Page 93 of Soul Sucker

With a terrible sense of déjà vu, she headed down the hallway toward Trini’s room. She knew which room it was because of the pounding music that shook the insubstantial hotel door. For a moment, she leaned her hand against the door and tried to concentrate, but she could get no sense of anything apart from the Siren’s exultation.

“Do you need me to break in?”

She nodded, then Vadim touched the door handle until the green light flashed over the key card slot. He slowly opened the door and let it swing wide. The ugly blare of the music made it difficult to think, let alone examine the room for danger. She went in with her weapon held in front of her. Not that it would do much good if the Siren was Otherworld, but it might slow him down. The bathroom was to the right of the door and it was empty, the lights over the sink illuminating the empty white space.

Ella moved along the left hand wall, keeping her gun hand unencumbered until she had a clear view into the main part of the bedroom. There was only one figure there, and it definitely wasn’t the Siren. Ella let out her breath and cautiously checked the room again. The windows were shut and, unless the Siren was extremely good at hiding, he wasn’t concealed somewhere.

“Bathroom’s clear,” Vadim called out from behind her.

She walked over to the radio to turn it off. The sudden silence was shocking, revealing the patchiness of her breathing and the loud thump of her heart. When she turned around, she was confronted by the sight of a dark—haired woman sitting bolt upright in the chair, a party hat on her head and a birthday cake on her lap. The candles were still burning, and wax discolored the thick white frosting on the top, which read “Happy Birthday.”

Even in death, Trini was still smiling, her grin wide, her brown eyes fixed in eternal approval. An empty bottle of champagne and two glasses sat on the desk along with a box of matches.

“Ms. Walsh, I’m going to call Feehan and the cleanup squad, okay? We need to read this scene before the regular cops get here. Alexei’s already got the reception guy’s cooperation, and he’ll keep it for as long as it is necessary.” Vadim paused. “I assume she’s dead?”

“Yeah.”

“Is there anything else you need to do here?”

“Not really, except catch the sick bastard who thinks this is amusing.”

“I wondered about that. You can feel his satisfaction in the air. It’s almost alive.”

Ella stared at him. Perhaps she wasn’t the only one who would be gaining power from their bonding.

“Do you need to touch her?”

She recoiled. “I don’t want to, but I have to make sure.” She took a reluctant step toward the dead empath and touched her throat. “There’s nothing there except his pleasure and her relief.” She frowned. “Why don’t they struggle? What does he do to them?”

Vadim put his arm around her shoulders. “We can talk about this later. If you are sure she’s dead, we need to get out of here.”

She shrugged off his attempt to lead her away, and instead turned back to the body.

“Happy birthday, Trini.” She carefully blew out the candles. “I’m sorry I didn’t get here sooner.”

She left then, with Vadim close behind her. There was no sense of the Siren nearby. Had he gotten bored waiting for her, and moved on? Surely not for much longer…he was running out of victims—at least in western USA.

Down in the lobby, Alexei still chatted to the receptionist. He looked up as Vadim and Ella appeared. “Hey guys, I should have called you. I just checked with Adam here, and the person we want isn’t staying here after all. The guywewant is at the Bay ViewApartments, not the hotel.”

“Oh!” Ella forced a laugh as she approached the receptionist. “I should’ve checked with my secretary before we left. We’re so sorry to have bothered you.”

Adam looked confused. “But didn’t you want to see Ms. Yamada? I…”

Ella leaned across the desk, took his hand and concentrated on extracting every image he had of the three of them and what they’d asked him. When she’d retrieved the memories she smiled at Adam. “We’re so sorry to have bothered you by looking for the wrong person at the wrong hotel. But you’re okay about it. It happens so often that you don’t even think it’s important enough to mention to the authorities.”

“Don’t even remember you,” Adam repeated. “You’re not even here.”

“That’s right.” Ella pushed the memory firmly into his head. “When you look up, everything will be normal and we’ll be gone. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Count to one hundred and then open your eyes.”

He obediently began counting. Before he reached twenty, Alexei had taken her hand and whisked them all back to SBLE.

* * *

Ella went backto her office, shut the door and continued to look up information about small green Fae. Around her she could hear her SBLE colleagues dealing with the fallout of another empath murder, but for once, no one came to bother her or ask for her opinion. And what was there to say? Trini had been killed in exactly the same way as the others, her memories removed, her brain emptied of everything that had made her unique. Ella rubbed at her eyes and tried to concentrate on the screen. A knock at the door made her lift her head.

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