Page 52 of Cold Sacrifice

“Now you’re just pissing me off,” I told him.

He hung up.

“I have to go,” I told Rick. “The council beckons.”

“Be careful. Check in later.”

He was pale, and he flinched with pain whenever I moved. “Dammit, Rick. You should have told me I was hurting you.” Half the time, I forgot he was human.

“It was a good kind of pain,” he said, smiling, but his voice was strained.

I climbed off him as gently as possible, then leaned over to kiss him, lingering for a moment on his lips. Then I put the tray on his lap. “Eat, then sleep. I’ll see you in a little while.”

I stepped into the kitchen to tell everyone where I was going. “Lucy,” I said, “Rick’s eating, but he may need help getting out of the chair. I’m going to call Ben to come check him out.”

“I’ll take care of him,” she told me.

“I’ll help, too,” my mother said. “There’s no hurry for me to get back to Nigel. He’s always extra eager to see me when I’ve been gone for a while.” She winked. “If you know what I mean.”

“Ugh, Mother,” I said.

She shrugged. “I’m just saying. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, but a good hard pounding makes—”

“Mom,” I yelled. “Stop! My stomach is already upset enough.”

She frowned. “Oh, dear. Have some dinner before you go. That’ll settle the nausea.”

She wasn’t wrong. I didn’t want only the vampires’ blood, or the thought of it, sloshing around in my stomach. “I’ll take a plate with me and eat in the car.”

Ten minutes later I was heading out the door, a disposable container in my hand, and I looked up to see Doctor Hayes and his nurse, Belinda, walking toward me.

“Ben,” I said, surprised. “I was going to call you.”

He waved a hand. “Jared sent me to check on the detective. That man needs to refrain from fighting vampires, Kait.”

“He has just arrived at that conclusion himself,” I said. “Thanks, Ben.”

It was a night for decisions. I’d decided never to shift into the monstrous butterfly again. Shifting into other people was the worst thing I’d ever felt, but the butterfly was the worst thing I had ever become.

As Aaron drove me to the council, I ate my dinner and made my phone calls. I called Max and told him I needed the necromancer’s weaknesses and to find out everything he possibly could. Next I called Joe to update him—he was raging that he’d missed such a battle hiding in Max’s basement—and then I called Trinity and explained to her about Richard Slaymaker. “I’m going to try to free him,” I said. “And I need him tethered to me if I’m successful. If he starts losing his mind out here, I’ll sever that tether and send him back to the office. Can you tether him to me?”

She laughed. “I can try. Things are a little less chaotic in my life. Your world is exciting and messy, Kait, and I’m happy to explore it.”

Next, I called Bastien. I needed to apologize. To explain my butterfly, if I could. I’d not let myself dwell on the murderous insect or the way she killed, but when things settled down and got quiet, it would take over my mind.

Bastien didn’t answer, so I texted him.

I wanted to check on Farrow. Then, Bastien, I’m so sorry. The butterfly took over my control. I’m sorry.

And finally, he replied. You killed three of my vampires, Kait. A fucking BUTTERFLY killed a vampire. I’m still trying to sort through that. I need a minute.

I closed my eyes for a few seconds, trying to figure out what to say. What to do. And worried because I should have felt worse about it than I did. It was like when I’d finally shifted back, I’d been changed by the butterfly into a sociopath.

I should have been devastated by my killing spree, but mostly, I was just upset that I’d dined on blood. I was not nearly remorseful enough for taking the lives of Bastien’s vampires. I was a little relieved, though, because when I’d been jumping from vampire to vampire, it felt like I’d killed a dozen of them.

I feared that if I shifted into the butterfly again, she would completely cover me with darkness.

“Why,” I whispered, “can I not just have a power that doesn’t turn me into something else?”