Butch traced the marks and stains on the carpet. “The only explanation is that she somehow used the last of her strength to get out and dematerialize to Safe Place.”

“How did she know to go there?” Paradise whispered. “I mean … thank God.”

“She must have heard about us somehow,” Marissa replied. “I just wish we could have saved her.”

V came into the room. “I just got a text from Tohr and Rhage. They’re fighting, it’s a bad skirmish. I’ve gotta go be backup—Butch. You’ve got to come with me. This is an emergency.”

Butch gritted his teeth and dropped a couple of f-bombs. But then he looked at Marissa. “You okay?”

Staring right at him, she said roughly, “As long as we can find out who did this, I’ll be goddamn fine.”

He gave her a quick, hard hug and felt a wellspring of pride in his chest. And then he gave her a very sad series of tasks.

“I want you to get a list of people she knew, human and vampire, from him.” He nodded at Peyton. “Then photograph everything with your phone. The whole fucking place. Touch nothing, disturb nothing. Lock up all the doors you can. Leave from the terrace. Then go to the parents’ house. They have a right to know tonight.”

“I’m on it,” she said.

Yes, he thought, she was.

God, he loved her. Hated this situation … but love, love, loved her.

One more kiss … and he was heading back down to his car, trying to shift his focus from one kind of emergency to another.

Chapter Forty-two

As Marissa talked to Peyton about who his cousin had been associating with, Paradise borrowed the female’s phone and went through the whole place taking photographs. With every shot she captured, she thought of what she knew about the dead girl. Technically, Allishon was her cousin, too, and though it was a more distant connection than Peyton’s, the loss was still acute.

Especially because she’d seen that bed.

Good … God. Such violence.

In about fifteen minutes, she had covered the bedroom, the bathroom, the hall, and the living room—and she was turning around to do the kitchen when she saw something down on the floor.

As the place was white all over, the flash of color by the edge of the sofa really caught her eye.

Sinking onto her haunches, she pulled out … an old-fashioned Polaroid snapshot.

With a frown, she realized it was … red and pink. Just like the one that she’d found on the bus.

The one she’d put in her satchel after Peyton had said it wasn’t his.

“What is that?” Peyton asked. “Paradise? You gonna be sick?”

She stood up and went across to him.

“It’s a picture…” As she showed the thing to him, she wondered if maybe she were jumping to conclusions. Maybe there was another explanation. “Ah, it’s like the one I found, you know, on the bus.”

“Whatever. Are you finished with the pictures? We have to go talk to Allie’s parents now. I need to get this over with before I lose my fucking mind.”

“Two secs.” She put the photo in her jacket without thinking about it and started snapping images of the kitchen. “I’m almost done.”

“She has the ashes,” Peyton murmured in a voice that cracked. “Marissa has them.”

Paradise lowered the phone. “Oh … God.”

“She just left to go change and pick them up before you and I head over there. I wish I had a joint with me. I didn’t think…” He began opening cupboards. “Oh, thank fuck.”

As he took out a bottle of vodka and slipped it into his coat, she wanted to remind him they weren’t supposed to disturb anything, but come on. Like she was going to bust his balls for not following the rules on a night like tonight?

“Peyton, what else can I do?”

His eyes drifted back to hers. “It is what it is. Thank you for coming with me, though.”

With a grim nod, she took one last snapshot of the empty sink and bare counters. “Here. Um, where’s Craeg?”

“He’s in the bedroom still.”

“Peyton … I’m so sorry.”

They met in the middle and held each other tightly. She wanted to tell him that it was going to be okay, but that was already not true.

“I love you,” he said.

“I love you, too.”

Stepping away from him, she went to the apartment’s front door, locked things up with her mind and then proceeded with him back down to the bedroom.

Craeg was where he’d been standing for the longest time, and as she went to him, she put her hand on his arm. “You all right?”

“Yeah.” He turned to Peyton, breaking the contact. “Hey, man, you need anything … I’m here for you.”

Peyton went over to the male and they exchanged a hard embrace, and then all of them were out on the terrace in the stiff wind coming off the river.

Peyton left first. And then Craeg pivoted to her.

“Long night—I’d better go back. Peyton hit the training center up for me on his phone and I need to meet the bus ASAP.”

“Oh … okay.” But come on, what did she expect? There had been a tragedy. Now was not the time for a long, romantic good-bye for godsakes. “So … anyway, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow night? Will you call me this morning, though? I’m going to change, then help Peyton tell the family.”