Kiss of the Vampire

by Cynthia Garner

  “That’s pretty much what I’ve been told,” Nix said. Even knowing how ruthless the vampire leader could be, she found herself feeling sorry for him. “So he had no dealings with any of your companies?”

  “I just said no.” He shot her an arch look. “And as far as I know Pickett and Rinda were not involved in anything together.”

  “But you just said she’d changed,” Nix said. “Is it possible she kept things from you?”

  He straightened from the fireplace. “As much as I’d like to deny that, with the way she’d been acting these last few months, I can’t answer in the affirmative.”

  “You just can’t help yourself, can you?” Nix murmured.

  “Nix.” Tobias’s voice held a deep note of caution.

  “Can’t help what?” Maldonado asked, folding his arms lazily over his chest.

  “Couldn’t you just have said, ‘Yes, it’s possible she kept things from me’?” Nix rolled her eyes. “Good grief, Byron. You certainly haven’t changed.”

  He stared at her, his expression stern, then a wide grin split his face. “And you haven’t changed that much, either. Still calling people on their bull.”

  “That’s me. A regular bull caller.” She turned the conversation back on topic. “Is there anything else we should know about Rinda?”

  “Not at the moment, but I’ll let you know if something comes up.”

  Tobias stepped forward and held out his hand. “Byron.”

  Maldonado clasped his hand and the two men hugged, pounding each other on the shoulder a few times before pulling away. “Tobias, it’s good to see you. You’ve been gone too long.”

  Tobias glanced at Nix and didn’t comment.

  When Maldonado reached out a hand toward her, Nix let him clasp her fingers in his. “Nix, as always, it’s nice to see you, too. You should come by my clubs more often.” He lifted her hand and pressed a kiss against her knuckles.

  “Maybe I’ll do that,” she said.

  He dropped her hand and looked at Tobias. “I expect you to keep me informed, old friend. I have to protect my own.”

  Tobias lifted his chin in acknowledgment. Nix gave Maldonado a sympathetic glance and turned to leave. She and Tobias said their good-byes and left Maldonado’s suite of rooms. The big vampire bodyguard who’d escorted them in waited for them at the elevator and the ride down to the ground floor was accomplished in silence. She believed Maldonado hadn’t known what was going on, and he seemed righteously angry over the killings.

  As soon as they were outside, Nix let out a breath. “Why does it seem like this investigation is going exactly nowhere?” She was so frustrated she felt like screaming.

  “Probably because it’s going exactly nowhere.” Tobias unlocked his black Jaguar and opened the door for her. He didn’t seem to notice the frown she shot him as he said, “Just the fact that Rinda had distanced herself from Byron, that she was keeping secrets from him, tells me there’s a lot more to this.”

  Nix slid into the low-slung vehicle and he closed the door behind her. He walked around the vehicle and climbed behind the wheel. Hand on the ignition he said, “She was mixed up in something that made her keep secrets. Made her pull away from her closest friends.” His stormy eyes cut her way. “Whatever caused that can’t be good.”

  “I agree.” Nix fastened her seat belt and then stared out the windshield, her thoughts tumbling over each other as she tried to make sense of everything.

  “She didn’t say anything to you?” he asked.

  Nix swallowed back regret. “We hadn’t…” She cleared her throat. “I hadn’t talked to her in a while.” When Tobias seemed about to question her further, she slashed one hand through the air. “Just leave it alone, all right? Please.”

  “All right,” he said slowly. He twisted the key in the ignition and put the vehicle in gear.

  Nix turned her head and looked through the side window. If she’d kept up her friendship with Amarinda, would the vampire have let her know what was going on? Or would she have kept her as in the dark as she’d kept Maldonado, a man she’d known for centuries? Nix was saddened at the thought that she would never know the answer.

  Chapter Five

  Apparently Detective MacMillan had been in the mood for pancakes, as Tobias found out an hour later. The man shoveled the last of his short stack into his mouth and leaned back with a sigh, one hand on his flat belly. Which wouldn’t remain flat for very long if he kept eating like that.

