Page 99 of Golden Eagle

“I don’t give a shit,” Lanny spat. He was shaking under Nik’s hand. “Where’s Trina? Is she alright? Did she get hurt?”

Delgado glanced over his shoulder, toward the swarm of investigators. Then he sighed and stepped in closer, dropping his voice. “From what I hear, no. Evans took her in for an informal questioning. She was shook up, but not hurt. IAB’s already been called.” In a grave voice, “She killed a civilian.”

The alley reeked of wolf. The body was up on the first landing of the fire escape, white sheet fluttering in the breeze. Blood had dripped down onto the pavement.

Sasha had turned away, still sneezing. Nik hated the stink of the feral wolves, but to Sasha, they were anathema.

“I…” Lanny said, floundering. “She…”

Nikita tightened his hand and reeled him back a step. “Let’s go to the precinct and see her,” he whispered. “Come on. Get it together.”

“Yeah,” Lanny said, gaze still fixed on the draped body, voice faint. “Yeah, okay.”

They turned away as a unit, and Lanny, to Nik’s surprise, leaned into the weight of the hand on his shoulder.

“She’s fine,” Nik said.

Lanny snorted. “You don’t know that.”

“I know that if she’d been injured, she’d be at the hospital instead of the precinct right now.”

Lanny snorted again, but didn’t argue.

“It was them,” Sasha said from Lanny’s other side. “The ferals. She got one of them.” He sounded proud.

“And without silver,” Nik said.

“Guess you can kill anything if you put enough bullets in it,” Lanny said.

“Most things,” Nikita said, because vampires were the exception – to all sorts of rules, really.

Sasha said, “But where did the other one go?”

“Home,” Nik said. “Wherever that is for him.”

They walked the rest of the way to the precinct in silence, Lanny bristling with nerves.

“Hey.” Nikita pulled him up short before he could go charging up the stairs, and the look he cast around was wild, eyes white-rimmed and unfocused. “You need to calm down first. Don’t run in there and make everything worse.”

He expected resistance, but Lanny actually listened, nodding slowly. “Right, right.”

Nikita decided to press his luck. “This isn’t about you. It’s about her, and how you can be helpful.”

Lanny nodded. And then turned a sudden, sharp look on Nikita. “Yeah. I know.”

“Really?” Nikita shot back, brows lifting. “’Cause lately it’s seemed to be all about you.”

“Says the guy who’s never had a real fucking relationship in his whole fucking life,” Lanny shot back.

“Have you?” Nikita countered.

Sasha pushed between them with a sigh. “Stop.” It had the effect of cold water over both of them, stepping away, dropping their hostility. “Go see Trina,” Sasha told Lanny, “and be supportive. We’ll be out here.”

Lanny looked between the two of them, expression grim, but finally nodded, and went up the stairs at a walk.

Nikita put his hands in his pockets and slouched back against the bricks. He fingered the packet of smokes in the right one, wanting a cigarette, but a dark glance from a uniformed officer stayed his hand. No sense looking even less reputable, he supposed.

Sasha fell in beside him. “They have to figure things out for themselves, you know.”

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