She was dying anyway, so it wouldn't really have mattered, but I guessed it came down to reaper rules. He couldn't do anything that might harm an innocent.
Which meant I had to do this the hard way. I pinched her pale cheek as hard as I could. It was a mean thing to do to someone who was dying, but I really had no other choice. She might just hold the key to finding not only her sister but the crackpot behind these murders. "Vonda, wake up."
She murmured something that sounded decidedly unladylike, and made a weak movement with her hand, as if trying to swat me away.
I pinched harder. "Vonda, your sister is in danger. We need your help to find her."
Her eyes fluttered briefly open, but there was little life or understanding in the green of her gaze. "Dani?" she murmured. "No."
I grabbed her shoulders and shook her. "Yes, Dani. Where is she? Where did she go?"
"Club." It was so softly said it was little more than a sigh of air.
"What club, Vonda?" I looked around as Rhoan came in. He glanced from me to the woman, and motioned me to continue. "You need to tell us or Dani dies."
Distress ran briefly across her pale features. She made a couple of attempts to speak before finally saying, "Underground."
Underground? Oh fuck, I thought. Surely she couldn't mean those clubs—the ones that catered to vampires who were addicted to feeding from blood whores, humans whose whole life revolved around the ecstasy of a vampire's bite. The council had no intention of ever allowing the rest of the world to know about those clubs; the only reason I did was because one of the clubs was haunted by those who'd been killed there, and their anguish had summoned a Rakshasa—the same Rakshasa that had given me the scar down my spine before I'd killed it.
God, surely fate couldn't be so cruel as to send me into one of those places again, could it?
"What club, Vonda?"
Her mouth opened and closed again, and though I leaned closer, I barely caught her reply. It sounded like "the Crimson Dive," but I wasn't completely sure.
"Where was she planning to go after the club, Vonda?"
Her eyes rolled back into her head and a small sigh escaped her lips. She was leaving us. I shook her again. "Damn it, Vonda! Who was your sister planning to meet? Where did she plan to go after the club?"