Page 33 of Dead Beat

Blink.

“Do you want to watch?”

Blink. Blink.

She couldn’t say she understood, but she could oblige.

When Darlington returned with the chains, Tripp and Dawes were with him.

“What interesting company you keep,” Kittscher said when he caught sight of Tripp.

“What is he?” Tripp asked. “He’s not a vampire.”

Alex was surprised. “You can tell?”

Dawes had already knelt next to the real Theo, checking his pulse. “This is … This is unspeakable.”

“Can you take him in the other room?” Alex asked.

Dawes nodded. “What are you going to do?”

“Ask Not Rudy some questions.”

“And if he doesn’t answer?”

“Do you really want to know?”

She shook her head.

While Darlington and Tripp secured the chains, Dawes wheeled Theo down the hall and into one of the bedrooms, and Alex followed.

“Can you help him?” she whispered.

“I don’t know. He’s … This is very bad. I don’t know if the process can be reversed, even if we brought him back to Il Bastone and used Hiram’s Crucible. Try to learn everything you can about what this is. I thought vampires killed their prey.”

“Theo … I feel like an asshole asking, but I need to know for sure. Did he … Did Kittscher ever drink your blood?”

Blink. Blink.

Tripp was hovering in the doorway. “If Kittscher isn’t a vampire, maybe I don’t have to be one anymore.”

“He might be something worse.”

Tripp nodded slowly, his expression glum. “I don’t like bullies.”

“Me neither.”

“I don’t want to be a bully.”

“We won’t let that happen.”

Tripp looked up then, and his eyes glittered with what might have been desperation or threat. “Why are you so sure you can stop me?”

“Because you’re not a killer, Tripp,” she said with more confidence than she felt. “Your albatross protected some of your soul. I believe that.”

“I let Spenser die.”

“Spenser tried to kill you.”