Free Hannah Jayne by Under Suspicion Page A

wash through my body. “Attacked? By whom—or what?”
    Bettina’s eyes started to water; her lower lip trembled. I snatched a few Kleenex from the box and pushed them into Bettina’s hands. “It’s okay, Bettina, you’re safe here. Now, can you tell me exactly what happened?”
    “Well, I was leaving my apartment. I live by the ballpark, you know. It’s very loud and”—a twinge of pink bloomed in Bettina’s cheeks—“there’s a lot of general screams, so ...”
    So the death-signifying screams of a banshee could be drowned out before entire subsec-tions of San Francisco mysteriously dropped dead. Smart.
    “Go on.”
    “Well, I was going to get some groceries, and I was walking toward the bus stop. I wasn’t alone, because there was a Giants game going on, so there were tons of breathers.” Bettina blushed and lowered her eyes. “I’m sorry, Sophie. I meant there were lots of other people around, at first. Most of them went into the stadium so the street emptied out pretty quickly.
    Even so, I felt like I was being followed.”
    “Did you see anyone?”
    “That’s the thing. Before I left, I looked out the window to check the weather. I thought I saw someone on the sidewalk looking up into my window, but then the bus came and I guess he got on. I went downstairs and walked to the bus stop myself, and I got that weird feeling again.”

    “Like you were being watched?” I supplied, feeling the hairs on my arms prickle.
    Bettina nodded. “I was walking and I looked over my shoulder, and no one was there.
    Then I turned back and someone hit me. Hard.” Bettina’s graying fingers shakily pushed aside her bangs, showing off an impressive gash just over her left eyebrow.
    I sucked in a stunned breath. “Oh my. Bettina, I’m—”
    “I was down on the ground, and he kicked me, too, right here.” Bettina gingerly rubbed her lower belly. “I was going to scream—I would have, but he caught me by surprise—and he hit me again.”
    “Do you know what he hit you with?”
    Bettina wagged her head. “I’m not sure. It looked like some sort of pipe.”
    “Like a tire iron, maybe?”
    Bettina shrugged. “I’m not really sure what those look like.”
    I wasn’t entirely certain, either, but whether Bettina’s assailant was wielding a tire iron or a magic wand made a world of difference. At least it did here, in the Underworld.
    “He wasn’t done, either,” Bettina said. “He—he was going to hit me again, in the head, but the game must have let out, because people started to fill the streets. He told me that my kind needed—needed to be erased.”
    “Your kind? Did he—did he know you were—”
    My saliva went sour and suddenly my skin felt too tight.
    Demons walk among us every day. A vampire might be your neighbor; the corner store might be run by a werewolf or a troll. There is a thin veil that masks the demon differences from the human sight. That veil, combined with our human ability to unsee anything that might unsettle us, has allowed the demon race to prosper and blend into the natural world.
    That veil doesn’t work on me; and if Bettina’s assailant was human, the veil didn’t work on him, either.
    “He looked over his shoulder and ran, once the people started to come.” A single fat tear rolled down her cheek and plopped onto her cheery pink skirt.
    “I’m so sorry, Bettina.” I patted her shoulder awkwardly and she fell into me, head buried in my shoulder, her small body shaking violently as she cried.
    “I’m so scared,” she whimpered. “I’m so scared.”
    I patted Bettina’s back and let her cry; then I cocked my head and squinted as her cries gave way to a series of half-muffled screams.
    I thought I heard bodies dropping in the lobby.
    “Don’t worry, Bettina. We’re going to find out who did this to you, I promise. We’ll keep you safe, too.”

    My heart walloped and my mouth went dry. Even as I said the words, I wondered how I was supposed to keep a