Kiss of the Vampire

by Cynthia Garner

  Some habits died hard, he guessed. He should know. Nix was a tough habit for him to break.

  “Let’s go,” she said now, her cheeks rosy. Whether from anger or embarrassment he didn’t know.

  He turned and saw Victoria Joseph standing a few feet away from MacMillan. The female werewolf wore a slinky black dress with a neckline that plunged almost to her navel and a hem that ended at midthigh, her makeup more pronounced than he’d ever seen it. She looked sexy, very different from how she looked on the job. She gave him a wink, then checked MacMillan out from behind, lust filling her eyes.

  Nix spotted her as well and called out, “Hey, Tori!”

  Victoria walked up to them. “Nix. Tobias.” She glanced at MacMillan. “Won’t you introduce me to your friend?” As always, her voice was calm, in contrast to her appearance that undoubtedly ruined the composure of just about every male in the place.

  Tobias was glad Nix was still in her work clothes. He was sure seeing her in something sexy like Tori’s dress would erode his calm beyond repair. “This is Detective Dante MacMillan, a member of the Special Case Squad.” He motioned toward the female werewolf. “Dante, this is Victoria Joseph, another council liaison.”

  Victoria held out a fine-boned hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Detective.”

  MacMillan looked like he’d been struck by lightning. He took her hand in his and raised it to his lips. He pressed a slow kiss to her knuckles. “The pleasure’s all mine, Ms. Joseph.”

  “My friends call me Tori.” She looked at him from beneath long, silky lashes.

  MacMillan drew in a breath. “My friends call me Dante, but you can call me anything you’d like, darlin’.” His eyes glittered with carnal interest.

  MacMillan’s smooth talk seemed to work on Victoria, but Tobias thought he might throw up. “Nix, what do you say we get out of here and let Dante and Tori get acquainted without us.”

  Nix glanced at him, then her gaze shifted over his shoulder and her eyes narrowed. “What the hell…!” She took off at a fast trot.

  Tobias saw where she was headed. Finn Evnissyen stood near the door, the expression on his face one that indicated he knew they’d been looking for him. “Damn it,” Tobias groaned, and hurried after Nix.

  “What the—” he heard MacMillan say.

  “Come on,” Victoria said before Tobias got completely out of earshot. “They might need help.”

  Tobias caught up to Nix and took her arm. “Don’t do anything rash.”

  She jerked free and glared at him. “Why do you always assume the worst of me?” The hurt in her eyes was real and sent a pang of regret through him. He admitted to himself it was possible, perhaps even probable, that he still saw her through the filter of the past. She deserved better.

  They reached Finn. “I hear you’ve been looking for me all over town,” the demon drawled. He crossed his arms and looked down at them as if to say ‘Well, here I am.’

  Even though Tobias was six feet tall, Finn towered over him by a good five inches. And probably outweighed him by more than fifty pounds. Not that it mattered; as a vampire Tobias possessed the strength of five humans, easily double the strength that Finn had. Even so, this was one big demon.

  Who didn’t appear to faze Nix at all. “You bet your ass we’ve been looking for you.” She mimicked his stance, arms folded over her breasts, gaze hard and challenging. “We have questions for you about Amarinda Novellus.”

  Something flickered through the demon’s dark blue eyes but was gone before Tobias could identify the emotion. “Yeah, I heard about that. Bad thing.”

  “No kidding.” Nix took a step closer. “We heard you went looking for her not that long ago. Why?”

  He appeared to be as concerned with her getting in his face as he would be with a small dog yipping at his ankles. “That’s between Rinda and me.”

  “You knew her well enough to call her by her nickname?” Tobias asked. The preternatural world was less informal than the human one. You didn’t call prets by their pet names unless you were close.

  Finn just stood there and didn’t answer.

  “Listen, you pile of dog shit—” If Nix got any angrier, Tobias was sure she’d start vibrating. And popping her horn buds.

  “Maybe,” Tobias said, interrupting her and trying to make her back off before he had two pissy demons on his hands, “we should just go to council headquarters and sort this out.”

