A Valley of Darkness (A Shade of Vampire #52)(22)

“Okay.” I nodded, waiting for him to turn and keep walking, but he didn’t. Instead, he kept his gaze fixed on me, as if trying to read my expression. “I trust your judgment, Heron.”

“Thank you,” he replied, his voice deep. “Now let’s… get back in there, dance and smile, and pretend everything’s okay.”

He took my hand again and guided me back to the service door through which we’d snuck out. We made it back inside without anyone noticing, and we stopped at the bar, where an Iman bartender served us flutes of fresh blood.

Heron was right, I thought, as I analyzed the crowd in the ballroom. These people were at risk, and someone high up was keeping Arrah from coming forward with what could be crucial information. The whole investigation had just gotten more complicated, with internal interests and the intervention of Correction Officers.

If I wanted to help Vincent get Sienna back, I had to reevaluate our approach to the case. Surely House Roho couldn’t be involved in whatever had happened to Arrah’s brother. This most likely had something to do with House Kifo. I saw Caspian moving through the crowd and instinctively looked for Harper.

I hoped she’d be able to get some information out of him, as he seemed to be at the core of this new development.

In the meantime, Heron and I had to continue pretending we were enjoying the Spring Ball, then report everything to our senior officers once we got back to the infirmary. Though, after that dance he’d swept me into earlier, to say I had to pretend to enjoy Heron’s company would be a barefaced lie.





Caia





(Daughter of Grace & Lawrence)





Rewa was quick to take Blaze onto the dancefloor, so I moved over to the edge, watching quietly as they danced through a couple of songs. I politely rejected the Maras who wanted to dance with me—of whom there were plenty. Occasionally, I saw Blaze giving me a brief glance, before Rewa said something to make him chuckle.

I couldn’t get rid of the knot in my stomach as I watched them together.

The mellow waltz ended, and Rewa excused herself. Blaze came over. His dark blue eyes scanned me carefully, and he didn’t say anything for a while.

“You know she likes you, right?” I said, my tone a little too flat for my liking.

“Who, Rewa?” Blaze cast a quick glance back at her over his shoulder, then frowned at me. “I, uh… I was thinking she’s just friendly.”

“You’re kidding,” I replied. “You can’t be that oblivious.”

He opened his mouth to reply, but stopped himself and took a couple more seconds to process my words. “Maybe you’re right,” he muttered, then sighed. “Great. Now how do I let her down easy?”

“You don’t,” I replied, barely able to stifle my discontentment with the situation. “You need to start asking her some questions that might help us with our investigation. The daemons, House Kifo’s law enforcement angle, the prison… Take your pick, there are plenty of topics. She’ll be chattier with you than with any of us.”

“I guess that’s true.”

“You bet it is,” I said, going over the signs I’d seen since she’d first landed on Calliope. That girl had been fawning over him from day one. “Rewa has such a massive soft spot for you that we can see it from space. I’m surprised you didn’t notice it earlier.”

“I don’t know.” He gave me a half-smile, then shrugged, before his gaze softened on me. “I guess I’ve been paying attention to other, more important things…”

My heart skipped a beat.

“Such as?”

What was I expecting him to say? Me?

“The investigation.” He raised an eyebrow, and the little glimmer of hope I’d felt blooming in my chest went away.

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, to help myself stay focused, though the way he looked in his suit made it difficult to think clearly. The deep blue silk brought out the midnight in his eyes, and I had a hard time looking away.

“She is more open to you than anyone else in GASP,” I continued, digging myself even deeper into the hole. “You’re the only one who can get her to spill the beans, if she has any to spill. Even unintentionally, because she’s more likely to be relaxed around you than any other Mara... You might as well take advantage of that, and question her.”

He nodded slowly, and then we both fell quiet, just looking at each other. We stood like that for what felt like forever. I followed the lines on his face, tracing the contours of his jaw, then found myself locked under his gaze again.

And I found myself wondering if I could summon enough courage to ask him to dance.

“Well, I’m, uh… glad we got that out of the way… How about a dance now?” I finally asked.

I was going for the cool approach, the “since we’re here” tactic, to mask my genuine interest. Blaze was naturally a quiet kind of guy, but his face often said more than his words. His gorgeous eyes widened slightly, and I could tell I’d taken him by surprise with that question, so I doubled down with a shrug, in a feeble attempt to not make a bigger deal out of it.

He blinked several times, and then his lips parted, as if he were about to reply. My heart began doing somersaults in my chest… and then crashed and broke something as Rewa reappeared out of nowhere, grasping Blaze’s arm, all glowing and giggling.