Pure Blood_ A Nocturne City Novel - Caitlin Kittredge [56]
“Not much good to call the police,” I quipped with a hopeful smile. “I need to talk to Dmitri.”
“No.” She started to shut the door. I stuck an arm out and caught it with a bang.
“I don’t think you understand. I need to talk to Dmitri and I am going to talk to Dmitri and I am sick of having doors slammed in my face.”
She pushed against me, grunting with the effort, but I held firm, staring into those gold-brown eyes and not bothering to hide my contempt. “You’re just wasting my time, Irina. I’m coming inside either way.”
“When I get you alone…”Irina hissed.
“Oh, don’t flatter yourself, princess. I’d tear you up and use what’s left for bacon bits.” Bravado will carry you a long way, and I hoped it disguised the ugly twist of fear inside me. I had no idea how strong Irina was, and you’d better believe I hadn’t forgotten she could phase at will. Still, the amount of rage her pale pretty face stirred in me had to be good for something.
“Irina?” Dmitri appeared from what I could only assume was the bedroom, shirtless, in faded jeans and a studded belt. I felt the surge of territorial instinct, a snarl rising to the surface as my imagination leaped to an image of what they must have been doing when I knocked.
“Ah!” Irina went backward, on her butt, and the door flew back to smash the wall, coming off the top hinge and hanging crookedly. Dmitri watched the whole thing dispassionately, his eyes flicking to gold when he saw me.
“Luna.” He came over and helped Irina up. She held onto him with a whimper.
“She wants to kill me.”
Seven hells, if I had to see one more second of her Scarlett O’Hara act I was going to turn green and start smashing things.
“I don’t think she’s going to do that.” Dmitri’s mouth quirked. He gave Irina a squeeze and released her. “Go back into the bedroom, darlin’. I’ll just be a minute.”
“You can’t talk to her!” Irina said with alarm. “The elders—”
“Are not going to find out about this, are they, Irina?” He gave her that look, the one that was all dark green eyes and shadowy promises of pain, the one he’d used on his pack when he was their leader. Irina dipped her head in a gesture of submission, exposing the back of her neck, then disappeared into the bedroom and shut the door.
“You’ve got her well trained,” I drawled, covering up the gut punch of loss that hit when I saw them together with a cruel tone. “Does she wear a little collar with a bell?”
“Hex it, Luna.” Dmitri sighed, sinking into a ratty red armchair. “Did you come here just to bust my balls?” The apartment wasn’t much better furnished than his old pack house in Ghosttown—it looked like someone’s foreign grandparents had lived there for about forty years and never cleaned anything.
“No,” I said. “Surprisingly not. I came because…”The end of the sentence stuck in my throat. How could I ask him for favors after the way we’d parted? After he’d chosen his Hexed pack over me?
Because I needed to prove that he still wanted me, of course. I’d been surviving without a breakdown on the hope of this very moment ever since the horrible scene at Bete Noire.
“Dmitri, I need your help,” I said firmly, loudly enough for Irina to hear. “I have to do something dangerous, with some dangerous people, and you were the only person I could think of who would go with me.”
Composing his face into careful lines, Dmitri steepled his fingers. “I can’t help you anymore, Luna.”
“Hear me out,” I said, holding up a hand. “There’s a were named Benny Joubert that I need to question in a murder. If I go alone, I’ll just be an Insoli, and a cop besides, and he’ll hurt me badly, but I’ll still go. So think about it for a second before you say no.”
I can be pretty damn manipulative when the occasion calls for it. It worked too, because Dmitri dropped his act and passed a hand over his eyes, messing up his copper hair even more than the undoubtedly fabulous sex with Irina already had.
“Do you have any idea what you do to me?” he muttered, so softly I had to move closer to hear.
“Apparently, nothing like what Irina can do,” I fired back, feeling like crap the