I raised my head and met his eyes to see if he believed what he’d said or if he’d chosen that moment to dredge up his unused therapy skills. His warm eyes beamed sincerity. And compassion. I sat up, exhausted, tears streaming down my face. I was grieving for his competition and he was being remarkably understanding.
Luna snorted in disgust. She narrowed her eyes, pressed her lips together tight and covered the few steps to where Lieutenant Bullock stood, still pointing her gun. She knocked the weapon away, growling, and brought her face nose-to-nose with Lieutenant Bullock’s.
‘Bitch! You distracted us. I almost had the fucker. I’m trying to decide if I should kill you now, or wait until we find Devereux so he can do it himself.’
Lieutenant Bullock retreated a couple of steps. ‘You are interfering with police business. Step away.’
Luna turned to the other vampires. ‘Police business? Gather round, everyone. This cow thinks she has something to say about what’s happening here. She thinks she knows one fucking thing about anything.’
Lieutenant Bullock still didn’t seem to understand who, or what, she was talking to. She might’ve understood vampires in theory, but she had no personal experience with them. She probably thought all the bloodsuckers in the room were humans dressed in their ball costumes. It’s likely she didn’t know she was conversing with the real deal.
‘There’s a body on the floor and blood everywhere. You bet your ass I have a lot to say about it.’
Luna plastered on her most evil smile. ‘And what kind of body do you think is on the floor, human?’
Alan rightly sensed that things were going south at the speed of light, and he jumped up and squeezed himself in between Luna and Lieutenant Bullock. But instead of helping, he leaped into the fray. The three of them started arguing at the top of their voices.
The other cops and vampires lined up on opposite sides, facing each other like the Sharks and the Jets in West Side Story. Though I doubted they’d break into a dance routine.
I tried to intervene a couple of times, but I didn’t have the energy to involve myself in anything as meaningless as blame or police protocol or whether vampires existed. Devereux was gone, maybe dead. That was all the pain my heart could hold. If I’d had any doubt about my feelings for him, losing him made things crystal-clear.
I staggered out of the circle and walked aimlessly in no particular direction. The sound of someone crying penetrated the fog in my head.
‘Shit!’ How could I have forgotten about Midnight and Ronald?
I raced over to where Ronald was still cradling Midnight in his lap and knelt. He was crying, his shoulders shaking. ‘She’s so cold – she’s dying, Dr Knight. I’m losing her.’
I stroked his cheek with the backs of my fingers. ‘Hold on, Ronald. It’s not over yet.’
I leaped up and hollered, ‘Someone call an ambulance!’
That stopped the argument.
Everyone ran over to see what I was yelling about.
There’d been enough death and loss for one night. Midnight wouldn’t be on the list, not if I had anything to say about it.
Having a positive goal seemed to galvanise everyone. Soon Midnight and Ronald were being carried on stretchers out of the music room to a Flight for Life helicopter waiting on the castle’s roof.
I noticed that everyone in the room was taking turns watching me, as if they expected me to pick up the sword and behead someone else. Since I hadn’t known I was capable of that kind of violence to begin with, I couldn’t give anyone any guarantees about my future actions.
With Devereux gone, I didn’t know what to do.
After the medical tech got Midnight prepped and stabilised, he told me her vital signs were incredibly good for someone who’d almost been drained. I don’t know why he spared the time to talk to me again and be so encouraging. Maybe he saw something in my eyes. Anyway, he said her outlook was great.
Except for some missing hair and scalp, a nasty souvenir of his first ever Vampires’ Ball, Ronald was completely fine.
I was morbidly drawn to the edge of the circle, which no longer held together, where I stared obsessively at the partial skeleton wearing a red velvet duster. The sword still rested nearby, clear evidence of something I knew logically but was resisting emotionally. I sat down, trying to feel bad. Trying to feel ashamed. Trying to feel anything. But I was still utterly numb.
Alan had finally got across to Lieutenant Bullock that it was a vampire body rotting on the floor in the Dark Magic circle, so no forensics team would be arriving to collect evidence.
‘Lieutenant, if you tell anybody you spent the last couple of hours with vampires, you’ll be taken away by the men in white coats and put in a straitjacket. Is that how you want to end your career?’
Luna was still prowling the area, mumbling under her breath about the stupid humans and what she wanted to do to Lieutenant Bullock. We each deal with pain in our own way.
I wasn’t sure how I was going to deal with mine. I rested my forehead on my bent knees as another river of tears poured down my face.
It wasn’t fair. I’d just accepted that Devereux was a vampire and that I had strong feelings for him, then he was gone. We’d known each other less than two weeks. My brain still hadn’t processed all the chaos and horror I’d experienced since I first met Midnight. Did the idea of working with real vampires even remotely appeal to me any more? Why would I want to involve myself with such a violent, irrational group?
Devereux dead? My mind couldn’t accept it.
Weren’t vampires supposed to live for ever?
I knew that after the shock receded, I’d have to deal with all the stages of grief. Was I supposed to move into an office in Devereux’s building, seeing constant reminders of him every day? I’d have to be a glutton for punishment to do that. I shook my head, unable to believe that I could even think about something as meaningless as office space or buildings. Maybe I’d take a sabbatical from my practice. Hide away. Go to Paris to visit friends.
I don’t know how long I sat there in front of Bryce’s remains, but for some reason I had an urge to raise my head. The ghost in the mirror was once again working hard to get my attention.
Nobody else has the ability to see this ghost but me?
He was beside himself with joy. He smiled very wide, danced in circles and thrust his bow vigorously in a pointing motion towards the far end of the room.
Since he’d been such a reliable resource, I rose and shifted my eyes in the general direction the bow indicated.
There was something on the floor, half-underneath one of the grand pianos.
My heart pounded and I gasped. My body knew before the rest of me did.
I ran flat out across the room, skidding to a stop a foot away from flowing platinum hair.
Devereux looked like he’d been hit by a truck. Or exposed to the vampire equivalent of kryptonite.
I screamed again, this time with pure joy, which was quickly followed by the sound of running footsteps and excited voices.
He lay sprawled on his back, his hair partially covering his face.
I dropped to my knees, held his face in my hands and kissed his parched lips. His skin felt icy-cold to the touch. Suddenly terrified, I feared that Lucifer had sent Devereux’s dead body back as a sadistic parting shot.
I checked his pulse points for a heartbeat, but couldn’t detect anything. But if he was dead to begin with, did it matter that he had no heartbeat? I knew so little about vampire mortality that I had no idea what signs to look for.
Luna, who’d dropped down next to Devereux across from me, closed her eyes and pressed one hand against his forehead and the other to his chest.