Page 68 of Smokescreen (Knight & Daywalker)
Cain’s whole face fell. When Davin added, “and the garlic doesn’t do a damn thing either,” his shoulders dropped to match. He walked out looking more defeated than he’d seemed upon finding out that I had no useful information and a second murder for him.
Poor guy.
CHAPTER 28
“Were you telling him the truth?” Davin asked after a moment, still watching the door Cain had left through. “You’re going to stop investigating?”
He sounded so hopeful I didn’t want to tell him the rest.
But the rest was good, right?
“I don’t need to keep investigating,” I said, getting up and going to the front of the shop to watch Cain go back to join the other cops out in the parking lot. “I know who did it.”
For some reason, Davin didn’t look especially reassured. “Then why didn’t you just tell him?”
“And bring him even deeper into vampire business?” I asked, and I knew I sounded annoyed, but come on. “Be so for real with me right now. The man is wearing a cross like he’s the fucking pope. Like he’s a bad rapper who goes by MC Loves Jesus. He must have fucking bathed in garlic last time we saw him. You think he can handle vampires?”
Davin’s pained wince said it all.
“Nope. I just need to make sure I’m right, and then straight to my mother.” I headed back into the apartment area to at least find socks, since I didn’t want to leave in my bare feet. I probably had an extra pair of shoes somewhere, even though the cops hadtaken my usual work boots along with the rest of the clothes I’d been wearing.
Bit of an oversight on my part, not having a few extra pairs of boots.
“Wait,” Davin said, pressing a firm hand down on my shoulder even as I dropped onto the couch to put the socks on. “Did you learn nothing from the conversation we just had with your cop friend? People should give this kind of information on the phone, and not doing that results in them being dead. Like you’re the witness character in a bad murder movie.”
I shook my head, focusing on my socks and trying not to think about murder. Or even more murder. “I am not just calling my mother and telling her that the woman who’s been her assistant longer than I’ve been alive is trying to kill her without more information. I wouldn’t believe me, so why would?—”
Davin dropped to the floor in front of me, and I paused. Davin was not a dramatic guy to go around pretend-collapsing.
I stared at him, committing the shape of him to memory. Two legs, one torso, two arms, and one very important head, all still attached to each other.
No shooting.
No blood.
“She would, you know,” the chilly feminine voice said above me. “You could tell her the ghost of Christmas past is trying to kill her, and she’d assume you were right. She thinks you’re infallible. Perfect. I should have seen it years ago, really. You’re her weakness. You’re how I kill the bitch.”
I turned to look up into the eyes of Mary Windsor, and for the first time since my teenage hormones had worn off, I felt utter dread spread through my gut. It seemed to bubble up inside me, feeling like the heartburn Davin had been joking about not so long ago. Still, I wasn’t going to let her see my fear, so I quirkedan eyebrow, shooting for insouciant and probably coming closer to “giant bag of dicks.”
“If you really think my mother has any weaknesses, you’ve somehow missed getting to know her, even while working for her for decades.”
Her upper lip lifted in a feral-looking snarl. “A hundred years. A hundred years I’ve worked for that cunt, and she’s still got me playing at being a servant.Me.I’m related to royalty, and who is she? No one. And you”—she said that last like the you in question—me—was the most awful thing she’d ever imagined in her entire life—“disgusting abomination that you are. I worried at first you’d be like he was. But it turns out you’re nothing at all. Two of the most powerful kinds of creatures in the world as parents, and you’re just a pathetic little human.”
I blinked up at her, stunned for a moment by the sheer information dump.
Royalty. Abomination. Powerful creatures.
And most of all, that she didn’t know I wasn’t just human.
Not that being able to talk to animals was going to do much for me in this moment.
Except wait.
Twist.
Twist, who was at that very moment hopping down off the couch and onto Davin’s prone form, her fangs bared and growl deepening into the same guttural sound she’d made in the club as she’d transformed.
Mary didn’t seem especially concerned, though.