  “I don’t know where you put it all,” Nix muttered from where she sat next to MacMillan. Tobias had hoped she would sit next to him. Not only had she insisted he take her home so she could get her own car, when they both arrived at the restaurant and had been led to their booth, she hadn’t even looked his way as she slid in next to the detective.

  “Hollow legs.” MacMillan took a sip of coffee. “That’s what my mom always used to say, at any rate. Man, that hit the spot. Whoever suggested we meet here had a damn good idea.” At Nix’s snort, he shrugged. “I’m just sayin’.” He stretched out his legs under the table and murmured an apology when he bumped Tobias’s foot.

  “No problem.” Leaning forward, Tobias clasped his hands around his coffee cup and rested his elbows on the table.

  MacMillan smiled at the waitress as she began clearing the table. “Thanks, sweetheart,” he said softly as she left.

  Nix heaved a sigh. “You flirt with every woman you see, don’t you?” She sounded more aggrieved than jealous. Somehow that made Tobias feel better.

  “I like women. You’re my favorite though,” the detective added with a slight smile.

  “Oh, give me a break.” She stared at him, lips twitching, and Tobias knew she fought a grin. She couldn’t win the battle, though, and let out a laugh, leaning sideways to bump MacMillan with her shoulder. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and hugged her to his side.

  Tobias stared down into his coffee cup for a second. Once upon a time, he and Nix had been affectionate like that. More than just being in love, they’d genuinely liked each other. Now he supposed, at least on her side of things, that was gone. He tightened his lips. He couldn’t exactly begrudge her easy friendship with the detective, especially since it was more like brother and sister than anything romantic, but it rankled just the same. He looked across the table at his colleagues. “Can we talk about the case?”

  “So what’s the plan, chief?” MacMillan took his arm off Nix’s shoulders and stretched it along the back of the booth bench.

  “We should get started on interviews with Rinda’s friends.” Tobias paused. “You’ve already talked with the first victim’s friends and co-workers?”

  Nix nodded. “The body was discovered early yesterday morning, but the ME says TOD was probably somewhere between ten and midnight the night before. From the time I left the crime scene up until I got the call about Rinda last night we were interviewing the friends we knew of. We still need to talk to his business partner, but other than that, we didn’t turn up much.” She leaned back against her seat and crossed her arms. “All of that should be in the report. Didn’t the council give you a copy?”

  “They did.” He shrugged. “I’d like to hear it from you, though. Get your impressions.”

  “Okay. His name is Johnson Pickett, and he came through the rift in 1136 AD. According to everyone we talked to in the pret community, he was held in good regard. No enemies that anyone was aware of.” Her voice was matter-of-fact. She recited dry facts, which wasn’t what Tobias had been looking for.

  “He was a vampire,” MacMillan chimed in before Tobias could say anything to Nix. “It wouldn’t be much of a leap to assume he had enemies.”

  “You’re right.” Tobias lifted his coffee cup and took a sip. He’d long ago lost the capacity to taste anything sweet, but he could still savor bitter and tart. “There’s no such thing as a vampire without enemies. Some of us just have more than others.”

  “No big surprise there,” Nix stated with an arch
look across the table at him. Before he could respond, she cleared her throat and went on. “Pickett’s business partner—and from what we’ve heard his sexual partner, since they lived together—was supposed to be back in town as of last night. We should be able to talk to him today. Once we’ve talked to Amarinda’s friends, too, we should have a clearer idea, don’t you think?” Her voice lost some of the recitation tone of earlier.

  “This all needs to happen sooner rather than later. We need to go talk to the business partner now.” Tobias signaled to the waitress. “I don’t want any more killings.”

  “Yeah, let’s not add to the spate.” Nix picked up her diet cola and took a long sip from the straw.

  MacMillan grabbed the check from the waitress and fished in the rear pocket of his jeans for his wallet. “Am I missing something?” His gaze went from Nix to Tobias and back again.

  Ignoring the detective for the moment, Tobias advised Nix, “Let it go. You can appreciate the council’s stance. We have two murdered vamps on our hands and not one clue as to why they’re dead or who killed them.”

