“The hell she—”
“—while on the other side are a first-level master and a handful of second- and third-levels—from a different court, I might add, making it far harder to put pressure on them. None of whom will likely remember anything of this evening’s activities.”
“They were in a jiffy store,” Claire said mulishly. “There has to be surveillance—”
I choked out a laugh. And for the first time Marlowe glanced at me with something akin to understanding. He and I both knew what SOP was in these cases.
I hoped Singh had insurance.
“Destroyed,” Marlowe confirmed. “And even had it not been, it would allow the owner to bring a claim for damages, nothing more. A dhampir has no protection under the law. She cannot—”
“Then anyone can just attack her on sight?” Claire said in disbelief.
“Yes. Which is why her father wanted her out of this.” He shot me a resentful look. “But she seems incapable of managing to go a single day without—”
“They attacked her!” Claire said, furious all over again. “What the hell are you thinking?”
Marlowe’s brows lowered once more, and for a moment he looked like he was considering telling her. Which was why they didn’t let him handle the diplomatic stuff. I decided I could live without seeing what would happen if those two ever really got into it.
“Uh, one question,” I said, pulling those dark eyes to me.
“What?”
“You said the bodies have been showing up in portals all over the city, like flotsam.”
“Yes?”
“But portals aren’t like…like a river system, are they? They’re self-contained units. So how did the bodies get in there?”
He just looked at me. And his expression said plainly that he didn’t know how he got stuck working with such incompetents. I scowled, because it was a valid question.
“Someone must have gone to each portal to plant them,” I persisted. “So maybe someone saw—”
“They didn’t have to plant them.”
“What does that mean?”
“Ask your servant,” he said sardonically.
“My what?”
I didn’t get an answer, because the door at the top of the stairs banged open and Ray staggered in. At least, I assumed it was Ray. All I saw was a shock of dark hair over a pile of dishes that smelled so good they had me tearing up.
“Oh, for— Go eat!” Marlowe said in disgust, and turned back to yell at an unfortunate vamp who had just been spit out by the portal.
“Come on,” Ray said. “I’m setting up on the porch.”
He and his tottering mound of dishes departed, and I got to my feet, joints creaking in protest. Sitting for that long had left me stove up, and when I tried to crack my back, it went off like another shot, scaring the shit out of the vamp. Claire’s expression teetered closer to open tears.
I sighed. “It’s not as bad as it looks.”
“Of course it’s not! You wouldn’t be able to stand otherwise!”
“You shoulda seen the other guy,” I said, grinning slightly at the thought of Zheng-zi’s messed-up face. And then almost choked on something. After a second of hacking, I spat part of a tooth out into my palm.
Damn. I hated when that happened.
I looked up to find Claire staring at me with something approaching horror.