33

“Where were you when Harrison was attacked?” Elena asked point-blank, then gave him the date and time of the assault.

Jade frowned . . . before flashing a smile wide enough to show fang. “I have an alibi. Fucker picked a perfect day to nearly get dead—otherwise I might’ve been working alone in my apartment.” Retrieving his phone, he brought up a photograph of a pretty black woman wearing pink lipstick that matched her pink dress, her gaze coy and her lashes long. “I was on a date with this sweet thing.”

“You have her contact information?”

“Sure—we met on Fang Love.”

“The vampire dating site?” Elena looked him up and down. “Why do you need a dating site?” Jade might have sticky fingers, but he also had the sexy-danger thing going on and he had money to burn.

He ran his hand down his lapel, his smile pleased at the implied compliment. “I work and work. No time to meet women in the clubs—and I want to meet a nice girl, not one of the barflies. Senataye and I went to that little blood café in Soho.”

That “little blood café” was part of Elena’s accidental business investment that had struck a vein of gold. What had started off as a source of cheap blood in the Vampire Quarter had expanded into multiple outlets across the country—including a high-end boutique in Soho that offered premium blood and was open twenty-four hours a day.

Marcia Blue, the publicity-shy brains behind the entire thing, was already planning blood café world domination.

Elena knew their properties had surveillance cameras, so Jade’s alibi would be easy enough to check. She also knew that a vampire as wealthy as Jade could’ve hired an assassin to do the dirty work for him—however, that didn’t dovetail with the personal nature of the threat against Beth and Maggie. “Why didn’t you ever go after Harrison?”

“Well, first,” Jade said, “I was too busy begging and screaming at Andreas that I was sorry.” His face hardened again, eyes flat. “Then, after I’d healed enough to get even, the imbecile ran off on his half-witted escape attempt.”

No one, Elena thought, should be able to switch moods that quickly. “Talking of imbeciles—stealing from Andreas? What were you on?”

He groaned. “High on my own bullshit. I want to go back in time and slap myself stupid.”

“I like you better for owning your idiocy.” In reality, she was fairly sure Jade was a sociopath with very little actual empathy for anyone beyond himself.

“It was either that or stay an idiot like Harry.” Snorting, he looked out over the snow-blanketed shadows of Central Park. “By the time a hunter dragged him back home, and Andreas got through with punishing him, time was dragging on. Because then, I had to wait for him to heal, because what use was it beating him to a pulp if he started off as pulp anyway?”

“Understandable.”

Laughter that melted the green and made her understand why nice-girl Senataye had accepted a date with a man who probably saw her as a trophy. “And then, when he finally wasn’t a sack of broken bones anymore, I had my fingers in other pies.” An avaricious gleam in his eyes. “That was when I realized the smug shit had done me a favor. After Andreas terminated my contract, I couldn’t even get a job cleaning toilets. Angels blacklisted me.”

“Big, fat motive right there. Lots of prestige working for a senior angel.”

“Sure, but a lot more prestige being a big man on my own.” Jade flashed his fangs. “I was fucked after clearing my debt to Andreas, lived on cheap blood, and used what funds I had left to set up an online gaming enterprise designed for long plays, bets that last years. It. Took. Off.”

Taking out his phone again, the vampire showed her his figures. “No other site caters to immortal gamblers like this, and the best thing is, I collect my money from every angle. Registration fee, per-bet fee, yearly renewal fees for long bets, cut of final winnings. And the membership keeps growing.”

Elena folded her arms. “You’re telling me you got too busy to worry about vengeance? Like Andreas, you don’t seem the forgiving type.”

“I know, I know, it sounds like pure bull.” Jade held up his hands. “But I like money and the power that comes with it—that’s what got me in trouble in the first place. Not that I wouldn’t enjoy pounding on Harry if he appeared in front of me, but I’m not going to waste my valuable time hunting him down.”

“Say I believe you,” Elena said, because the money angle did make sense in light of his personality. “If you didn’t have any reason to harm Harrison, do you know anyone else who did?”

“No one with enough balls to creep into his house and slit his throat,” he said after several seconds’ thought. “And when his kid could’ve walked in on it? Ice fucking cold.” Elena didn’t think she was imagining the hint of admiration in his tone. “I was the only big fish he tried to sink. Others were all small fry, admin, maids, trainees. No one dangerous or physically inclined.”

Elena felt like kicking the balcony railing. She found Jade disturbing, but her instincts said he was telling her the truth.

Another dead end.

“I have been a bad host.” Jade straightened. “May I offer you a glass of wine, or a cup of coffee, if you prefer?”

