Page 39 of Midnight Coven

There was a dead silence.

Nick glanced at the two agent-looking types standing by the wall.

They were the same two in expensive suits he’d pegged as H.R.A.

I.S.F. agents came across as downright warm and fuzzy compared to most of the humans and vamps Nick had come across who worked directly for the H.R.A. That was particularly true of Intereb, the H.R.A.’s enforcement arm. Most vampires called them “The Leash.”

One of the job requirements seemed to be a complete lack of empathy.

Along with zero aversion to torture.

And a complete lack of non-creepy social skills.

Nick was pretty sure they only hired psychopaths.

The main job of The Leash was to hunt down, torture, and murder vampires. From what Nick could tell, they didn’t much care if those vampires were innocent of the specific crimes they’d been charged with or not. The Leash generally weren’t brought in until the end of an investigation, maybe for that same reason.

Which didn’t bode well for Nick.

The lawyer seemed to agree.

“What the fuck are they doing here?” she asked, motioning at the H.R.A. agents. “Don’t you think that’s overkill for a local murder investigation? Or is this an attempt to intimidate my client? Or me? Or my employer?”

“Overkill?” another voice cut in.

Nick looked at who’d spoken.

Once he had, he jumped a little, in spite of himself.

Somehow he’d completely missed the NYPD police chief standing there. Jagan “Jag” Acharya stood just on the other side of detectives handlebar mustache and pompadour. He focused on the lawyer in the pink suit with those intense eyes of his.

“Overkill?” he repeated coldly.

Hearing his voice, Nick wasn’t sure if he should reassured by his chief’s presence there, or if it was yet another sign of how bad things were going for him.

The tall, handsome, East Indian man scowled at the lawyer.

Nick decided it probably wasn’t good for him.

Acharya wore a suit that likely cost more than Nick––or handlebar mustache guy, or pompadour guy, or both of the uniforms put together––made in a month from the NYPD. Possibly more than any of them made as police officers in a year.

Of course, Nick made a lot more off the fights.

Still, he was shocked Acharya would come to something like this.

It was pretty rare for Nick to cross paths with NYPD’s top brass.

The last time he remembered was for a big police function at the MOMA.

“You really want to pretend like we’re being hysterical, Nora? We have ten people dead. Ten people, all from one of the richest families in the New York Protected Area.”

Nick didn’t feel any better having his suspicions confirmed.

No wonder everyone was freaking out about this.

This stupid, psychotic vampire killed the wrong family.

Acharya folded his arms, aiming his words at the even more expensively clothed lawyer.

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