Page 101 of Golden Eagle

He appeared in the doorway a moment later, leather jacket hanging open, sweats underneath, breathing like a racehorse, face still bruised. “What the fuck?” he said, half-growling. She could see the tips of his fangs; emotion had rendered him careless. “She’s not a fucking suspect, what the–”

Romero put a hand on his shoulder, and oh shit, this wasn’t going to go well.

Trina stood, just as Romero was thrown backward. Her hip bumped the table, and coffee slopped all over. “Lanny,” she snapped.

Everything seemed to stop.

Romero was caught in a tableau, half-falling, all of Lanny’s strength holding him upright. Inhuman strength; he would probably wonder at it later.

Delgado sat staring at her, motionless.

“Lanny,” she said again, voice flat.

He whirled to face her. The chaos on his face. The terror and aggression. It was staggering.

She swallowed and said, “Stop.”

He dropped Romero and turned to face her.Droppedhim. He’d shown too much of his true, new self. There would be no way to come back from it, she registered.

“I’m fine,” she said.

“Who was it?” he asked, heedless of her calm tone. “One of those assholes they lured Sasha with? A feral?”

She gave hima look.“Not now.”

“It was, wasn’t it?”

Romero collected himself with an indignant cough.

“Whaddya mean?” Delgado asked, looking between Trina and Lanny.

“My partner,” Trina said, before Lanny could answer. “Is just concerned. He wasn’t involved at all.”

“You can’t seriously be questioning her,” Lanny said.

Delgado’s gaze kept flicking, back and forth; he looked as unsettled as Trina had ever seen him.

“Lanny, get out, you’re only going to make this worse.”

Romero straightened his jacket with a sharp gesture. “Man, what the fuck?”

“Lanny–” Trina started again, uselessly. She might as well give orders to the wall for all that he would listen.

Then Captain Abbot’s voice cut above everyone else’s. “What the fuck is all this? Huh?” He bulled into the room with his head down, his shoulders rounded for a fight, gaze already fierce enough to strip paint. He looked at each of them in turn. “Which one of you idiots shot somebody?”

Trina lifted two fingers in a small wave. “That’d be me, sir.” She was still numb. They were only words, and true ones at that; she found they came easily.

“In self-defense,” Lanny growled. A real vampire growl. God, he was so fired after this. “She didn’t do anything wrong, Captain.” Too aggressive, his tone too sharp. Fired, fired, fired.

Abbot swung around to look at him, and recoiled visibly a moment when he got a good glimpse of Lanny’s face. His eyes looked fevered; the tips of his fangs showed. “Jesus, are you high or something?” To Romero and Delgado: “Get him the fuck outta here if he’s gonna be like this.”

Lanny growled again.

Trina had to stop this, she knew. Whatever the fallout, it was vital that she get Lanny to calm down. He was a gun half-cocked lately, and this had all the earmarks of a full-fledged disaster in the making.

She slipped between Lanny and Abbot. Put her back to her captain, ignored his spluttered protests, and focused all her attention on Lanny. She’d been wanting him to keep acting like a human all this time – but he wasn’t one, anymore. And it wasn’t his human side she needed to appeal to. Not now – maybe not ever.

“Hey,” she said, low and soothing. “Hey, hey, hey, look at me. Just at me.”

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