Pure Blood_ A Nocturne City Novel - Caitlin Kittredge [60]
I was feeling it too, seeing the Dmitri I knew replaced by this icy façade with the dead man’s eyes. Joubert was whimpering in the corner, his dominance well and truly gone. Dmitri paused over him, hands hanging loosely at his sides, then he reached out and lifted Joubert up, the hairy were’s feet dangling a good foot off the ground.
Never in my life have I wanted to walk away from a fight as much. But I got up instead, swaying badly but conscious and reasonably functional, which was all I could hope for these days, and went to Dmitri. “Don’t.”
Dmitri purred in his chest, the small expression I knew to be his prelude to an explosion of temper. “He hurt you. He tried to claim you. You’re mine.” His hand tightened on Joubert’s throat, the black talons digging in.
Well, halle-freaking-lujah. At least the daemonic Dmitri realized he still cared about me. Overjoyed as I was, I still had his mating instincts to contend with.
“I know,” I said. “He’s a piece of shit and he deserves to die. But not now. Now I need you to let him go.”
Dmitri shook his head. “I want to kill him for you. I’d like it.”
As would I, truth be told. Nothing like hacking up the competition to show a girl how much you care. I ignored the frisson of heat Dmitri’s planned action sent through me and touched his arm, firmly, pressing down to make him release Joubert. “We need him alive if he’s going to talk. After that, you can do whatever you want.”
He met my eyes and his black gaze burned like an oil fire on a winter sea. “Whatever I want?” he rasped.
“Anything.” I nodded, my mouth dry. Hex it, why did he have to be so gods-damned attractive when he was homicidal?
Dmitri blinked and released Joubert, who tumbled to the floor. He glared up at us and massaged his throat. I pointed a finger in his face and said, “Don’t you twitch.”
“What the Hex happened?” Dmitri demanded. His voice was back to normal, dusty and irritable. He blinked and his eyes were green again.
“You don’t remember?” I said cautiously.
“Not really,” Dmitri admitted. “Just remember smelling blood, and busting in.” He looked at Joubert. “What’s his problem?”
All the primal lust that had been generated as I stood there trying to convince him not to kill Joubert disappeared on the cold wind of reality. “Get him up,” I said, gesturing at Joubert. “After I question him, you and I need to have a talk.”
Dmitri looked uncomfortable, hitching at his jeans like a teenager on a date. “Problem?” I snapped. I was embarrassed, and I react to most bad situations by getting bitchy.
“No,” Dmitri muttered, his face coloring slightly. “I’m just… er…” He adjusted his fly and folded his arms across his chest. “I’m fine.”
Irina hauled herself to her feet before I could fully parse that the near-bloodshed had gotten both Dmitri and me hot, and what exactly that would mean to my next therapy session. “Dmitri, let me take you outside. You are not well.”
“I’m fine! Hex it, Irina, stop hovering!” he snapped. She pulled back like he’d slapped her.
I grabbed Joubert by the collar and hauled him into his dining room, sitting him in a chair. He growled when I touched him, but it was halfhearted. “The Loup will kill you for this if they ever find out.”
“And I’m supposed to believe you’d tell your pack that you got your ass kicked by an Insoli and a Redback?” My turn to laugh. “Buddy, you are so lucky your windpipe isn’t lying halfway across the room right now.”
He glowered. “What do you want, cop?”
“Vincent Blackburn,” I said. “I know his death was murder. I know the O’Hallorans set it up, for whatever reasons they have.” Still working on that one. “Who did the dirty work?” I asked Joubert. “You? He screws you over and you decide to get in bed with the caster witches’ revenge?”
Joubert snorted. “Hell no. Vincent wasn’t smart enough to screw me. That kid was such a junkie, he would’ve worn a dress and humped a goat if it’d get him dope. Always broke, always a waste of space.”
“Listen,” I said. “If you don’t tell me who killed