Kiss of the Vampire(6)

Dante shifted, his right hand sliding over to unsnap the safety strap on his gun holster. He let his hand rest on the butt of his weapon. She could see how tense he was, his shoulders taut, hand ready to draw his pistol.

Nix didn’t blame him. She was tempted to draw her gun, too, but for an entirely different reason. Battling back the urge to tear into Tobias, she asked him, “What’re you doing here?”

His hard, stormy gaze locked on hers. “Nix. It’s good to see you.”

She ignored the throb between her thighs as her body reacted to his voice and those damned pheromones that spilled from him. Vampires had the ability to influence the behavior of others through these pheromones, excreted colorless chemicals that human senses were too dull to detect but pret senses could identify just fine. Some vamps were better at using them than others. Tobias was one of the best she’d seen. Or, more accurately, felt. “I asked you a question,” she stated with a glare.

Tobias reached into the inner pocket of his leather jacket and pulled out a wallet. He flipped it open and showed ID that looked suspiciously like hers—that of a council liaison. “I’m your vampire liaison.”

“You’re not my anything.” She folded her arms over her breasts. “What happened to Knox?”

Tobias shrugged. “He’s been temporarily reassigned.”

“Mr. Caine.” Nix heard Dante’s hard swallow but his voice held steady as he said, “I’m Detective MacMillan.”

“No need for formality. Call me Tobias.” Tobias reached out and the two men shook hands in greeting. Tobias tucked his ID away. “It’s Dante, right?” Upon receiving a nod of affirmation from Dante, Tobias looked at Nix again.

As he took a step forward, she raised a hand to ward him off before he thought to come any closer. The pheromones still rolled off him in a steady stream, making it hard to breathe through the sensual fog they created. She ground her teeth to keep from leaping into his arms. Or baring her throat. Or both. “You need to ramp it down, Caine,” she muttered.

“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” he returned blandly.

She glanced at Dante. His hand rested once again on the butt of his gun but he didn’t seem to be overly affected by the pheromones. While it was true he wouldn’t sense them, he would still be influenced by them if that was what Tobias wanted. Since he wasn’t, that meant Tobias was deliberately directing them her way. Her human DNA made her more susceptible to the effects than a full-blooded demon would be, and he knew it.

“Caine!” she bit out, taking a step backward, putting more distance between them and ignoring the confused look Dante sent her way. “Just what the hell are you doing here? Since when are you a council liaison? And why was Knox reassigned?”

Tobias gave her a cocky grin, making her heart flutter in unwanted longing, though his stare remained as penetrating as ever. “I arrived in town early this morning. As soon as word of this came to the council, they asked me to be a special liaison because of my background and the spate of murders that’s happened recently.”

She scowled and ignored, for the moment, the fact that they’d be working together. “Since when are two deaths a ‘spate’?”

“Since today.” His gaze snagged on the body. “Let me take a look at the victim.”

Oh, crap. Amarinda and Tobias went way back. She was the one who had introduced Tobias and Nix. When he had left town, Nix had gone out of her way to avoid Amarinda after that, effectively ending their relationship. Something she would never be able to fix.

As he started forward, she put her hand on his arm. “Tobias…” There was no easy way to say it. “It’s Rinda.”

Tobias’s face became drawn and the spill of vamp pheromones increased, though now they vibrated with building rage and sorrow. “Damn it.” He breathed out a sigh and crouched beside the body. He folded back the tarp to reveal her face.

Nix noticed a slight tremble in those long fingers and couldn’t deny the sympathy she felt for him. Despite his meeting Amarinda more than a hundred years ago, the two had managed to maintain a close friendship. Before he’d left Scottsdale, they’d both worked for Maldonado—Tobias as one of Maldonado’s enforcers and Rinda as a kind of jill-of-all-trades. Nix had never really been sure exactly what the female vampire’s job had been.

Nix moved to the other side of the body so she could see Tobias’s face better. His expression was controlled, placid even, but she could detect the stirrings of rage in the way his pupils dilated until there was only the smallest circle of gray rimming them.