Her heart thumped. "Natchook? Why?"
Tobias studied her a few moments. "I didn't tell you this because … " He shrugged. "Natchook is the one I took the device from, after he tried to kill Nix."
Her heart thumped again, this time with guilt.
"What was that?" Nix leaned forward.
Tori lifted her brows and tried to act nonchalantly. "What was what?"
"Your pupils dilated and the blood flow to your face increased momentarily." Her lips curved downward. "What are you feeling guilty about?"
Tori grinned. "Jeez, turn a woman into a vampire and she gets crazy skills." When neither vampire laughed, Tori sobered. Damn it. She knew eventually she'd have to come clean about this, but she'd wanted to do it when she brought Stefan in. She didn't want it to happen like this, making it seem like she'd been harboring him.
She heaved a sigh. "I've seen Natchook."
Tobias went very still. Nix hopped to her feet with a "What!"
There was no easy way to lead into this. "He's going by the name Stefan Liuz." As Tobias's face began to darken, his pupils expanding to obliterate the gray of his irises, she hastened to add, "I've only seen him once, I swear. At the Devil's Domain about a week ago. I wanted to be the one to bring him in instead of letting you hunt him down." She spread her hands in a silent plea for understanding. "I didn't want you to kill him."
"Do I have to remind you that he murdered the leader of my planet?" Tobias rose to his feet, a terrible stillness about him that only a vampire could have. "Judgment was pronounced. A verdict was rendered."
"But we all got a second chance after the rift. All of us. Doesn't he deserve that, too?"
Tobias didn't answer her.
Nix put her hands on her hips. "I'm confused. How is it that you're a werewolf but your cousin is a vampire?"
"Parents from different planets." Tobias said.
Tori nodded. God, she felt like a crumb right now, seeing the disapproving and disappointed looks on her friends' faces. "Apparently his mother's genes were stronger than his father's."
"How do I find him?" Tobias leveled a harsh glare on her.
"I don't know. Really, I don't. He said he'd be in touch with me, and I haven't heard from him since then." She stood. "Tobias, please understand. He's family. I've been alone for so long, it seemed like a miracle that my brother and cousin came back into my life."
"Hold on a second." Tobias's gaze hardened even further. "Your brother is in town? He didn't come to the meeting."
"I know. I've already talked to him about that. He was supposed to and … blew it off. I'll get him to the next one." She swallowed. "I wasn't hiding him. Or Stefan. I just wanted my cousin to get a fair hearing for his crimes. I didn't know he was behind the rift device." She stared at Nix. "I didn't know he was the one who tried to kill you. I swear."
Nix shook her head and crossed her arms, turning to stride to the window and look outside.
Finally, Tobias blew out a breath. "Okay. I can't say I'm happy about this, but I understand." He glanced at his wife, and Tori knew he was thinking about how alone he'd been before he and Nix had gotten back together. His stern eyes returned to Tori. "If he contacts you, call me immediately. Immediately," he ordered.
She pressed her lips together and nodded. "I will." She inhaled slowly. "Is there any way you can … " She trailed off at the unforgiving look on his face. "Never mind. I'm sorry," she said.
After a couple of seconds, Tobias rubbed the back of his neck. "Forget about it. Just let me know when you hear from him."
She could tell he was still angry, but there wasn't a lot he could do. Stefan hadn't reached out to her since that first chance meeting, and she didn't have his contact info. When she drove away a few minutes later, she'd never felt more helpless in her entire life.
It was moments like this that made her wonder why she did what she did. If she wasn't a council liaison it wouldn't have been such a big deal that her cousin was Natchook. It wouldn't be such an enormous thing to have a brother who might be the rogue werewolf. All she'd ever wanted was family. Why did she have to get saddled with the Munsters?
Chapter Seventeen
So none of the combatants from the grocery store are our rogue up in quad four?" Captain Scott perched one buttock on the edge of Dante's desk and folded his arms over his chest.
Dante shook his head. "The council liaisons have conducted the interviews with the vamps and werewolves involved, and they're satisfied with their alibis for the other nights in question." He picked up a folder that had the completed report and handed it to his boss. "You can read it for yourself if you'd like."
Scott thumbed through it, the scowl on his face deepening. After a few seconds he tossed the file back onto Dante's desk. "Do you believe 'em?"
Dante rocked back in his chair. "Believe who?"
"The liaisons."
"Of course." Dante knew Tori was truthful and wouldn't go along with any kind of cover-up. "Why would they lie?"
Scott's brows beetled. "I can't believe one of my best detectives would be that na?ve. People lie all the time, MacMillan, sometimes for no reason at all."
Dante shook his head. "I know people lie. I'm just not sure what they'd gain in this particular case. They don't want rogues runnin' around attacking people any more than we do."
"Are you sure about that?" Scott leaned forward, resting his forearm on his thigh. "The more of them there are, the more power they have."
Dante couldn't tell his captain about the rift device, and the very real threat that many more preternaturals might be joining them at the next Influx in December than anticipated. As if that wasn't enough to deal with, there was still someone turning people.
Scott's brows crinkled. "Hell, we don't know for sure how many EDs are on this planet, do we? Not every ED reports in with their regional council. There could be twice as many as we think. Hell, they could already outnumber us."
"It's impossible to tell for certain," Dante murmured. He wasn't thrilled with the idea of being at the bottom of the food chain on a planet full of vampires, shapeshifters, and other creatures that go bump in the night. The reality was they didn't know how many prets lived on Earth. Hell, they didn't even know exactly how many were in Scottsdale, let alone the entire planet.
"That's why I'm supporting Senator Martin's Preternatural Registration Act." Scott shook his head. "I ain't turning into a minority without a fight."
Dante brought his chair up straight. Humans had been living with preternaturals for a very long time; they just hadn't known until it became common knowledge. "You'd support legislation that would require prets to register with their local government and be fitted with a microchip?"
"It would allow them to be identified as an ED and list what type they are. And it could arge hrekeep pertinent medical information as well," he said, as if that made the whole idea acceptable. "Maybe someday … " His voice lowered. "That microchip might also be a GPS. Hell, we do it with dogs."
Dante shook his head. "People will never go for that." He'd never support something like that. It would be like accepting that prets were no more than animals. And he knew for damn sure that Tori was much more than a wolf.
"Why not?"
"If we start putting GPS and RFID chips inside prets, how long will it be before someone starts thinking it'd be a good thing to do with humans?" He leaned to one side, resting his forearm on the desk. "That's why California and a couple other states passed laws prohibiting the forced implant of microchips into humans."
"Exactly." Scott pointed a finger for emphasis. "I don't have a problem about not allowing it for humans. But we're not talking about humans, are we? We're talking about EDs."
"Sounds like Nazism all over again to me." Dante crossed one leg over the other. "As long as you're not preternatural, you have nothing to worry about, right? Then someone decides that a certain race, religion, or political view is just as undesirable as prets. Where will it stop?"
"You're overthinking this, MacMillan. Humans have nothing to worry about if the PRA goes into law."
"And when the rift happens and you suddenly find that you've become a werewolf? What then?" Dante stared at his captain. "Will you willingly join the others and line up to be injected with a microchip?"
Scott stood up. "If it's the law, I will."
"That's my point." Dante leaned forward. "It shouldn't be the law, especially not here, in this country. We were founded on the ideal that all people are created equal."
Suddenly, one of the other detectives signaled Captain Scott. "Well, I guess that all depends on your definition of ‘people,'" his boss said as he straightened. "We'll just have to agree to disagree on this one, MacMillan." He walked away to talk to the other man.