Blood Secrets-Valorian 1 by Vivi Anna

spring.
    “I talked to lots of chicks.” He smirked. “Why do you think I’m in a band?”
    “Well, I don’t care about the other chicks. I care about just one.” She slid the photo of Lillian across the table again. She tapped the photo. “This one.” Keeping her finger on the photo, she asked, “Do you want to amend your statement that you don’t know her?”
    “I might have talked to her. So what?”
    “So what is she’s dead.”
    Xavier looked at the photo and started to chew his bottom lip. “I didn’t kill her.”
    “But you knew her, right?”
    “Yeah, maybe.”
    Mahina slammed her hand on the table. Xavier jumped. Caine even flinched.
    “Yeah or maybe? Which is it?”
    “Yeah, I knew her, okay. I talked to her for a while at the concert and that’s it.”
    “Did you have sex with her?”
    “No,” he answered.
    “Are you sure you didn’t bite her?”
    “I’m sure.”
    “So your DNA isn’t going to match the DNA we pulled from her neck, right? You’re not lying to me, are you, Xavier?”
    He shook his head.
    Mahina leaned back in her chair. “Are you vamploverX?”
    Lifting his head, he stared at her. “What?”
    “VamploverX, isn’t that your screen name?”
    “No.”

    “He’s lying,” Eve blurted out.
    Caine glanced at her. She hadn’t taken her eyes off the suspect. “Maybe. But we need to prove it.” He turned back to the room.
    Mahina smiled. “Ah, come on, you’re going to tell me you don’t go by vamploverX? I mean look at you, you’re a good-looking guy, in a band, and your name starts with X.”
    She pushed to her feet and started to pace around him.
    Caine knew she was just getting her groove on. He’d seen Mahina do her moves so many times before, it was as if he could predict her actions before she thought of them.
    “Let me tell you what I think, Xavier. I think you met Lillian at the concert. I think you liked her, or at least knew you could manipulate her since she was just a silly little human girl and she thought you were so dark and sexy.” She paused for effect, and then continued. “I think she gave it up to you that night and you knew an easy mark, so you started e-mailing her, knowing she was hooked on your darkly mysterious ways. You told her to meet you somewhere close to the edge of town, you picked her up, smuggled her into the city, took her to a hotel, screwed her and then sucked the life from her.”
    “No!” Xavier shot forward, his hands grasping the tabletop. “That’s not how it happened.”
    Mahina rounded him and sat on the edge of table near him. “Then tell me how it did happen.”
    “I want a lawyer.”
    Sighing, Mahina slid off the table. “Okay. I’ll just pop out, get you that lawyer and check with the lab to see if your DNA match is in yet.” She walked to the door, and then glanced over her shoulder at him. “Don’t go anywhere.” She knocked once, and the door opened.
    Caine continued to keep an eye on Xavier as Mahina left the room and made her way to the little room where Caine and Eve were watching.
    The door opened, and Mahina slid in. “What do you think?”
    “I don’t know. He’s lying about something.”
    “I agree, but I don’t think he killed her.”
    Caine nodded. He didn’t think so, either. The vampire was certainly capable of it, as they all were, but he seemed affected by the scenario Mahina had spelled out for him. Guilt maybe? Remorse? But over what? That she was dead or that he’d been caught?

    “He may not have killed her, but he’s involved somehow.” Eve turned and glanced at Caine.
    He agreed. Nodding, he was about to say something, when the beeper in his pocket vibrated. He took it out and glanced at the message. “The lab. The results must be in.”
    “Well, let’s go get them.” Mahina motioned toward the room. “He’s not going anywhere anytime soon.”
    Minutes later, Caine, Eve and Mahina gathered in Gwen’s lab eagerly waiting for the results.
    Gwen handed the paper to