The sweet-sick smell of charred flesh reached Aliza before she had her airboat docked. It was almost enough to make her puke up the blood of the two homeless men she’d drained. Almost. A small flock of turkey vultures sat preening on the peak of the metal roof. Dread wormed through her belly, but she shoved it aside. There were plenty of good reasons for those birds. This was the Glades, after all. Stuff was always showing up dead.

She hopped out of the boat and bounded up the stairs, her old bones no longer a concern with her new vampire strength. The wooden door was open, leaving just the screen door between her and the inside. Through it, she could see into the living room.

A pair of female legs lay sprawled on the floor, hidden from the knees up by the kitchen wall. The dragonfly tattoo on the left ankle caused a sob to choke her.

With a howl, she ran into the house, almost tripping over her own feet with the speed. She threw herself down on the floor beside Evie. Pain wracked Aliza’s body in waves. Pain so strong it shook her bones and dimmed her vision. Her only child lay lifeless before her, eyes staring up at the ceiling, a softball-sized hole burned into her chest.

She scooped Evie into her arms. Her body had already begun to stiffen. Aliza buried her head against Evie’s neck and cried loud, hard tears. Life was damn unfair. She’d just gotten her daughter back from her stone prison. Now someone had murdered her in cold blood.

Rocking back and forth, Aliza wept until her tears dried up and the sobs wracking her body faded away. She eased Evie’s body back to the floor and stared at her without really seeing much but her beautiful face. At last, Aliza reached out and closed Evie’s eyes.

The hole in her chest had been made by magic. The kind of magic only a witch could produce. Aliza looked toward the side of her house. Beyond that wall sat the houses of her coven members. One of them had done this. There was no other explanation. She got up to take an inventory of the house, see what had been so valuable that it had cost Evie her life.

The demon was gone. She picked up a shard of the shattered aquarium. So that was it. Someone had stolen the demon to get the power that came with owning the creature. But how? Aliza’s and Evie’s blood had formed the spell that held the creature. The only way that spell could be broken was if Aliza and Evie were both dead. Aliza slammed her fist into the floor. She was dead. She was a damn vampire. With Evie gone, too, the spell on the demon was broken.

Why would someone kill Evie if not to have the demon for themselves? Had one of her coven seen her go into town? Wasn’t like she made a secret of it. Too hard to hide an airboat anyway. Maybe someone had followed her, seen her go into the church, then watched the vampire take her body out and figured with her gone, her house was easy pickings. Aliza glanced back at her dead daughter, and a new sob wracked her chest. The old metal TV tray lay to one side, blackened and burned.

Evie had tried to stop them. And gotten killed for it. “Oh, Evie child. I’m gonna find who did this and I’m going to make them pay.”

Aliza headed for the door and noticed for the first time the gouges in the kitchen’s linoleum. She bent down to run her fingers over one. Beside it were dried brown spots she instantly knew were blood. She licked her finger, then rubbed it on one spot and brought it to her mouth. Animal blood. It had the same earthy tang as the dog’s.

Her newly keen sense of sight picked out a few small black hairs a little farther away. She gathered as many as she could and sniffed them. Why would a big cat be in her house? Because that big cat was actually a varcolai out for revenge. And the only black-furred varcolai she could think of who knew where she lived and had a reason to want either of them dead was the one she’d had under her smoke spell.

Doc. The same low-down, dirty dealer who’d sold her poor Evie the drugs that had turned her into stone for all those years. Wasn’t that enough? Did he have to kill her, too?

Maybe the demon had ended that miserable leopard. But she knew better. There wasn’t enough blood on the floor for her to believe there’d been a killing blow.

She stood up and stared out the door, a thousand things going through her head. She had to bury her daughter, but as soon as Evie was laid to rest proper, Aliza was going to hunt down that leopard and skin him alive. If she could get the smoke spell working again, finding him would be a snap.

Then she’d go back to that vampire who thought he’d killed her and show him just how wrong he was. Come hell or deep water, that vampire child was going to be hers.

Chapter Twenty-one

Doc stretched, trying to shake the sleep holding on to him. He opened his eyes, blinking a few times to clear the fog. Fi sat at the end of the bed, leaning against the footboard. Her eyes were closed, her mouth slightly open. She flickered like an old-fashioned movie. He smiled. His girl. Safe. That was good. Damn good.

He shifted into his human form, then propped his head on his hand and studied her. Letting her sleep was the right thing to do. She’d probably been up to all hours after he’d seen her at the church. He wasn’t sure how she’d even found him there, but his girl was resourceful. And braver than he’d ever imagined. His smile faded, remembering the night they’d had there. And the rest of his. It was over now. With Aliza and Evie both dead, that chapter of his life was closed. Permanently.

He nudged Fi with his foot. She could snooze later. “Hey, sleepyhead,” he said softly.

“Hmm?” She opened her eyes and the flickering stopped. “Hey, yourself. You’re awake. And human. How do you feel?”