ONE
"LET’S TRY THIS again, shall we?" Officer Nichols's smile was strained and tight, any patience she'd had was long since gone. "What were you doing in an abandoned warehouse at two in the morning?"
Under the table my leg bounced up and down, the only sign of my nerves.
"What does anybody do in a warehouse at that time of the morning?" I quipped, unable to stop myself.
What could I say? Anxiety and fear made me a tad snarky.
Getting picked up by a cop while in the middle of a job was a new low for me. I could only hope no one had seen. Otherwise this whole experience was going to play havoc on my already shaky reputation.
What kind of vampire got caught by humans? A ridiculous one, that was for sure.
Officer Nichol's glare was heated, fueled by the frustration of the past few hours. "You help me, and I'll help you."
From hard ass to friend in less than a minute. It had to be a new record.
"I'm not sure what help you're thinking I can give. I already explained my reason for being there."
Many times, in fact.
Officer Nichols consulted her notes. "Right—you threw your phone over the fence and went to retrieve it."
I shrugged. "That about sums it up."
Officer Nichols sat back in her chair, irritation settling on her face. "Would you care to explain whyyou threw it in the first place?"
I folded my hands in front of me, one thumb brushing against the smooth metal of the handcuffs I wore. Truthfully, they weren't much of a deterrent. Even with my baby vampire strength, I could snap them and be out of here in seconds.
Of course, that would out me as something supernatural. My world didn't have a lot of rules, but it did have one. Don't expose the human world to the spooks.
Which led to the real crux of the situation. Soon, that fiery nemesis of all vampires would rise, and I'd lapse into a sleep so deep it would appear to be a coma.
Officer Nichols would have a hard time explaining why her interrogation subject keeled over. No doubt there'd be tests, the results of which I couldn't afford getting out.
I grimaced internally. I was going to have to make the call.
There would be endless lectures and many "I told you so's" and "what were you thinking's". If I could avoid it, I would, but talking my way out of the situation had yet to work in my favor.
"I got some bad news," I lied.
Nichols folded her arms over her chest. "You think this is a game?"
I shrugged. Not really, but what she was asking for—the truth—I couldn't give.
No normal human would believe the reason I was in that warehouse was to steal back a bracelet for a pair of harpies. Or that the bracelet's presence in that warehouse was grounds for a war between two supernatural species—the harpies and the kobolds. Nor would they believe the fallout of such a war would impact human lives—possibly even result in human deaths.
Yeah, Officer Nichols wasn't equipped to handle that kind of truth bomb. The monsters I saw on a nightly basis would turn her hair white—if they didn't rip out her throat and use her as a food source first.
Best for everybody if I continued to play dumb. By now, lying was practically second nature.
"About that phone call," I started.
She slammed her hand on the table, the sudden burst of sound loud and unexpected in the small room. A normal person would have jumped. Old Aileen would have startled.
Current Aileen, lifted her eyebrow as if to ask if that was supposed to scare her.
Disappointment moved through Nichols's expression, only to be quickly covered. "You were caught trespassing. There are consequences."
