When Jordan and Nick exchanged looks, she leaned forward.
Her chair squeaked when she added,
“It’s legal, I’m told.” She glanced at Nick, folding her hands on top of some of the papers on her desk, not far from the ceremonial knife. “The hold order, that is. The school’s lawyers are poring over the forms now, but they were pretty blunt in telling me we’ve got some exposure on this.”
Glancing at Nick, then focusing back on Jordan, she added,
“The preliminary filing includes a formal cease and desist that precludes the school from cooperating voluntarily with any law enforcement on the matter, even the I.S.F. So you can ask about the murders… providing you have a specific, non-race-cat related reason to talk to any one of my students or faculty.”
She focused those blue-green eyes on Nick.
“…And provided there is no means of discerning the race of any individuals, directly or indirectly. That includes via vampire.”
Nick let out a low snort. He couldn’t help it.
Jesus. How had she spotted him so easily?
“Unfortunately for the two of you,” she added, leaning back in the chair, which emitted another low groan as she folded her hands over her sternum. “The parents filing the claim are some of the most powerful at this school. Every one of them is a legacy, or a big donor.”
Sighing, she combed her fingers through her dark hair, looking back at Jordan.
“…Anyway, I’m sure you get the point. Their attorneys called us late last night… while the I.S.F. was still here. They sent over the official documents this morning.”
Jordan and Nick exchanged another set of looks.
The woman’s voice remained faintly apologetic.
“I contacted that other detective, a Detective Morley, I believe his name is, as soon as I knew. That was just about an hour ago. He informed me that it was too late to call the two of you back. He asked if I’d be so kind as to let you and your partner here…”
She gave Nick another slightly too-lingering look.
“…at least look at the files and speak with friends of the kids who were killed last night. He also wondered if you might perhaps speak to some of their teachers, as well as their residential advisors. He didn’t happen to mention that one of his eagle-eye detectives was not among the breathing part of the population. Or the part that would violate the court order.”
She glanced at Nick, quirking an eyebrow.
“…Must’ve slipped his mind,” she added drily, looking back at Jordan.
Nick fought another smile.
Seeing her glance at him, as if noticing his twitching lips, he barely returned the look when those aquamarine eyes flickered away.
“In any case,” she said, exhaling in a sigh. “Unfortunately, my hands are completely tied in all of this. There’s not much I can do until they make it through the first stage of the appeals process. In the meantime, as I told your Detective Morley, you can try to get a judge up here to sign off on a warrant that specifically allows for interrogations based on race-cat evidence. Or, given Detective Tanaka here, you could try for one that simply allows for vampire interrogations. I wouldn’t hold your breath on either being granted, though, not until this thing is settled—”
“Do you mind if I see the formal document?” Damon said, leaning forward a little. “The cease and desist order?”
“Not at all,” she said, smiling as she re-crossed her legs.
Nick couldn’t help himself from watching her do that, too.
Again, he could have sworn she noticed.
“Of course, I can’t show you the list of names,” she added apologetically to Jordan. “But I can give you the formal order to not utilize that list in any kind of official interrogation, or to collect any biological samples or conduct any interrogations on any of my students, teachers, or other employees in an attempt to verify or refute their claimed race.”
Nick grunted, unintentionally that time.
She darted a look at him.
Still watching his face, she added wryly,
“The same order forbids any non-humans to assess or interview any of our faculty or students in an attempt to verify their claimed race.” She gave Nick an innocent look, blinking her long, dark eyelashes at him. “We were forced to send the I.S.F. away this morning for that reason alone. We didn’t want to risk the lawsuit, and really, even if the vampires they brought didn’t engage in direct interviews, just having them on the campus opened us up to potential lawsuits. We simply couldn’t take the risk. Legally-speaking, I mean.”
Nick frowned.
Had she just kicked him out of her school?
When she looked away, he exchanged looks with Jordan, who frowned back at him.
Clearly, he wasn’t sure, either.
If the woman noticed, there was no indication on her face.
Leaning forward in the swivel chair, she moved aside her coffee cup, then began rifling through papers on her desk. Nick found himself watching her hands until he realized he was looking for a wedding ring, or some other sign she might have a partner at home.
The realization brought another wave of annoyed disbelief at himself.
What the fuck was wrong with him?
This woman just threatened him.
Clenching his jaw, he averted his gaze when those sharp, intense eyes flickered back in his direction.
“Here it is.” Still looking sideways at Nick, she smiled at Jordan, handing a printed sheet to him over the clutter on her desk. “That’s just the cease and desist order. No names.”
Even when her eyes focused directly on the younger detective, Nick felt her attention unnervingly, unswervingly on him. Was she flirting with him? Or threatening to get his license yanked as a Midnight for impersonating a human?
Did she know he knew what she was?
Was that why she was screwing with him?
Was she threatening him indirectly, as well as directly, to try and keep him from talking? You tell on me, and I tell on you?
