Page 46 of Soul Sucker

9

Ella pushedher hair away from her face and studied the worn surface of the table at Laney’s apartment. They’d found the pine table at a garage sale. It had taken months to remove the old paint and wax the pine, but it had been worth it.

“Here.” Vadim sat down beside her and handed her a can of soda. “It’s the full sugar version.”

She couldn’t quite believe how efficient he was being, deflecting questions from the police and medics, liaising with Feehan and the rest of the SBLE team and somehow protecting her at the same time. Laney’s body had been taken away and the apartment was silent. She’d also been aware of Alexei and Liz gathering evidence in their own particular way, but even they were no longer around.

“Do you feel up to driving back to the city?” He took a bottle of water out of the refrigerator.

“You said Feehan was coming here.”

“I lied.”

She couldn’t even raise the energy to glare at him. “Do we have to go into work?”

“Briefly, so that we can bring Feehan up to date.” Vadim sipped his water. Despite the air conditioning running full blast, it was still warm inside the apartment. “I wanted to make sure there was nothing else you needed to do here.”

She looked around the neat kitchen. “I don’t think there’s anything left to do. Laney’s gone. It’s as if she never existed.”

Vadim briefly touched her hand. “She’ll come back to you. You’re in shock.”

Ella stood up and carefully pushed in her chair. “Really? I had no idea.”

Vadim didn’t react to her sarcasm, which meant he must have been feeling very sorry for her indeed. Instead, he found her purse and car keys and handed them to her.

“Don’t worry about locking this place up. The police and the SBLE will want to come back in to search for more evidence.”

“I’m sure they will.”

Ella shut the door and went down the hallway, her footsteps muted by the soft beige carpet.

“Can I ask you one thing before we leave?”

She turned to look at Vadim, who had paused by the closed door.

“Sure.”

He caught up with her. “Did you get a sense that the killer was actually in the apartment with Laney, or did he just call her?”

“He was there.”

“You’re sure about that?”

“Yeah, there’s something visceral about his power. It kind of infuses the air with his particular blend of magic. Like a signature aftershave or something.”

“So you can smell him?”

“It’s not really a scent in the human way, more of a psychic feeling.” Ella stopped at the stairs. “It’s hard to explain.”

“And you wouldn’t get that through a phone or internet connection?”

“No, definitely not.” She glanced up at him. “Why, what’s up?”

“I was just wondering if the OCOS male she was speaking to earlier was able to get at her through the phone.”

“Peter?”

“That’s right.” Vadim held the door open for her and studied her carefully. “Do you want to go back to your parents’ first? If you’re feeling too overwhelmed by all this, I could ask Feehan to hold the meeting tomorrow instead.”

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