The Thief

“Hello, Aarone,” Jane said as she entered. “I’m Dr. Jane Whitcomb, and this is my mate, Vishous, who has medical training. I’m here to speak with you about your brother—”

“Half-brother.” The male looked at Vishous. Looked back. “He’s my half-brother, but we’re very close. What’s going on? I got this phone call and I came here, but no one’s telling me—is Whinnig okay?”

The words came out in a rush, his anxiety clearly overcoming him.

“May I have your permission to speak with Vishous present?” When the male nodded, she approached him. “Is it all right for me to sit down next to you?”

“Yes, of course.” Aarone got to his feet and offered his palm for a shake. “Forgive my manners.”

Jane took a seat and waited until he’d resettled and those pale eyes came back to her. And then she spoke. “I’m so sorry, your brother has gone unto the Fade.”

She used the traditional vampire way of communicating death, out of respect, and the reaction was immediate. The male began to tremble, his eyes glassing over with tears.

“What—how? He was perfectly healthy. I just had First Meal with him a couple of hours ago. How did this happen?”

* * *

—

Jane handled the sad business like a total professional, and as Vishous stood with his back against the door—in case Havers got any bright ideas—he could only respect his mate even more. She told the male what happened event by event, with a calm, firm voice. And as for the parts that couldn’t be explained, she owned up to them and fielded the questions as best she could.

And then the male looked across at V. “You don’t know what it was that attacked him? I don’t understand?”

Vishous cleared his throat. “The only conclusion we can draw at this time is that the Omega is changing its strategy and sending something new out into the field.” Even though those entities had not read as part of the evil one, what else could be behind them? “We will get to the bottom of this, though—I promise you.”

The young male burst up and paced around in the tight quarters. “And meanwhile, I have no body to bury. Just a nightmare story and a whole lot of I-don’t-knows.”

“I’m sorry,” Vishous said remotely.

Jane handled the anger better than he did. “I realize this is very hard. I lost a sibling myself, and frankly, I’m still not over it. I really wish we had more for you, I truly do.”

The male stopped and faced her. “How do I know that Whinnig made it unto the Fade?”

“Was he a kind male? A just and kind male?”

Those tears, the ones that had come before the anger, reemerged. “Whinnig was the best. He was my closest friend. We went everywhere together. We have always been inseparable—especially after all of our parents were…they didn’t make it through the raids.”

V closed his eyes in commiseration. So much fucking loss. He fucking hated the Omega, he really did—

Vishous flipped his lids back open. “Tell me something, did your brother mention where he was going tonight?”

If they were inseparable, where had Aarone been?

“He was meeting someone. I don’t know who, though.” The male looked over. “He never had anything to do with the Lessening Society, if that’s where you’re going with this.”

“Not at all. I was just wondering.”

At least they had the cell phone that had been used to call for help. V was going to go through that as soon as he could. Look for numbers. Contacts. Although come on, like the Omega was going to reach out and touch people through a goddamn phone call?

“And it’s such bad luck, what with that will,” Aarone said.

“What will?” V asked.

The young male dragged a hand through his hair. “We had different mahmen, Whinnig and I. He was born first and his mahmen died on the birthing bed. We found out, like a week ago, that his uncle on that side of his family had recently died and left him this huge estate? My brother and I are…we are well off, it is true. But he invited me to go to celebrate this windfall with him. We were going to travel, get out of Caldwell during this winter weather…but that is not going to happen anymore.”

V measured the male again. The clothes were fine, that cashmere coat and those fancy loafers the kind of thing that required cash and taste to afford. And the accent was straight-up glymera, all the way.

“Who was the uncle?” V said.

The name given didn’t ring any bells. But then the aristocracy’s shit was not something he had ever much bothered with.

Jane spoke up. “I’d like to suggest you speak with a counselor, Aarone. The clinic here has a number of them on staff. They can really help with grief.”

“I don’t want to talk to anyone.”

“Just keep it in mind. And if you have any questions, or you want to speak with me again, all you have to do is ask and I’ll be here.” There was an awkward pause. “Do you have someone who can pick you up? Help you get home?”

More with the hair dragging. “My girlfriend is at my house. It’s our two-year anniversary. She’s supposed to be getting something ready for us, and that’s the only reason I didn’t go out with Whinnig tonight. Bad timing, huh.”

“How about we call her and ask her to come get you?” Jane offered.

“I’m fine.”

Jane got to her feet and put her hand on the male’s shoulder. “I think it would be best for you not to be alone right now. This is a bad shock made so much worse with everything we don’t know.”

After a moment, the male stared up at Jane. “Was it a brother or a sister? The one you lost?”

“It was my little sister, Hannah. She died when she was young, but I remember everything.”

“And you’re not over it.”

Jane shook her head. “No. But that doesn’t mean I’m not living my life, either. We take our dead with us through our lives, and that’s the way it should be. And again, if you believe the good and the just go to the Fade, then your brother is there. Believe in that. How he died doesn’t change who he was, do you understand? No matter what happened, it was not his fault and it will not change his afterlife.”

There was another pause, and then the male got to his feet and threw his arms around Jane. As the pair of them stood together, V looked down at the floor out of respect.

And thought of his mahmen for no good reason.

FORTY-FIVE

As Sola stood outside her grandmother’s patient room—which was just two doors down from where Assail had been, she decided she never, ever wanted to see the inside of this facility again. Between her experience after the abduction, coming here for Assail…and now this?

She was beyond done—and praying that the three-strikes-and-you’re-out rule applied.

“He’s been in there for so long.” She looked over at Assail, who was beside her. “I mean, what are they doing to her?”

Dr. Manello had been amazing, getting them here in record time, running more tests, checking everything. But it had been hell. Sola hated limbos when they didn’t matter. When it was something like this? Having no firm footing was flat-out unbearable.

As she stared at the closed door, she tried to see through the panel. When the whole X-ray vision thing didn’t work, she gave mind reading a shot—and also got nowhere. Finally, in desperation, she attempted to see into the future.

Total no-go. So much for superpowers.

“No matter what it is,” Assail said softly, “we will deal with it. You are not alone.”

She refocused on him. He was staring at the ground, his face grim, his eyes unblinking. His profile was, as always, so striking, the angles of his cheekbones and his jaw so perfect, his jet-black hair a striking contrast to his skin, his brows an elegant slash.

Standing shoulder to shoulder with him, she realized that up until now she had always felt alone. Her grandmother was someone to take care of, someone to watch over, not a partner. And Sola’s biggest fear, when she had been on the wrong side of the law, had always been what would happen to her vovó if something happened to her. She was all the woman had.