Dante cupped Annie's face between his hands. A satisfied smile ghosted across her lips as she offered up her face for a kiss. She rested her hands on his hips and closed her eyes.

Hearing the sc.r.a.pe of a key sliding into the lock, Dante lowered his head, brushed his lips against Annie's ear, and whispered, "f.u.c.k you. Tell her whatever you want."

Annie's eyes flew open and Dante released her. The door opened and streetlight shafted in around the slim figure standing at the threshold. The smell of lilac and rain drifted into the room, the sweetness undercut by frustration and uncertainty.

The streetlight dazzled Dante's eyes and he lifted a hand to shade them. He was right about her hair; it tumbled loose past her shoulders. And she was wearing a black jacket and curve-hugging jeans. Her gaze locked onto his and her breath caught in her throat. A split second later a smile curved her lips, lit her twilight-blue eyes.

"Dante..." she said, stepping into the room. Then she stopped.

Her gaze skipped from the papers, broken gla.s.s, and photos on the carpet to him. To the open window behind him. To her disheveled and bloodied sister standing in front of him, her hands still on his hips. Her brows drew down. "What the h.e.l.l's going on?"

With a wink, Annie shoved away from Dante, whirled, then crumpled to the floor.

"De mal en pire," Dante muttered. From bad to worse.

12 THE ART OF SELF-DESTRUCTION.

Seattle, WA March 22

ANNIE CRUMPLED TO THE floor and, for a moment, the image of their mother half-curled on the leaf-littered ground flashed behind Heather's eyes. Dante muttered something, an exasperated expression on his face, then dropped to his knees and pressed his fingers against Annie's temples.

Heather rushed across the front room, skirting around the crime scene photos, papers, and folders littering the carpet. She knelt beside her sister and brushed her multicolored hair back from her face.

"Is she okay?" Heather asked. She reached into her jacket pocket for her cell phone and flipped it open. Dante's warm scent, burning leaves and deep, dark earth, curled around her. She was close enough to him to feel his heat.

"Don't call. She's okay. High, maybe drunk, maybe faking, but okay."

"Faking?" Heather shut the cell and slipped it back into her pocket.

Dante shrugged. "Maybe." He slid his hands from Annie's temples and rested them on his leather-clad thighs. "She's mad at me."

"She's not alone in that," Heather said, leaning over her sister.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. But we'll talk about that later."

"Fair enough."

She smelled booze on Annie's breath. Dammit, Annie. Blood stained Annie's right hand, her wrist. She turned her sister's wrist over and tensed at the still-bleeding gash sliced into the flesh.

"She did that before I could stop her," Dante said. "I'm sorry."

"Not your fault," Heather said.

Night-cooled air poured in through the open window at Heather's back. Must be how he got in. Jimmied the window. Or had Annie broken in first? Anger simmered. She'd been worrying about him, trying to reach him by calling Simone, and going to Vespers, and he was busy breaking into her house and...what...wrestling with her sister?

"What happened anyway?" Heather asked, looking into his dark eyes.

"She's hurting inside," Dante said. "And she didn't want to hurt alone."

Heather's anger faded as she took in the dried blood smeared beneath Dante's nose. "Were you-did she-" she paused and looked at her sister, searched her smooth, expressionless face, then returned her gaze to him. "Was a memory triggered?"

Dante shook his head. "Not that I recall." His lips tilted into a smile.

"Not funny." Heather studied his bloodied hands-defensive wounds-and then she saw the jagged slash at belly level in his latex shirt. Sucking in a sharp breath, she gingerly touched the cut in his shirt and plucked it open. "s.h.i.t! Did she hurt you?" The pale skin beneath the sliced latex was bloodied and sticky.

Dante's warm fingers wrapped around hers and pulled her hand away. "I'm okay, cherie. Don't worry. Nightkind, remember?"

"I remember." Relief flooded through her and she squeezed his hand before releasing it. "But you can still be hurt."

Dante shrugged. "Oui."

He scooped Annie into his arms and then stood, his movements fluid and graceful even with a woman cradled against his chest. Annie's head slumped against his shoulder, her face veiled by black, purple, and blue strands of hair. "Where do you want her?"

