“Shit,” Zoe says and sits up. “We’re out of time, Sin. He’s going to take another woman tonight.”
“I know.” Throwing the phone down on the bed, I hold her close. I need one more moment with her. One more embrace. One more kiss. “Promise me something, Zoe.”
She tips her gaze to mine, uncertainty and so much more churning in her green eyes. Concern. confusion. Maybe even…love. “What?”
“You will be careful today. Stay by my side. Do not take unnecessary risks.” Capturing her lower lip between my teeth, I bite down just hard enough for her to feel it for the rest of the day. Everything I am belongs to her. It always will.
“I’m a cop,” she says when she pulls back, her cheeks flushed. “I still am, even though I carry a different badge. My job is to take risks to protect the innocent. If I don’t, they die, and I can’t—“
“This is different,” I say sharply. “This is Thorn. Even a single risk could get you killed.”
“You’re not my keeper, Sin. You’re my…” She stares down at our linked fingers, then lets her gaze rove over my chest. “You’re my partner. But you’re also more. Something…we haven’t figured out yet.”
Say it. Please. Do not get out of this bed without remembering who you are.
“I’ll be careful.” She brushes her lips over a long scar just below my collarbone. “Because I want to figure it out. Figure us out.”
It is not enough, but at the same time, more than I could have hoped for. More than I had centuries ago. More than I may ever have again.
Zoe slides from my embrace and runs a hand through her mussed curls. “I need a shower.” Her lips curve into a smile. “I don’t suppose you’d like to join me?”
Before she can take another step, I scoop her up and cradle her to my chest. “I would like nothing more.”
Zoe
Every step is pure torture with Sin next to me. It’s like my body is completely attuned to his presence, and my swollen lower lips rub against my clit as we walk up Castro to the crime scene.
Focus, Zoe. Someone is dead, and you’re thinking about banging your demon partner again. Ridiculous. You’re a fucking cop. Act like it.
He took me twice in the shower, then made me coffee while I dressed and tried to calm myself down. On the way here, he stopped so I could get a breakfast sandwich, and now, he stays close but doesn’t touch me. I think he’s afraid if he does, we’ll be all over one another again and won’t be able to stop.
There’s something more in his blue eyes this morning, though.
Fear.
We don’t need to show our badges to the crime scene crew. They recognize us, and what I now know are magical wards that hide the street from view admit us into a private, gruesome cocoon.
The young woman’s body isn’t arranged as reverently as Jacinda’s. No. She was dumped. Quickly and without ceremony. Her arms and legs are tangled and broken, her skin scraped along elbows, knees, and her bare shoulder, and a long, thin piece of white silk is wrapped tightly around her neck.
Crouching next to her, I stare at the hollow sockets where her eyes would have been, and the all-too-familiar nausea burns its way up my throat until Sin grasps my shoulder.
“Look at me, Zoe. Only me.”
Snapping my gaze to his, I rein in my panic. “I’m all right. Really.”
“No, you are not,” he says with a small shake of his head. “But we do not have time for that discussion now.” Snapping on a glove, he reaches over the body for a moment. “There. I have lowered her lids. Now look at her and tell me what you see.”
Taking a single, slow breath, I return my focus to the woman. “She’s in much worse shape than Jacinda. Probably held for longer. Emaciated. Recent, rapid weight loss. Her skin is pale, but there are signs she used to have a tan, so she was probably in the dark for weeks.”
A chill starts deep inside me, like a ball of ice in my belly. The snap of padlocks echoes in my ears. Chains. I can feel metal bars all around me, and I suck in a sharp breath. “We need to turn her over,” I rasp.
“Zoe…”
“No. Now.” I wave the crime scene technicians closer. “Do it. Please.”
The two mages dressed all in black chant words I don’t understand, and the body rises, spins in mid-air, and then settles back onto the concrete. Sin is still wearing a glove, and pulls the woman’s dark brown hair off her neck.
The faery tattoo glows in the sunlight, and Sin swears quietly behind me, because drawn on her lower back in what looks like permanent marker is another image. An orange blossom. “He will take another tonight. He is practically gloating about it. Get the body to the morgue,” he snaps at the mages. “And tell Dr. Breslin that we need to know exactly how old the tattoo is. Have her run tests on the ligature marks as well.”
Standing, I scan the street around us. “Traffic cameras. There’s one on the corner, and another at the next block. We need the footage. Maybe we can get a make and model on whatever car was used to dump her.”
Sin strips off his glove and tosses it into the small trash bag the techs have set up at the edge of the perimeter. “Come. We need to get to the Bureau. There, we can find everything we need.”
We’ve been at this all day, and we still have no answers. The woman’s hands were so damaged, the medical examiner couldn’t even pull her prints. She was Fae. At least one hundred and thirty years old.
“The tattoo was done over two weeks ago,” Sin says as he drops his phone onto his desk. “And from the weight loss, Breslin believes she was held for a day, maybe two longer than that.”
“How can she tell?” My head is pounding, and I drain my fourth cup of coffee, knowing it’s just going to make things worse.
“Some calculation having to do with how dehydrated the woman was when the mark was made.” He rubs the back of his neck, then stares up at the ceiling. “The timeline fits with what I can remember. Thorn wants the women weak and terrified before he marks them. Broken enough that the pain will often push them over the edge, but not so broken they do not fight him. He…enjoys…the fight.”
“Sin…” Reaching across the desk, I brush his fingers with mine. “You didn’t do this. Remember that.”
“But I did. When I chose not to kill him all those years ago. When I failed to protect—“ He jerks his hand away. “I need some air. Do not leave the Bureau. Do you understand? You are safe here. He cannot get to you behind these wards.”
“Where are you going?” I ask, rushing to follow him as he strides towards the door.
“To see an angel.”
I snag his wrist. “He’s after you too, you know. Wouldn’t we be safer…together?”
Sin steps into the fading sunlight, but then turns, bands an arm around my waist, and pulls me close. “You are safest here. Promise me,” he growls then kisses me like he’s afraid he’s never going to see me again. “You will stay.”
“I’ll stay,” I gasp when he lets go. “The commander’s handing out assignments for tonight’s stakeout in an hour. Be back by then, okay?”