Greywalker - Kat Richardson [128]
I tried to compose my thoughts, but they were fluttering moths in the lamplight. “What do you think of our chances?” I asked.
“Edward’s no fool when it comes to his demesne.”
I started to speak again and Carlos flicked his fingers in a warning signal that stroked a cold fire across my cheek.
“Himself,” he muttered.
I looked from the corner of my eye toward the door.
He wasn’t big like Carlos; he was slight, but his slenderness lent an illusion of height, and the fiery threads around him leapt upward, flaming in every color, tangling like sensual snakes in every other thread they touched. Sarah’s James Bond description was apt: thick, dark hair over pale skin and sharp eyes, and a visible cruel streak wide as a door. Most every head in the room turned his way, even if only for a moment, acknowledging the presence of the lord of the city. I didn’t allow my own head to turn, nor did Carlos.
Edward moved out of the doorway, breaking the tableau. He circled the room at a stroll, clockwise. Carlos gave a low, cynical chuckle as he watched.
“Doesn’t much like this situation, does he?” I observed.
“You never know what Edward thinks until the knife is in,” he warned, rising to his feet.
Edward made his way to us at last, pausing within a spreading pool of cold. Carlos glowered at him. Edward flicked a glance over the bigger vampire as if brushing away a fly.
Carlos stepped aside. “Edward.”
The other grudged a tiny nod. “Carlos. Still with us.”
“Eternally.”
Edward gave a small sound of amused disgust. “Always angry. Such a waste, always living in the past.”
“The past and the future are all now, to me.”
“As ever.”
Carlos spread ripples of fury. His lip curled, showing a glittering, sharp fang.
Edward locked his gaze with Carlos’s. A withering, icy electricity raised the hair on my arms. “There will be another time.”
Carlos stepped back, then turned on his heel and walked away without looking back. I hoped he would stay close.
Edward slipped into the vacated chair. He looked me over with a glance much warmer than the one he had turned on Carlos. It was as if he had thrown a switch. The combination of eroticism and revulsion I felt was unsettling.
“Ah, the detective. A friend of my unfortunate mistake.”
“An employee of Cameron’s,” I corrected him. “I came to see if I can help you with a problem and repair Cameron’s situation at the same time.”
An anonymous server presented us with drinks. I had no idea what the little glasses held which gleamed like oil in my sight, and I had no intention of finding out. I let mine sit on the table while Edward picked his up and sipped.
“Help me? I should have wiped the little insect off the face of the earth.”
“You missed your chance to kill Cameron and face no consequences quite a while ago. There are more immediate problems now, but I know how you can solve them and the issue of Cameron all at once.”
One of his eyebrows rose, and he glanced at me over the rim of the glass. I smiled away the sudden thrill of sick sweat and went on.
“Quite a few of your people seem to have axes to grind with you. One tried to persuade me to take you out, but I’m not suicidal or stupid. Your community wouldn’t benefit and neither would my client. There is an outside threat to all of you, not just you, me, or Cameron. If you dispose of the threat, you save the community, resolidify your leadership position, and undermine your detractors. You also have the opportunity to force your enemies either to support you or so openly defy you that you can dispose of them without fear of reprisal.”
He sat back, giving me a piercing look. “You hint at something, but you say nothing. You want me to be majestic, and yet it is you who’ve stirred up the muck for flinging. I gave you Cameron, but you continued to sniff and dig into my affairs. You expect me to be grateful? I could rip you open and have done with it all, right now.”
Ice gripped my insides, but I pushed it back. “You could. But would it be wise in front of this audience, just to quell your own discomfort? Would it be wise to kill a creature