“Let’s go talk by the moat,” I say, ignoring the water droplets striking my face. Hopefully they’re not too contaminated. On Earth, one never knows.
Kain nods, and we walk in silence until we almost reach our destination—at which point I realize a couple of problems with my plan.
The moat smells like a sewer, and Hekima is already standing in the middle of the bridge that goes over it.
The elderly illusionist is holding an umbrella and puffing on a pipe. I guess with all those carcinogens flowing into his lungs, he can’t smell the stench wafting off the water. When he spots the two of us, he exhales a cloud of smoke and waves with his pipe.
So much for a private chat.
Kain’s expression suddenly changes. “Watch out,” he yells, pointing at something behind Hekima. “Run!”
Hekima spins on his heel and screams in horror.
I follow the path of Kain’s finger and bite back a scream of my own.
A huge head is rising from the moat on a long slender neck. It looks like a dinosaur, although I have no idea what kind.
Hekima starts backing away, only to slip on the wet stones, falling to his hands and knees. Mouth open for another scream, he lifts his arm defensively—just as the creature opens its tooth-filled maw and strikes, chopping off Hekima’s upper torso in a single bite.
Chapter Twenty-Five
What remains of Hekima spouts a fountain of blood.
I shriek.
Fangs busting out, Kain flashes toward the edge of the bridge. The beast must fear vampires, because it seizes the rest of Hekima in its jaws and disappears into the murky waters.
“What the hell?” Shaking uncontrollably, I lurch after Kain. “What was that?”
The vampire curses and glares at the water as though he’s contemplating diving in.
“Are you insane?” I grab his shoulder. “Hekima is dead. Do you want to join him?”
He twists around to face me. “You’re not going to tell anyone about this,” he says through gritted teeth. “The rain will wash away the blood and…”
I don’t know what he says next. Moving purely on adrenaline-filled autopilot, I pull out the hand sanitizer and clean my hands, as though the blood Kain speaks of is on them.
“Don’t worry,” I say numbly when he gives me a shake. “I won’t tell anyone.”
“And you realize that was another murder, right?” He stares into my eyes as though he’s about to glamour me.
“It was?” I reflexively sanitize my hands again.
“Come inside.” He grabs my fresh, clean hand and drags me behind him like a rag doll.
I’m not sure if he glamours me or not, but I somehow find myself back in his quarters.
“What did you want to talk to me about?” he growls. “Speak.”
Shaking off the residual shock, I look around for listening devices. I don’t see any, but that doesn’t mean much. “Can you go to sleep again? No one can overhear us if we speak in the dream world.”
He rolls his eyes but obediently stalks into his bedroom and puts himself to sleep. I slip into the dream world, ask Pom not to show himself, and find Kain. He’s already deep within a dream of drinking blood from a woman I’ve never seen.
I make the woman disappear, convince him he’s dreaming, and place us in my cloud office—in this case, to soothe my own raw nerves. Kain can fend for himself.
“Sit there.” I point to where I usually sit and take the therapy couch myself. “Now, what was that thing?” I replicate the creature that ate Hekima a few feet away. “Do things like that live on Earth?”
He gives my recreation a baleful glare. “It was Nessie. She was a gift from the Council in Scotland.”
I goggle at him. “As in the Loch Ness monster?”
He nods. “Humans got wind of the poor creature, so she had to be relocated.”
Oh, crap—he’s serious. I make Nessie disappear and create a stuffed replica of Pom’s usual dream shape so I can hug him to my chest. “Why would you put something so dangerous in your moat?”
Kain shrugs wearily. “It happened before my time, back when the Council kept prisoners in the dungeon. Anyone escaping through the sewers became Nessie’s lunch.”
Disgusting. The cell they initially gave me as a room—if I’d used that hole-in-the-floor excuse of a toilet, I’d literally have been putting my butt on the line. I take in a deep breath and reassure myself that I never would’ve come near that hole to the sewer anyway, monster or no monster. Way too unsanitary.
Shoving the unpleasant image away, I ask, “Was this the first time Nessie’s attacked people outside her domain?”
Kain dips his chin in a single nod. “I didn’t know it was possible. Now that I think about it, I guess someone with Gemma’s power could make Nessie act like that, but—”
“Is there someone else with Gemma’s powers on the Council? They could be behind Leal’s death and this murder.”