This Case Is Gonna Kill Me by Phillipa Bornikova

Shade again laid his hand on my shoulder, and he and Gold glared at each other. I was between them, and as the tension sparked I felt like a small, squeaking rodent trapped between mastodons.
    Gold loomed over me. “What do you know about this?” He had curly black hair, intense black eyes, and a powerful build, and if he hadn’t been dead his face would probably have been brick red.
    Shade interposed himself between us, and his tall, lean form seemed fragile next to Gold’s bulk, but there was nothing timid in his expression. McGillary, hovering on the outskirts of the confrontation, looked like he wished he were invisible, which would be tough given his carrot-colored red hair.
    “Leave her be,” Shade said.
    “I demand an answer,” was Gold’s response. “Chip worked here for twenty-eight years. Then she arrives, and this happens.”
    “No way are you blaming this on me,” I shot back. I was still shaky, but this amount of ’tude after what I’d been through was starting to piss me off. “I just graduated in May, and while Yale is cutthroat, it doesn’t usually produce enemies who want to kill you!” I realized I had stood up, and was shouting at him. Gold blinked at me and actually took a step back. I raged on.
    “No, that wolf had to be after Chip. If I hadn’t run out of the kitchen when I heard Chip scream, he might not have known I was there. I could have just hidden until it was all over. And it has to be about one of his cases, because I’m pretty damn sure a werewolf didn’t attack him because of his kid’s soccer games, or because he and his wife liked to play bingo at church on Wednesday nights. And … and Chip didn’t deserve to die like that.” And suddenly I was wailing like a lost five-year-old.
    It struck me that I had transitioned from raging harridan to sniveling child in the space of about three seconds. They probably thought I was certifiable. Way to go, Ellery. Way to impress your bosses. My knees turned to rubber and I sat back down. And suddenly I was horribly aware that I had vampires on three sides of me, and I couldn’t retreat because I was trapped in a chair.
    “She has the right of it,” I heard Shade say as if from a great distance. “Chip was my súbdito de casa . I will see justice done.”
    My mind provided the translation. Subject or servant of the house. And in that moment I had a total understanding of the relationship between the vampires and the humans. Despite having been fostered in a vampire household where I felt like I belonged, I was hit with the disheartening thought that Mr. Bainbridge probably described me that way to his guests. “Yes, Linnet is a delightful little thing. My súbdita de casa.”
    “We need to discuss how to handle this,” Gold said, and then the three partners were gone, and I began to cry again. Mostly for Chip, but some of the tears were for me. Someone laid a hand on my shoulder. I squeaked, jumped, and looked around. Ryan was standing next to my chair.
    “Let me take you home,” he said softly.
    “I can take a cab—”
    “No.” He got a hand under my arm, and helped me to my feet. We made our way slowly toward the door. “And for what it’s worth … I think you’re absolutely right. It had to be something Chip was working on.” He paused and looked down at me. “Don’t you dare come in tomorrow…” He broke off and checked his watch. “Today. You stay home and get some rest.”
    We rode down the elevator and stepped out into the lobby. It had become a crime scene too. Yellow tape blocked the door. There was a lot of blood behind the security officer’s desk, and a few random splashes on the marble walls. There was no security guard present. Just a black body bag with a human-sized bump. Evidence techs, dressed in white jumpsuits with booties covering their shoes, were taking swabs and samples. One of them lifted the tape to allow us out of the elevator and guided us around the edge of the lobby, where there