He couldn’t decide anything for certain, not even using his vampire senses.
Her pulse was normal.
Her skin’s surface temperature appeared to be normal.
He was the one flushing and squirming, a hell of a lot more than she was, not to mention how his fangs, eyes and adrenaline reacted when he first laid eyes on her.
Scowling, he tried to keep it off his face, even as he found himself studying her out of the corner of his eye, feeling somehow that she was still doing the same to him. He adjusted his weight in his seat, folding his arms over his chest as it occurred to him he wasn’t really listening to anything she or Jordan was saying.
Even his physical posture was borderline defensive.
He almost didn’t care.
“All right,” she was saying then, brightly. “That sounds good, and productive for all of us. I’ll have Dominick Graves, one of our teachers here, take you to a conference room on the floor for third-year students. You can use that for your interviews, Detective Jordan, and he can bring you anyone you’d like to talk to. As long as you don’t work off of an I.S.F. race-cat list, you can pretty much talk to anyone you want. Honestly, you can talk to every student at the school, as long as you aren’t targeting specific ones for their race.”
Jordan was already standing, smiling as he extended a hand to her.
“That would be fantastic. Thank you, Ms. James.”
Nick stood up too.
He was about to extend his hand as well, figuring this was farewell for him, while he sat outside the school grounds under a tree somewhere, avoiding the sun and waiting for Jordan to finish up his interrogations.
Hell, maybe he should just call a cab.
Take an earlier train home.
“Where are you going, Detective Tanaka?”
Nick blinked, realizing he’d forgotten to shake her hand, that he was already backing up towards the door, following Jordan out.
“…Weren’t yo
u listening?” she said. “I can’t have you roaming the halls. I thought I was crystal clear about that.”
Nick frowned, glancing at Jordan, who laughed out loud at him.
Scowling harder, Nick looked back at the woman.
“I figured I’d take an early train back—”
“Before you’ve even looked at our student or faculty files?” she said, pursing her lips in puzzlement. “But I just offered to give you access to all of our student and personnel records, Detective Tanaka. Did you not hear me? I thought vampire hearing was supposed to be better than average?”
Nick felt his skin flush.
Fuck this woman.
“Sorry.” He looked at her directly, eyes and voice flat. “I guess I tuned out. I figured I was done here.”
Jordan laughed again. “No such luck I’m afraid.”
The human thumped him good-naturedly on the arm.
It was the second time he’d done it, but it still made Nick jump. It was almost a vampire jump, but for some reason, Jordan only grinned at him.
“…Ms. James here has offered to be your personal escort, Tanaka,” Jordan said, quirking an eyebrow at him. “You’re to feed me anything from the files that might indicate any of these kids knew our murder victims. No race stuff. Just connections to the victims, or anything else that jumps out at you. Murder-related. Or New York related.”
Nick nodded, but found his eyes never entirely left Ms. James face.
“Spectacular,” he muttered.
He hoped it was too low for either of them to hear.
From the glint he saw in those blue-green eyes, he had his doubts.
Chapter 18
Wynter
“He calls you Tanaka,” she observed.
She walked nearer to him, perching on the table not far from the stacks of files arrayed around where Nick sat.
His body felt enveloped in the old leather chair he’d pulled up to the massive, antique wooden table that took up only a fraction of a room that still managed to look and feel more like a library than any kind of real conference room.
“…Not Midnight,” she added, tilting her head down towards his, maybe to get him to look at her.
Nick kept his eyes and head down.
“Are you two friends?” she pressed, undaunted.
“No,” Nick said.
“You’re not friends?”
“No.”
He could feel her pulling at him in some way, and fought the impulse to elaborate, to tell her more about himself.
She’d given him paper files.
She’d done that apologetically too, telling him that she couldn’t legally give him the electronic ones, since they would then live on an external network, and that broke privacy rules in place regarding how they handled their personnel and student records. It still wasn’t clear to Nick whether it was altogether kosher for him to be looking at the paper files either, but maybe it gave her enough plausible deniability that she was okay with it.
He clicked over to the network, using his headset mind-board to connect to Jordan.
Have you talked to a kid named Hailee Navida yet? he texted to the other man.
There was a slight pause.
No. Not yet.
She was in New York over the weekend. She also got detention with one of the murder victims in Zuccotti Park. Just a month ago.
Got it. Anyone else?
Not yet. She’s given me like two boxes of paper.
Try not to get distracted by the hottie teacher, Tanaka.
Nick frowned.
In the end though, he only exhaled.
Haha, he texted back. I wouldn’t worry. I’m pretty sure she hates vampires.
Sure she does. Whatever, man. Seemed like she wanted to get into your pants to me.
Nick rolled his eyes.
Gee, that’s flattering, he texted back.
Don’t vamps get into hate fucks?
Nick grunted. Don’t you have school kids sitting in front of you right now? Are you a perv or what, Damon?
Naw, just newly divorced, the other texted back without a pause. I gotta get my kicks somewhere. My ex-wife still has my balls in a jar somewhere.
