“Yeah. Well.” He studied me a moment. “You’re an interesting woman, Jane Yellowrock.” I wasn’t sure what that meant, but it sounded like a compliment, sorta, so I smiled.
A woman stuck her head in the door. “Miss Yellowrock, Detective, they’re ready for you now.” We stood and I raised a hand in a casual wave at Bruiser, who watched us go, his face expressionless. Jodi followed me down the corridor, our footsteps silent. The human blood-servant opened a door at the end of the hallway and stepped inside. “New Orleans Police Department Detective Jodi Richoux and Jane Yellowrock.”
Sudden nerves grabbed me and I wanted to giggle. Wanted to say, “What? No title for me? Like, famed vamp killer?” But I didn’t. And I stifled the titter in the back of my throat. Me? Nervous about speaking to one of the most powerful vamp councils in the United States? Oh yeah.
The door closed behind us with a swish of air, a soundproofed thump, and a final click. Two muscle-bound bouncers took their places in front of the door, motions choreographed, eyes on us. Armed to the teeth and not trying to hide it. Unhappy at being locked in with vamps, sane or not, Beast rose and studied the scene, muscles bunched and breath hot in my mind.
The vamps were seated in carved black chairs on a dais, at a narrow, curved, half-round table that was probably ebony, a black rug under their feet. They were dressed in black, the men in tuxedoes, the women in floor-length gowns. It was a lot of black. Playing to the stereotype? There were little brass plaques on the table’s front edge, engraved with clan names. This wasn’t a full council, apparently, but an executive session, with only clan heads present. I identified the blood-masters or heirs of Clans Mearkanis, Rousseau, Desmarais, Laurent, St. Martin, and Bouvier. The chairs for Clan Pellissier and Clan Arceneau were vacant, but I figured they had a quorum. If vamp councils needed a quorum. The titter tried to rise again, but I wrestled it down, and studied the woman at the center of the table, Sabina Delgado y Aguilera, the priestess—a vamp I was not supposed to know, I reminded myself.
Jodi and I stood two steps down from the dais, shoulder to shoulder. I felt like a kid standing in the principal’s office. My near-hysterical titter made a third bid for freedom. The vamps turned to us, nostrils flaring, scenting.
Rafael Torrez, scion and heir of Clan Mearkanis, leaned forward, his black eyes on my face. He got in the first sally. “You were hired to kill the rogue vampire, yet we understand that the creature you killed tonight was not one of us. Why should we pay you?”
Anger zinged through me. These creeps were going to try to cheat me. The world slowed down into distinct images of survival and death. Beast rose into my eyes. Growled low in my throat. A threat.
Instantly, the whites of Rafael’s eyes and his face blazed with blood flush. His pupils widened to black. It was a young-vamp loss of control.
The other council members drew back in shock at his gaffe. But Rafael didn’t back down. His fangs snapped down with a soft click. Pheromones of violence filled the room. Vamp menace has a smell, sharp and spiky. Intense in a room full of them. Beside me, Jodi froze. Two other vamps fought their own reactions to Rafael’s scents. Jodi stepped away, her hand going for her gun, which she no longer had. Her fear spiked. Human prey smell. As one, the vamps turned to her. Predator eyes. For a moment, danger churned in the air like poison.
The vamp priestess, sitting beside Rafael, placed a hand on his arm. “Be still,” she said, her voice infused with power. It was almost witchy in its strength. But her eyes were on me. Hawk eyes, seeing too much.
I couldn’t help it. I started to laugh. The vamps all turned to me, swiveling their heads in unison like a circus act. The scents changed to outrage and insult, violence of a different kind. I extended a hand in apology, as if waving away my amused eruption. The vamps simply stared. Jodi took a breath, the sound shaky.
When I got my laughter under control, I said, “The thing that took over Immanuel had been living among you for years and you never guessed. Never knew. Not till he went nuts and started killing off and feeding on humans and his vamp friends. You trying to tell me he didn’t smell like a vamp? Feed like a vamp? As far as the world is concerned, he was a vamp who was morphing into something else. Something even worse.” I saw several eyes blaze at the insult. Well, tough. Beside me, Jodi’s fear increased, her body tensed in indecision.