"This way," Heather said, rising to her feet and leading him into the hallway, to the guest room. She stepped aside at the threshold as Dante walked through and eased Annie down onto the comforter-draped bed. It sloshed beneath her weight.

"A water bed? Seriously?" Dante said, straightening.

Heather felt a smile quirk up one corner of her mouth. "I happen to like this bed, Mr.-I-Have-a-Futon, so shut up," she said, stepping into the darkened room. She clicked on a little bedside lamp. A small yellow circle of light appeared on the ceiling.

She sat on the bed beside her sister, the bed wobbling beneath her weight for a few seconds. She stroked Annie's hair from her face. Was this the start of a manic episode or the downward spiral of depression?

Heather looked up, intending to ask Dante to give her a few moments alone with Annie, but he was already gone. For a moment, she worried he'd just leave, but he hadn't broken into her house just to saunter off without saying whatever it was he'd come to say. A band of tension buckled across her shoulders.

Von's words sounded through her memory: He's been worried about you.

But she'd had a feeling, standing there in the dimly lit corridor at Vespers, that Von had left a whole lot unsaid.

But despite what Von'd said or hadn't said, the concern crinkling his eyes, his tense posture had made one thing clear-he was worried about Dante.

Heather carefully turned over Annie's cut wrist, examining the wound; even though it still bled a little it wouldn't require st.i.tches. She checked Annie for other injuries, discovered cuts to the insides of her fingers and a faint, bluish bruise on her forehead.

Heather stood and then watched her sister as the bed sloshed gently for a few moments. A strand of blue hair clung to one cheek. The skin beneath her eyes was smudged with kohl and bruised by lack of sleep. A faint smear of dried blood streaked her lips.

Annie must've seen the crime scene photos, given their current arrangement on the living room floor. I never would've left them out if I'd known she was coming.

Turning, Heather went to the bathroom for a washcloth, antiseptic, and Band-Aids. In the hall, she caught a glimpse of Dante gathering the scattered papers from the floor. "You don't need to do that," she called. "I'll get it later."

He snorted and continued with what he was doing. Heather shook her head. Still pigheaded. She thought of him carrying her sister and easing her onto the bed with care and tenderness, even after she'd tried to share her hurt with him. Still Dante. But now she needed to add B&E expert to his list of finer qualities.

Returning to the guest room with her supplies and a warm, damp washcloth, Heather sat back down onto the bed and waited for the sloshing to stop.

"Hey."

Heather looked into Annie's kohl-rimmed eyes and noted her dilated pupils. She also noted that for a woman who'd pa.s.sed out and awakened somewhere else, she didn't seem very confused. A muscle tightened in her jaw. Maybe faking. She had a feeling Dante'd been right about that. And it wouldn't be the first time Annie had pulled a fake.

"Hey back. How are you feeling?" She gingerly cleaned the blood from the gash in Annie's wrist.

"Your boyfriend's a G.o.dd.a.m.ned vampire! With fangs and...and..." Annie's breath hitched. She bit her lip and looked away.

Working up tears? "I'm sorry if he freaked you out," Heather said, daubing antiseptic on the cut. The sharp, medicinal smell masked the odor of booze drifting from Annie. "I told you he was nightkind."

"And you expected me to just believe that? Vampires? Jesus Christ!"

"Do you believe it now?" Heather bandaged the wound. "Yeah," Annie whispered. "He cut me and I think he was gonna drink me dry."

Heather looked at her sister. "He didn't cut you, Annie. And he was trying to help you, not hurt you."

"How the h.e.l.l do you know? You weren't even f.u.c.king there! Why are you taking his side?"

Here we go, Heather thought. "I'm not taking anyone's side."

"Yes, you f.u.c.king are!"

The sudden roar of the vacuum from the living room startled Heather. What the h.e.l.l was Dante doing? Given the acuteness of his hearing, maybe he was trying to keep from listening, and Annie wasn't exactly being quiet.

"Stop it," Heather said, managing to keep her voice even. "You've been drinking and drugging and you broke into my house. When did the treatment center release you?"

Annie clamped her mouth shut and looked away.

"They didn't, did they? You bailed out and quit taking your meds."

