.” A lingering cold chilled her blood, turning it to an icy sludge, and she shivered.
“Take your time,” Varik said softly.
“I felt pressure, like someone was sitting on my chest, and then pain.” Tears slipped down her cheeks. “I can only describe it as being ripped into a thousand tiny pieces. All I could see was darkness. All I heard was that fucking chanting.”
Varik pulled her closer to him.
Damian cleared his throat before speaking. “Is there anything else you can tell us about this unseen person? The room? The girl?”
Alex swiped at her tears with shaking hands. “Only that before the vision changed, when I was still observing from across the room, I felt …” She hesitated and felt heat coloring her cheeks. “Incredibly aroused,” she murmured.
Varik shifted next to her so she could see his face. “Aroused? You mean—”
“Yes, sexually.” The heat in her cheeks spread to her entire face. She sucked in a deep breath and released it in a huff. “Whoever this guy is and whatever he’s doing to these girls, he really gets off on it.” She crossed her arms in front of her. “And I hope I never experience anything like that again.”
“Baudelaire,” Damian said as he turned and indicated for Varik to follow him.
Varik gave her a sideways hug and kissed the top of her head. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
Alex watched them walk several feet away and stop when they were certain she was out of hearing range. Even though the sun was now above the trees and gradually bathing the parking lot in its light, it did little to chase away the shadows in her mind. The vision had drained her emotionally and physically, leaving her feeling cold and numb.
She pried at a protruding rock in the pavement with the toe of her boot. She’d inherited her powers of psychometry—the ability to have visions and gain information from objects as well as her gift to part the Veil and access the Hall of Records—from her father. Unfortunately he’d been killed before he could teach her how to control either of them. Support groups for vampires with psychic abilities didn’t exist so most of the control she possessed was from years of trial and error.
“How are you holding up?” Varik asked as he rejoined her.
“I can’t get that vision out of my head.” The pavement cracked around the rock she was pushing with her foot.
“It was just a vision. It can’t hurt you.”
“I know but …” She tapped the rock back into place.
His hand slipped beneath her chin, gently encouraging her to raise her head and look him in the eye. “But what?”
“There’s something I didn’t tell Damian about the vision.”
“You withheld information?”
She nodded.
“Damn it, Alex.” Varik raked a hand through his hair. “You can’t keep secrets from Damian—”