Sweet Last Drop (28 page)

“I regret how things ended, too.”
And I won’t forget,
I thought, but I kept that part to myself. “How’s your eye?”

“That wasn’t your fault. Walker was only protecting you. I won’t hold my injury against y’all, I assure you.”

How gracious of you
, I thought, but I bit my lip and kept that to myself, too. My sarcasm would only get me into trouble, as usual, and my agenda only involved getting
out
of trouble.

I inclined my head, like Bex had done, but it didn’t escape my notice that in addition to being “gracious,” she’d avoided answering my question. Removing the silver spear from her eye probably hadn’t gone well.

“How is your throat?” she asked. “I see it’s still bruised.”

I touched my throat instinctively. “I’ll live.”

“I apologize for attacking you. Let me know if there’s anything I may do to right that wrong and prove to you that I’m the loyal ally Lysander expects of me.”

I pursed my lips. This was too easy. She was speaking very formally and deliberately, like Dominic, and I wondered if her formality was for my benefit, like her skinny jeans and cowboy boots were for Walker. No one suspected an enemy in friend’s clothing, but she didn’t know that Dominic wasn’t my friend.

“Actually, there is something you can do, and if you help me, I’d consider a clean slate between us,” I said. I’d never consider a clean slate—I wasn’t Dominic’s loyal servant and she wasn’t my ally, by default or otherwise—but she didn’t need to know that.

“Anything for Lysander’s loyal night blood,” she said, her voice a low, rattling purr.

She knows,
I thought, and then I banished the thought as deeply and behind as many silver fortified walls in my mind as possible. If she was anything like Dominic, and God knew she was likely stronger, she could read my thoughts if she tried. Unless I slipped, unless I thought the very thing I didn’t want her to know, there was no way for her to know my deal with Dominic.

I took a deep, fortifying breath and gripped the silver nitrate spray a little tighter. “I need you to choose me over one of your own vampires in a gesture of loyalty.”

“And how do you intend for me to do that?”

“Give up the vampire responsible for the murders of Lydia Bowser, Mr. and Mrs. Dunbar, and the McDunnell brothers, and make the humans think that the case is solved.”

Bex laughed, but this time, the sound was grating. “How do you expect me to give up one of my own vampires to the humans without exposing our existence?”

“I’ve witnessed Dominic’s skills firsthand when he wants to rearrange a murder, and I know you possess those same skills. You can kill the vampire as you see fit, arrange the scene so he looks human, and convince the officers in charge of this case that they found and killed him while he resisted arrest.”

Bex smiled. I could just discern the whites of her teeth against the darkness of her lips. “Very clever. Every time our paths cross, I admire Lysander’s taste.”

I tensed. Her tone didn’t match her complimentary words. “Thank you.”

“There’s one problem.”

I raised my eyebrows. “And that is?”

“As I’ve told you repeatedly, I don’t know who’s responsible for the murders.”

“Yes, so you’ve said, repeatedly, but saying something a second and third and fourth time doesn’t make it any more believable than the first.”

“I give you my word,” Bex said solemnly. Her voice was so genuine and pressing, urging me to believe her, that I was stunned by her callous ability to lie.

Dominic certainly had a forked tongue, but when he wanted me to take him at his word, he swore by the sun. The sun was a final and certain death for him, like the passage of time was for me, and that was how we knew the other would keep their word.

I narrowed my eyes on Bex. “Swear to me that you don’t know who is committing these murders. Swear by the sun.”

“Where did you learn that phrase?” Bex asked. Her voice hitched on a strangely pitched note. If I didn’t know better, I’d say she sounded frightened.

“Will you or will you not swear by the sun that you don’t know the vampire responsible for the murders?”

Bex’s voice tipped low and breathy. “You don’t know what you’re asking of me.”

“I know exactly what I’m asking of you, but you won’t swear because you can’t. You know who’s responsible for the murders, and you’re twisting the evidence so the police focus on me and not your vampire,” I accused.

“That’s ridiculous,” Bex scoffed. “If my vampires were responsible for these murders, I’d execute them and create a scene to pacify the humans, just like you’ve asked. It’s how our existence has remained a secret all these years, by eliminating any and all threats to our coven, even if the threat is the coven itself.”

