“Yeah, as long as my directions were good.”
Tobias shook his head. “Most teams have at least one shape-shifter on them.”
MacMillan looked a bit shamefaced. “Oh, yeah. Right.” He tapped his nose, indicating they’d smell their way along just as Tobias and Nix had been able to do. He looked at Nix, his expression growing more concerned. “She looks dead on her feet.” He pressed his lips together, no doubt fighting a grin.
“Hey!” She frowned at him.
“Sorry.”
Tobias didn’t think he looked very sorry. He couldn’t resist joining in the teasing. “He has a point.” Tobias bit back a grin when she tossed a scowl his way. “You can’t deny it. You are dead on your feet.”
“Isn’t the term ‘undead,’ fang boy?” she muttered.
Before she could get any testier—Tobias remembered what she was like when she was really tired—he urged her forward. “Come on, honey. Let’s go home.”
“Home.” She sighed and leaned her head on his shoulder. Her feet scuffed in the dirt as she walked. She yawned again, her body still not having figured out she no longer needed to breathe. “I like the sound of that.”
He couldn’t help but wonder if she’d feel differently after she’d rested. After she got used to the new sensations her changed body offered. She’d need him even less than she had before—and she’d never really needed him then, either. She was one of the most independent, competent women he knew. Something more for him to love about her.
They had resolved a lot of the past hurts, but it remained to be seen if they would be able to build on that foundation. A kiss, soft words, and hot sex didn’t make the pain go away. After she’d gotten some rest, he supposed he would find one thing out: Would she stay with him? Or was he destined to live the rest of his life alone?
* * *
Dante watched Nix and Tobias until they went out of sight. He blew out a sigh and scrubbed the back of his neck, and surveyed the scene. Blood-soaked sand and five dead vampires pretty much told the story. It was too damned bad that the ringleader had gotten away, and not just because it was someone Tobias had been hunting for so long. Some payback would’ve been nice. Dante prodded his wound and winced. That bite had hurt like hell when it happened, but it hurt even more now. The sooner the crime scene specialists got here the sooner he could take off and get it seen to.
He walked over to the nearest corpse and stared down at him. The vampire’s eyes were open, his bloodied fangs still in evidence. This was the bastard that had bitten him. Dante drew his weapon and prodded the body with the toe of his boot. No reaction. He backed up until he was stopped by a large rock, then leaned against it and kept his pistol at the ready. From what he knew, blood loss was just as devastating to a vamp as it was to a human. And these guys had lost a hell of a lot of blood. They all seemed dead, but with vampires you never could tell. He’d just have to trust that Tobias and Nix wouldn’t have left him here alone to fend off a horde of vamps coming back to life.
After about half an hour or so he heard voices calling his name. “Up here,” he shouted.
Roughly a dozen criminalists came over the rise. Knox, the former vampire liaison of his quadrant, walked over to him. “You just can’t stay out of trouble, can you, MacMillan?”
Dante lifted his shoulders. “Trouble seems to find me in spite of my best efforts.” He clapped Knox on the shoulder. “So, you’re on the case now?”
He grimaced, flashing a fang. “I get to clean up your mess.”
“Not mine. Caine’s.”
“Uh-huh.” Knox stopped and gestured toward Dante’s arm. “You all right?”
“It’s just a scratch.” Dante figured he needed to keep the whole rift device thing out of the realm of common knowledge, so he made sure the conversation stayed on point. He nodded at the dead vamps. “These guys were buddies of the vampire that Tobias chased through the rift.”
“Natchook? No kidding.” Knox made a circuit of the scene, looking at each vampire. He stopped at the spot where Tobias had turned Nix and stared at the few smears of blood on the rock. Going down on his haunches, he drew in a breath and then shot a sharp glance up at Dante.
“She’s fine, now,” Dante said. “Natchook got to her, forcing Tobias to turn her.”
“And?” Knox sniffed again, his eyes going vampire black. “How did the transformation go?” He seemed wary, his voice sounding tight.
“Fine, I guess. I’ve never seen one before, so I don’t have anything to compare it with.”