I started to get up, but then looked down at the blood smeared across my sweatshirt. I pulled my knees to my chest and stayed where I was. This could get very bad very quickly.

It was dark inside her car, but I could see that their heads were close together. Too close. He didn’t emerge from the car for a full minute.

I knew, because I silently counted the seconds, my heart beating a sick, hard rhythm against my ribs. Malachi finally opened the passenger door and got out, his questioning gaze landing on mine immediately. I shot a fierce glance at the Guard car and shook my head, my eyes growing wide as Laney got out of her car.

I gritted my teeth and didn’t move. She was less than fifteen feet from where the dead woman was poorly hidden, where dark-red stains covered the backseat. Laney tossed her long hair over her shoulder and glared at me. “Hey, Lela,” she said. “Fancy meeting you here.”

“I had to ask Malachi a question,” I answered in the friendliest voice I could muster. “He’s ace at pre-calc.”

Laney made a deeply skeptical noise in her throat as Malachi walked swiftly around the front of her car and met her before she could step forward. He stood close and bowed his head, speaking soft words meant only for her, and it hurt me more than the Mazikin claw marks on my neck. After a few minutes, Laney reached out and touched his arm, and he let her. Then she got back in her car and pulled out of the driveway, stopping long enough to wave to him and blow a kiss.

Malachi watched her go and then turned slowly to me. As he walked past the Guard car, he paused to look inside. With no discernible change of expression, he took the steps and sat down next to me on the swing.

“Who is she?”

“We caught a Mazikin. Tried to bring her back to interrogate her. It didn’t quite work out.”

He hooked an ankle over his knee and leaned back, staring out at the yard. “You were injured. How bad is it?”

“Just a scratch.”

“You’ve said that to me before.”

“This time it’s true. Most of this blood is hers. Jim was worse. Raphael is healing him now. How was your night?” I shouldn’t have asked, but some masochistic part of me needed to know.

“Pleasant,” he said, his voice giving nothing away.

“She likes you a lot.” I cleared my throat. Why did my voice have to shake like that?

“She also believes my heart belongs to another.”