"Why should I take them? All they do is turn me into a f.u.c.king zombie. But that makes things easier for you, huh?"

Annie's words stung and Heather stiffened. "I want you to be well, not a zombie. I want you to have your life back. I want to see you onstage again."

"Yeah, right. Your boyfriend kissed me, by the way. Twice."

Annie watched her, a smug smile on her lips and a knowing light in her eyes. Was she telling the truth, finally? And using it like a knife? Annie's hands had been on Dante's hips; his hands had been at his sides. But the blood smear on her lips-transferred there from Dante? His nose had been bleeding.

Did it matter whether Dante had actually kissed her?

The sudden tangle of feelings-jealousy, yearning, sorrow-twisting in her chest surprised Heather. Yes, it did. It mattered a lot.

"Score one for you," Heather muttered and looked away. "But he's not my boyfriend." Sighing, she closed her eyes. But he was her friend. And more, maybe.

"Not your boyfriend? Yeah, right. I saw his face when he said your name. I saw how he looked as he watched you come in through the door." Annie's voice was a cynical near-whisper. "Nothing else mattered. Nothing else existed. Just you."

"Annie...no."

Annie sat up on the sloshing bed and hugged her knees to her chest. "Those pictures and stuff of Mom, why do you have them?"

Heather studied her sister, her body hunched, closed in tight as a fist. She almost seemed to vibrate with energy, wired.

Manic, then. "I'm trying to find her killer. I'm doing what Dad should've done."

"When you find the guy who whacked Mom, let me know, so I can thank him."

Handing Annie the washcloth, Heather stood. "Finish up, then get some sleep."

"Dad did the right thing in forgetting the b.i.t.c.h."

Heather stared at her sister, the blood pounding in her temples. Annie's therapist's advice uncoiled through her mind like a lifeline: Don't buy into her drama, don't let her push your b.u.t.tons, just show her you care. "If you need anything," she said, her voice strained even to her own ears, "I'll be in the front room."

Annie flopped back down on the bed, rolling over onto her side as the bed sloshed and waved. Curled up her knees.

"Whatever. f.u.c.k you."

Drawing in a deep breath, Heather walked out of the bedroom and into the front room. His face washed clean of blood, Dante sat cross-legged on the floor in the dining room reading her mother's file; the crime scene photos gathered neatly in front of him; the gla.s.s vacuumed up; the broken poster frame gone; and the poster, a copy of Leighton's Flaming June, lying on the dining room table.

Heather felt some of the tension drain from her with this unexpected act of domesticity from Dante. Given the disorderly state of his bedroom at home in New Orleans, she never would've guessed him capable of it.

He tucked a strand of hair behind his ear as he read, his dark brows slanting down in concentration. Her thoughts whirled back to the file footage of Chloe teaching him to read, and her throat tightened.

"I'm sorry about all that," she said, sitting down on the floor beside him. "Annie's bipolar-"

Dante lifted his gaze, touched a finger to his lips, then nodded toward the hallway.

His meaning was clear: She's listening.

Heather nodded. She didn't want to close the door out of fear of what her sister might do behind it. Nor did she want to move to a room beyond Annie's hearing, for the same reason. Heather trailed a hand through her hair, suddenly exhausted.

"You caring for her alone?" Dante asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Mostly," she murmured. "My brother lives in New York and my dad-well, forget him. Annie generally lives on her own, but when she's like this...she needs me."

"Cherie, I'm sorry." Dante's words, his voice, low and warm and sincere, brushed against her heart. But the cool breeze blowing in through the open window, smelling of rain and wet, green leaves, reminded her of how he'd gotten into her house.

Rising to her feet, Heather crossed to the window in quick strides and slid it shut. She fingered the broken latch, and then glanced at Dante from over her shoulder. He watched her, his beautiful face suddenly wary. He reads the tension in my movements, hears it in my voice. You bet he's wary; that's how he survived his childhood and the streets.

"Why'd you come in through the window?"

"Door was locked."

"So was the window."

He shrugged. "I figured the window'd attract less attention."

"What the h.e.l.l were you thinking, anyway?" she asked, swiveling around to face him. She grasped the windowsill behind her. "You could've called. Or knocked on the door. Or just waited for me to get home!"