Kiss of the Vampire(15)

“Two murders in two days would suggest we don’t have a lot of time to give.” Deoul rested one hand on the table and began drumming his fingers on the dark wood surface. “Just how many more bodies will we go through for you to get to the truth?”

She’d like to see him go out and do what she did. See how fast he came up with information. “I promise you’ll have answers sooner than you expect.”

“How can it be sooner than I expect when it’s already later than I’d thought?” He lifted a dark eyebrow and turned his head to one side to glance at his colleagues. The upper curve of his ear peeped out from his long hair, and Nix had the sudden urge to lean over the table and yank on it. Elves had very sensitive ears. She knew his yelp of pain would be very satisfying for her.

She restrained her mischievous urge and clenched her jaws against a scathing response. “I’ll have answers as soon as possible.”

“See that you do.” Deoul gazed toward the back of the room and gave a nod.

Nix heard the doors open and turned sideways so she could see what was going on yet still keep an eye on the council members. Not that she didn’t trust them, but…

Hell. She didn’t trust them. None of them had gotten to the powerful positions they were in by being nice. While it was true they were intelligent and generally made positive decisions that benefited the pret community as a whole, it was equally true that most of them had had to be ruthless, conniving and downright mean to get a seat at this table.

Tobias and a slender woman in a flowered skirt and white blouse—Victoria Joseph, werewolf and liaison to the shape-shifter community in Nix’s quadrant—walked in. Well, Victoria walked. Tobias sauntered.

And looked damned fine doing it.

Nix scowled. This was so far away from being good. The fact that they were calling in two other liaisons, especially Victoria, who shouldn’t even be involved, didn’t bode well for Nix.

When the two reached the table, they both bowed to the council. “Ati me peta babka?” they asked in unison in the common language from the other dimension. How may I serve?

Deoul’s gaze cut to Nix as if to say, See? This is how it’s done.

She scowled. So she hadn’t given a damn bow. She’d said the frickin’ words, hadn’t she?

“Thank you both for coming on such short notice.” Caladh spritzed his face again and gave a soft sigh of relief. “Victoria, my dear, it is agreeable to see you again.” Pleasure turned his dark eyes liquid.

The werewolf’s smile was slow and sultry. “It’s good to see you, too.”

Nix looked from one to the other. She wasn’t always the quickest match to light, but there were definite undercurrents between these two. Interesting.

Caladh’s gaze lingered on Victoria a moment before he turned his attention to Tobias, signaling that it was now Tobias’s turn.

Tobias clasped his hands behind him and rocked back slightly on his heels. “I await the pleasure of the council.”

“We would like to know your opinion on the current spate of murders,” Deoul said.

Again with the “spate.” Nix shot a glance at Tobias, who only shrugged. She wasn’t stupid. This was why the council had kept her waiting. They’d snuck Tobias in around her and had already heard his report. Now they wanted him to trot out everything again for her benefit.

Shit. If he’d told them about smelling demon at the scene, even though he’d promised her he wouldn’t, she was SOL because she’d kept it out of her report. She ground her jaws together and focused on keeping a placid expression on her face. By the way her eyes had begun to burn she knew the demon yellow in her irises was shining, spurred by her bubbling but as of yet not boiling over temper.

Tobias answered Deoul. “There is no conclusive evidence to point to a specific preternatural. The predominant scent was that of human.”

There was silence, as if the council waited for him to say more. Nix shot him another glance but he didn’t look her way. His steady gaze remained on the three on the other side of the large table.

Finally Deoul looked at Victoria and asked, “Have you heard anything from the shape-shifter community?”

“There have been murmurings, of course. Where there’s a lack of truth, rumor runs wild.” Her voice was melodious, as calming as wind chimes on a summer breeze. Quite at odds for someone who went furry once a month, oftentimes more, and would just as soon rip your lungs out as look at you. “Nothing substantive, though.”

“So we don’t know if humans did it or prets?” Caladh sat forward and reached for the spray bottle again. His eyes glittered and a scowl darkened his face. “That’s quite helpful.” Before Nix could respond to the sarcasm, he said, “There has been some unrest as of late. Prets have become targets of human prejudice and I’ve heard of escalating tensions between prets, especially between vampires and demons. Perhaps demons have called a blood feud?” he said with a glance at Nix.