A couple of deep breaths, and she pulled away from the curb. A few minutes later she sat on the leather sofa in her mother’s ultramodern living room and accepted a glass of iced tea. Several candles burned on the console table behind the sofa, permeating the room with the scent of cinnamon and apples.
“Are you sure you don’t want wine instead?” Betty asked as she sat down in a matching armchair across from Nix. She crossed her slender legs and idly swung one bare foot in the air. “That bottle you brought me has enough for at least two.”
Nix grinned to see Betty’s toenails were painted neon green. Flamboyance was her mother’s middle name.
“I’m sure, thanks.” Nix took a sip and almost winced at the sweetness. “Are you sure there’s actually tea in this?”
“It’s the only way I can drink it.” Betty raised her wineglass to her lips. Her short, bouncy curls reflected the light with a blue black shine. Big, wide dark eyes framed by thick black lashes stared unblinkingly at her. The fact that the Betty Boop cartoon character had been created after her mother met the head of Fleischer Studios at a New Year’s Eve party was not a coincidence.
Nix looked at her mom, who stared back without speaking. Tension rode along Nix’s shoulders as the silence lengthened.
“So, why are you here?” Betty finally asked.
“How do you know it’s not just because I wanted to catch up with you?” Nix caught Betty’s slight eye roll. Yeah, right. Neither one of them were exactly full of fluffiness for each other. “Okay, I need your help on a case.”
“The vampire slayings?”
“You know about those?” Nix stared at her mom.
Betty fingered her wineglass. “Only what I’ve heard on the news. The reports have been rather sketchy on details.” She paused, circling one finger along the rim of her glass. “I take it from your expression they’ve been rather gruesome?”
“It was worse than that. The second victim was Amarinda.” Nix swallowed as tears threatened.
“Oh.” Betty leaned forward, almost as if she meant to reach out to Nix, but seemed to think better of it and slouched further in the chair.
Another awkward silence filled the room while Nix got her grief under control. She glanced around the living room, focusing on the large abstract painting above the fireplace. Slashes of reds, blues, and greens were encased by a stainless steel frame. Pillows of the same colors decorated the sofa and armchairs. She looked at her mother again and cleared her throat. “Yes, well, we’ve had three vampires killed in three days. The first body was mutilated a little, but Amarinda…” She wet her lips. “She was eviscerated. And her fingers were cut off.”
“Most likely in order to get rid of the evidence the killers may have left behind.” Betty took another sip of wine.
“That was what I thought, too.” Nix set her iced tea on the end table. “This last body was in pieces scattered over a large vacant lot.” She stared at her mom while she tried to find the right words to ask what she needed to ask.
“What?” Betty questioned. When Nix didn’t respond right away, her mother’s mouth twitched into a frown. “Just say it, Nix, whatever it is.”
Nix pulled her legs up onto the couch in a lotus position and rested her hands on her calves. “There was a scent of demon at the last two crime scenes. Not strong, but it was there.”
“And so…what? You’re automatically making the assumption that demons are behind these slayings?” Betty’s eyes turned hard. She started tapping her fingers on the padded arm of her chair. “That we’re the primitive animals the other prets say we are?”
“No. No, I just…” Nix huffed out a sigh. She met her mother’s gaze. “The council is going to hear about it eventually. It won’t look good for me if they find out I knew about it and didn’t say anything.”
“What does your vampire liaison have to say about it? I assume he’s smelled it, too.”
Nix wasn’t going to volunteer that the vampire liaison at the moment was her former lover. “Yeah, he smelled it, too. For the time being he’s agreed not to say anything to the council.”
Betty shifted in her seat and laid one arm out along the back of the chair. “That doesn’t sound like something Knox would do. He’s so by the book it’s sickening.”
Aldis Knox and Betty had once upon a time been friends. Nix had wondered if they’d been lovers, but had never asked. Now, with the disgruntled look on her mother’s face, she wondered anew. “People change” was all she said now.