“I know. That’s what you
should
do, but it’s not what you’re doing this time.”

Bex barked a laugh from the back of her throat. “I’ve executed members of my own coven to enforce the sanctity of our secret, and I’d do it again if I knew who was responsible for the murders. But I don’t.”

“Yes, you do,” I insisted, “and you’re using the murders to get rid of me without breaking your alliance with Dominic.”

“As if
you’re
more important than the protection of my coven.” I caught the flash of Bex’s smile again. “Why would I want to get rid of you?”

“Because in our short acquaintance, Walker is more in love with me than he will ever be with you.”

Bex growled. The rattling hiss vibrated like an impact tremor; pebbles jumped and danced on the stone overhang. She stepped out of the darkness, and without the impenetrable pitch of the overhang, I could see her expression. It took every ounce of willpower and courage I could muster to hold my ground.

She hadn’t bothered transforming into the irresistible country belle that she’d postured for Walker. She hadn’t bothered transforming at all. Her ears were long and pointed, and her nose was flattened and flared to tips at each nostril. Her hands were sharp, long, skeletal-like talons. Her legs, which were once lean and perfect in skinny jeans and cowboy boots, were still lean, but the knees bent backward in those bat-like hind legs that made me queasy.

I swallowed. Worse than her transformed ears and nose and talons, even worse than her legs, was her eye. She only had one. The other eye, the one that Walker had speared with the silver watch hand, was just a bloody socket in the otherwise smooth perfection of her face.

She should have been able to heal the eyeball and placed it back in the socket after removing the silver broadhead—with a little blood and saliva, I’d witnessed Dominic heal devastating injuries—but whether she’d been unable or unwilling, she didn’t have a left eyeball. The muscles twitched in the socket as her remaining eye shifted over my expression. I tried to keep the revulsion I felt from showing in my face, but I must have failed because Bex smiled.

“You’re right,” she said. “Ian Walker is incapable of loving me the way he loves you, and if I’d known the murderer, I might have framed you for his crimes to drive a wedge between you.” She laughed at the thought. “I doubt Ian would be interested in conjugal visits, but even that is more likely than him choosing me over you.”

“So you admit to framing me?” I asked. She was sticking to her story, pretending that she didn’t know who was responsible for the murders. But she knew. She had to know, because if she didn’t, who else could possibly have the motivation and capability to frame me?

“I admit that the idea has merit, but even if I did frame you, even with you out of the picture, Ian wouldn’t come to me.” She laughed, and I winced from the pain lacing her voice. “I’ve justified his actions in the hopes that he’d come back to me, but everything I’ve hoped for, everything I convinced myself would be worth the sacrifice, were all lies to deny the truth. And the truth is that no matter what I do or say, Ian will only see me as a monster.”

“You’re not human.” A deep voice suddenly spoke from behind me. “So what else could you be?”

My head whipped around at the interruption, and Walker stepped out from behind the trees and shadows into view beside me.

“How long were you—” I began.

“Long enough to know that your conversation with Officer Montgomery didn’t go well if you think someone’s framing you,” Walker interrupted blandly.

I scoffed. “I could take Officer Montgomery all day. My conversation with Special Agent Rowens, however, not so much.” I sighed. “How did you know I was here?”

“Logan told me when he joined the search. You can’t do this alone.”

“They need your help to find Colin. You can’t just—”

“They can search for him with or without me, but you need me here.” Walker turned away from me to face Bex. “We’re done here. You tell Bex that we’re waiting, and we won’t wait long. She’s familiar with my limited patience.”

I stared at Walker, confused.

Bex grinned. The pointed tips of her teeth poked through the bottom of her tight-lipped smile. “Yes, that I am, and y’all are familiar with the infiniteness of mine.”

Walker frowned.

I leaned in, as if she couldn’t hear me whisper. “That
is
Bex.”

It took a few seconds, but I knew the moment he recognized her. He openly gaped.

I stared at Bex and Walker’s reaction to her, shaking my head. “You never saw Bex in her true form?”

Walker blinked several times, before turning to face me. “I’ve seen other vampires in this form.”

“But not Bex.”

