The three of them fell silent, each lost in their own thoughts. As the sun began to set, Tobias turned on the headlights. Within an hour he pulled up behind MacMillan’s truck, parked at the curb in front of council headquarters.
MacMillan opened his door but didn’t get out. “You know, if someone in there”—he jerked his head toward the building—“knows something, there might be a file that’s worth taking a look at.” He hopped out of the SUV. “Just sayin’.” His cell phone buzzed. He frowned and pulled it out of his pocket. “It’s my sister. Excuse me,” he said, and got out of the vehicle, closing the door behind him. “What’s up?” Tobias overheard him say as he walked a few steps away from the SUV.
Nix twisted in her seat and faced Tobias. “There’s a pretty big storage room in there,” she said. “With files that go back decades.”
“You really think they’d keep something like that in a paper file and not on a computer? Or, better yet, as an encrypted file on a flash drive?” Tobias asked.
“If that’s the case, Dante’s our man. He can look into that for us.” Nix unfastened her seat belt. “But I don’t want to miss the chance to find out if there’s something on site. Do you?” She opened her door but waited to get out, looking at him expectantly.
He stared at the darkened building. “Close your door.”
“Tobias, I know you have this whole we-need-to-abide-by-the-rules thing going on here, but I really think we need to do this.”
Tobias turned his head and stared at her. “With my SUV parked right in front of the building?” He lifted one brow. “I want to move my car.”
Before she could pull the door closed, MacMillan poked his head in. “I’m afraid I’m gonna have to leave you two kids to all the fun. I’ve gotta go.”
“Is everything all right?” Nix asked.
The detective gave a shrug. “Yeah. It’s just my sister. She’s having some trouble at home.” He glanced at the building. “You two watch yourselves in there.” His hand came up in a gesture of good-bye and he turned and walked to his truck.
Nix leaned down and fished around in her purse, pulling out a small flashlight. Brandishing it with a triumphant air, she closed her door. “All right, let’s do this thing.”
Tobias drove the SUV around the block, parking a few side streets away from the building. As Nix opened her door, Tobias wrapped his fingers around her upper arm. “A few ground rules first.” He waited until she looked at him, then he said, “If we run into anyone, let me do the talking.”
“No problem. I’m off the case, remember?”
“That’s what I mean.” He couldn’t keep his hand from drifting up to cup the back of her neck. He pulled her in for a lingering kiss. “If anyone asks,” he murmured, his lips a breath away from hers, “I’ll tell them I needed to pick something up.”
“Pick what up?” She pressed her lips to the corner of his mouth. Once, twice, the light caresses encouraging him to slant his mouth over hers for a longer, hungrier taste of her mouth.
He swallowed her moan and lifted his mouth reluctantly. “I’ll think of something.” He rasped his thumb across her lips. “Ready?”
“For anything,” Nix said with a slow upward tilt of her mouth.
It was a sultry smile, one full of promise, and Tobias wanted to do nothing more than take her right then and there in the darkened confines of the SUV. But they had a job to do. After, he assured himself. Once they were safely out of here and back home, he’d get her in bed and take his time with her. “Let’s go,” he said, stepping out of the vehicle.
A couple of minutes later he unlocked the back door of the council headquarters and peered in. “It’s clear,” he whispered, and went inside.
“I’ve worked here for three years. Nobody ever gave me a key to the damn building.” Nix’s quiet voice held a distinct note of malcontent. “Aren’t you special?”
That last bit was much more sarcastic than disgruntled. He glanced over his shoulder to see her eyes twinkling with good humor. “You’re just now figuring that out?” he asked softly.
She patted his rear. “Nope. I’ve known that for a long time. Sometimes the definition changed now and then, that’s all. For the past five years, you’ve been really special,” she said, making quote marks in the air.
