Page 88 of Night's Reckoning
“No.”
She nodded.
“It’s Meili.”
Fabia’s eyes filled immediately, and she blinked hard.
“She was killed earlier tonight. She was bitten and bled out. I don’t know who, but I suspect Kadek.”
Fabia struggled to speak. She was holding back tears and clearing her throat. “It… it can’t be Kadek. He liked Meili. I saw them speaking a number of times.”
“It has to be either Cheng, Tenzin, Kadek, or Johari.” He glanced around, but they were still alone. “There’s no one else.”
“Another vampire—”
“That flew in and immediately gained Meili’s trust before he drained her? This happened almost exactly at sunset.”
“Tenzin—”
“She wouldn’t do this.”
Fabia spoke in a pained whisper. “I think you need to be honest about who she is, Nino.”
“I’m not saying she’s not capable of murder. Clearly she is. But why would she kill Meili?”
“Why would any of them?”
“Because they were hungry? To sabotage the job? To keep Cheng and Tenzin from finding the sword?”
“And you think Kadek would create this kind of trouble for his sire?”
“What trouble?” Ben heard people begin to call Meili’s name. “They’re going to look for her, Fabi. They’re going to search the whole ship, and you can’t say anything. You can’t give anything away or you could be in danger.”
“Is she just going to disappear?”
“No.” He swallowed hard. “I promise. She won’t be lost at sea. I promise, Fabi.”
Fabia nodded, took a deep breath, and wiped her eyes. “Okay.”
“Not a word,” he said as they started back toward the operations room where lights were all flaring. “Not a single word.”
* * *
Ben saton the top deck, staring toward the horizon as it slowly shifted from deep blue to pearly grey. He was smoking a cigarette when he heard her land behind him.
“When did you start smoking?”
Ben barked a laugh. “Tenzin, I picked up my first cigarette when I was nine. Maybe younger.”
“It’s a bad habit.”
“I’ve had worse.” He took another drag, enjoying the buzz on the end of his tongue. He didn’t smoke much anymore, but if there was ever a night to fall off the wagon, it was this one. It was cigarettes or whiskey, and there were plenty of cigarettes on the boat and very little whiskey.
Cigarettes it was.
“The humans are sleeping now,” Tenzin said. “Or they are in their cabins. I can’t control whether they sleep or not.”
“You used to make me sleep with amnis,” he said. “Don’t lie.”