Walker shook his head.

Bex smiled a full, teeth-baring smile, and every tooth was pointed. “Knowing I have a day form and seeing it are two very different things. I’ve always been of the philosophy that Ian couldn’t see past this appearance to the woman beneath, so I only let him see my beauty and strength in the hopes that when he loved those forms, he could come to love every form. Ease him into the frigid water, so he could acclimate, you might say, instead of shocking him with full-body submersion.”

Walker’s struck-dumb expression had shifted to pure disgust, so I’d say her philosophy was right on target.

“But after speaking with you, Cassidy, I know what my philosophy should have been all along.”

I was almost afraid to ask, but I was too curious not to. “And what is that?”

“Submersion.” Bex cocked her head thoughtfully. “Dominic has tempered nothing from you. He’s shown you his true form, his thirst, strength, power, and lethal nature as surely as I’ve withheld them from Walker. He didn’t ease you into anything. He pushed you head first into the very darkest, bloodiest, ugliest parts of his world, but even after everything you’ve witnessed from him, you accept him for the creature he is.”

“I accept honesty,” I said, laughing ruefully. “In that respect, in showing me the true forms of himself, Dominic is brutally honest.”

“I thought that shielding Walker from my true form would ease his assimilation into the coven, but he’s fought me at every turn.”

“I fight you because I don’t want to be a vampire. It wouldn’t have mattered when you showed me this…this…” Walker gestured at Bex, searching for the words.

“True form?” I supplied.

“Monstrous form. Seeing you like this doesn’t change anything. It just confirms what I already know, what I’ve always known: that despite your beauty and strength, you’re a monster inside.”

Bex’s expression didn’t waver. She ignored Walker and met my eyes. “After speaking with you, I’ve had a change of heart. I don’t want Ian to join my coven until he can see past this form, as you can see the man beneath Lysander’s form.” Bex tapped her forefinger against her chin. “Despite the power struggle in Lysander’s coven, he’s had great success with you. Maybe speaking with him about you would help me with Ian.”

“Stop speaking about me like I’m not here!” Walker burst.

“Do you think Lysander would help me?” Bex asked me.

And there it was. Dominic’s plan had succeeded with the spectacular finality of fireworks, New Years confetti, and party blowers. I imagined him patting me on the head, the good little night blood who had mended fences between covens and enticed the opposing coven to seek counsel.

But it didn’t feel like a cause for celebration to me. I glanced alternately at Walker and Bex, and it felt like an impending storm about to strike lightning between us.

“You’re his ally,” I murmured. “I’m sure it would be Lysander’s pleasure to help you if he can. I’ll let him know you asked.”

“Yes, please do relay the message. And thank you, Cassidy, for opening my eyes,” she continued in a smooth purr. She pinned her gaze on Walker, and the muscles in the scooped curve of her eye socket shifted and twitched in response. “Or should I say, eye.”

I could almost hear the rumble of thunder in her voice.

“You’re welcome,” I whispered.

“Until then, I will
not
hide my true nature, nor resist my true form. You will see me as I am, so when the time comes, you’ll accept me and my coven in our entirety, in this form and every form, and you’ll relish the thought of living in this form with me for eternity.”

Bex’s voice never rose above a low rumble, but the power in her voice shook the earth. I could feel it press against my chest and the vibration of her will hurt my heart.

Walker cringed. He must have felt her power, too.

Abruptly, the pressure against my heart lifted, Bex stepped back into the shadows, and Walker and I were left alone in the woods in a void of utter silence.

I squinted into the darkness. “Bex?” I whispered, but I couldn’t see or hear anything to indicate whether she was still present. Walker looked up into the trees and around at the surrounding woods. The sun had nearly set during our conversation, so the trees’ shadows were longer and beginning to merge into one blanket of darkness.

My phone vibrated.

Shit
, I thought. That was likely Dominic, impatient with how I’d ended our last conversation, but now wasn’t the time or the place to talk. My stomach knotted, hoping that Dominic had found a lead on Nathan. I knew he probably hadn’t. I knew that he believed Nathan was dead, but knowing didn’t loosen the knot. I wondered, not for the first time, how long I could hold on to only hope.