“Check her,” Lucy said. Clay’s face nearly split apart with a lewd grin.

My stomach turned over. “Can’t I request a female henchman?”

They both ignored me. Still, his pat down was mostly professional. Mostly. If I survived this, I would definitely be taking the Shower of All Showers.

He found the walkie-talkie attached to my jeans, gave it a glance, and tossed it on top of the vest, kicking the pile away with his foot. I felt a little stab of anger. Eli had given me that belt as a gift, dammit.

Finally he stepped back. “No weapons,” he reported to Lucy.

“Cuff her.” To me, Lucy said, “Put your hands on either side of the rail.”

Crap. That was going to seriously restrict my movement, much more than if I had one cuff on me and one on the rail. I considered trying to run again—aside from the door we’d come through, there was one other exit on the long side of the room—but it was pointless as long as Lucy stood in the doorway with the gun. If I’d had my knives, I might have been able to duck and throw and hope for the best, but instead I just put my hands on either side of the railing and allowed Clay to snap on the handcuffs. Then I had to do a sort of awkward half-turn so I could still see the room.

“Go get the other one,” Lucy said to Clay. As he went by her, she held out the gun. “I don’t think we’ll need this.”

When he was gone, she stepped over my knife belt, subconsciously wiping her hands on her slacks. “Hate those things,” she muttered. Most vampires didn’t like guns—scratch that. Most vampires found guns superfluous. Why carry a handgun when you can run over with super speed and break someone’s neck? Vampires who hang around with nulls learn to adjust—but that doesn’t mean they’re comfortable. It was a little funny that she had the same relationship with guns that I did, but I wasn’t really in the mood to commiserate.

Lucy disappeared from the room for just a moment, returning with an antique-looking wooden chair. She set it down well away from me, looking me over with a critical eye.

“So . . . why aren’t you killing me?” I asked. Okay, I admit, it wasn’t the smartest thing to say, but I wanted to take control of the conversation, and it was the first thing that popped into my head.

“Oh, we will eventually,” she said in a cheerful voice. “But I figure tonight, at least, we can make use of you. With both you and Jameson here, we’ll be able to fit even more people in the killing field.”

Glowering at her, I shrank my radius down to two feet around me, just to be contrary. Instead of looking annoyed, Lucy brightened, even more than the average person returning to vampire-hood.

“Ooh, you are powerful,” she noted. “Maybe we should have tried to recruit you after all.”

“I would have turned your ass down.”

“Yes, more’s the pity,” she said with a little sigh. “You can keep your aura sucked in if you’d like, but bear in mind that if you’re of no use to me, I have no reason to keep you alive.”

I couldn’t really argue with that, and I needed to save my strength anyway, so I released my hold on my radius. Lucy took a quick gasping breath as she became human again, then smiled. She’d obviously had a lot of practice being around a null, thanks to Jameson. “Better,” she said approvingly.

“Aren’t you supposed to be prancing half-naked on a stage right about now?”

Her eyes narrowed for an instant, but then she relaxed. “So you did go to the show. I wondered, when I saw you on the lawn. Just think, you could have avoided this whole nightmare by simply coming close to the stage and letting us be killed.” She shook her head. “But that’s humans for you, I suppose. Always so cautious.”

I didn’t say anything. When it was clear that I wouldn’t be taking the bait, she rolled her eyes. “Come on. Do you really think I’m the only pretty blonde vampire in Las Vegas?” she asked. “I have several . . . oh, I suppose ‘understudies’ would be the word. On killing nights, they perform for me.”

“Thus giving you a rock-solid alibi,” I guessed.

She inclined her head in acknowledgment. “We do try to play within human laws as much as possible. It makes everything move more smoothly.”

“That’s what she said,” I muttered.

Clay entered the room, with a completely slack body hefted over his shoulder. The head was facing Clay’s back, but I recognized the long coat. Wyatt. Was he dead? No, he couldn’t be; he would have decayed down to a skeleton, at the very least. “Where do you want him?” Clay said to Lucy, as though he were moving a sofa.

She gestured to me. “Right next to her.”

Clay came closer, hitting my radius and staggering under Wyatt’s sudden weight. Carelessly, he dumped Wyatt’s body down practically on top of me, so close that I couldn’t have kept him out of my radius if I’d tried. When I felt him, though, he seemed wrong: even weaker than before, like a tiny ember on its way out. I was about to ask what was wrong with him, but then I realized Wyatt’s head was dangling down at an unsettling angle, and I had to swallow my gorge.

They’d broken his neck.

Chapter 32

Clay left the room again, but Lucy was watching my reaction closely. With effort, I didn’t allow myself to look away from poor Wyatt and his disturbingly floppy head. I could feel him in my radius, so he was still alive. But if I didn’t get him away from me, he wasn’t going to be able to heal. How long could a human last with severed vertebrae?

“It’s like a science experiment, isn’t it?” Lucy said gleefully, as if following my thoughts. “He’s alive, but in neurogenic shock. His heartbeat is slowing, and the blood isn’t going to his extremities. He’s dying, Scarlett.” She put her index finger on her chin, looking thoughtful. “How long will it take for him to truly die, beyond the point where vampire magic could still revive him?” She smiled in a sadistic way that creeped me out even more than the broken neck. “I have no idea. Nulls are so interesting. One thing I do know about them, however, is that when their emotions are out of control, their auras expand.”

I tried to tamp down on my fear and worry. “Why do I feel an evil plan coming on?”

She sighed, looking disappointed. “Oh, Scarlett. Always hiding behind sarcasm. That was in our reports about you.”

I couldn’t think of a way to respond to that, but she continued, “At any rate, I do have a plan. We’ll wait until the guests arrive, and then if he’s still alive, I’ll shoot your friend in the head. I do so hope that will upset you.” She beamed. “We’ve already invited extra guests, to take full advantage of having a distraught extra null.”

She obviously wanted to provoke me, so I met her eyes and didn’t look away. Vampires usually need eye contact to press humans, so they aren’t used to being looked at directly. It was obvious she didn’t like it. “Lucy, go fuck yourself,” I said in the most bored voice I could manage.

Ignoring the comment, Lucy checked her watch, crossed her ankles demurely, and continued. “We have a few minutes. Let’s chat, shall we? I would just love to know what brought you to my door tonight.”

“I get serious lady wood for historical sites,” I said in a low voice. “You say ‘stagecoach stop,’ and I can hardly keep it in my pants.”

Lucy let out a dramatic sigh. “Really? Do we really have to go through the whole smacking-around bit? It’s so tedious, and honestly, I don’t have all night.”

“You mean because you have an appointment to kill a whole bunch of your own kind?”

For the first time, Lucy looked genuinely irritated with me. Finally. “You ungrateful little bitch,” she spat.

“Ungrateful? Were you hoping I’d thank you for being a serial killer?”

“We are trying to protect your humans,” Lucy said severely. “The fewer vampires there are, the safer humanity becomes. Why can’t you see that?”

“You forget,” I said, “to me, you’re all humans.”

“Oh, please.” She sighed, looking almost . . . disappointed in me? “Don’t be such a fang bunny. You, of all people, must know what we are. You’ve seen what we do. I’m sure you’ve had to put up with orders and attacks and psychological games—”