Kiss of the Vampire(46)

“Give it up, boss. You’re not scaring me. Much,” he added under his breath. He looked around the club, dark eyes skipping from group to group, person to person. “This isn’t so bad,” he finally said.

The waitress came back with their drinks. “Your food’ll be up shortly.” She left as quietly as she’d come.

Nix glanced around, tracking people as they moved around the club. So far no one seemed the least bit interested in their little corner of the world.

“You’re always on alert, aren’t you?” Dante asked.

“I can’t afford not to be around this lot.” She picked up her drink. “Especially when alcohol’s involved. Besides, it’s part of the job, isn’t it?”

Dante crossed his arms and leaned on the table. “I guess it is. My sister always gives me a hard time whenever we go out. She says I look for bad guys under every table.” He took a sip of beer. “Occupational hazard, I guess.” He watched with interest as Tobias picked up his wineglass.

“What?” Tobias asked.

“Just waiting to see if you’re going to go all vampy on me,” Dante said, shifting his weight toward the wall.

Nix caught the twinkle in his eye and pressed her lips together against a grin.

Tobias scowled, but it was good natured. He took a sip of wine and set the glass back on the table, though his lean fingers played with the stem.

She remembered how those blunt-tipped fingers felt against her skin, stroking, rubbing. She grabbed her own glass and took a long swallow. “So, where are we with the investigation?” she asked, and took a more moderate sip of wine.

“We got nowhere on finding Finn. All we figured out today was where he wasn’t,” Tobias answered. His eyes grew stormy as he looked at Dante. “How’d you do?”

“Got nowhere, too.” The detective pulled out his small notebook and flipped through the pages. “Nothing, nothing, and yet more nothing.” He slapped the notebook onto the table.

She looked at them both. “Dr. Sahir down at the observatory knows more than he was saying.”

“I agree.” Tobias pulled his phone out of his pocket, his long fingers punching in a phone number. Nix forced herself to keep her gaze on his face. When the call was answered, Tobias said, “I have a job for you. There’s someone I want you to keep an eye on for me.” He went on to describe the astronomer to the person on the other end of the line.

When he hung up, Nix asked him, “Who was that?”

“It’s a Tucson PI I know. He owes me one.” He took a sip of wine. His pupils had dilated until only the thinnest rim of gray circled them. Emotions or blood, Nix wasn’t sure which. Probably a mixture of both. But he was in no danger of going vampy on them, as Dante had joked about. Tobias was much too controlled for that. Tobias went on, “He’ll keep an eye on Sahir until we can make it back down to Tucson to question him further.”

“So you agree we need to talk to him again.” Dante lifted his beer. “This PI, is he human or an ED?” He took a long swallow from the glass.

“Does it matter?” Tobias arched a brow.

“Nope.” Dante set his glass down. “Just curious.”

“He’s as human as you are.”

Over the next hour they drank and ate their food when it came, but around seven thirty the day started to catch up to Nix. She tried to smother a yawn, but Tobias saw it. Despite her protests, he insisted it was time for him to take her home.

Tobias slid out of the booth. He held out a hand to Nix. “Come on, honey.” His voice was husky with the same concern that darkened his eyes. “It’s been a long day.”

For once she wasn’t going to get after him for the endearment, nor was she going to fight too hard about leaving. It had been an emotional couple of days. The skin of her forehead tingled. She needed to get home and do a full tai chi routine, something that would help her regain her control.

Dante scooted out of the booth. As they made their way through the crowd, Nix motioned toward the bar. “Just let me get a bottle of wine to go.”

Tobias’s eyes crinkled at the corners. “You always did like Maldonado’s wine.”

“He has an excellent winery.” She turned and stopped suddenly. Just ahead was a guy who looked familiar, someone who might be able to help them find the elusive Finn Evnissyen. She wasn’t sure, though, so she started forward, putting herself on a collision course with him. As she approached, she bumped into him, slipping her fingers into his jacket to relieve him of his wallet.

“Wow. That was smooth.” Dante stood close enough to shield her hand and its contents from the guy whose load she’d just lightened. “I knew you’d spent some time on the streets, but I had no idea you had such mad skills.”