Page 81 of Whispered Warnings: Part Two

“Was that the glow that you mentioned that scared off the kelpies when they tried to eat you?” Doc asks curiously as he steps closer to the body on the floor.

I shake my head, “No, actually, that glow was like a golden burst of magic.”

“Maybe it has different colors for different things?” Evander asks, as they all move closer and create a barrier between the body and anyone who comes out of the pub.

“Or it’s your magic,” Raiden adds.

I grin, “You think? That would be so cool. It was so pretty.”

“Guys, I really think we should talk about what just happened and come back to how cool the sword and Neith are later,” Griff says.

“Shit, yeah,” Evander agrees and looks at me expectantly.

I point to the guy on the floor with my sword unnecessarily, it’s not like they aren’t going to know who I’m talking about, there aren’t any other sliced in half vamps around here.

“He works for Dimitri,” I explain, and the guys immediately tense, “he’s always been obsessed with tasting my blood, but Dimitri graphically threatened him with what would happen if he did. He saw you guys and obviously put two and two togetherand figured he’d tell Dimitri instead. Did you see his eyes begin to cloud?” They nod, and I continue explaining, “They do that when he is trying to open a communication line, I’m guessing with Dimitri. I have no idea if he managed to get through to him.”

“Oh, he got through to me, Beautiful,” Dimitri’s voice echoes around us, and the guys tense, their eyes scanning the space around us.

“He’s not here,” I say, and they look at me confused until I point to the head of the dead vamp. “I fucking hate it when you do that.”

The dead vamp’s lips move as Dimitri’s voice comes out, “I know, but we haven’t had a sighting of you for too long. Are you going to tell me where you are?”

I laugh, “Yeah, because that’s likely.”

“I need to talk to you,” he says, his voice sounding strange in a way that I can’t quite put a finger on.

“I’m sure you do,” I reply. I glance over at the guys who look very disturbed by this turn in events. I mime needing a lighter, and then mouth the word gas to Doc. Thankfully, he seems to understand what I’m trying to communicate with him because he conjures both a lighter and a can of gas, I take them both and start covering the body and head.

“Seriously, Neith,” Dimitri says.

“Oh, he used seriously and my name, that means I have to listen,” I reply in a voice that is obvious I’m not taking him seriously. The guys eyes widen even more at the way that I’m talking to him. I flick the lighter so that the flames burst to life, he can’t move the dead vamp’s body to see where he is but he can hear and see.

“You stupid cunt!” he bellows, “Don’t you fucking dare, you useless whore.”

I chuckle, “Ah, there he is. Bye, Dimitri.”

I drop the lighter, and the body goes up in flames with a whoosh.

His voice changes, “Fuck, no, that wasn’t, I . . .”

I frown, that sounds almost like panic. I shake my head. Forfuck sake,Neith, don’t fucking fall for it. Stop looking for the person that he was.The flames quickly sever the connection that he has with the body. Asael disappears again, letting me know that the immediate threat is over, so at least I don’t have to worry about anyone else jumping out at me.

I jump as an arm wraps around my shoulders and then lean into the comfort when I realize that it's Griff.

He asks, “Are you okay?”

I shake my head, “Not really. He hasn’t been the person that I knew for a very long time, but for a moment then he sounded just like him. Not the harsh, dark, and ruthless person that everyone knows him to be now, but the person who helped save my life—the one who protected me and who I could count on for everything. Coen knew him too, that him. Not this one.”

The guys are silent for a moment as they absorb my words, although there is surprise in all of their eyes at the mention of Coen knowing Dimitri as well.

“It’s really difficult when someone changes so drastically, I’m sorry,” Griff says.

I look up and study his features, and I realize that he really means it. Most people find it difficult to feel anything other than fear when Dimitri is mentioned, and they definitely don’t understand how I can still be sad and miss him after he made me do jobs and stay with him. The thing that most people don’t realize is that the jobs that we did at first were actually helping people. Sure, we were doing it outside of the law, and some of it involved illegally getting into places or creatively getting information out of very bad people, but we were doing it to help people.

I know that sounds strange, but we helped wives who couldn’t escape their very powerful husbands, set them up with new identities, and all that. We brought down Fae sex rings and a couple of succubus and incubus ones where they were being used against their will. We found stolen goods and returned them back to their owners. We provided protection for high profile supes, and we found missing people and children.

Then something changed. Dimitri changed, and instead of wanting to help people, he wanted to hurt; I didn’t realize it at first, and when I did, I became very careful about looking into the jobs he gave me. I became a problem, and I’m still not sure why he didn’t kill me. The fight ring had been going on for a while before I found out about it, and he had me fight in it a couple of times. I was trapped, but I was biding my time gathering as much information on him as possible so I could put him behind bars. So, I played along, and I behaved, well, as much as I can behave.

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