He looked to Eli, who acknowledged my statements with another slight nod.
“Did you identify yourselves to the arresting officers?”
“Eli told them my name.”
“I see. And they didn’t allow that name to temper their actions. Interesting. Enforcer, could you remove the cuffs, if you so wanted?”
Now I knew where we were going with this. I was supposed to be the reasonable one. Bad casting, but, again, Icould go with this. I nodded once. “Yes, but they’d be in pieces.”
“And yet, although you could have stopped them at any time, you allowed yourself to be taken in.”
I shook my hair back from my face. “All in the name of good relations with the local police. They had weapons drawn. They had just been in the presence of a witch working, and as humans, they were—”Not scared. Not about to pee their pants. Right. “—unnerved. I didn’t want anyone to start shooting, which might have injured any possible bystanders, tourists, or people looking out their bedroom windows at the scuffle. I figured things would be worked out easily later, when the officers heard the whole story. And then they’d apologize to us for being a tad too rough.” I let a small smile find my mouth. “But then someone called you guys, and I never got a chance.” The Kid was getting smarter by the day.
Brandon turned on one heel and lifted his chin, saying to the cops who had brought us in, “Commander Walker will be contacting you momentarily, alerted to the situation by Sloan Rosen—who you chose to ignore—and the office of the vampire Master of the City. It is my sincere hope that when the commander does communicate with you, the Enforcer to the Master of the City and her partner, Eli Younger, are no longer in restraints.”
The cuffs came off so fast the cop nearly dropped the pair on me. “I didn’t know who you were, Miz Yellowrock,” the officer said.
I rubbed my wrists and pushed back my hair, glancing a warning to Bruiser to show I was fine and would handle this myself. “Not a problem, Officer...” I glanced at his name badge. “...Cormier. It was night, raining, bad lighting. You took care of a potential problem. And I’ll heal. Kudos to the local police.
“Do you need me to give a statement? If so, I’m happy to oblige, but if you don’t mind, I’d like to go home and change clothes. Get my partner hisbandage.” I put a tiny emphasis on the word. “And come back. Would an hour work?”
“Miss Yellowrock and Mr. Younger may come back at their convenience,” a voice stated from the back. Commander Walker strode into the room, a frown so firmly etched on his dark-skinned face that it looked as if iron had been melted, poured into a mold, and hardened there. “We’re sorry for the trouble, Miss Yellowrock. My men and I appreciate your willingness to offer a statement. We’ll all be waiting here when you get back. And an hour would be most helpful.” He looked at his men and said, “Make sure they have their possessions.Nowwould be a good time.”
My gun and the vamp-killer appeared on the desk nearest, still damp from the rain. Commander Walker’s eyes went up at the sight of the blade, but he didn’t say anything. Instead he reached out and shook my hand, then Bruiser’s, Brandon’s, and last Eli’s. To my partner, he said, “I appreciate your service, soldier, even it was with the piss-ass army and not the air force.”
“Never liked flying, sir,” Eli said, relaxing in the presence of a military man who had clearly done his research into our backgrounds. “Much prefer jumping out of planes than flying them. We’ll be back ASAP.”
And just that easily, we were outside in a limo, where Bruiser offered us towels, unopened packages of men’s T-shirts, and anything we wanted from the limo’s liquor cabinet. I took the first two and pulled the tee over my wet shirt. Eli accepted all three, the last being a glass of single-malt scotch, forty-year-old Laphroaig, which I figured was expensive, both by the delight with which Eli sipped it and the amusement with which Bruiser watched.
“Tell me what happened?” he asked, handing me a beer, a Guinness, which brought a smile to my face. Once upon a time, beer had little effect on me, but things had changed somewhat since I was hit by lightning and nearly died. Now my appreciation had increased and so had my reaction to it. A tiny buzz had begun to stalk me from time to time, mostly when I was tired or stressed, and tonight was no exception.
I sipped and explained, walking Bruiser—my... whatever he was to me—through the last hour. At one point hetook my left hand and sniffed my palm, which I thought was odd. I sniffed it too, but with the rain and fighting, there was nothing detectable, and I have a better than human sense of smell even in human form. I wrinkled my brow when I was done, thinking. “There seems like there’s something else, but whatever I’m forgetting, I lost it waking up.”
Bruiser released my hand. “And you never saw their faces?” he asked.
“Nope. Not once.” I drained the beer and smacked my lips. “But I have a very important question. I want to know how you got the limo on such short notice.”
Bruiser smiled, his eyes on my mouth, which made my own eyes fall to his. An unsettled warmth blossomed in my middle. “I was with Leo and Del,” he said, “when the primo received a call from Alex Younger. Leo insisted I take the limo. He also insists on a report from you once things are settled with the police. In person.”
I sighed and passed him the empty, accepting another from him when the driver pulled up to the house. “You’re coming in?” I asked hopefully.
“Yes,” he said, opening the door for me. “I’ll walk the house and grounds and along where the attack took place, in case I can pick up some traces of magic. And then I’ll take you back to the Eighth.”
I slanted a look at my partner. “You going out into the rain after your weapons and your pretty flip-flops?” I tilted my gaze to Bruiser. “You should see the flops. Purple with pink flowers and bling. Eli looked so pretty in them.”
Eli gave me a long-suffering sigh and stepped out, disappearing into the rain.
“Thongs?” Bruiser asked me.
“Yep. Deon made them for me. Eli was wearing them when the cops came up.”
“Oh. Dear God.”
***
Bruiser walked the house, starting in the living room with Alex, while I showered and dressed and put on some lipstick. Since I had looked so bedraggled before, I went for classic style and dance shoes, in all black. Black undies,black sheath on my thigh with a short-bladed vamp-killer, black shirt, black jacket, and black dress slacks with false pockets where I could get to my blades. Some of the new stakes went into my bun, the ones with the stylized feather and the initialsYSburned into the handle. According to Alex, we were getting famous within a subculture of vamp fans, and owning an authentic vampire-hunting stake from us was becoming the height of fashion among them. So the Kid had designed one, had had them made, and posted them on yellowrocksecurities.com for sale. People were buying them, which was just strange.
I stuck four stakes in my hair and let them fan out like decorative hair thingies that geishas might have worn. As I dressed, I replayed the last hours in my mind, the witches, the magics, the smells, the rain... There was something in all the events that tied them together. Something familiar that I was missing. I needed to figure out who the witches were, what they wanted, and...
