Kiss of the Vampire(64)

She curled her fingers against the urge to touch him.

“Nix.” He stepped back to allow her entrance and slipped the T-shirt over his head. The soft cotton molded his hard contours, somehow making him even sexier than when he’d been half naked.

She walked into the living room and looked around while he closed the door behind her. Nothing had changed in five years. Same plain beige furniture, same white walls, same stunning pieces of modern art scattered around the room. He even still had the “magic” mirror she’d given him for his birthday, propped up on a bookshelf. The mirror that, when you turned it toward you as if to look at your reflection, started laughing. Those silly days were long gone. Turning, she said, “I had a talk with Luc tonight, and he told me—”

“Wait a minute.” Tobias appeared intrigued as he came closer. “You met with him willingly? How did that happen?”

“He stopped by my mother’s house while I was there,” Nix said. “From what I know he’s there most evenings.” Tobias knew she didn’t want to have anything more to do with Lucifer than she had to, but this was hardly the time to go into it. She had something important to tell him. “He told me someone has found a way to open a small rift between the dimensions and—”

“What!” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Are you sure? I mean, is he sure?”

“Yes. Apparently they’re sending radio signals through, communicating wi—”

“What?” His expression went from startled to incredulous. The pheromones streaming from him lightened as if his surprise had cut off the flow.

“Maybe if you’d let me finish, you can just store everything up for one really big ‘What!’” She folded her arms and raised her brows.

“Smart-ass.” He sat on the sofa and thrust his fingers through his hair. “So?”

There was no easy way to say it, no way to lessen the shock, so she’d give it to him as coldly as she’d gotten it. “At least some of the members of the council know about it.”

His pupils dilated in an instant, completely obscuring the gray of his irises. His lips parted, giving her a glimpse of fangs that had elongated.

The reaction at least confirmed that Tobias had been as unaware as she had. But then a wave of pheromones hit her so hard her body immediately tightened in lust. Her heart rate increased, making her breath flutter in her throat.

His gaze fastened on the pulse there, his lips parting further. Nix felt the urge to lean toward him, to turn her head to one side. Give him free access to her life’s blood. She forced herself to back away and put the dubious safety of a recliner between them.

Tobias held her gaze. “The last time I met with the council, they told me they had suspicions there was some underground movement within the preternatural community, but they assured me they didn’t know anything specific.” He cursed under his breath. “They lied to me.” His expression was wounded, as if it was one more betrayal he couldn’t bear. His eyes were almost completely black, crimson rimming what was left of the gray of his irises. His voice rasped. “I wonder what else they know that they haven’t told us?”

Nix knew even though Tobias had lived long enough and had experienced deception more than once, there was something inside him that still managed to be surprised when the good guys weren’t so good. It should have saddened her. And to some extent it did. But mostly it just made her mad. It wasn’t like he had always been the man in the white hat. When she’d needed help the most, he’d hopped on his horse and ridden off into the proverbial sunset.

“Oh, come on, Tobias.” She propped her hands on her hips. “Most of the time people do what’s easiest, not what’s right. You of all people should know that.”

His eyes narrowed. “What the hell does that mean?”

“You know exactly what it means.” She hadn’t planned on having this argument with him tonight, but it was past time they talked about what had happened five years ago. Her emotions roiling, she tried to tamp down on the fire beginning to churn within her. “You walked out on me because it was easier than staying.”

“My leaving had nothing to do with easy.” He stood up, his gaze hard and as dark as obsidian. His scowl was just as black. “It had to do with this.” He motioned between them.

“This?” She mimicked his action. “And this is what, exactly?”

“Take a look at yourself in the mirror,” he said, gesturing toward the small hand mirror behind her. The one that laughed.

Nix whirled and grabbed it, holding it up to see for herself what his beef was. She ignored the canned laughter coming from the mirror and focused instead on what she saw. The face that stared back at her was one she hadn’t looked at in a long time, one she tried her best not to wear, one that seemed to come forward rather easily whenever Tobias was around. Her eyes were nearly completely demon yellow and her facial features had sharpened. Just a little, probably not all that noticeable unless you were looking for it. At least her horn buds hadn’t popped. Yet.