Demon Moon

frightened a human. “Good. I could conduct an experiment and see if my blood will turn his brain to mush.”
    The gleam of humor in Colin’s gaze was the first she’d seen since they’d arrived at the club. “That is wonderfully unforgiving, sweet.” He flicked a dismissive glance at the waitress gathering Savi’s empty glass from the table, but his brows rose when it was replaced with a fresh drink. “Another?”
    Savi shrugged and looked toward the bar. Epona caught her eye. Her fangs protruded over her red lips; her attention shifted to Colin and she turned away, fidgeting with a tall bottle of tequila. “Raven’s not in her usual spot tonight. Perhaps Epona is volunteering. She seems kind of frustrated and hungry, doesn’t she? Maybe they had a fight.”
    “If I’m to teach you survival, sweet, the most important lesson might be this: Never come between two women.”
    “Is that why you told Darkwolf no?” She tried to imagine herself fighting Arwen and Gina, and almost choked on her drink.
    “No. He is not handsome enough.”
    She shook her head in disbelief. “What does that matter?”
    “You prefer a pretty face, Savi.” Colin rested his arm along the back of their sofa. Despite the casual pose, he radiated tension, his body rigid beneath his clothing.
    “He’s kind of hot. The shaved head, the tattoo.”
    “If your tastes ran to bald and brutish, I suppose he might be.”
    “My tastes generally don’t run to blond and British.”
    “I’ll not push you onto someone unsuitable just because they are available. And he did not want you; for that alone I should kill him.”
    “Will anyone be suitable?”
    Music pulsed into the silence between them. Colin stared at her, a muscle in his jaw flexing. “No.”
    “Maybe I should do this alone.” Her whisper was strained; any other vampire likely wouldn’t have heard her.
    “No. I have to know that you’ll be well.” He turned his face up to the ceiling before looking at her again. “I apologize, sweet. My jealousy is making this difficult. I did not want our time together to end this way.”
    “I know. I didn’t either.” She clasped his hand in hers. Tried to think of anything good . Her head buzzed, like a moth zapped in a buglight. “Do you know what I realized in the car? Tonight’s the full moon. Not a whole month, but we proved Dalkiel wrong.”
    Smiling slightly, Colin said, “Perhaps Dalkiel will abandon his plans, humiliated that it did not rise over our graves. Just a moment, sweet. I have to take this.”
    Not her head buzzing—his phone. Detective Taylor. She could hear the other woman as clearly as if she’d been holding the receiver to her ear.
    The detective interrupted Colin’s polite greeting. “I’ve got about thirty seconds. A uniformed officer found two dead-on-scene when responding to a DD. I just arrived here; two male vampires. No humans. A Navigator—yours—is parked out on the street. We weren’t able to open one of the closets, but Savi’s infrared detector tells me that a vampire is behind the door—either knocked out or tied, judging by the position. Female, by size.”
    Colin frowned and looked at Savi. She shook her head; she couldn’t understand it, either. A vampire might lock herself inside to avoid detection or capture, but it wouldn’t be unconscious—and why leave one tied, except to starve if no one could get through the spell to reach her?
    “What’s the location?”
    Taylor recited an address; Savi’s eyes widened.
    “That’s Raven and Epona’s apartment,” she said under her breath.
    “There’s more; the male vampires aren’t just dead, they’re torn apart.”
    Colin stood up, his gaze searching the dance floor, the upper levels. “Torn apart? Or decapitated?”
    “Ripped apart. Like those kids last year.”
    The nosferatu had slaughtered two of Dalkiel’s vampires? In revenge, out of hatred—or with Dalkiel’s consent?
    Colin signed an instruction to Fia. A moment later, she and Paul were herding Epona away from the bar.
    Two inches above the sofa, one foot in . Savi pressed the spring in the wall. So many drinks. And her partner not in her usual spot. A joke…congratulations…a taunt? A warning? Perhaps it would be nothing, a coincidence. Perhaps Raven had to work a different shift—
    Oh god . The weapons hold was empty.
    “Thank you, detective. I’ll ring Agent Milton; she’s out hunting it. With luck, it’ll have left a scent for the pup to