Chapter 1
I moved slowly toward The Chamber, taking the same path I’d taken every day over the last two months. Every day since Matthew had been killed.
I arrived just before dawn. Gravestones rose around me as I entered the cemetery. However, I kept my eyes focused ahead on the tall, triangular building that seemed to rise out of the earth itself. Its shape was reminiscent of the ancient Egyptian pyramids, though the material used to create the exterior for The Chamber was a shimmering black glass.
Studying my reflection in the mirrored surface, I found I barely recognized myself. There was a gauntness to my face that shouldn’t have belonged in the reflection of a pizza shop owner. My black jeans fit a little too loosely over my hips. My skin was a tad too pale. My eyes a shade more hardened.
Wicked was quiet these days. As I glanced to either side, I saw nobody in the pre-dawn haze. Nothing official had been announced yet as to the state of our home, but Matthew’s death and Sienna’s disappearance had shaken many of us. Fear had been spreading, slipping among us, turning from a stranger into a familiar acquaintance. And in response, the borough had entered into a state of hibernation, a quiet lull before the storm.
Folks didn’t go out after dark or before dawn unless it was necessary. Parents moved curfews up by several hours. Cops traveled in pairs when possible, even for routine procedures. It wasn’t one single thing that’d set our city on edge—it was a little bit of everything.
The darkening clouds moved over our homes. An edginess slid into the police force’s movements. The journalists posted their theories as to what was happening for everyone to read, stirring up more fear and despair than was healthy. We were gradually plummeting toward panic.
I jerked my gaze back to the pyramid before me and entered through the black archway that opened into the belly of the building. The front desk attendant, familiar with our routine by now, simply nodded when I pulled out my badge. It was a formality. I wasn’t here on official business, and the guard knew it. He also knew not to stop me.
Inside The Chamber, all was silent. Still. As death usually is. My shoes clicked against the entryway corridor until I came to a stop at the end of it. Once there, I stepped into an expansive central atrium.
Above me, the peak of the triangle rose high into the sky. Black glass glittered all around me. Even at the peak of daylight, the interior of The Chamber was dark. Before dawn, the only light to guide me came from the small lanterns floating near the roof that looked like bits of starlight.
A water fountain stood in the middle, the statue in the center of it an angel with its wings spread. Water leapt and jumped over it, leaving behind streaks of sparkling silver dust in its wake. I averted my eyes from the angelic sculpture and turned right, making my way down another corridor.
The Chamber had many corridors, many rooms, many uses. Its primary function, however, was to be a Columbarium. I passed several beautifully kept rooms where urns had been safely, carefully preserved. I looked straight ahead, careful not to glance through the windows. Matthew was not in one of those. Not yet.
The room I was looking for was deep in the corner of The Chamber. It was the last room, the most private room. The room where they’d put Matthew.
I entered Matthew’s room, letting the door fall shut behind me. It was silent inside. Deathly quiet. The room was surrounded in black—black marble floors, smooth black walls, inky black ceiling. The only light came from a white-marble platform in the center of the room that cast a delicate glow over the body lying atop it.
I moved closer, feeling a twinge of nausea from the dizzying orbit of Residuals around Matthew’s body. When I reached his side, I stopped and looked down. It was as close as I could get to him without setting off alarms and infringing on the defensive spells that protected him. Not that I wanted to touch him; that would be pointless. There was nothing I could do for him anymore.
To be honest, I couldn’t say why I made a habit of coming here, each and every morning, just to lay eyes on Matthew’s still figure. Every day, it only brought me pain. Except, I realized, that wasn’t entirely true. Some days, most days, there was pain. Other days, anger. Still others, a deep, soul-shaking sadness.
Today, I felt none of those. Today, it was desperation that showed up to plague me. Matthew looked so peaceful and still, as if he were sleeping. For a vampire, breathing was optional. A heartbeat was unnecessary. Part of me believed that Matthew wasn’t gone at all, just sleeping in some strange, deep sort of coma.
But I knew, deep down, that wasn’t true either.
The reason Matthew had been magically preserved and placed in The Chamber was to await Sienna’s professional opinion as to how he’d died. Doctor McGregor Jones—the ME holding down the fort in the Sixth Precinct’s morgue—had refused to perform an autopsy on a vampire. When we’d reached out to the precious few magical MEs around the globe, they, too, had refused. Sienna was our only hope to find out what had killed Matthew so quickly, when historically, all other attempts to kill the captain had failed.
The problem was that Sienna was nowhere to be found. She’d walked into the Dead Lands and hadn’t been heard from again. The chief had called me into his office a week ago to suggest we go ahead and bury Matthew without an autopsy. It’d been over a month, two now, and for all we knew, Sienna was never coming back. I’d begged him for one more week, and he’d given it to me.
I looked at Matthew’s face, longing to reach out and touch his cheek. To rest my head against his chest. To simply lie next to him. Which was quite ironic, seeing as I’d broken up with him just before his death.
“Hi.”
I turned, my heart racing at the interruption. My brow furrowed when I found Grey standing in the doorway. He looked as he typically did, like a handsome rogue. A tall man with broad shoulders, Grey seemed to take up the entire doorway. His blue eyes pierced mine, and his normally boyish grin was nowhere to be seen.
“Hi,” I said, though it sounded crackly and hoarse. It didn’t sound friendly.
“I just wanted to check on you.”
“Yeah.”
“May I?”
I licked my lips as I looked at him. I shrugged. “If you got a pass to come in here, I can’t stop you. The room doesn’t belong to me.”
Grey joined me, shoulder to shoulder. “This room doesn’t, but he does.”
“Who, Matthew?”
Grey just stared down at the vampire.
“No,” I said shortly. “I broke up with him before he died. As you’re well aware.”
“He knew you still loved him.”
I gave a caustic snort. “Sure. Because that’s what someone does to their significant other when they love them. They break their heart.”
“The situation was complicated.”
“Whose situation isn’t?”
“I’m sorry. I was just trying to help.”
“Well, you’re not.”
We stood there in silence a moment longer. I hadn’t seen Grey much over the past two months. He’d been around, but he’d let me have my space.
As I looked over at the werewolf, however, I revised my thoughts. Grey had been around. I just hadn’t let him get close. He’d tried to be there for me, and I’d refused. Is that what Matthew would have wanted? Or would he have wanted me to lean on the werewolf for support when it seemed there was nobody else left?