  Finn raised eyebrows a few shades darker than the shaggy blond hair on his head. “If you think you can force me down to council HQ, you go right ahead and give it your best shot.”

  “Be happy to.” Nix took another step toward him, unsnapping the safety strap on her holster.

  Quick as a flash Finn had her in a headlock, her back to his chest, one brawny forearm across her slender throat, the other behind her neck in a classic choke hold. The wine bottle dropped from her hand and shattered on the floor. Dark red wine splattered on the wall and slowly spread across the floor like the spill of blood.

  Tobias stiffened. He started to move forward but stopped when the demon tightened his hold on Nix. “You need to let her go,” Tobias demanded. He pushed pheromones Finn’s way, trying to influence the demon’s behavior. It worked better on humans than prets, but he had to try. From the corner of his eye he saw MacMillan and Victoria stop beside him. The detective had drawn his gun the second Finn had reached for Nix. Tobias filed away the detective’s quick reflexes for future notice.

  “Tell pretty boy there to stand down before he gets hurt.” Finn looked at Victoria. “And you don’t scare me either, sweetheart.”

  “You hurt her, you won’t make it out of this club alive.” Tobias never took his gaze off Nix, her slim body dwarfed by the big demon who’d dared put his hands on her.

  Finn laughed. “You think you can take me, vampire?” he challenged.

  “I do.” Tobias glanced over his shoulder to see their altercation had drawn attention. Several vampire bouncers were making their way over, fangs out and hands holding cattle prods. He clamped his jaw against the sense of foreboding that began to claw his insides. He had to diffuse this before it got out of control. Nix would be the first to be hurt. Or worse.

  “Let go of me.” Nix drew her Glock and shoved it into Finn’s side.

  Tobias admired her spunk, always had, but now was not the time. “Nix, that’s not helping.” Tobias looked at Finn. “This won’t end well for you, Finn. Let her go.”

  The demon stared at Tobias, his eyes hard and flat, his mouth in a grim line. Finn held Nix a moment longer, then released her and put his hands in the air. Only then did MacMillan holster his weapon.

  Nix, however, did not. She put her gun to the middle of Finn’s chest. Tobias could smell the demon fire burning inside her, could see the horn buds beneath her bangs. When she shot him a glare, her irises were completely yellow.

  “Nix, put it away.” Tobias took a few steps closer and kept his voice gentle. As violent as prets could be, it was still frowned upon to shoot an unarmed man. And if it happened in the Devil’s Domain, Maldonado would not be happy. Tobias would be able to smooth things over with his old boss, but it would take some doing and probably end up with him owing Maldonado a favor. Nix was worth it, but he’d prefer not to owe Maldonado if he didn’t have to. The old vampire was crafty and just as likely to get Tobias mixed up in something he didn’t want to be involved in. He wasn’t an enforcer, not anymore. He put a hand out to keep the bouncers at bay. They stopped but remained in an alert line behind MacMillan and Victoria.

  “Yeah, little cousin,” Finn drawled. “You’re not exactly encouraging me to be cooperative.”

  “You two are related?” MacMillan asked.

  “No,” Nix bit out. “We are not.”

  Finn stared at the detective. “We’re both demons. So we are related in a way.”

  Tobias noticed that the demon’s eyes remained a normal, human blue without any demon yellow showing at all. This was one c
ool customer.

  “Not in any way that counts.” Nix kept the barrel of her gun pressed to his chest. “You demonstrated that just now when you put me in a choke hold.”

  “And you reciprocated by poking your gun in my side.” Finn’s stance suggested he was unconcerned about the altercation, and Tobias couldn’t pick up any emotions from him, either. “I was just defending myself, little cousin,” Finn said.

  “Stop calling me that.”

  “Nix.” Tobias put a hand on her shoulder. “Holster your weapon.”

  She scowled but finally did as he asked.

  “Thanks for leashing your little doggy.” Finn smirked down at her.

  Her jaw tightened and she gave a little growl, hands fisting at her sides, but her gun stayed holstered.

