“Thank you.” I raised my beer bottle to him before finishing the last of the brew. “You’re all wrong about me, Briggs. I am not the enemy. I don’t know why I have to keep saying so.”
“That’s the way the world works.” He shrugged. “We’re all the villain in somebody’s story. Get over it.”
Arys snickered. He knew that Briggs was pushing all the wrong buttons. “You’re talking the wrong crap to the wrong woman, my friend. Stop while you’re ahead.”
“Nobody here is a villain,” Juliet insisted, her gaze lingering on Arys. “Not even you. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be so dedicated to taking care of my sister. There’s no reason that we can’t work together for the good of this city.”
I was starting to get the feeling that this meeting had never been about Linden’s murder. It was just a ploy for Briggs to get me face to face so he could grill me further about Shya. “Don’t start with the Shya talk again,” I warned. “I have nothing to share with you.”
Briggs swore and set his mug down hard, rattling the unused silverware. He was very comfortable in his bad cop role. “You know he’s up to something. We need your help to stop him.”
“Stop him from what?” Arys inquired with a raised brow and half smile.
“We don’t know, and we don’t want to find out the hard way.” Briggs turned his angry stare on the vampire where it was completely wasted. “You both have the opportunity to do some good here. Choose carefully what side you want to be on.”
I’d about had it with Briggs. He was so sure of himself, so sure he knew where Arys and I stood. Because we had power and were inhuman, he put us in a box with Shya, assuming us to be the same. I was done with that shit. “You don’t know what the f**k you’re talking about,” I spat. “Do you think I walk around with a demon mark on my arm because I like it? Just because I won’t work for you doesn’t mean I’m working for Shya. There are many things you don’t know about me, which is exactly how I’d like to keep it. Stay out of my way, Briggs, and I’ll stay out of yours.”
“It’s too late for that now,” he said lazily, unfazed by my wrath. “Besides, you owe me a favor.”
So I did. Having him track Jez’s phone in Vegas had come at a price. “And what might that be?”
Briggs gave Juliet a nudge, and she slid out of the booth, her iced tea mostly untouched. With a nod to Arys, he turned his intense stare on me. “I’ll let you know.”
Tossing a few bucks down to cover their drinks, Briggs ushered Juliet from the lounge without a look back. She paused in the doorway to motion that she would call me.
I slumped in my seat and sighed, trying to remember why I’d been in such a rush to get home. The Vegas vampires weren’t looking so bad now.
* * * *
Home alone with a pizza and the TV remote. It was as close to normal as things got, and it didn’t happen often.
I reclined on the couch, watching a rerun of The Walking Dead. I couldn’t remember the last time I permitted myself to have a lazy night. After the meeting with Briggs, I’d said f**k it and came home while Arys went to the local bar to play poker with his human card buddies.
Tomorrow night was Kylarai’s engagement party. It was going to open the door on a new phase of life for her. It was also going to mean many hours of wedding planning. She meant the world to me. I’d do all I could to help, though I imagined she was already on top of everything.
The sound of the zombie apocalypse was accompanied by the yips and howls of coyotes outside. They would lurk around my yard and make noise as long as there was no sign of me. When I ran as wolf, they were long gone.
Staring brainlessly at the television felt really damn nice. The absence of thought was rare and welcome. It didn’t take long for the images on the screen to blur as my eyelids drooped.
I was still exhausted from the trip. It was going to take some time to recover. Las Vegas was like a never-ending hangover. I could still feel it in me days later. Slumber beckoned, and I happily succumbed.
My dreams were mostly made up of random images, things I would never remember upon waking. Then the haze in my subconscious cleared, and I found myself gazing down at the inviting form of a scantily clad woman. She lay sprawled across a bed, staring up at me with terror in her wide eyes. Her dark hair was in disarray, and her body bore the marks of abuse. Her lips moved, but I ignored her pleas for mercy. If I allowed myself to enjoy her desperation, it would drive me over the edge much too quickly.
I’d had this dream before. If in fact, it was a dream at all. It wasn’t the first time I’d slipped into Arys’s thoughts without trying.
An overturned lamp cast a dim glow from where it lay on the floor. A small television played with the sound on mute. I didn’t spare a glance at the screen; it was irrelevant. I advanced on her with lips peeled back to expose my fangs. I itched for the moment when they would pierce her flesh. The pulsing vein in her throat beckoned me, demanding I taste her.