  MacMillan pulled a few bills out of his wallet. “Oh, I got it.” He looked at Nix. “Council’s been giving you a hard time again, have they?”

  Tobias didn’t like the implication of that statement. From what he’d been told, Dante MacMillan had been on the Special Case Squad for only a month, yet the detective already knew that Nix and the council were at odds? Just how close were these two?

  She rolled her eyes. “Apparently two deaths is now a ‘spate.’” Her brows dipped. “Not that I don’t understand why they’re upset. But I’m working as fast as I can.” She grabbed her wallet and dropped a five-dollar bill on the table to pay for her cola and oatmeal. She scooted off the seat to let MacMillan out.

  He eased out of the booth. Picking up the check and Nix’s fiver, he added his money, then snatched his suit coat from the edge where he’d draped it. “I got you covered there, chief,” he said with a nod toward Tobias. The detective shrugged into his jacket and said, “I’ll meet up with you outside.” He walked toward the cash register at the front of the restaurant.

  Tobias stood. “You and MacMillan seem close.”

  Nix slipped the strap of her purse over her shoulder. “Yeah, well, when you see what we see on an almost daily basis, you tend to establish a rapport pretty quickly.”

  “You took longer than a month to warm up to me,” he replied as he followed Nix out of the restaurant. The bright sunlight hit his eyes like knives. With a low oath he slipped on his sunglasses.

  “Yeah, well, Dante’s not a pret.” She put on her own sunglasses, small rectangular ones with purple lenses that made her look damned adorable.

  To give his hands something to do because otherwise he might just haul her in for a kiss, Tobias fished his car keys out of his jeans and began flicking them back and forth. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Just about every pret out there looks down on demons. Especially vampires.” She pushed her glasses down her nose and stared at him over the rim, her head slightly tilted to one side. Little yellow flecks danced in her eyes, showing him again just how easily his presence brought out the demon in her. “Looking back on it, I’m amazed you and I ended up being together as long as we did.” Her voice held a note of the surprise she claimed to feel. She pushed the glasses back up. “We should have known it wouldn’t last.”

  Tobias scowled. She didn’t have to sound so perky about it. “And you think something with a human like MacMillan would last longer?”

  “I didn’t say that.” She frowned and looked toward the building, muttering something about someone getting up on the wrong side of the coffin. “It’s not like it’s any of your business, anyway,” she said in a louder voice. MacMillan walked toward them, shoving his wallet into his back pocket as he came. “You ready to go?” she asked him.

  He gave a nod. “You wanna ride with me?”

  “Why don’t we all just go in my car?” Tobias flipped his keys faster.

  Nix glanced at him. “In your Jag.” Her voice held sarcastic disbelief. “With someone, probably me, climbing in and out of the backseat?” She shook her head. “No, thanks.”

  MacMillan looked disappointed.

  “You want to hitch a ride with me?” Tobias asked him.

  “Sure.” He gave Nix a grin. “I’ve never ridden in a Jag before.”

  “Boys and their toys.” She grimaced. “Fine. I’ll meet you at Pickett’s.”

  The detective pulled out his small notebook. “Just need to check…” He thumbed through a few pages. “Ah. Okay.” He looked up and slipped the notebook back in the inside pocket of his suit coat. “I’ve got the address. We’ll see you there.”

  Tobias hesitated. “You sure you don’t want to ride with us?”

  “I’m positive.” Her smile looked forced. “You boys have fun.” She waved and walked off toward her car, hips swaying, sun glinting off her dark curls.

  “I’m this way,” Tobias told MacMillan, tearing his gaze away from Nix and heading toward his low-slung limited edition sports car.

  The detective gave a low whistle when he saw the sleek black vehicle. He ran his palm over the fender as he walked along the side of the car. “Nice.” When Tobias unlocked the doors, MacMillan got in. “How in the hell’d you manage to get your hands on one of these? They made less than two hundred.”

  Tobias grinned. “A hundred seventy-five for their seventy-fifth anniversary. I know a guy who knows a guy.”

