“Well, that’s unfortunate.”Nixon topped up his glass.“I could’ve done with some fun.”
“You aren’t worried about what will happen in two weeks?”
“You’ll say you’ve found me, probably shoot me, put me in the boot, and drive me back to Melbourne, where I’ll be dumped at your matriarch’s feet in a greatly weakened state.She’ll torture me to find out I don’t know where Zinnia is and then kill me.”He sipped his wine.“What’s there to worry about when I know what will happen?But you’ll get blooded, so one of us will get what they want.”
Put like that, it was rather brutal.Until then, Lance had envisioned that he was hunting down a killer, and while Nixon had killed, this man was not the cold-blooded monster he’d read about.
Nixon lifted his glass.“Youdowant to be blooded?”
“Yes.I’m tired of being seen as less than.”
Nixon gave him a sad smile.“If you are less than, you can do whatever you want.”
“Not all of us are disloyal to our family.”
“Disloyal?You have no idea.”Nixon put the glass down too hard, and the base cracked.“I gave up everything for my family.I did everything that was expected.”
“You abandoned your sister.”
His voice lowered and became deadly cold, and Lance glimpsed the steel in the man who had killed over two dozen Orlan vampires.“That was absolute loyalty.We knew it would be easier for your lot to find us if we stayed together.She had to order me away.Why bother with me?I can’t continue the line.”
They shouldn’t be drinking wine.They should be fighting to the death.Lance was sure he’d be dead if they were fighting.Nixon had the strength and speed of a blooded vampire.
“I don’t know.I was ordered to find you.Did you know you were being followed?”
“No, but I expected it.You did well.”
Lance’s lips turned up at the praise, and he returned the favor.“You didn’t make it easy.”
“What gave me away this time?”
“You got comfortable and started making ties.”
“I thought I’d lost you.”
“I backed off.”He’d slowed down because he’d started to have fun being on his own.He monitored Nixon, but in truth, he hadn’t tried to get close.When Nixon had passed through Perth, Lance had been forced to speak to the Reids and get the right permissions so they didn’t arrest him for being in their territory.That had slowed him down again—but by then, he’d no longer been chaffing to catch Nixon.
He’d been stunned to actually end up in the same town as him.
Now they were in the same room.He had kitchen knives within arm’s reach.Pots that could be swung as clubs.But he didn’t want to end this—or Nixon.
“Because?”Nixon studied him as though searching for lies.
“Protocol.”
Nixon drew in a breath and nodded.“Protocol.That’s rich.You do realize your family started the fight at the last peace talks?”
Lance frowned.He’d read Nixon had fired the first shot.“That’s not what I heard.”
“Truce and truth, Orlan.I’m not lying.”Nixon brought the glass to his lips and drank.Light danced off the fracture in the glass.
Lance swallowed and focused on pouring what was left of the bottle into his glass so he couldn’t look at Nixon’s mouth.He did not want to kiss him.“So what happens now?”
“What do you want to happen?”Nixon’s fangs were still down, and all Lance could think about was how they’d feel sinking into his neck or thigh.
He shivered, knowing he shouldn’t be thinking those thoughts at all.
Nixon smiled as if he knew exactly what Lance was thinking.His tongue flicked over the point of his fang as though he were thinking about biting him.There’d never been a report of Nixon tearing out throats.That wasn’t his thing.He killed efficiently—just doing a job, exactly as Nixon had said.He didn’t want to do it.He’d just been following orders.
