There could be another explanation. Denise said she’d maced the attacker with pepper spray and silver. She could have missed him, true, but then again, perhaps she hadn’t. If a vampire murdered her cousin, he could have tranced Denise into thinking she’d seen him transform into a dog—and that he hadn’t been affected by the liquid silver spray. Humans’ memories were so easy to alter. But if Denise had witnessed a vampire attack, the murderer would wonder how she’d known to use silver. He might decide to use more than glamour to make sure Denise didn’t retell the tale. That was a risk Spade wasn’t willing to take.

He cast a look at his bed with regret. Thought he’d long ago mastered the crippling lethargy that came with sunrise, that didn’t mean he relished driving to Texas now. Ah, well. It was the least he could do to ensure Crispin and Cat didn’t rush back from New Zealand for what was, in all likelihood, just the emotional breakdown of a human who’d snapped from too much grief and stress.

He remembered the look Denise gave him the last time he’d seen her. Specks of blood dotted her clothes, her face had been as pale as Spade’s own ivory skin, and her hazel eyes held a mixture of revulsion and fear.

Why did you have to kill him? she’d whispered.

Because of what he intended to do, Spade had replied. No one deserves to live after that.

She hadn’t understood. Spade did, though. All too well. Humans might be more forgiving with their punishments, but Spade knew better than to show a rapist, even a potential one, any naïve mercy.

He also remembered the last thing Denise said when he’d dropped her off at her house later that night. I’m so sick of the violence in your world. He’d seen that look on many humans’ faces, heard the same flat resonance in their voices. If Crispin weren’t so busy with everything that had happened lately, he’d explain to Cat how the kindest thing to do was to erase Denise’s memory of all things undead. Perhaps Spade would do that himself, if Denise had become delusional. Kindness aside, if her grasp on reality had slipped, it would also eliminate a liability if everything Denise knew about them was erased from her recall.