Pure Blood_ A Nocturne City Novel - Caitlin Kittredge [3]
A shiver ran through him. “Don’t shoot.”
“Give me one reason not to, good or bad,” I said, thumbing the safety off. His hand was still inside his jacket. His eyes held entirely too much panic for me to be comfortable.
“Please don’t shoot.”
“Get your hands behind your head!”
He didn’t move, just watched me, unblinking.
“Show them to me!” I ordered again.
“It will be all right,” he said in a low singsong voice. “Just calm down. We’re fine.” In the low light, my were eyes saw his arm tense as he gripped whatever was inside his jacket.
Hex it.
“Please don’t kill me, Officer,” he begged as I saw his hand come out of his pocket in gut-twisting slow motion.
I should have pulled the trigger. It would have been a good shooting, because unless the guy was the most idiotic plain human in existence he was armed and he was going to kill me.
My finger dropped to the trigger, everything happening in two clock ticks but seeming to draw out forever as my blood buzzed in my ears. The were instincts living in my hindbrain screamed Shoot!
“Please,” he hissed again.
I didn’t shoot. I froze, like my limbs were encased in glass. What if he was just high? If he wasn’t armed I’d be a murderer. I was already a murderer…
The curved knife came at me in a blur. My better reflexes threw me sideways and I landed on my gun with a hot pain in my ribs. The junkie was on me, face wild, knife like a silver claw poised above my eyeball. I braced and kicked out, rolling us over so I was on top. I hit him one sharp blow to the side of the temple and he went limp, fingers relaxing his grip on the weapon.
Martinez came pounding up with one of the CSU techs. “You okay?” he asked me, training his service weapon on the unconscious man.
I stood and brushed myself off. I didn’t smell any blood, but I’d have to check myself under better light. A ragged piece of black hair brushed my face, and I reached up to feel a chunk lopped off. The knife had come within millimeters of my left eye.
“Hex me,” I muttered. “Cuff this piece of crap,” I said to Martinez. “You can run him over to the Twenty-fourth Precinct. I’ll meet you there.”
I pulled my leather jacket around me tightly as I walked away, so they wouldn’t see I was shaking.
CHAPTER 2
For the first time since I’d been put on extended medical leave three months ago, I pulled into the parking lot of the Twenty-fourth Precinct. Serving Highland Park and the Waterfront district, the Twenty-fourth was tucked into a converted firehouse that had seen better days, although the neighborhood around it was slowly but surely yuppifying. I counted four shiny Hex-the-environment SUVs parked across the street in front of newly refurbished brick town houses.
I pulled my ’69 Ford Fairlane into my assigned space and went up the wide stone steps of the Twenty-fourth. Just before I pushed open the doors I paused, breathing in the stink of old linoleum and sweat and bad coffee. It smelled homey, but foreign, like going back to your childhood bedroom after you’ve moved out. I steeled myself for whatever stares and mutters I might meet on the other side, and shoved the door open. It banged loudly on old springs. Way to go, Luna. If everyone didn’t know you were coming back on duty tonight, they do now.
Rick, the night desk sergeant, looked up abruptly when I barged in. His mouth parted in a grin. “Good to see you, Detective!” He left his high judicial-style desk and came to shake my hand.
Relief washed through me. “Good to see you too, Rick. How’s your son?”
“Teddy? Fine, started grade school a few weeks ago.” Rick beamed. “And how’s your cousin?”
My good mood washed away like a shack in a flash flood. “She moved out. She’s living up on Battery Beach.”
Rick whistled. “That’s a long drive.”
It was a long drive, long enough so that my cousin Sunny only made it every few weeks. I’m sure the fact I’d barely spoken to her for the entire summer pleased our grandmother, Rhoda, no end. Rhoda had thrown me out at fifteen, and the only time she’d ever helped me since, I’d had to agree to let