Kiss of the Vampire(13)

“Unless it ends up being the reason she died.” Still fighting back outraged anger, Nix was proud of the noncommittal tone of her voice. Looking around the crime scene, she added, “I don’t care what you say, demons didn’t do this.”

He stared at her a moment, then gave an abrupt nod. “Tell you what. I won’t include it in my report, for now.” His eyes narrowed. “But you have to come back with solid evidence that rules them out, not just a gut feeling. Or I will have to let the council know.”

She blinked. Tobias Caine, the original Mr. By the Book, was actually going to let her skate on this one? Against her better judgment she found herself cutting him some slack. If he could relax his vigil on the rules, maybe he had changed a little in the years they’d been apart.

Tobias glanced at his watch. “Speaking of the council, I’m surprised we haven’t gotten a call yet.”

Nix’s phone rang. She pulled it out of her pocket and glanced at the number. “Yeah, speak of the devils,” she said.

“That’s them?” He seemed genuinely surprised.

She looked at him. “What did you do, page them when I wasn’t looking?” She wouldn’t put it past him.

“No.” He shoved his hands into his pockets. “It’s coincidence.”

“Uh-huh. Someone told me a long time ago that when you’re dealing with murder there’s no such thing as coincidence.” She shot him a pointed look.

“That hardly applies to a phone call,” he said, the look on his face showing he remembered that he’d been the one to tell her that.

She huffed out a sigh and answered the phone.

“They want you here, pronto,” one of the dispatchers told her.

Nix frowned at his abrupt tone. “I’m doing well, thanks for asking,” she replied. As he started to respond, she cut him off. “We’re just about finished up here—”

“They said now. Just you. Since the vic is a vamp, Caine’s lead on the case. He can finish up at the scene.”

There wasn’t any point in saying anything other than, “I’m on my way.” She disconnected the call and looked at Tobias. “They want me.”

The look that flashed through his eyes sent a shiver snaking down her spine. At one time that look had been much less fleeting and had been the start of hot, intense sex.

Nix drew in a breath and held it for a five count. The council was waiting and she’d better be on her way. To cover her reaction to the banked need in his eyes, she gave Tobias a mocking salute and turned toward her car, waving to Dante. As she drove away she glanced in her rearview mirror, watching the vampire standing so tall and straight, surrounded by activity yet so alone, the man who always managed to entice her inner demon to the surface.





Chapter Three





The Council of Preternaturals, made up of thirteen representatives from most of the major groups of preternaturals, tried to keep peace among prets as well as between prets and humans. They were not always successful, especially recently with tensions rising because of the upcoming rift. There was always some uproar or another needing their attention. They were overworked and under a lot of stress, which made for some interesting and not-so-pleasant interactions. Whenever things rolled downhill, the liaisons were the ones to catch all the crap. At least that’s how Nix saw it.

She was kept waiting for almost two hours. Her emotions were already topsy-turvy, first from seeing Amarinda’s body and then Tobias at the crime scene, and this delay certainly hadn’t made her any more even-tempered. As it was, it probably wouldn’t take much more to make her go off. Standing at the end of the hallway, several yards away from the doors of the main chamber, she tried some deep breathing to stave off her nerves. It helped, but not a lot. Not as much as a tai chi workout would have, but she couldn’t just break into her routine outside the council chambers. She wouldn’t give them any reason to doubt her ability to do her job.

Once they finally did deign to see her, she was hard pressed to keep the irritation from shining through. But while most demons she knew would just as soon spoon someone’s brains out through their nose, she was determined to follow a more human path and kept a pleasant expression pasted on her face. No matter that her skull felt like it was about to split open, a sure sign that it wouldn’t take much for her horn buds, usually recessed in her forehead, to pop out. Then it was anyone’s guess as to what would happen. But she’d do her best to hold it together, because the people in this room were very powerful.

The room in which she stood was dimly lit. Roughly the size of a high school auditorium, it held a long semicircular mahogany table at the far end where the council members sat. There were a few chairs in front of the table, ostensibly for liaisons to use while making their reports, the wooden folding kind that were hell on the butt. Nix usually stayed on her feet mostly because of that, but also because the council was big on formality, and it seemed much too informal to sit in their presence.