There’s a drug for that.
Not one I can afford, Jordan sent back. Get back to work, Midnight. And stop avoiding the pretty lady by talking to me. You’re gonna hurt her feelings.
Jordan sent him a series of images of himself laughing.
Rolling his eyes, Nick clicked off, glancing at the woman sitting on the table—too fucking close, as far as he was concerned. He gave her a half-scowl, that time without even knowing why exactly.
If she saw the scowl, it didn’t seem to faze her.
“Can you see okay with those?” she said, still staring at his face.
When he gave her a puzzled look, she pointed at her eyes.
“The contacts,” she said, indicating towards her blue-green eyes. “You can take them out, you know. It’s not like you’re fooling anyone at this point.”
Ignoring her deliberately, Nick focused back on the file open in front of him.
“You don’t want to talk to me? Or show me your real eyes?” Rather than offended, her voice sounded amused. “Why not? I can’t possibly be that scary.”
Nick gave her a hard look.
“Why the fuck are you here?” he said. “Don’t you have a job to do? I mean, you’re the principal here, right?”
Unfazed, she shrugged, leaning back on her hands on the table.
Weirdly, she still didn’t go away.
Mimicking a human exhale, Nick leaned back from the files, folding his arms in front of his chest.
“Look,” he said. “I’m not going to turn you in. Is that what you need to hear? I’m not going to tell anyone. So you can stop… hovering. Or whatever the fuck you’re doing.”
Her light-filled eyes narrowed.
Her lips did too, pursing into a flatter line.
He had a brief flash of himself biting those lips, and looked away, folding his arms tighter across his chest with a harder frown.
He might not know hybrids, but he knew seers.
He also knew when he was being screwed with.
When she didn’t speak, he aimed his scowl back at her.
“I mean it,” he said. “Do you need me to sign something? Write it in blood? I don’t need a fucking blowjob to keep my mouth shut, all right?”
Her eyes flinched.
Then her full lips tilted into another wry smile.
“You think I’m offering you a bribe?” she said.
Nick scowled, leaning back over the files.
She watched him, again tilting her head, as if to better see his face.
“I wasn’t offering you a bribe,” she said, her voice a touch harder.
“Sure, you weren’t.”
“Why?” she said, her voice sharper. “Why wouldn’t you tell them about me?”
“Why would I?” Nick growled, his eyes still on the file in front of him, although he wasn’t reading a damned word of it. “None of my fucking business.”
“That’s an interesting attitude for a—”
“For a what?” He glared at her. “A vampire?”
Her eyes regarded him coolly. “I was going to say a cop,” she said. Her full lips hardened into more of a real frown. “Are you always this pissed off? Or do you have some kind of problem with seers?”
“How did you ID me so fast?” he said, looking up at her with a scowl. “Do you really work with that many vampires, that you—”
“I read minds,” she said, blunt.
Nick fell silent.
Whatever he’d expected her to say, it wasn’t that.
It was pretty rare for hybrids to have full-blown seer gifts.
It was even more rare for a hybrid to admit as much, since it put them in a hell of a lot of danger, and not only with the I.S.F.
“Why the fuck would you tell me that?” he said, his voice losing some of its edge.
He was still staring at her when she shrugged.
“I don’t know,” she said, blowing at a few strands of that black and colored hair to get it out of her face. “I figured you’d guess. I read your partner. I knew you were a vampire from him. I also know he’s warming up to you,” she added, smiling faintly. “…even if he thinks you’re kind of a vampire version of a grumpy old man.”
Nick could only stare at her.
He didn’t bother trying to hide his puzzlement.
“You don’t know anything about me—” he growled.
“And you don’t know anything about me,” she countered. “Yet here we are. Not exactly interacting like strangers.”
His brow furrowed. For a few seconds he could only frown at her, briefly stumped.
“Can you read me?” he said, blunt.
She shook her head. “No.”
“Is that the fascination? The blank slate?”
“Does there have to be a race-related fascination?” she said, her lips again quirked in that faint amusement. “Can’t it just be regular old fascination?”
Nick didn’t know what to say to that, either.
Truthfully, she was knocking him off balance, enough so that he could feel it making him aggressive. He couldn’t comprehend what that was about entirely, either.
“What’s your name?” he said, gruff.
“Wynter,” she said, prompt. “Wynter Ciara James. What does Nick stand for?”
“Does it have to stand for something?”
Again, she ignored his attempts to put her off.
“Nicholas?” she prompted. “Nikolai? Dominick?”
“Naoko,” he said.
He said it without thinking, then bit down on his back molars, wishing he hadn’t.
“Naoko,” she mused. “I like that.”
For a moment they both just sat there, both of them with arms crossed across their chests. Nick still found himself avoiding looking at her. Still, he could feel some part of him reacting to her stare, enough that he was having trouble sitting still.
Vampire Detective Midnight Page 19