Kiss of the Vampire(74)

“But exceptions have been made before—”

“Not for you.” Deoul slashed a hand through the air. “Not on this case.”

She’d always known she wasn’t Deoul’s favorite, but now he really seemed to have a bug up his butt about her. “Why not this case?”

“You’re too close to it. Not only were you a friend of one of the victims, but…” His gaze slid to Tobias. “As we had confirmed yesterday, the scent of demon has been prevalent at each scene.”

Her mouth dropped and she turned toward Tobias. The man she loved. The man who’d said he would keep this secret. “You told them?” she whispered.

“I didn’t say it was prevalent,” he corrected. He looked at her, apology in his eyes. “They already knew, Nix. I merely confirmed their intel.”

“Sure they did.” She glared at him, having a hard time believing she’d let him do this to her again. But she’d deal with that in a few minutes. For now, she turned back to the council members. She wasn’t going to go without a fight. “I can still help. I have contacts—”

“Who may very well be the ones behind the attacks.” Deoul shook his head. “No. This is not open for debate. You’re off this case.” When she didn’t move, his voice rose. “You are dismissed, Ms. de la Fuente.”

She looked at Tobias, mouth open in shock. He met her gaze and gave a little shrug. She knew he wouldn’t go into it with her in front of the council, but, by God, he could do better than shrug at her. Before she could say anything though, the council president spoke again.

“Go. Now.” Deoul gave a wave of his hand in perfunctory dismissal.

She didn’t budge. Bony-assed fairy. As her anger and outrage mounted, her inner demon began clawing its way to the surface, sending fire to churn in her gut, and slide beneath her skin. She lifted one hand and scratched the skin concealing her horn buds, where the sensation was the worst.

“Nix.” Tobias’s voice was low. Cautionary. “Just go. I’ll see what I can do.”

She tightened her lips. “You’ve probably already done more than enough, thanks.” Looking at the council, she dipped her head. Twisting on her heel, she strode out of the room, uncaring that the force of her shove slammed the double doors against the walls as they flew open. She ignored the two guards who hurried to close them behind her. Deoul was a first-rate bastard, and Tobias wasn’t far behind him. She even, at this moment, hated him a little bit.

Nix stalked to the far end of the hallway and slammed her fist against the wall. Staring out the window, she tried to calm down and think about this logically. This wasn’t the first time she’d been released from a case. As Caladh had said, it was protocol. If neither the victim nor the suspect was human, there was nothing for the human liaison to do.

What had her most concerned was that Tobias had talked to them about the demon scent at the crime scenes and hadn’t told her. She felt like all that sweet talk from last night meant nothing. The words were like ash in her mouth now.

She heard the council chamber doors open and turned to see Tobias walk out of the room. He came toward her, his face troubled. “Nix—”

“Did you tell them about the demon scent?” she asked, hands on hips.

“They told me word had come to them. I wasn’t going to lie.”

“Of course not, because that would be against the rules.” She exhaled and shook her head, her emotions going from angry to sad. “You think that living by rules is the only way to go, even when those rules make you a slave. Sometimes rules are made to be broken. Chaos can be good. Sometimes it’s even necessary.”

“Now you sound like Natchook.” His expression hardened. “Can you seriously tell me that if our situations were reversed you would jeopardize your job, your integrity, by lying to them?”

“I might for you,” she said. Then she sighed. If Tobias had only confirmed what they already knew, that was different than if he’d volunteered the information without being asked. But, still, he did what he’d always done—made a decision without talking it over with her. Once again he had brushed her aside as if she were too trivial to matter. Maybe she should have paid attention to that little inner voice earlier this morning when it had whispered that perhaps they were rushing into things.

Tobias stared out the window. He wasn’t exactly her favorite person right now, but she had to admit if only to herself that she loved his profile—strong and masculine, handsome with just a touch of ruggedness. “There is something else I should tell you, though,” he said, his voice low. He kept looking through the glass. “They told me yesterday they were going to kick you off the case.”