Part 2 (1/2)
”But Colin said ...” Rose began.
Vicki cut her off. ”Colin said it would lead to awkward questions. Well, it would inLondon and, considering your family's situation, it's not the sort of thing you want talked about. Good cops remember the d.a.m.nedest bits of information and Colin handing around silver bullets could lead to your exposure later on. However,” she pitched her voice for maximum rea.s.surance, ”this isToronto . We have a much broader crime base, G.o.d forbid, and the fact that I was handing around a silver bullet won't mean squateven if someone does remember it.”
She paused for breath and tucked the small plastic bag containing the tissues and the slug down into a secure corner of her purse. ”Don't expect anything though, this thing is a mess.”
”We won't. And we'll tell Aunt Nadine to expect you on Friday night.” Peter smiled at her with such complete and utter grat.i.tude that Vicki felt like a heel for even considering refusing to help. ”Thanks, Ms.
Nelson.”
”Yes, thank you.” Rose stood as well and added her quieter smile to the brilliance of her brother's. ”We really appreciate this. Henry was right.”
What Henry was right aboutthis time got a little lost with Peter shucking off his shorts. Vicki supposed she'd have to get used to it but at the moment all that naked young man left her a little distracted. The reappearance of Storm came as a distinct relief.
He shook himself briskly and bounded toward the door.
”Why ...” Vicki began.
Rose understood and grinned. ”Because he likes to ride with his head out the car window.” She sighed as she stuffed the discarded shorts back into her bag. ”He's such lousy company in a car.”
”Well, he certainly seems anxious to get going.”
”We don't like the city much,” Rose explained, her nose wrinkling. ”It stinks. Thanks again, Ms. Nelson.
We'll see you Friday.”
”You're welcome.” She watched Henry walk Rose to the door, warn them to be careful, and return to the living room. The look on his face rerouted the accusation of high-handedness she was about to make.
”What's wrong?”Both red-gold brows rose. ”My friends are being killed,” he reminded her quietly.
Vicki felt herself flush. ”I'm sorry,” she said. ”It's hard to hang onto that amidst all the,” she waved a hand as she groped for the word, ”strangeness.”
”It is, however, the important thing to be hung onto.”
”I know. I know.” She forced herself not to sound sullen. She shouldn't have had to be reminded of that.
”You never thought for a moment that I might say no, did you?”
”I've come to know you over these last few months.” His expression softened. ”You need to be needed and they need you, Vicki. There aren't too many private investigators they can trust with this.”
That was easy to believe. As to her needing to be needed, it was a facetious observation that could easily be ignored. ”Are all the wer so,” she searched for the right word and settled on, ”self-contained? If my family were going through what theirs is, I'd be an emotional wreck.”
Somehow he doubted that, but it was still a question that deserved answering. ”From the time they're very young, the wer are taught to hide what they are, and not only physically; for the good of the pack you never show vulnerability to strangers. You should consider yourself honored that you got as much as you did. Also, the wer tend to live much more in the present than humans do. They mourn their dead, then they get on with life. They don't carry the burden of yesterday, they don't antic.i.p.ate tomorrow.”
Vicki snorted. ”Very poetic. But it makes it nearly impossible for them to deal with this sort of situation, doesn't it?”
”That's why they've come to you.”
”And if I wasn't around?””Then they'd die.”
She frowned. ”And why couldn't you save them?”
He moved to his usual place by the window, leaning back against the gla.s.s. ”Because they won't let me.”
”Because you're a vampire?”
”Because Stuart won't allow that kind of challenge to his authority. If he can't save the pack, neither can I. You're female, you're Nadine's problem, and Nadine, at the moment, is devastated by the loss of her twin. If you were wer, you could probably take her position away from her right now, but as you aren't, the two of you should be able to work something out.” He shook his head at her expression. ”You can't judge them by human standards, Vicki, no matter how human they seem most of the time. And it's too late to back out. You told Rose and Peter you'd help.”
Her chin went up. ”Did I give you any indication that I might back out?”
”No.”
”d.a.m.ned straight, I didn't. She took a deep breath. She'd worked with the Toronto City Council, she could work with werewolves. At least with the latter all the growling and snapping would mean something. In fact, the wer were likely to be the least of her problems. ”There might be difficulties. I mean, withme taking this case.”
”Like the fact you don't drive.” She could hear the smile in his voice.
”No. Real problems.”
He turned and spread his arms, the movement causing the hair to glint gold in the lamplight. ”So tell me.”It's called retinitis pigmentosa. I'm going blind. I can't see at night. I have almost no peripheral vision.She couldn't tell him. She couldn't handle the pity. Not from him. Not after what she'd gone through with Celluci.f.u.c.k it. She shoved her gla.s.ses up her nose and shook her head.
Henry dropped his arms. After a moment, when the silence had stretched to uncomfortable dimensions, he said, ”I hope you don't mind that I've invited myself along. I thought we made a pretty good team the last time. And, I thought you might need a little help dealing with the ... strangeness.”
She managed an almost realistic laugh. ”I do the day work, you cover the night?”
”Just like last time, yes.” He leaned back against the gla.s.s and watched her turning that over in her mind, worrying it into pieces. She was one of the most stubborn, argumentative, independent women he'd met in four and a half centuries, and he wished she'd confide in him. Whatever the problem was, they could work it out together because whatever the problem was, it couldn't be big enough to keep her from giving everything she had to this case. He wouldn't allow it to be. Friends of his were dying.
”Idon't want to die, Ms. Nelson.”
I don'twant you to die either, Rose.Vicki worried her lower lip between her teeth. If they worked together, he'd find out, eventually. She had to decide if that mattered more than the continuing loss of innocent lives.And put like that, it's not much of a choice, is it? If she wasn't their best chance on her own, together she and Henry were.Screw it. We'll work it out.
Henry watched her expressions change and smiled. Over his long existence he'd grown very good at reading people, at picking up the delicate nuances that mirrored their inner thoughts. Most of the time, Vicki went right past nuance; her thoughts as easy to read as a billboard.
”So, Friday night after sunset. You can pick me up.”
He bowed, the accompanying smile taking the mocking edge off the gesture. ”As my lady commands.”
Vicki returned the smile, then yawned and stretched, back arched and arms spread out against the red velvet.
Henry watched the pulse beating at the base of her throat. He hadn't fed for three nights and the need was rising in him. Vicki wanted him. He could scent her desire most times they were together, but he'd held back because of the blood loss that she'd taken in the spring. And, he had to admit, held back because he wanted the timing to be right. The one time he'd fed from her had been such a frenzied necessity that she'd missed all the extra pleasures it could bring to both parties involved.
The scent of her life filled the apartment and he walked forward, his pace measured to the beat of her heart. When he reached the couch, he held out his hand.
Vicki took it and hauled herself to her feet. ”Thanks.” She yawned again, releasing him to shove a fist in front of her mouth. ”Boy, am I bagged. You wouldn't believe the time I had to get up this morning and then I spent the whole day working essentially two jobs in a factory that had to be eighty degrees C.”
Dragging her bag up over her shoulder, she headed for the door. ”No need to see me out. I'll be waiting for you after sunset Friday.” She waved cheerfully and was gone.
Henry opened his mouth to protest, closed it, opened it again, then sighed.
By the time the elevator reached the lobby, Vicki had managed to stop laughing. The poleaxed look on Henry's face had been priceless and she'd have given a year of her life to have had a camera.If his royal undead highness thinks he's got thissituation under control, he can think again. It had taken almost more willpower than she had to walk out of that apartment, but it had been worth it.
”Begin as you mean to go on,” she declared under her breath, wiping sweaty palms against her shorts.