“No. I’ll be on my way.” She’d tell Vivek to keep an eye on Jade electronically, see if he made any questionable moves financial or otherwise, but she didn’t expect Vivek to turn up anything relevant to the murders. “Thank you for your time.”

Even as Jade turned to walk her back to the front door, Elena pulled herself over the side of the railing, spreading out her wings as she fell. Five gargoyles detached from the building to join her. She caught Jade’s startled face looking down at her as she angled up, and she raised one hand in good-bye.

Smile bright and as happy as she figured someone that cold-blooded ever got, he waved back with something in his hand. It glimmered white-gold with a hint of another color.

That was one of her primaries.

Stomach falling and face going scalding hot before chilling to a shiver, she told herself losing another primary feather wasn’t a problem. Molting then growing new feathers could be part of the process. Birds did that, didn’t they?

She felt Jade’s eyes of stone track her in the air. And she thought that if she was ever powerless, he’d have no compunction in ripping off her feathers to sell to the highest bidder. As for his success, it didn’t eliminate the black mark against his name. No invites to big angelic events for Jade, she bet. A self-confessed “big man” would be enraged by the insult.

If he proved innocent of the murders, she’d have to make it clear to him that Harrison and his family were off-limits forever. Jade would never forget what Harrison had done, but he was also too clever to set himself up against an archangel. Beth, Maggie, and Harrison would be safe.

Calling the Soho blood boutique, she asked the manager to check the security files to confirm Jade’s alibi. “No need,” the manager said. “I remember him because he ordered our most expensive bottle. The five thousand dollar Blood Noir.”

“Christ, what the hell are we selling, liquid gold?”

“Almost. Marcia talked an older angel into donating a cup of his blood—each bottle has a droplet. Most vamps will never get near angelic blood, so . . .”

“Do I want to know how Marcia convinced this angel?”

“She traded looking over his business plan.”

“Then the angel got a good deal.” Marcia was still more diffident than she should be, but that woman’s brain. “No mistake on Jade’s attendance at that time?”

“None. We also had a proposal in the café that day. Made my cynical heart go pitter-patter.”

Ending the conversation, Elena was about to put away her phone when a message from Vivek pinged onto the screen: Order from Nisia on threat of her wrath—you need to eat regardless of the earlier situation. Montgomery’s been alerted.

Elena didn’t feel hungry, but with her feathers falling off, she wasn’t about to chance fate. She landed at the Enclave home minutes later. While the Legion went to poke around in her greenhouse, she scratched at the spot on her chest that continued to itch. “It’s probably a mosquito bite,” she muttered to the white owl that had landed with her. “The original vampires.”

The owl yawned, looking very real and not a ghost of Cassandra’s cherished birds.

After eating the meal Sivya had prepared, she checked to ensure she hadn’t lost any more primaries. Only when she’d confirmed that did she take off in a glide across the Hudson. Before she did anything else, she had to see Beth; she knew regardless of who else was around Beth, her sister would be waiting for her. Always, in the end, she would look to her big sister.

A quick exchange of messages told her the entire family was at a small neighborhood park.

Reaching the park, she spotted Maggie running around in the churned-up snow with two other children. Sparks glinted off her favorite pink woolen hat with woven silver threads, and her little body was clad in the pink coat with big glittery buttons that she loved almost as much as the hat. She was also wearing her matching snow boots, the perfect little pink princess.

Elena wondered if she’d grow up that way, or if she’d rebel in her teenage years, and drive Beth to distraction. Her lips quirked at imagining a goth Maggie, complete with a pierced lip and a tattoo designed to infuriate Mom and Dad. Elena looked forward to watching her niece’s journey, and seeing who she became. One thing was certain—no matter where Maggie chose to go or the path she decided to follow, Beth’s love would remain a fierce force of nature. She would never abandon her baby.

Elena’s landing caused squeals of glee, with Maggie running up to hug her legs. “Tag!” she cried out. “You’re it, Auntie Ellie!”

Making a growling face, Elena said, “Run!” The children took off while she pretended to chase them as fast as she could. She saw one of the other parents take photos, and, after the game was over and the children went back to playing on the available equipment, she asked the woman if she could see the images.

As she looked through them, she quietly deleted the ones that featured Maggie, leaving the woman with only those that showed her own child with Elena. It was unlikely the beaming woman would even notice, she’d taken so many shots.

That done, she went over to where Beth sat in a child-sized swing, her feet dragging heavily on the ground.

“Afraid I can’t push you on that one, Bethie.”

Her sister rose to lean into her. Elena wrapped her up in her arms . . . and she hoped to hell that she’d be there for Beth as time continued its inexorable march. As Maggie grew. As Harrison healed.

Because she’d just seen another feather float to the ground.