Tobias shook his head at her, then stopped and held up a hand. One of the ever-present guards was coming their way. He tried the nearest door and found it unlocked. Pushing it open, he shoved Nix inside, then crowded into the tiny utility closet behind her. Her lips parted and she took a breath. He clamped his hand over her mouth. “Quiet,” he mouthed.
The tip of her tongue tickled his palm. He narrowed his eyes. She licked his hand again, her eyes glittering with dancing sparks of yellow demon fire.
With his free hand Tobias grabbed a bottle of glass cleaner and sprayed it in the air. The strong ammonia smell should cover their scent long enough for them to be undetected by the guard making his rounds. He heard the shape-shifter as he went past the closet, whistling an off-key tune.
Tobias silently counted to ten, making sure he couldn’t hear any movement before he eased open the door and peered around the edge. “Clear,” he whispered, and started down the hallway, Nix right behind him. They ducked into the file room. Tobias closed the door with a soft click and then turned on the light in the windowless room. He stared at the two-dozen file cabinets lining the walls like victims awaiting a firing squad.
“Oh, my God. Just shoot me now,” Nix muttered. She tucked the small flashlight into the front pocket of her jeans.
“This is part of the job,” he rejoined, his eyes still affixed to the cabinets. Some of these files probably contained information that went back hundreds of years. He wondered if they had a file on him and Nix, then figured they most likely did. Maybe someday he’d see what was in his…
“Yeah, a part I don’t really care for.” She sighed. “Okay. I’ll take this side of the room, you take that side.”
They split up and quietly got to work. About thirty minutes into it, Nix said, “Tobias, come look at this.”
He walked over to her. She had opened a drawer marked “Vampires A-C.” He looked down at the file she held. His name was written on the tab, the manila file worn with age. “Looks like this has been looked at more than once.”
“No kidding.” She flipped it open.
Tobias grabbed it from her before she could begin reading. He’d done things in his past that he’d rather she not know about, things that he wasn’t proud of. Things that still haunted his dreams. If she insisted on knowing what the council had on him, he’d tell her, but it would be better coming from him than from the pages of this file. He returned it to the drawer.
“Hey!” She stared at him. “Aren’t you the least bit curious about what’s in there?”
“I know what I’ve done, honey. There’s nothing in that file that would surprise me.”
“Not even if they know something you thought was a deep, dark secret?”
He shook his head. “Secrets have a way of coming out, no matter how hard you try to keep them.” He tapped the top of the filing cabinet. “Let’s get back to it, shall we?”
Nix grimaced but obligingly started going through the rest of the drawer. “All right, but someday you’re going to have to tell me what’s in that file that you don’t want me to see.”
“It’s a deal.” Tobias went back to the other side of the narrow room and started back on his search. After several minutes of going through paperwork on various shape-shifters, he pulled out a drawer marked “Demons.” Several familiar names leaped out at him, including Lucifer Demonicus, Betty de la Fuente, and Finn Evnissyen. Knowing he and Nix had limited time, he resisted the urge to pull out their files.
“There’s a file here on Dumond,” Nix said, her voice hushed. “But I don’t see anything about the rift or him going undercover.”
“We may be on a fool’s errand,” Tobias answered. “But we had to try.”
Over the next few hours they continued plowing through files until Tobias got done with his last row and went to help Nix finish up her side of the room.
“This is creepy, the amount of information they have in this room.” Nix met his gaze. “Do they have files on humans over there?”
“Of course. Mostly politicians, police and fire departments, that sort of thing. Nothing on you,” he said before she could ask.
“What, I don’t rate a top-secret file?” She scowled.
“All the dirt on you is probably in your personnel file.”
“Oh, right.” She went to her knees and pulled open the last drawer, flipping quickly along the tabbed files. “There’s nothing here,” she said, her voice defeated. She turned her head just as Tobias hunkered down beside her.
Lips inches apart, their eyes met. Hers darkened to deep, dark chocolate lit by small yellow sparks. His own eyes began to burn. He couldn’t very well berate her for letting her demon out when he knew his vampire was showing as well. Yet it still gave him pause, that he drew this reaction from her time and time again.