  “Well, now that we have that settled,” MacMillan said in a low voice, “maybe someone could tell me who the hell this is and what the hell is going on?”

  “This is Finn Evnissyen,” Victoria offered. Her dulcet tones wore a harsher note than normal. “A smooth operator who’s an expert at pissing people off. A living example of an oxymoron, actually.”

  “Moron is right.” Nix hadn’t taken her eyes off the big demon.

  Finn tsked. “Now, now, little cousin. Don’t be mean.”

  Nix took a step forward, clearly ready to take him on again.

  “Enough!” Tobias’s voice came out in a low roar. “No more games, Evnissyen. Why were you looking for Rinda?”

  The demon gave a careless shrug. “She stood me up and wasn’t returning my calls. I wanted to know why.”

  What a load of… To keep from reaching out and throttling the guy, Tobias shoved his hands deep into his pockets. A dustup between demon and vampire tonight wouldn’t solve anything, though he thought he might feel better once he saw blood streaming from the arrogant bastard’s nose. He held Finn’s gaze. Some other time. “Rinda wouldn’t duck your calls. She would’ve told you to your face why you weren’t worth her time. Try again.”

  “That’s all I got for you.” Challenge lit Finn’s eyes. “And dragging me in front of the council won’t change that.”

  Tobias studied him. Obviously the pheromones had had no effect. “Fine,” he said after a moment. “Get out of here.”

  “No, Tobias, we can’t let him leave!” Nix moved to block the way.

  Finn gave a jaunty salute. His deep blues settled on Nix. “The next time we meet, little cousin, I won’t be so nice. Now, get out of my way.” He grabbed her upper arms and lifted her, setting her none too gently to one side.

  Rage rolled over Tobias. He moved with vampire speed and shoved the demon against the wall so hard he broke the drywall. Tobias was vaguely aware of the buzz of voices in the club quieting. His fangs slid down, vision became awash in crimson. Facial bones morphing as they hardened. With his forearm across Finn’s throat, Tobias rasped, “You touch her again, you even come near her, and I will kill you.” The demon tried to push Tobias away but Tobias didn’t budge. Instead he exerted more pressure against Finn’s throat. “You read me?”

  “Yeah, I read you.” The words came out choked but the expression in Finn’s eyes was as defiant as ever. “Now lay off.”

  Tobias released him and backed away.

  Finn straightened. Brushing bits of drywall off his shoulders, he cast a glance around the gathered crowd, then turned and walked out of the club.

  “You owe me a bottle of wine, you moron!” Nix yelled after him.

  Tobias looked at Victoria and jerked his head toward the door. She nodded and followed Finn.

  “I, ah, think I’ll hang with Tori for a bit,” MacMillan said, and sauntered out as well.

  Now that the potential danger had passed, the bouncers faded back into the crowd. The club’s noise level ratcheted back up to the normal buzz.

  Tobias stared at the wall, at the spot where the shape of Finn’s body was outlined by a large indent. The bastard had put his hands on Nix, had threatened her. He was lucky all Tobias did was put him into the wall.

  “I could’ve handled him.” Nix poked him on the shoulder.

  He turned to face her. “How? By putting a bullet into him?”

  “Damn right.”

  He was glad to see the demon had retreated. “That would have bought you nothing but trouble, and you know it.”

  “I could’ve handled it.” She started toward the door.

  Tobias followed her and stepped outside right behind her. The parking lot was well lit, a security step Tobias had recommended when Maldonado had first started opening nightclubs. All sorts of things liked to hang out in the dark. There’d been a lot fewer deaths, and fewer lawsuits, once the lights had been installed. Walking beside Nix, he said, “You would’ve had the council after you, and Maldonado, and if you didn’t kill Finn, he would have come after you too. If you had killed him, then you would have had to deal with Lucifer.” He stopped in front of the SUV. “You think you could have handled all that?”

  Her slender throat moved with her hard swallow. Like most prets, most demons especially, she was intimidated by Lucifer Demonicus. With good reason. Lucifer was arguably the oldest pret on the planet, which meant he had a lot of power, a lot of influence, a lot of enemies. Also a lot of friends. If he gave the word, there were plenty of people ready and willing to do his bidding.

