Blood Vow (Black Dagger Legacy #2)(96)

“And having sex.” He cursed as if he didn’t want to go into it all. “She was fucking in public. With lots of different humans in lots of different ways. It was what she got off on—the real hardcore shit. And that club is where it happens in Caldie. She went there a lot.”

Elise couldn’t help but recoil at the thought of a place like that. Nothing she could handle, that was for sure.

No, she was into monogamy. With Axe, specifically.

But she didn’t judge, and again, she’d known that Allishon had different tastes than she did: “So … she went there, and someone found her and hurt her.”

“Anslam found her and killed her, you mean.”

Elise covered her mouth, her eyes popping wide. “Wait, Anslam—as in, hold on, our Anslam?” She’d known the male all her life. “But he was in the training program, wasn’t he? I heard he died during a mission. That’s what my father told me.”

“Not what happened.” Peyton stared across at the football game. “Not even close. You sure you want me to go into this?”

“Yes. I need to know.”

“Anslam was … hurting women and females … and taking their photographs while doing it. He hooked up with Allishon at some point, I don’t know when, exactly—neither of them said anything to me. And you know, clearly, something went down between them.…” Peyton trailed off, his head lowering, his voice going so soft, she could barely hear what he was saying. “I went to her apartment downtown after no one had heard from her for several nights. That’s when I found … how badly she’d been hurt. What had been done to her.”

At that point, he choked up, and Elise had to force herself to give him space to get control of his emotions—she had the sense that if she tried to console him or hug him, he was going to pull out of whatever he was remembering.

Peyton cleared his throat. “There was a lot of blood. On the sheets—I mean, the bed was stained with it. There were footprints of the stuff across the carpet, and the red smudges of handprints on the sliding glass door to the terrace. She didn’t die in the apartment, however. Somehow, she was able to dematerialize out of there. She was found on the lawn of Safe Place, that domestic violence shelter? She was in bad shape. They didn’t know who she was—took her to Havers. She passed there. But again … until I went to her apartment nights later, they didn’t know who she was.”

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

“Me, too. She must have been in so much pain.”

Elise closed her eyes. “And it must have been very hard for you to find all that.”

“I’ll be fine,” he clipped out.

Of course, he said this as he was pouring more liquor down his throat.

“And then,” Peyton continued, “see, one of those photographs fell out of Anslam’s pack on the bus to the training center and Paradise found it. She was the one who put the whole thing together—and Anslam tweaked to the fact that she knew too much. He went to her house and attacked her—nearly killed her, too. But she and Craeg took care of business. He died in her foyer. When they found even more photographs on him, it all … came together.”

Elise rubbed her eyes. “My father … when you came over that night, what did you tell him and my aunt and uncle?”

“It was fucking painful. Her parents were … frozen. I’ll never forget it—they didn’t show any … they were just emotionless. It was the shock. Clearly. Your father was the one who cried. Later, the Brotherhood visited them, after the rest of what happened came out. ’Cuz when I told them she had died, we didn’t know who had done it yet.”

Elise’s eyes teared up, as she pictured her father emotional.

“I think her parents blamed Allishon,” Peyton muttered. “Like it was her fault for getting herself killed. And you know … I felt like she was murdered all over again, with that attitude of theirs. I mean, someone offed her because they didn’t recognize her rights and humanity, but then putting it all on her? You do that all over again. And Christ, it’s her own parents.”

As they both fell silent, it was as if a pall settled in the suite.

“I told you it was better not to speak of this,” Peyton muttered.

“And I disagree completely.” She got to her feet and stalked around until she was right in front of the huge screen. Different teams were playing football now, the uniforms red and black and blue and white. “I think we need to talk about it. Not just as a family, but as a community.”

“When is the Fade ceremony?”

“I don’t think there is going to be one.”

“She has to be buried.”

“She was cremated. But I think that’s as far as it’s going to go.”

“Well, I still pray for her,” Peyton murmured, holding his glass up. “Blessings upon her soul, may she rest unto the Fade, that kind of shit. Usually when I’m drunk, which has been most of the time lately.”

“Have you thought about speaking to a therapist?” Elise said as she turned back to him. “This is a lot to hold in.”

“NFW—I’m going into the business of war. If I can’t handle blood and death, I might as well get out now—and I’m not going to do that.”