Page 192 of White Wolf

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“What will you do with him?” Sasha asked.

Trina slumped back and let the brick wall of the precinct take her weight. She was afraid to blink, fearful that if she shut her eyes for even a second she’d drop off into a nap. Or a coma.

“I have no idea,” she admitted. “Technically, he needs to be arrested. You could probably pin him on attempted murder charges…if we had any physical evidence. Or security footage. Something. But Chad Edwards isn’t dead anymore. And Alexei is a damnvampire.” She chuckled, a little hysterical from fatigue and disbelief. “Shit. How am I gonna tellthatto my captain? ‘Our prime suspect is an undead Russian prince who accidently drank too much blood?’”

“Not undead,” Nikita said.

“What?”

“Hollywood misnomer,” he said with a shrug. “We’re alive. We bleed, we can breed.” He glanced away from her and lit a fresh cigarette.

It was easy to believe, watching him. The flicker of his eyelashes in the afternoon sunlight, the movement of his throat as he swallowed. She hadn’t touched him, but had imagined he would be cold. But maybe not. Maybe he’d be warm.Alive. Like Rasputin had been in his coffin.

She shook herself. “Anyway. I’m screwed.”

“You didn’t arrest him. No one knows what he told you,” Nikita said dismissively.

“Yeah, but he’s my perp.”

Nikita exhaled smoke and turned to her, brows drawn low over his eyes in clear confusion. “Youwantto arrest him.”

“No, absolutely not. But I want to stop anyone else from being killed. Or turned. I want to do my job.”

He nodded.

“Do you think he’s done this sort of thing before?”

“Yes. Vampires are creatures of habit.”

“Will he do it again?”

Nikita tilted his head, considering. “If nothing changes? Yes. But I think he could be made to behave better.”

“What would you do, if you were in my position?”

He seemed surprised to have been asked.

“As someone who’s interested in justice,” she added.

He flicked a glance to Sasha, smile wry. “I’ve been alive too long to believe that justice exists.”

“But you think itshould. We have that in common.”

He snorted.

“What would you do?” she repeated. “Or do I want to know?”

“You definitely don’t want to know.” He turned away from her. “Come, Sasha.”

Sasha sighed. He gave Trina a commiserating eye-roll. “Sorry. He doesn’t have…what do you call it? People skills?” He smiled as he pushed away from the wall. “Call if you need us. We’ll be around.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

She watched them go: Sasha jogging a few steps to catch up, the two of them heading off down the sidewalk shoulder-to-shoulder, Sasha saying something she couldn’t hear, gesturing animatedly with his hands. A few yards away, Nikita flicked his cigarette butt into a trashcan and nodded in response to whatever Sasha said.

They looked sonormal. Two friends out for lunch. He was hergreat-grandfather. Just. Wow.

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