His hesitation vanished when she closed the distance between them, her soft mouth pressing against his, her tongue sliding between his lips. His need immediate and absolute, he cradled her head in his hands and deepened the kiss. His cock hardened, his fangs elongated. She drew back slightly. “I’ve never made out in a filing room before,” she whispered.
“It’s a first for me, too.” He kissed the smile from her lips, then pulled away. “But we’ve got sharp-eared shape-shifters out there,” he reminded her in a low voice. “Now is not the time. Or the place.”
“Anytime. Anywhere. It’s always the right time and place. With you.” Nix traced her index finger across his lower lip. She leaned forward and paused, her eyes capturing Tobias’s in a sensual snare. “Let me show you.” As she dropped her mouth on his, her eyes fluttered closed.
Tobias wrapped his hands around her upper arms and stood, hauling her to her feet and into his arms. Without taking his lips from hers, he walked her backward until she was stopped by the outer wall. Hands on her hips, he angled her lower body and pressed against her softness. She moaned into his mouth and lifted one leg, tilting her pelvis further, fitting the ridge of his erection into the V of her thighs.
He slid his hand from her hip, down her thigh, and cupped the back of her knee. He ate at her mouth like a starving man at a banquet. Greedy. Gluttonous.
She tugged his shirt out of his pants and ran her palms across the contours of his back. Then she slipped them around to the front of his waistband and started to unfasten his belt. “This is the challenge,” she whispered against his mouth. “Can we be quiet enough to not attract the attention of the guards?”
Tobias unbuttoned her shirt. “You’re quite the daredevil, aren’t you?” Her warm hand wrapped around his cock, bringing him to full hardness. Keeping his voice low, he said, “Even if they don’t hear us, they’re going to smell us.”
“If they haven’t already. You’re putting off a lot of pheromones there, Tobester.” With a wicked grin Nix stroked his shaft, her thumb swiping over the sensitive tip. “I’m so ready for you.” Her dark gaze met his, yellow sparks glittering with carnal fever.
He sucked in a reflexive breath. With a soft oath he unzipped her jeans and yanked them down to her ankles, then did the same with her panties. He spun her around, one hand on the small of her back urging her to bend. She braced her palms against the wall and arched her back, spreading her legs to open herself to him.
Tobias tested her readiness, trapping a growl in his throat at the slick heat he found between her thighs. He thrust home with one smooth, hard jab of his hips. Nix gasped and shoved against him, taking him even deeper.
Their joining was fast, furious, and wild. She muffled a moan against her forearm as he hammered into her again and again. Her core tightened around him like a fist as she met him thrust for thrust. Then her entire body stiffened, her sheath clenching around him with her climax.
Stifling his own shout, he gave himself over to his release. He threw back his head against the urge to bend forward and sink his fangs into her soft, giving throat. One more lunge of his hips and he held her against him, feeling her quaking around his cock in another orgasm. When it was over, and his brain started working again, he turned her around and drew up her panties and jeans. Looking up at her face he saw that blood smeared one corner of her mouth. With a low curse Tobias leaned down and swiped his tongue over the rich liquid, growling at the salty tang on his taste buds. That little taste only made him want more, but he couldn’t go there. “We need to get out of here,” he muttered, tucking his penis back into his pants and zipping them up.
“I’m ready to go as soon as my legs stop shaking.” Nix smiled and raked her fingers through her hair, making her curls even wilder. She glanced around the room. “I really can’t believe we just did that.”
He shot her a quick look. “You’re not disappointed, I hope.”
Her eyes widened. “God, no. That was…was…” She shook her head. “There are no words.”
“Well, that’s a first,” he whispered, and swooped in to press a quick, hard kiss on her mouth. “Nix de la Fuente is speechless.”
“Yeah, well, enjoy it while it lasts, Tobester.” She gave him a wink.
