“Let’s go outside,” Hunter said in a low rumble when Margaret gasped.

“Good idea.” Sasha crossed the room and held open the door for Ethan, and Hunter closed it behind everyone.

The Elfin couple stood on the front steps of the double-wide trailer wringing their hands. Margaret’s face was puffy and red, the result of unrelenting tears, as she twisted a tissue into confetti.

“This is so horrible,” she whispered. “I knew both of them for years… each girl was just a doll. This isn’t any kind of contagion I’ve ever seen in that community.”

Sasha and Hunter just stared at each other for a moment.

“That’s why I insisted Margaret come with me,” Ethan said. “Two girls? Two girls? We had to be sure it wasn’t a plague, and my wife is the only supernatural medical person I knew of who would keep this discreet, as Sir Rodney instructed.”

“It’s not a plague,” Sasha said flatly.

Hunter nodded and wiped a thick layer of perspiration off his brow with the back of his forearm. “Both were in the same condition-undisturbed, no signs of a struggle. But two deaths in the same night rules out coincidence. This was definitely foul play.”

“Foul play… as in murder?” Margaret said with a quiet gasp.

“You have to get word to Sir Rodney,” Sasha said, glancing around at the group. “I can’t reach him by cell phone, so you’ll have to do your Fae missive thing.”

“His guards thought it best that he retire to the castle, given the circumstances. As our monarch, with a possible killer on the loose… or a possible disease afoot, his advisors felt it prudent that he remain in the fortress until further notice,” Ethan said. “I will get him word of this immediately.” Glancing around nervously, Ethan held the group enthralled. “Behind the castle walls, human technology doesn’t work… The glamour affects the transmission of cell phones and radios-but with the heightened security, he wouldn’t want a message of this nature being broadcast over the airwaves where it could be intercepted. So, yes, yes, it will have to be sent by way of a Fae missive.”

“Makes sense,” Hunter muttered, walking around the side of the building. “But let’s get one thing straight-you can drop the ruse about it being some sort of contagion. Your monarch said it was sorcery of the worst kind.”

Ethan opened his mouth and then closed it as his wife covered her mouth with her hand.

“Your glamour is also gone,” Sasha said gently, looking at Ethan. “Something is so not right about any of this.”

“Well, given the circumstances,” Ethan said, swallowing hard and lifting his chin, mustering indignation. “That is the least of my concerns.”

Ethan and Margaret shared a look.

“Listen, you both have a lot of seriously old Vampires really pissed off at you. That’s point number one. They can’t afford to openly come at you-but who knows what twisted way they did, though. Sorcery isn’t out of the question, nor is it out of their league. They have all kinds of alliances with dark covens, so hey.” Sasha shrugged and lifted her damp hair off the nape of her neck, holstering her weapon. “When I was driving over here with Hunter, I was thinking about Dugan. Anybody who stood to inherit his once substantial estate wouldn’t be too thrilled about the way things went down, either. You got everything that Dugan once owned as a result of your testimony.” Sasha paused, allowing the potential consequences of what might be happening to sink into Ethan’s brain.

“Maybe this has nothing to do with the Phoenixes and more to do with who employed them-you?” Hunter glanced at Sasha and then turned his steady, intense gaze on Ethan.

“Perish the thought,” Margaret whispered, drawing closer to her husband.

Sasha ruffled her hair up off the nape of her neck again in frustration. They’d hit a brick wall and she was temporarily out of answers until she could get to anyone who might talk at the Blood Oasis, or maybe somebody over at Chaya-the teahouse where Penelope had also worked.

Coming closer to Ethan, Sasha looked at him hard. “Okay… you mentioned that, quote, ‘even the Vampires liked her,’ when speaking of Desidera. What was that about?”

Margaret hugged Ethan and hid her face in the cleft of his shoulder. “I knew we should have stayed out of all of this. We have children!”

“No, no, don’t fret,” Ethan said, petting his wife’s back. “We will take this new information to Sir Rodney and he will hear our petition for protective custody.”

“That’s practically living like we’re banished. Our children will have to be pulled out of their schools here and we’ll have to live at Seelie Court!” A panic-stricken sob cut off Margaret’s argument.

“Maybe just for a little while,” Sasha said quietly, going over to also hug the small, distraught Elf. This broke her heart; Margaret was a gem, as was Ethan. “We’ll do everything we can to protect your family and see that you can return to your normal lives as soon as possible… but one thing I know for sure, Sir Rodney will have your backs.”

“You never answered the question about Desidera’s relationship to the Vampires,” Hunter said, waiting.

Ethan lowered his gaze. “Phoenixes are rare… and are an exotic temptation-before the dispute, Desidera and Penelope were regularly welcomed at their blood clubs.”

“And after?” Hunter folded his arms over his chest.

“They may have gone there a few times, on their own, to earn money or personal favors… I cannot know for sure,” Ethan admitted quietly.

Digging into her pocket, Sasha showed the couple the photo that had been in the small, oval, silver frame on Penelope’s nightstand. “Do you know this Pixie? Is she an employee of yours?”

“No,” Ethan said, his tone confused and earnest. “Maybe she’s an employee at Chaya?”

Sasha put the photo back in her pocket and gave Hunter a look as she pulled away from the distraught couple. She then found the small pad in her back pocket and held it out for Ethan to see.

“Ethan, Margaret, I need to ask you something… When a Phoenix takes his or her last flame, does this show up on the belly?”

Margaret gasped and turned away as Ethan hugged her.

“Destroy it, cover it up!” Ethan shouted, making Sasha hurriedly comply. She thrust the pad into the back pocket of her jeans and looked at Ethan and Margaret as though they’d lost their minds.

“Okay, that got a reaction,” Hunter said, walking closer to the couple. “What was it?”

Sasha joined the huddle as Ethan waved his hands about as though to signal for them to say nothing.

“Tell me this wasn’t in my cellar?” Ethan gasped.

“It was on Desidera’s body, hard to see because the ash had started to fall in on itself by the time we got there, I suppose… but the one we just saw on Penelope was fresher.” Sasha glanced at Hunter from the corner of her eye.

“That wasn’t there when Sir Rodney and I found her body-we would have immediately noticed something so horrific.” Ethan gathered his wife tighter in his hold, pressing his face against her hair. “Or… maybe it could have been there-frankly, when I saw her dead I didn’t stoop over her to observe. It was just too terrible.”

“What was it?” Hunter said in a deep voice reminiscent of thunder.

“It was a sigil,” Ethan whispered, sweating profusely.

Sasha and Hunter gave each other another look.

“It is a sign of pure evil,” Ethan croaked. “That is as much as I know.”

Sasha looked at her watch and then at Hunter. “We’ve got a few hours before daylight. You thinking what I’m thinking?”

Hunter nodded. “We ride.”

“The little guy was thoroughly shaken,” Hunter said as he maneuvered the jeep into the parking lot of the Blood Oasis.

“You think?” Sasha said, not waiting for him to come to a complete stop before hopping out of the vehicle.

Hunter turned off the ignition and quickly caught up to her, grabbing her arm to stop her. “What’s with the sudden attitude?”