"I can do the same with you—or Norian. Personally, I'd rather toss Norian."
"Lissa Beth, stop complaining. We have several things to check on, tonight. We'll get dinner while we're out." Norian lifted his bag and delivered it to his cubicle, next door to mine, in a more traditional manner. Lendill, just as before, had taken the last space, farthest from the door.
* * *
"What can you tell me, Lissa Beth?" Norian lifted an eyebrow as I scented my way through the large apartment.
"Six people were here regularly. All tainted in some way."
"Tainted?" Norian was now very interested. We'd left Lendill behind—he hadn't gotten much rest lately, so Norian told him to get an early meal and go to bed. Lendill seemed happy to comply. Norian had gotten addresses from Lendill before we left the ASD office, so we went to check on them.
"When I smell a taint around their normal scent, that means they're bad—done something they shouldn't—I can't explain it better than that," I said, looking out a wide window onto the street below. Night had fallen and the streetlamps were glowing, illuminating the light snow swirling to the ground. Winter had come to that portion of Trell and it was bitterly cold. Norian had gotten Taff and Mora, my two assistants, to pack warm clothing for me. I hadn't even thought to Look to see what the weather was like. I would have walked out without a sweater, even. Norian opened my bag earlier, pulled out a coat and helped me into it before we left headquarters.
"Lissa Beth, if we walked up to someone on the street who had done murder, are you telling me you can scent that about them?"
"I can usually tell," I said. "It overlays the scent of their blood. I don't know how it works. It just does."
"Why didn't I know to hook up with a Queen Vampire before?" Norian murmured.
"Not all of them could do this," I said, watching the snow get heavier—I could see larger flakes in the lamplight. "Most of them have been called Queen if they weren't susceptible to compulsion. This is how it was explained to me shortly after I was turned, Norian. I was told that if the queen was good, then she was an asset to the race. If she was bad, she had to be killed. At the moment, I'm the only Queen Vampire that exists, so there isn't a plethora to choose from."
"I heard you were almost killed anyway."
"Norian, don't go there," I shivered at the memory.
"Not your fault, breah-mul." He was behind me, rubbing the back of my neck carefully. "Come on; let's see if we can pick up the same scents elsewhere."
Three more apartments were on the list and I picked up the scent of two from the first place at all three of the others. There were seventeen scents in all—the last place turned out to be a condo, with all three apartments side by side. Nearly all the individual scents held some sort of taint, with the exception of two. I only smelled the blood of those two at the last place. Norian wasn't surprised when I told him.
"Do you think they died here?" he asked, as we stood in the bare living area. All furniture and clothing had been carefully removed from each place.
"I don’t smell their deaths here," I answered, looking around. The walls in this area were white, but all three bedrooms had been painted a red so dark, it was nearly black. To hide blood spatter, no doubt. I showed Norian where the blood spots were and he made a call to someone, asking them to come in the following day and take samples.
"We'll soon know whether we can ID anyone by the blood," he sighed. "I can usually scent blood, but I have to be in my other form."
"Do you do that a lot? Change to investigate a scene?"
"No. Too many chances of being seen," he replied. "Is there anything else here?"
"No."
"Then let's get dinner and turn in. We've had a long day."
* * *
"What do you mean you can't find her?" Viregruz stared at his two most powerful warlocks. "We know she's away from Le-Ath Veronis. Those comesuli of hers should learn not to gossip."
"We hear that even her mates can't find her," Zellar grumbled. "My informants tell me she has come up missing several times and none have been successful at tracking her. Except the Larentii, perhaps, and you know we're not going anywhere near them. There's no way I want my atoms separated." Viregruz merely nodded at Zellar's assessment—even he knew not to approach the Larentii.
"Keep working on this—I'll pay a very generous bonus if you can get any useful information. I want this kill myself, if possible." Viregruz tapped the ends of his fingers together, letting his claws slide out a bit. "Bring me something young for my meal," he added. Zellar and his fellow warlock hurried to obey.
* * *
Norian chose the restaurant and asked for a serving of prime rib—rare. I think he and Winkler would get along very well in the food department. Do all shapeshifters have a high metabolism? I sent to him as I dipped into my chicken dish.
"I think so," he answered aloud. It made me wish he had mindspeech—it might be more comfortable for him. I could give it to him—I held that ability—but that was a step I wasn't ready to contemplate, yet. Norian watched me carefully as he consumed his meal. He ate what I couldn't finish, too.
The snow was thicker, wetter and colder when we left the restaurant, so Norian asked me to get us back to ASD headquarters the quick way. After we left everyone behind who might see us, I did.
The cold doesn't bother me much, but I didn't like slogging through wet snow and Norian liked it even less. I discovered that Norian doesn't like being cold, period. His snake crawled right into bed with me to warm up before he slithered back to his own cubicle to sleep later. I was glad I could hear Lendill snoring the entire time.
* * *
"Dad, she didn't force me away from Le-Ath Veronis and she didn't yell at me." Shadow raked a hand through dark hair as he looked at his father. They were sitting in Glendes' private study and Glendes was watching his grandson and his son. "But if this goes badly on Cloudsong, I think I can forget ever being with Lissa again." Shadow sighed and stood. Glendes had one of the few southern-facing windows cut into the mountain that held Grey House, and Shadow moved toward it to stare down at the valley beneath the mountain. He could see it as it truly was—past the shrouded cloaking spells that presented a blackened hulk of an asteroid to anyone without a very strong wizard's talent to see.
"We can present our case to the crown's legal counsel, but it isn't likely they'll listen to the facts that Lissa isn't legally bound to Grey House. They only see the monetary value in this." Glendes echoed his grandson's sigh. "All the worlds that we do business with are non-Alliance, and they are watching this closely to see if we honor the contractual obligations. If we don't, then this will definitely affect our business dealings in the future. The others will not care whether Le-Ath Veronis is impacted legally. Many of them see it as a gambling world only—they aren't willing to look past the surface to understand that the comesuli and most of the vampires who live there have nothing to do with the casinos." Glendes toyed with an ancient inkbottle on his desk.