  MacMillan fastened his seat belt and settled back in the leather seat. “Sure beats the hell outta my four-by-four. Make a right onto Mountain View and take it to Gainey Ranch.”

  Tobias pulled smoothly out of the parking lot. He saw Nix’s small red Prius already half a mile down the road. Little spitfire, she always had had a lead foot. He wondered how many points she had accrued on her driving record now. “What do you drive?” he asked MacMillan.

  “Heavy-duty pickup truck.” MacMillan twisted to look at the backseat, then faced forward again and stared at the dash. He looked at Tobias. “I need the torque for hauling my horses.”

  “Oh? What kind?”

  “An Appaloosa and a quarter horse.” He grinned. “And a burro. He’s kind of the stable mascot. Keeps the horses calm.”

  Tobias smiled. “I had a cat that did that.”

  “You have horses?”

  “Used to, long time ago.” Tobias stopped at a red light and glanced at the detective. “When I first moved to Arizona.”

  “Just how long ago was that?”

  “’Bout a hundred and fifty years ago.” The light turned green and Tobias eased the car forward. “I owned a ranch for a time, but up until our existence became well known, I had to move on after about twenty years or so.” He shot a look at MacMillan. “Once people began to notice I didn’t age, they started asking questions I couldn’t answer.”

  “Right. Well, that has to be a plus to being outed, right?” MacMillan shifted to rest one shoulder against the door. “You can stay put in one place.”

  “Yes.” Except for now. He was here to do a job, which he would do. But once the job was done, to preserve Nix’s sanity he had to leave again.

  MacMillan’s phone rang, some country western tune, and the detective pulled it out and looked at it. “Excuse me,” he said, and answered. “Lily? What’s wrong?” He kept his voice low. The tenderness in his tone told Tobias this was someone important to the detective.

  Tobias did his best to not eavesdrop, but it was impossible not to in the confines of his car. When MacMillan ended his call, Tobias asked, “Everything all right?”

  “Yeah. That was my sister. It’s nothing.” MacMillan turned his head to look out the window. “She’s just having a tough day.”

  Tobias understood the desire to keep his personal life separate from work, so he didn’t press the issue. Instead he commented, “Sweet phone.”

  MacMillan looked at him with a grin and p
ulled the phone out of his pocket again. “Isn’t it? I’m kind of a gadget guy.” He pushed a couple of buttons and showed Tobias the screen. “Google maps. I can check my Facebook account, even surf the Web while I talk.” He pressed another button and showed the screen again. “Twitter. In case you want to, you know, tweet.”

  Tobias gave a little growl. “I hate this decade.”

  MacMillan snorted and tucked his phone away again. “The guys at the station razz me about not using my phone to take notes, but I know how easy they are to drop and then I’d lose everything.” He glanced out the side window. “Our turnoff’s just up to the right.”

  Tobias made the turn onto Gainey Ranch. “Where from here?”

  “Third subdivision on the right.”

  Tobias pulled into the upscale neighborhood and followed the detective’s directions until he saw Nix’s little Prius parked on the street in front of a sprawling Santa Fe-style house. Nix got out of her car as he stopped the Jag behind her.

  “This is one sweet ride,” MacMillan said as he opened his door.

  Tobias smiled. “I thought you’d like it.”

  “Man, if I had money to throw away on a car, this would be it.”

  Tobias gave a quick laugh. Once upon a time he hadn’t had much money, and he remembered how it felt to have to scrimp and save every penny to buy the necessities, let alone a luxury item. He appreciated how the other man felt.

  Nix stared at the two men as they got out of the luxury car, both grinning and acting like best buds. She scowled. Men. “If you two are done with your bromance, can we maybe get some work done?” She looked at Dante. “I thought it was women who were supposed to be turned on by a guy’s car?”

  Dante’s grin widened. “Oh, you know me, hon. I’m easy.”

  Tobias’s gaze darkened as if he remembered just what did turn her on, and her heart thudded a little faster in her chest. To try to cover her reaction to him, she cleared her throat and started toward the house. The two men fell into step behind her.

  “Just what’s the game plan?” Dante asked.