Page 54 of The Incubus and the Bodyguard

Vlad’s gaze grew heavy-lidded. He tilted her chin with a knuckle and leaned in to kiss her.

Delphine’s lips parted, anticipation sending her pulse racing.

A terrified whimper made them both freeze.

Tarang had sat down on Delroy and was watching them with a grin, heedless of the ashen-faced man frozen beneath him.

A figure appeared at the end of the alley. Delphine tensed before relaxing.

It was Cortes.

“Hey!” the Colombian shouted as he jogged over. “You guys alright?”

Vlad reluctantly released her. “How’d he find us?”

“I messaged him the address.”

Popo left Cortes’s shoulder and flew ahead of him. He landed on Tarang’s head and studied Delroy curiously.

“Who’s this punk?” he asked the tiger.

Tarang huffed and growled.

Cortes reached them. “Did I interrupt something?”

His gaze held a hint of curious amusement as it swung between Delphine and Vlad.

“No,” she said curtly. She turned and squatted next to Delroy’s head. “You really shouldn’t have run.”

Delroy gulped. “I—I don’t know anything!”

Tarang let out a threatening rumble right in his ear.

Delroy yelped. Fear widened his eyes. “Please! They—they’ll kill me if I talk!”

Vlad’s voice dropped dangerously. “And you think we won’t?”

CHAPTERNINETEEN

Delroy huddledin the metal chair, his gaze darting worriedly around the dimly lit cellar.

TheBlack Devilssafe house in Brooklyn was a nondescript brownstone housing a laundromat on the ground floor. It looked perfectly normal from the outside. Few people knew the basement contained an interrogation room that could make even the most hardened criminals talk.

Judging from the sheen of sweat on Delroy’s face, he’d heard of the place.

“The dolls,” Vlad said coldly, straddling the chair opposite the bartender. “Tell us about them.”

Delroy swallowed. Blood had crusted around the wound in his hand where Delphine’s knife had impaled it. His nose was swollen and deformed, the bruise almost filling the middle of his face.

Vlad would have offered him an ice pack had he not known what a piece of trash the guy was.

“I was given two of them,” Delroy confessed, his voice trembling. “Small things, no bigger than my hand. One looked like you.” His gaze darted to Tarang. “The other like your tiger.”

Vlad’s jaw tightened. His familiar’s hackles rose where he sat next to him.

“Who gave them to you?” Delphine asked from where she leaned against the wall to the left, her arms crossed.

“I never saw his face.” Delroy’s shoulders hunched. “He wore a hood every time we met. Walked with a limp.” He hesitated. “If I had to guess, I’d say he was middle-aged.”

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