been happening between us and you Skinners, Hope and Cobb decided to use the Shadow Spore to put everything into motion.”
“Who’s Cobb?” Rico asked. The Nymar that had been under his foot was coming around and glaring up at the Skinners. Rico wiped the snarl off the vampire’s face by stomping his head against the floor hard enough to put his lights out for a good long while. From there, he clamped a hand against Dave’s face and slammed him against the closest wall.
“I don’t mind doing the legwork for an important job, but I’m getting bored with slapping you fuckholes around,” he said. “It’s been a long night, so tell me the rest before I decide to spice this up by carving my name into your face. How are the Nymar coordinating these attacks?”
“There’sh a webshite,” Dave said, his lips crushed and pursed together by Rico’s hand. “It’sh run by Cov Thirtyeigsh.”
“What was that?” Cole asked. “Did you say a website?”
Once Rico gave his mouth a chance to move, Dave said, “Y-Yes. It’s a message board run by a guy named Cobb. Cobb38. That’s his screen name.”
“Who the fuck is that?” Rico snarled.
“I don’t know. All I know is a screen name.” Dave brightened as if he’d found his lifeline. “I can show you how to get to him. Just take me to—”
“You’re not going anywhere,” Rico snapped.
Cole dug the phone from his pocket and pulled up the Web browser. Between the hell his body had been through and the sense of panic that came from being wanted for killing several police officers, it was a true struggle to keep his hands steady. “Don’t give me any shit about needing to be on a certain computer. Just tell me how to find Cobb.”
“If I tell you … you’ll let me go?”
Rico raised his knife and showed the blade to Dave. “How about for every bit of good info you give us, I cut off one less piece from your bloodsucking carcass?”
Dave talked.
Maybe he thought he could walk away from Pinups.
Maybe he already knew he was never going to leave that utility room. The stench of dead Nymar was thick enough to clog Cole’s senses, and he was still nauseous from the stink of oily tendrils reaching up through his sinuses while hugging him from the inside out.
When Dave was finished talking about Cobb’s website, Rico held him in place and asked, “You got any more antidote, Cole?”
“No. Most of it’s in me.”
“Then finish him off the hard way.”
Cole knew it was useless to tell the big man to do the deed himself, and there was no reason to ask why the job had been given to him. Skinners did what needed to be done, no matter how dirty the job was. When he picked up his spear and drove it through Dave’s chest, he figured he was being taught that Paige had simply been doing her duty as well.
“Damn,” Rico said as Cole wiped off his spearhead on the clothes wrapped around Dave’s lifeless body. “That was cold.”
“Sorry. Did you intend on bringing him along so he could screw with us, or let him go so he could warn the others and tell Cobb to change everything on his entire network?”
“I just thought you’d need a little more convincing. Give Paige a call and see where she’s at with her cop buddy.”
Cole wasn’t certain that Rico even had a phone. They were pretty much standard issue for anyone in the modern world, but Rico wasn’t always modern. Rather than question the big man on his views of technology, he took out his own cell phone, hit Paige’s speed dial number, and tossed it to him while it rang.
Poking his nose into the hall, Cole found Tristan standing watch just outside the door. Several dancers hurried back and forth between the stage entrance and dressing rooms, but deferred to the Dryad’s Queen Bee status with a quick nod as they passed her by.
“Any more assholes out there?” he asked.
Without batting a perfectly formed eyelash, Tristan replied, “Just the regular ones. Are you boys through yet?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you leave a mess?”
“Nothing a broom, dustpan, and some trash bags can’t handle. We’ll take the unconscious one with us and dump him somewhere far from here. That is, unless you want us to make sure he doesn’t come back?”
Tristan considered the Skinner’s offer for all of two seconds before shaking her head. “No. They didn’t see me or my sisters here. No need for any more death tonight.”
“Whatever. Think we could get a ride to Denver?”
“I can arrange that.” Tristan moved even closer to Cole and placed a hand on his forearm. Since he was a human male and she was a member of a species that served as the template for the ultimate ethereal female, that simple touch was enough to separate him from the world as well as his reality. “Please tell me you’re done with this kind of bloodshed.”
“We’ve got what we need from the ones we already questioned. I don’t think any of us are in the mood to talk to another one.”
“Good. I need you to tell me one thing, Cole.”
“Name it,” he replied before he could think any better of the decision.
She smiled, deflecting the knee-jerk appeasement with grace. “I need you to tell me you’re innocent of what they’re accusing you of on TV.”
Even though Tristan didn’t make a threat or even hint at anything along those lines, Cole somehow felt that a lie would be detected instantly by those softly contoured ears or those deep, colorful eyes. Before his baser instincts dragged him any further down into that sweetly scented trap, he told her, “It was a setup. Those cops were set up as targets and we were set up to knock them down. If we didn’t do it, I’m guessing the Nymar would have made it look like we did and then fed the same shit to the press.”
After taking a moment to size him up the old-fashioned way, the Dryad nodded and said, “I believe you. What I said before about not using our bridges still goes. Until this legal mess gets straightened out, we’ll only be able to transport Skinners when it’s absolutely necessary. You and Paige are different, though. I owe you two more than I can repay, which means you can come and go through our temples as often as I can.”
“What about Prophet?”
Tristan smiled with so much warmth that it cheapened her previous attempts. “He’s a cutie,” she said. “He had plenty of chances to make things tough for me, but worked to smooth them out instead. He’s got a free pass too.” Placing her hand on Cole’s arm, she quickly added, “But don’t tell him I said that. Just tell him he can come and check with us if he needs to.”
“I’ll do that.”
“Should I get things set up for Denver? I’ll need to make a few calls but should be able to get you there.”
“Yeah, do that. I really appreciate it, Tristan.”
“I know you do. That’s why you still get the VIP treatment, and the rest of those cocky, stick-wielding jerks have to go to the back of the line.”
Watching a Dryad walk away was an event unto itself. No matter what was going on with the rest of the world, Cole felt his muscles loosen as his eyes followed the mesmerizing sway of her hips. Well, some of his muscles loosened. It was definitely easy to see how a shipload of sailors from centuries past could be drawn off course by catching sight of similar creatures frolicking topless in the waves.
“Paige already talked to Stanze,” Rico announced as he stomped down the hall from the opposite direction. “She’s meeting up with him now.” He slapped the phone against Cole’s chest and said, “Here. You call Prophet and I’ll tidy up the back room. I’ll convince that other one what a bad idea it would be to bring any of his buddies back here. There’s an art to these things,” he declared with a grin.
No matter how badly Rico obviously wanted to discuss his art, Cole wasn’t in the mood. He let the big man go and then dialed Prophet’s number. The bounty hunter answered on the third ring.