  “Why do you care?” she finally asked. “You didn’t care five years ago when you left.”

  “I care, honey. I’ve always cared,” he said as he stroked her face, his voice husked around the emotion tightening his throat.

  Nix fought back the thrill that shot through her at Tobias’s words, the feeling of having those cool fingers caress her face. Snap out of it, she chastised. Saying the words didn’t automatically make everything all right. So, okay, he cared. That hadn’t stopped him from leaving her. He’d been pretty clear she wasn’t his priority—the only reason he was back in town was because Amarinda had called him. He had been true to himself, rushing into danger to help his friend. Except he’d been too late. And so now he wanted to save another woman from his past, except Nix was no damsel in distress. She’d been taking care of herself most of her life; she didn’t need him.

  Instead of engendering anger within her, that thought only filled her with sadness. The same sadness she saw reflected in Tobias’s eyes. Mixed with regret, which she found even more unbelievable. Decisive Tobias regretful? No way. Once he’d made up his mind on a specific course of action, he stood by that decision. The look faded, replaced by resolve, and she knew he still believed he’d been right to leave her five years ago.

  The more things changed, the more they stayed the same.

  Her sadness intensified. Fighting back sudden tears, she pulled on the door handle. The door didn’t budge. “Take me home,” she told Tobias.

  His mouth opened and closed, as if he’d been about to say something and had changed his mind. He pressed the remote and unlocked the door. They climbed into the vehicle in silence, and the ride back to her house was accomplished without speaking. Nix shot him a glance a few times but his expression in the lights of passing cars was inscrutable. When he pulled to a stop in her apartment complex’s parking lot, she hopped out. She paused at the open door and looked in at him. “I’ll see you tomorrow?” Regardless of how she felt about him, they still had work to do.

  He gave a nod and a poor attempt at a smile. “I’ll call you.”

  “Okay.” She closed the door and walked toward her apartment, pausing at the corner of the building to look back at the SUV. Tobias lifted a hand in greeting and backed out of the parking spot. Nix went on to her apartment.

  Rufus met her at the door with his usual exuberance. “Hey there, sweetie,” she said, bending to ruffle his head. He swiped her hand with his tongue. “Wanna go out?”

  He pranced, tail wagging, tongue lolling, and she laughed. No matter what kind of day she’d had, he always made her feel better. She dropped her purse on the floor and grabbed his le
ash. “Let’s go for a walk.”

  Rufus walked her for twenty minutes. As much as she’d tried to teach him to heel, he wouldn’t have any of it. There was too much to see and sniff in too little time for him to hang back at her side.

  Once they got back inside, Nix dropped onto the sofa and yanked off her shoes, then leaned back with a sigh. Rufus shoved his nose under her hand and she absently stroked him while she played back over the events of the evening.

  Tobias and she had connected on a professional level that had been almost friendly. While she couldn’t help but regret the loss of love, it said something that she was able finally to move beyond the hurt of the past. She’d grown up, whether she’d wanted to or not.

  And he’d said he still cared about her. She wasn’t sure how to feel about that. Part of her wanted to believe he cared in the romantic sense of the word and part of her, a large part, shied away from that. Because she knew herself. It wouldn’t take much for her to fall right back in love with him. When all was said and done, Tobias was a man of principle, a man who stayed true to what he believed in. There was a lot to admire about that. And whatever the last five years had done to him, she’d still seen enough of the man she’d fallen in love with to know he still existed.

  “Keep it professional,” she said. When Rufus gave a little whine, she patted him. “Just talking to myself, sweetie.” She stood and went into her bedroom. Even though she felt calm enough now, she had lost it at the club when she’d seen Finn. No, more accurately, when he’d acted like such an ass was when she’d lost it. But that demon had called to hers so easily, she knew she needed to regain some balance before she was ready to face another day.

  She jumped in the shower and washed away the grime of the day, then got into her pj’s and settled into her tai chi routine. This was the only thing standing between her and madness. She had to make it work.