Blood Vow (Black Dagger Legacy #2)(122)

Stepping over the threshold, that first impression of white everything gained traction. Even the carpet was the color of a sheet of paper. And as her eyes adjusted, she focused on the bed across the way. The sheets were gone. So were the pillows. There was nothing but a headboard and a mattress.

“You want me to turn a light on?” Axe asked.

“Yes, please.”

Still, she jumped when illumination flooded the bedroom.

Oh … blessed Virgin Scribe. There were stains on that mattress, most of them at the top of it, by the headboard. And there were footprints that were brown on the carpet. Another brown smudge on the doorjamb.

It was as if the violence had been filtered through the passage of time, drained of most, but not all, of its characteristics.

The remnants were more than enough.

Wrapping her arms around herself even though it wasn’t cold, Elise walked out of the bedroom and down a short hall. The living room was also done in white with those same filmy drapes and a set of all-white furniture. The galley kitchen was unremarkable, the counters clean, nothing really in the cabinets. The refrigerator was empty.

No blood to be seen. But that was no relief, really.

“She came here to do drugs,” Elise said to Axe as he loomed in the hall. “This was her party house, apparently. And one night … she brought back someone.…”

Not just someone, she reminded herself. Anslam. One of their own, and not only because he was a vampire, but because he was a high-bred member of the aristocracy.

Had been, at any rate.

And now they were both dead.

Elise took her time going around and around, pacing through the limited floor plan, even though she didn’t know exactly what she was trying to make sense of. It was, she supposed, yet another example of how having all the education in the world about emotions didn’t necessarily help when your own were raw and damaged.

Heading back into the bedroom, she went for the closet. She had to. It was almost like closing the loop, her stepping into the walk-in and looking at … emptiness.

There was nothing but a couple of jackets hanging off the rods and a formal gown pooling on the floor.

Allishon must have come here after one of the glymera’s grand events. Stripped her mask of civilization off. And proceeded to …

“So sad,” Elise murmured as she went over and picked up the red swath of satin.

It wasn’t a fancy dress, though. It turned out to be a cloak, one that had beautiful trim and buttons of mother-of-pearl—

As she went to hang it up on a hanger, something knocked her in the leg.

“Ow.” She looked through the folds, wondering what was hanging off the cloak—or perhaps in a hidden pocket. “Okay, that hurt—”

Elise frowned as she took out a large piece of black metal from the lining. It was oddly shaped and heavy … kind of like a key, but not really.

“Did you find something?” Axe asked from behind her.

“I don’t know.” She held the thing out. “What do you think this is?”

When he didn’t answer, she glanced at him and then rolled the object over in her palm. “Is it some kind of self-defense weapon? It isn’t like there’s a blade in here or … maybe it’s a key, except not to any door I’ve ever seen.”

“I don’t know. But I think we should go.”

“Yes.”

She was tempted to take whatever it was with her. But she didn’t want to have to explain, if she was found with the object, why she had gone to Allishon’s and nosed around.

Putting the weight back in the pocket of that cloak, she stepped out of the closet and shut the walk-in’s door.

Going over to a stuffed chair, she sat down and stared at the bed. “Thank you for coming with me.”

She was acutely aware of Axe standing by the sliding glass door they’d come in through, his big body taking up nearly all of the slider’s expanse.

“I really appreciate it.” She shook her head as she imagined what had happened in the room. “I guess … you know, I had to come here.”

“Yeah.”

“I think I can let her go now. I’ve taken this as far as I can—this is the dead end that means stop for me. I just have to mourn her in my own way. Maybe I’ll even do some version of a Fade ceremony for her.” She took a deep breath. “It’s funny, I feel closer to her now than I did when she was alive—and all mourning is private, isn’t it. We all do it in our own ways for our dead. And she was mine. Close or not, she was my blood and nothing will change that.”

Axe stayed quiet, but that was probably because he didn’t know the right thing to say—and she could understand that. Except then he gave her something more important than words.

He came over to her, kneeling down and reaching out his arms.

As she went into him, up against him, she sighed with gratitude.

Sometimes, you didn’t need the right syllables.

You just needed the right person.





FORTY-SEVEN


“So you don’t mind if I go to your house?” Elise asked a little while later.

She and Axe were back down on the street, the apartment shut up again, the memories of having walked through those rooms stained on Elise’s brain forever—even as a fragile peace began taking root in her heart.