Pulse

Chapter 15

Cian

I decided the best way to re-enter the house without being scolded—because, yes, my parents still treated like me a baby—was through the side door, which led right into the kitchen. Mom and Dad were likely in bed, and their bedroom was right next to the front door, so that was an automatic no. Entering through the back required scaling our fence, and I'd injured myself doing that before, so that was also a no. Side door it was, then.

My key jolted around in the lock for a moment before the door gave. I swung it open, stumbling into the dark.

The lights flicked on.

I froze.

Lifting my hand to shield my eyes from the sudden bright onslaught, I squinted at the kitchen island. My mouth fell open. "Lucie? The heck are you doing in my house? At two in the morning?"

There she was: sitting there with her arms folded, a dark eyebrow risen above ice cold ebony eyes. A cream-colored oversized sweater hung off one golden brown shoulder, her black curls spilling down to her elegantly curved collarbones. Most of all, she looked utterly pissed at me. I'd been expecting a lecture from Mom, not Lucie.

Vinny appeared next to her, a reflection clearing in water. A sheepish smile played at his lips. I looked at him in alarm, suspecting he was the cause of this. "Vinny? What's going on?"

"You tell me," he replied with a shrug, seating himself on the edge of the island. "What did the angel say? Anything good?"

I gave him a withering look, and focused on Lucie instead, slowly approaching her. "Is everything okay, Lucie?" I asked her. "Do you need a ride..." I trailed off as she pressed a finger to my lips, manually silencing me. I raised an eyebrow down at her, ignoring the rather persistent thought that there was something oddly tantalizing about my current situation, about how close she was to me. The crisp scent of roses lingered on her skin, but there was something else there, something wrong. My eyebrows furrowed fleetingly.

"When I remove this finger, Cian," she began, "you are going to tell me everything. And I mean everything. You're not going to leave anything out about the murder, or what this angel said about it. You're also not going to protest when I tell you that, next job you get, I'm coming with you. Got it?"

I hesitated. Something about bringing this innocent girl along to see a dead body did not appeal to me. I also was not all that content with telling her the very thing I hadn't wanted to tell her yet. Vinny was going to get a very serious admonishment from me. He apparently misunderstood the word loyalty. "Got it," I murmured, though her finger muffled my reply.

Lucie removed her finger. "Speak."

I looked down at her with a sigh, then towards Vinny, who shrugged at me. Only after I realized I really didn't have a way out did I speak, first telling Lucie what I was sure Vinny had already said about the murder scene. I added details about how it might be linked to Dempsey, then told them both what Caprice had said about seeing a "shadow." I watched both of their expressions morph to surprise, then to thoughtfulness. Lucie's even dissolved to cold fear.

She took a seat at a barstool. Her hands were trembling. "A shadow killed the man?" her eyes flitted to me. "So it wasn't...wasn't human?"

I shook my head at the ground, pulling my hood up further. I leaned against the counter, a bit exhausted. It had been a long, arduous day, and all I truly wanted to do at the moment was sleep. But, no, Vinny couldn't keep his mouth shut. "I don't know. Caprice wasn't specific enough. It could mean that Richard Hall just didn't get much of a view of his killer, not a literal shadow. I don't think the latter's possible, anyway."