A Perfect Blood

around. “We’re at the outside perimeter. I was going to go straight to the drop point, but we’re being flagged down.” His voice shifted, and he added, “It appears to be I.S. personnel bumming a ride.”
    Glenn looked over his shoulder, and Jenks darted to the front, stopping just short of hitting the windshield. “It’s Nina,” he said, his wings turning a particular shade of orange that meant he had mixed emotions. Ivy, too, looked uncomfortable.
    “Pull over,” Glenn said, sounding tired. “We have room.”
    “You’re taking her in?” Wayde said loudly, and I winced as Ivy’s jaw clenched. “She killed a man. Why isn’t she in custody?”
    Ivy took the map and folded it smaller as the car rocked to a stop. “The vampire she was channeling at the time is high up in the I.S. If he wants to go, she’s going. I doubt very much he’s going to let her take the fall for his error in judgment.”
    “Besides,” Glenn said as he leaned over to open the door, “if we don’t pick her up, Felix will commandeer another car. The fewer outside the library, the better.”
    I was unable to find fault with his argument even though I was sort of agreeing with Wayde for a different reason. Nina was in over her head, and Felix was dragging her into deeper water. Nina would be a detriment in a fight, but as Glenn had said, if she wanted to be there, she was going to be there. Might as well try to have a say in where she’d be.
    The wind from the river was brisk as the door slid noisily open. Nina stood waiting with her hands behind her back, looking professional in her elegant, sharp dress suit, her haunted eyes and posture telling me that it was she alone. Ivy’s words lifted through me, and I hoped we weren’t making a mistake. Both Felix and Nina had failed by murdering that suspect, but that’s probably not how Nina saw it. Behind her was a slew of I.S. and FIB vehicles, officers yammering as last-minute details were hammered out. We were about a mile from the library, and it was still too close for me for the level of activity.
    “Mind if I ride with you?” she asked meekly, and Ivy pushed Glenn over to make room.
    Nina hesitated, looking for recrimination in everyone’s faces, and from the front of the car, Jenks shouted, “Get in, will you? Were you born in a stump? It’s cold out!”
    The light was eclipsed as Nina gracefully entered in a wash of nervous vampire and expensive perfume. My mood worsened as she shunned the space beside Ivy, sitting beside me instead. I found out why when Nina shivered, pulled herself straighter, and turned to beam toothily at me, Felix firmly in control once more.
    “Good afternoon,” she said, her voice smoother than before, and now holding the cloying richness of caramel. “What a wonderful day for a procurement.”
    My welcoming smile faded, and I said nothing, not happy with the man behind the woman. Slowly Nina’s smile vanished. Ivy wasn’t happy, either, and when the door shut, the car smoothly reentered traffic. The lights were off, and I inched away from her, trying not to look like I was.
    “Mmm, is that a schematic?” Nina extended her hand, and Ivy gave it to her. “This is a much better copy than we have,” the vampire admitted, spreading it open on her lap, her knees spaced apart far more than I’m sure Nina normally would allow.
    Glenn leaned back into the seat, clearly not liking her on the run, much less in the car with us, even if it was his idea. “It’s the original,” he said.
    “The detail is exquisite,” Nina breathed, her finger tracing the circular defenses. “We have nothing like this. You say it was in the FIB files? Ah, here’s the secondary entrance. That’s where I will be.”
    “I have a team there, but you’re welcome to observe,” Glenn said stiffly.
    Nina looked up from the map as we rocked to a halt at a stoplight. “Observe. Yes,” she said, smiling in a way that said she’d be doing a little more than that if he/she got her way. Glenn was frowning, but I thought it was a good place for an unreliable vampire. She’d be out of temptation’s path unless the excitement came to her, whereupon she’d be justified in letting loose and doing some damage to fleeing felons.
    Glenn stiffly took the map up and refolded it. “Your people have a net sink in place?”
    A shadow of annoyance crossed Nina as the map slipped from her, but she stifled it and smiled at the FIB detective. “It took me all morning, but