“Why can’t you act normal for five minutes?”
“I refuse to be a slave to the hour hand of a watch. Why would I want to be aware of my life force ebbing away? My days are not infinite, Addie. I find the concept of time depressing.”
“Drama llama.” Addie hauled her a safe distance away. “You’re all welcome to come in.” She yanked on Cass’s arm. “The vampire will keep her fangs, hands, and innuendos to herself.”
Somehow, despite Addie’s best efforts, Boaz doubted it.
Sixteen
I gave my statement to Parker, who stared at me like I was a unicorn. Talk about awkward. I hadn’t tamed Boaz. I hadn’t won his undying love. I had entered into a business arrangement. A good ninety percent of Society marriages were a calculated negotiation between families. Love matches were myth unless you were rich enough to not require a blessing for your union.
Abernathy, on the other hand, had settled into a sulk over Cass’s outrageous flirting with Honey. If Honey didn’t give her a hard no soon, she would wake up one day to a vampire watching her sleep.
With a tray of ice teas in my hands, I joined the group in the dining room. The table sat twelve, so there was plenty of room for the team, their laptops, maps, and snacks.
Boaz and Honey stood with their heads together, reading off the same piece of paper.
A curl of unease in my gut caused me to pause on the threshold, but Boaz glanced up with a grin for me that went a long way toward urging me forward. Beside him, Honey noticed what held his attention and jogged over to me.
“Let me help.” She took the tray. “You can forget the guys offering.” She rolled her eyes. “Sentinels are the worst. They forget our society is matriarchal, and therefore, I outrank them based on sex alone. Instead, they pretend their legs and arms are broken and expect me to wait on them hand and foot.”
“Hey,” Parker chortled. “I brought sushi to the office last week.”
“You set the bag on my desk and waited for me to plate everyone.” Honey threw an ice cube at his head. “How do you expect your mother to marry you off with manners like a human?”
“Dang.” Abernathy winced. “That was cold.”
“Brutal,” Boaz agreed. “But is she wrong?”
Neither Parker nor Abernathy said a word.
Once Honey passed out the tea, I moved to take a seat only to have Boaz gesture me over to him.
“This is the first known case.” He pointed to a spot on the map. “Puyallup, Washington.” He slid his finger down. “We didn’t figure out we had a serial killer until these two deaths in Reno, Nevada.” He eased it right. “Then another in Springfield, Missouri.” He moved it over. “Three in Greenville, North Carolina.”
“No.” Cass slapped her open palms on the table. “That can’t be right.”
“The victims were killed in a variety of ways, but the prints match.” Boaz nudged a stack of papers over to her that she ignored. “The music left playing on their phones ties them together.”
“What’s wrong?” I shot to her side. “Talk to me.”
“He went from Greenville to Charleston to Portsmouth to Savannah and then here, didn’t he?”
“Yeah.” Boaz glanced up from the map. “How did you know?”
“That’s the last hundred years of my life.” She swallowed hard. “That’s the path I took that led me here.”
Concern twisting my gut, I stroked her back. “Who would have followed you all this way?”
“Sydney Delacorte.” A shudder rippled through her shoulders. “I thought he was dead.”
The name was unfamiliar, and that troubled me. “Who is that?”
“The man who had me resuscitated.” She wet her lips. “My first master.”
The same master she had refused to talk about, even to me, her best friend.
“Your master?” Parker scowled at her. “Why didn’t you mention this connection sooner?”
“She didn’t know,” I defended her. “I told her Boaz was working the case here because they mirrored an ongoing investigation in Savannah. I found out later the killer had come down from Maine, but I didn’t tell Cass. Savannah is hours away. How could she have put together this had anything to do with her?”
“Ari.” Pinkish tears formed at the corners of her eyes. “I should have suspected when they took Ari.”
Of course, she skipped right to blaming herself instead of the person responsible.
“You had no connections to the other victims,” I reminded her. “Other than them being vampires too.”
A town this small, of course they all knew one another, but