Yeah. Selina didn’t mess with southern belles.
She shook the blond vampire’s hand. “Agent Dubois, welcome to Seattle. I’m Detective Selina Grayson. I’m on loan from the local PD for a case.”
“Things sure are busy around here. I’m pulling double duty right now.” Her grin said she was more than a little pleased by that. “With the extra twenty-something deaths you just found, Cavalli asked me to help y’all out with profiling your vampire. I’m a bit of a vamp expert, and they’re using that skill over on the Karsen case, too.”
“Thanks, any assistance is welcome.” They sure as hell hadn’t had a profiler the last time she’d taken a swing at this killer. “We do have a suspect, but we need to track him down. Have you ever heard of a vampire named Gregor?”
“Gregor Night.” Her face seemed to pale a bit. “Yes, I know him.”
“You know him better than I do.” Selina wiped her mouth with a napkin. “I’d never heard his last name before. Must be in the classified FBI file.”
The vampire’s smile was faint, and she edged toward the door. “Something like that. I’ll take a look at your victims, work up a profile, and see if it fits with Gregor’s usual M.O.”
“I’m looking forward to what you find.” Selina tilted her head at the retreating blonde. “It was good meeting you.”
“You, too.” She turned those violet eyes on Jack. “Can I borrow you for just a moment? Luca and Peyton want to have a little powwow about the other case, and your presence is requested.”
“Huh.” His eyebrows arched, but he rose to his feet, grabbed an extra fry on his way out, and popped it in his mouth. “Let’s see what the boss needs.”
Selina watched them walk away, and they were soon in a tight cluster with Cavalli and Peyton. Deep frowns formed on everyone’s faces, and they gestured while they talked. She stuffed down her worries about the case and focused on them.
The three men standing there brought their differences into sharp contrast. They were tall, muscular, good-looking, and had an air of leashed danger about them. Luca was the tallest, with a lean swimmer’s build, dark hair and eyes, and a suave demeanor. He attracted attention just by breathing. Peyton was handsome in an all-American kind of way. Brown hair, blue eyes. Nice to look at, but he could easily blend into a crowd if he needed to. She had a feeling he used that ability to his advantage. Jack fell somewhere in between the other two, with his dark hair and light eyes. He was attractive, but not in-your-face about it like Luca. He had a sprinkling of gray in his hair, just at the temples. She liked it. He had some years on him. No matter how much older she was than him, there was no mistaking that this was a man, not a boy with a badge like she’d seen with a lot of human cops.
She liked that, too.
She liked everything about him so far, which, if she were honest with herself, she’d admit was a serious problem. Now was not the time to fall into like with a man. There wasn’t a time when she could do that. She was out of minutes to spare, no matter how much Jack appealed to her. No matter how much he seemed to get her, without her having to draw him a map. Very unusual for a male of any species, especially a Normal.
She didn’t usually take Normals as lovers. At least not for the last century or so. Not because she had something against them—she didn’t. It was just ... once she’d been around a few hundred years, they’d all just seemed so young. Or maybe they just made her feel old.
Which made Jack unique. He didn’t seem young, and he didn’t make her feel old. Being around him made her feel more alive than almost anything other than her adrenaline rush of a job did. Touching him was like coming into contact with a live wire. Chemistry like that didn’t come around very often, she knew.
Why him and why now, though?
The question that had plagued her with their case now took a far more personal turn. It was as if Fate were mocking her, taunting her with what could never be. A man who made her feel alive, right when she was going to die. The cruelty of that made pain shoot through her, but she gritted her teeth. There was no getting around what was coming—she could feel the vast break, this huge difference in how her life was now versus how it was going to be. It was difficult to describe it, even to herself. Whatever she was now, whoever she was now, would no longer exist in the very near future.
Her precognition wasn’t as powerful as Merek’s—it was more what humans would call a gut instinct—but it was there nonetheless. Maybe if she reminded herself of that enough times, she’d figure out how to rid herself of this soft spot she seemed to be forming for a certain human agent.
She just needed to remember that she’d gone to bed with him for a distraction, and that was what he still was. An amusement to keep her from going crazy during this case, a source of endless orgasms that left her too limp and sated to recall even her own name.
That was it. A distraction. No more, no less.
With that stern inner lecture, she picked up her turkey sandwich and forced her mind back to their serial killer while she ate.
Today’s revelations had been an unpleasant shock. While she’d suspected enough to voice the question, five more cities with five more victims each was worse than she would have guessed. And knowing this murderer, she’d thought she’d braced herself for the worst.
What a time for a man to blow her expectations out of the water. If it was Gregor, she’d wring his neck with her bare hands. She’d reserve judgment for the moment because going into a case with a conclusion already set was a surefire way to overlook something important. But Gregor had a lot of questions to answer.
“Bastard,” she muttered.
“Sing it, sister.” Tess strode into the room, a paper cup from Starbucks clutched in her hand. She gave the espresso maker a look of pure loathing before she dug through the big refrigerator in one corner of the room and pulled out a lunch bag. She grinned at Selina. “Who’s a bastard, exactly?”
“Careful, Tess.” Selina arched an eyebrow at the werewolf. “That kind of chip on your shoulder will leave you bitter.”
“Yeah, so?” The redhead’s jaw jutted pugnaciously. “It’s my party and I’ll be bitter if I want to.”
“True enough.” Selina should keep her mouth shut, she knew that. Her advice was clearly unwelcome, not to mention uninvited. “But consider for a second who the bitterness hurts. It might drive him crazy right now, but he’ll move on eventually. And you’ll still be bitter. Is that what you want?”
She didn’t specify who “he” was. They both knew this was about Luca Cavalli. Saying his name might just piss the medical examiner off more, and Selina had found over the years that she liked to make nice with those kinds of people. It made cases go a lot smoother that way.
“Shut up.” Tess glowered at her.
Selina nodded. Yeah, she shouldn’t butt in anyway. And since she knew Tess was sexing it up with Peyton, he was probably in a better position to help her get past Luca than Selina was.
Time for a change in topic. “The full moon’s coming in a couple of days.”
Tess grunted, but Selina could see the small flash of a fang when she took a swig of her java.
Right. That worked well. Small talk had never been Selina’s strong suit. She preferred to cut to the chase. She cast about for a neutral topic. “Uh ... aren’t you doing that study for Chloe? To study the effects of the werewolf Change–supressing drug she developed?”
At least, that was what she thought the drug did. Vampirism and werewolfism were two different strains of the same Magickal disease, therianthropy, which was why they were the only two species that could create more Magickals without having a child. Both strains of the disease had horrible side effects, and while the vampires had come up with a serum to block the worst of their condition, the wolf packs hadn’t gotten their act together until Chloe Standish tackled the disease.