He put one finger to his lips and then eased open the door. He took a quick look around, listened intently for a couple of seconds, then motioned for her to follow him. A few minutes later they were back in his SUV. Nix was a little breathless, though he wasn’t sure if it was from running or because she was now laughing so hard.
“Oh, my God. I feel like a teenager again, sneaking around and making out in the principal’s office.” She looked at him with sparkling eyes.
He raised a brow. “You made out in the principal’s office?” He started the SUV and pulled away from the curb.
“Just one time.” She grinned and pulled her seat belt across her body, fastening it with a quick click.
“Hmm. Something new I just learned about you.” Before he could say more, his phone rang. Tobias answered it, hitting the speakerphone button so Nix could hear as well.
Braithwaite’s voice, tense and low, came across the line. “I have more information but… can you come to my house?”
“Sure. When?” Tobias shared a glance with Nix.
“Now.” Braithwaite’s voice became even more strained. “Right now. I’m afraid. I’m not sure how long… Just get here.” He hung up the phone.
Tobias disconnected the call and slipped his phone back into his pocket. “Well?” he asked, looking at Nix. “Are you coming with me?”
“Try and keep me away,” Nix said.
He nodded. “Call Dante. Tell him we’ll meet up with him at your place and go to Braithwaite’s from there.”
* * *
“It’s a trap.” Nix couldn’t keep the worry from her voice.
“Maybe.” Tobias held out his hand. When she laced her fingers through his, he whispered, “Good thing I have you to watch my back.”
“You don’t think it’ll be too dangerous for me?” She sent him a challenging look.
“Not for you.”
From the backseat came a low snort. “Oh, I get it.” Dante leaned forward. “You two kissed and made up.”
Nix caught the glitter of carnal memories glinting in Tobias’s eyes. “Something like that,” he said as he changed lanes. “Braithwaite lives in Avondale. Whether I take the 202 and loop around or get off and go the other direction, it’s still going to take some time to get there.”
In fact, it was almost an hour before they pulled up in front of his house, a two-story Californian territorial on the north side of town. Nix got out of the SUV and stood by the open door for a moment, studying her surroundings. Just about every room in the house was lit up, and the outside was illuminated by outdoor security spots that shone fully upon the open front door. The slight tang of copper hung in t
he air. Blood. All of her instincts kicked into overdrive. “Something’s wrong,” she murmured with a glance toward Tobias.
He carefully closed his door, the sound of it latching into place barely audible. “I agree.” He glanced at her. “Eyes open,” he cautioned.
She nodded and closed her car door just as carefully as he had done his. Dante did the same and joined her. She drew her gun but kept her hand at her side as they walked toward the front door.
As they reached the house, the scent of copper became stronger, especially when Tobias eased the door all the way open. He shot her a cautionary look and drew his weapon. One hand wrapped around the grip, the other hand supported his wrist, just above groin level. It brought to mind all sorts of images of him holding his other weapon and how well he used it.
Nix cleared her head and followed him into the house, deliberately keeping her gaze off his delectable derriere. She needed to stay focused on the job, not be distracted by admiring his assets.
She drew in a slow breath and focused all of her attention on the house. As far as she could tell, she, Tobias, and Dante were the only ones in the house, but she couldn’t smell or hear nearly as well as Tobias could, so she’d wait for his all clear before she’d relax.
Tobias stopped, his stance alert, his nostrils flaring as he smelled the air. After a few seconds he holstered his gun. “We’re the only ones here,” he said. He blew out a breath and headed toward the back of the house. “The only ones alive and kicking, that is.”
“Though at least one of us is more undead than alive, really. Right?” Dante glanced around the foyer.
Nix slid her weapon back in its holster but didn’t snap the safety strap in place. She wanted to be able to draw—fast—if she needed to.
Dante kept his weapon drawn. “I’ll check upstairs and let you know if I find anything.”
She watched him go up the stairs, then turned back toward Tobias. “I smell blood.”
Kiss of the Vampire Page 22