I stepped back and found the cop in the dark. He was armed and wearing a dark blue Windbreaker, the word POLICE in bold white letters. I had to make an official report to both Leo and the cops. Might as well start now.
"I'm okay." I took a steadying breath and blew out. "But we have one human dead, from vamp and witch wounds. Hicklin. I don't know his full name." It was suddenly awful that I didn't know the first name of the man who had died tonight. I swallowed back tears. "We broke up a ceremony intended to bring sanity to rogue vamps. To the long-chained. But it required the death of two witch children, which I wasn't gonna let happen. It was also, somehow, part of a plot to kill Leo and take over the city."
Bruiser flinched slightly. If I hadn't been watching for it, I'd have missed it. Protective instincts bred into him by sips of vamp blood. And maybe by love. Who knew?
"Bettina, the blood-master of Clan Rousseau, is bound and starving back at the site, next to a staked anamchara, part of a cross-clan plan to challenge and defeat Leo and return to the Naturaleza. Leo might be able to do something with her memories. She still has her head. I'll give you a full report later. For now we have seven vamps dead, all involved with the creation of the young rogues, all sanctioned under my contract with the council. Two witch children and one witch adult saved. If we can keep her alive."
"Where?" Bruiser asked. I pointed at the rental and Bruiser went quickly to Leo, drawing the vamp away, toward Evangelina and Bliss.
That left me with Rick. The pretty boy. The Player. The Joe who had been undercover and now was back with the cops. I looked at him. He didn't have the smooth, effortless movements of George Dumas, nor the charisma. But he smelled human, of cheap aftershave, of Leo's expensive coffee and pastries, of gun oil and ammo and faintly of horses. I smiled. He gave me back a half smile. "You with him? With Dumas?"
"I don't think so. He belongs to Leo. I'm not one to share, especially with a vamp."
"I have horses, four dogs, a barn cat or three, parents who live nearby, and too many sisters to make my life pleasant. No wife, no girlfriend, no vamp master."
I felt a warmth start in my belly and move up and out. "You offering yourself?" I hooked my thumbs into my leather pockets and dropped my weight on one hip. "For what?"
"For . . ." He stopped, his mouth quirking up, revealing the crooked tooth on his lower jaw. "For whatever you might want. We could start out with wild monkey sex and see what develops."
The heat shot through me, hard and fast, like gunning a bike motor and hitting the road with a growl of tire on asphalt. "I need a shower. And I have a houseful of houseguests."
Rick let his smile spread. "I have a shower. And a hot tub out back under the stars. Course I live in a single-wide trailer. It may not be up to your standards."
"Don't let the fancy house fool you. It's Katie's. My usual digs consist of an efficiency rental under the eaves of Old Lady Pierson's house. I have a shower but no hot tub, and if I did, Old Lady Pierson would want to join us."
"Hot to trot?"
"Nosy."
"My place it is, then. I can take you to your bike. You can follow me home?"
"Oh yeah."
He didn't touch me. Just turned and led the way, flipping a nonchalant wave to Jodi on the way by. I walked in his wake and sat in the passenger seat of the unmarked. He climbed in the driver side and started the engine. And pulled slowly past the other vehicles lining the road.
Leo sat in the rental, the window down, blood on his lips. I was pretty sure it was Bliss's blood. He took a breath that looked odd, not quite needed, not quite human when his chest moved, but he didn't notice me. He was healing her the way vamps healed, with sips of blood and a slow laving of tongue.