Page 29 of The Mermaid's Bubble Lounge
He shook his head. “Just hold up your phone. We’ll be able to see it fine.”
Since Owen didn’t have enhanced vision, I stepped behind my chair so the angle would work better for him. Tapping the phone screen, I pulled up the video, hit play, and then held it for all of them to see.
“This is the second victim?” Owen asked.
I nodded. I knew when the killer dropped into the frame because all the dragons blinked and Owen flinched.
“Why wait?” Coco murmured. I questioned that as well. Why had the killer waited for the man to eat before he attacked?
When all the dragon eyes moved to my face, I put the phone back in my pocket and took my seat.
Benvair took a sip of wine. “I haven’t seen him, but I’ve heard that you brought Vlad back from Europe with you.”
“We did. This isn’t him, though. We analyzed the video this morning. The killer’s hair is wrong and he’s too tall. Vlad has scars on both his ear and his eyebrow from all his battles when he was human. Both scars are on his left side. Clive says Vlad had his right side to The Bubble Lounge when they went to investigate.”
Benvair nodded, deep in thought.
“So, the thought is that the killer was hiding when Clive and Vlad went to investigate,” George said. “Is that it? The killer saw Vlad and glamoured himself to look like him for the second killing?”
Shrugging a shoulder, I said, “That’s our current theory. The killer either doesn’t have a scent or he knows how to hide it because we couldn’t find it.”
“What did you find?” Alec asked.
“Based on the first murder and what appeared to be a vampire bite on the woman’s neck, we all assumed it was a vampire. Clive and Vlad went to investigate. They scented no vampires. I went the next morning when Nerissa called. I was there before the cops. I went over both crime scenes, in the front and back of the club. The only vampires I scented were Clive and Vlad. There were lots of different merpeople scents, which makes sense, as they work there. There were a million human scents, as it’s in a tourist area, and lots of cats, who are there for the fish.”
“Did Clive and Vlad go together?” Benvair asked.
I thought a moment. “No. Clive was with me. He met them there.”
“Them?” She inquired.
“Oh.” Shit. “Yes. We have another visitor staying with us. They went together and then Clive met them there.”
“And who’s that?” she inquired.
“I’m pretty sure I’m not supposed to be talking about that. Vlad made himself known by coming into the bar.” I tapped my forehead. “I’ve got a lot of secrets swirling around in here and I try to keep them.”
Owen swallowed a bite of bread and asked, “Is it possible the killer was a wicche before he was made a vampire? I mean, is that a thing?”
I considered Vlad, a vampire who was a day-walker because of his wicche mother. “Yes. It’s a thing. I think that’s why certain lines of vampires have enhanced gifts. Clive has superior mental skills, as do the others in his line. Other vampires could have different enhanced gifts.”
“Can fae be turned?” Coco mused quietly, looking down at her plate.
Benvair glanced to the side, taking in her granddaughter and then returned to her plate and her own thoughts.
“I don’t think so,” I told Coco. “The vampires always talk about how incompatible their magic is with the fae.”
Benvair nodded. “The fae are life. Vampires are death. I can’t imagine any member of the fae sitting still and allowing a vampire to turn them.”
I took a sip of iced tea. “And I’d assume the moment they died, they’d end up back in Faerie, where I can’t imagine the queen allows the undead to wander.”
Owen grinned at that.
“All right,” Benvair said. “Given he has the ability to create a glamour, our killer is a supernatural, but he’s neither a wicche, a demon, nor any kind of shifter?—”
“Wait.” I didn’t realize until I’d done it that I’d interrupted Benvair. Oops. “It could be a shifter who’s also part wicche or part fae.” I turned to Owen. “Wicches can glamour.”
He nodded. “Sure, to greater and lesser extent. Just like with vampires, some wicche families have a gift for glamour.” He changed his eye color to lavender, like Meri’s, and then changed it back. “I can do little things, like changing hair and eye color for short periods. I couldn’t change my entire body to mimic someone else’s, though.”
