So why had she become a vampire?
I watched them walk onto the gray fields and disappear, then glanced at Azriel. "Why would a woman like Dorothy be the target of someone so dangerous? She may have been a vampire, but if the information Stane uncovered is to be believed, she was harmless in every other way possible."
"Perhaps it was nothing more than a weak astral spirit unwittingly attracting a darker soul."
"Perhaps." The image of the faceless man ran through my mind, and I shivered again. He'd called me a huntress, but he'd been the one hunting, not me. "But I have a suspicion that his choice of victim was deliberate, not one governed by chance."
"Yet he offered you the opportunity to save her. Even if that was never to be, it seems an odd decision for one who takes no chances."
"I know." My gaze swept Dorothy's body and came to rest on her calves. Cuts ringed them both, the wounds gaping. I frowned. "Why would he cut her tendons like that?"
"There is a belief in some cultures that cutting the tendons in the legs prevents the soul from rising."
And he'd staked her because she was a vampire. "Then why bleed her out? It seems a little overboard."
"Perhaps he merely wished to be triple sure of his kill."
"Perhaps." I scanned the concrete again. Azriel had said earlier that he'd sensed magic, but there was little indication of it. No protective circle, no candles, nothing that in any way suggested there was ever a practitioner here.
"What do you wish to do now?" he asked.
"What I wish to do is go home, eat the biggest steak I can find, have a long soak in the bath, then catch a week's worth of sleep." I grimaced and dug my vid-phone out of my pocket. "What I have to do, however, is ring Uncle Rhoan."
His expression, when he answered, was resigned. "So tell me where the body is."
A wry smile touched my lips, although—sadly—his presumption was all too correct. Most of my calls to him of late had been about the dead or the about to be dead. Still, I couldn't help saying, "Hey, I might just be ringing to say hello to my favorite uncle."
He snorted softly, amusement crinkling the corners of his gray eyes. "We both know if you just wanted a chat, you'd ring my sister. Who, by the way, is a little peeved that you missed the weekly get-together."