Page 28 of Smokescreen (Knight & Daywalker #1)

W e met with yet more potential renters, but every time they started talking about the company they worked for, I thought of Amelia and Arthur Agincourt, and how it’d be nice to have neighbors who were good company, rather than a corporate shop that went through employees faster than some people went through underwear.

Maybe the tea shop twins wouldn’t be living in their part of the building, but I did.

I relied on the people around the shop as my only regular company. It was why I considered Grady perhaps my only human friend, and that was why I would never accept a renter who took issue with him being out there.

Why it was important that I found the right people to rent the place rather than just the people who offered me the most money.

Dammit.

But that didn’t help me or them if I failed to pay the taxes and the building got seized. The state did that kind of thing, right? Maybe not right away, but eventually, for sure.

Maybe someone else would come along who had both the money for rent and also personalities I wanted to get to know better.

I could dream, at least.

Davin walked down to the bodega again to get some groceries to stock the office fridge, so I offered to head in the opposite direction and get burgers.

“The place has this jalapeno popper burger with creamy cheese and a sort of sweet and sour sauce. And jalapenos, obviously. You gotta try it. Oh, and the bacon chili cheese fries.”

He stared at me a moment, blinking. “Do they have anything that isn’t going to give you heartburn for the rest of your life?”

That only deserved a scoff, so I gave it to him. “What would be the point of that?”

He swiped a hand down his face and sighed at me, but oddly enough, he still didn’t seem frustrated. “Fine. Bacon chili cheese fries. But I’m Irish. We don’t eat everything coated with chilis. Past that, something less likely to make me cry than jalapenos, please.”

He turned and headed out, but I couldn’t resist calling after him, “But you like curry.”

I couldn’t really blame him for not acknowledging me. Meg’s curried crab soup wasn’t even the hot kind of spicy, and it was too delicious for anyone to say no to.

So I grabbed us burgers and fries and some sodas while he got the groceries, making sure to get something less sublime than my favorite for Davin, but which came recommended by the owner of the burger place.

We met back at the shop in in time to catch the last meat delivery of the day, three full chickens. The delivery guy raised a brow when he met us at the door with both our arms full of food. “You guys must be hungry.”

I shrugged and pointed to Twist. “Most of it’s for her.”

He laughed, because of course it had been a joke, and left the chicken on the desk next to her before heading back out to his truck.

Twist perked right up and started sniffing at them the moment he left, so I nodded to her. “Those are yours, Twist. Just don’t eat the plastic bags they’re in.”

She’d figured out the bag almost before I said it, and ripped the first one open, tearing off a chunk of lovely roasted chicken and chewing away.

Davin conceded that the food was indeed amazing, even if it was also greasy and unhealthy. I scoffed at that. “You’re dead, what do you care about healthy food?”

The expression on his face made me want to snatch the words back. He looked pained. Truly pained, like he didn’t want to be a vampire at all. Like the idea of being dead was terrible.

Given the sketchy information I had on him: vampire who tried to kill him, other vamps who bullied the shit out of him for defending himself...well, it was hard to blame him for not caring to be one of their number.

That also fit the way he called himself Daywalker.

Shit.

Why was I such a thoughtless asshole sometimes?

Desperately, I tried to think of a way to make it less dickish. “Do you, um, do you even get indigestion anymore?”

He rolled his eyes at me. “About as often as you do, I expect.”

Which was...not very often. One time I’d done one of those “Eat the extra giant pizza in half an hour and get it free” challenges, and I’d suffered for days.

I’d fucking done it, though. Giant free pizza for the win, even if it had been a painful win.

So I shrugged it off and went back to my burger, trying not to dwell on the awkward moment.

We were okay, probably.

We had to be. We were going to be business partners, and against my own will, I was starting to like the idea of having him around.

After eating, we cleaned up, and he helped me even though the majority of the mess was Twist’s, so I thought we were probably okay.

“All right, I better head out,” I told him, and he groaned.

“Seriously? You’re still going?”

“Of course I am.” Twist sauntered up to me and I tucked her into my inside pocket after I put the jacket on.

“It’s an opportunity to find out more about the murder, and that’s what I’m supposed to be doing right now.

You’ve been doing your part, making plans for Doc’s new security system. It’s my turn.”

He scowled at me, like there was something faulty in my logic, but I was pretty sure I was right. “We could stay and plan more about the doctor’s system,” he suggested, instead of arguing.

“Or we could just follow the plan you already have, since you’re all done.

I’ll call him later tonight and we can set up a time to install it.

” I waved him off, grabbing my keys and stuffing them into the right front pocket.

“Stop worrying. I’ve done worse things than meeting someone at an abandoned night club to discuss an investigation. Promise.”

He followed me out of the office as I went, but he didn’t seem especially appeased. “It astounds me you think that’s a good thing.”

Broken Dreams fit its name even better at night. Not that an abandoned night club was a lovely vacation spot in the daytime, but now that the sun was mostly down and the light waned, it was downright foreboding.

I stopped on my bike and just stood there for a while, considering. Maybe Davin had been right. Maybe meeting a possible vampire, possible murderer inside an abandoned building in a bad part of town wasn’t a great idea.

Hell, maybe investigating a murder wasn’t a good idea at all.

I was a private investigator, not a cop. I investigated cheating spouses and missing pets and paintings.

What did I know about murder? I didn’t even like that cows died to feed me, and I couldn’t have possibly killed them myself. I sure wasn’t an expert on killing sentient human beings.

Still, this meeting was the only lead I had.

I shook off my nerves and headed toward the back of the building.

That part looked exactly the same as before, which was...was that good? I didn’t know.

A few steps inside the building I stopped short when tiny claws bit into my chest. Twist was halfway out of her pocket, her eyes wide, the pupils so big I couldn’t have seen the blue around them even in full light.

She let out a low growl. “Interlopers, Father.”

“We’re supposed to be meeting someone here,” I whispered back, though it didn’t pass my notice that she had used the plural. More than one of them. That was less than great.

Still, I was on my guard thanks to her.

It was the only reason that when I heard a tiny noise behind me, I instantly dropped into a crouch.

That, in turn, was the only reason I didn’t take a baseball bat to the back of my head.

It whiffed over me, the silver of it gleaming in the low light as its wielder stepped out of the shadows and took another swing at me, this time straight down, like I was a piece of wood they were planning on chopping in half.

Twist straight up hissed, and used her back legs to launch herself out of my pocket.

This time, the distraction was what saved my life, oddly enough.

I lunged after her, falling on my face and immediately turning onto my back as I heard another noise.

When I rolled over, I found that a second person had joined the first. This one had a long, wicked-looking knife that appeared to be in just about the same place my ribs had been a moment before.

Worse, Twist had gotten away.

Well, no, Twist escaping would have been good. But I didn’t think Twist was actually trying to escape.

When a tiny growl came out of the shadows, that notion was confirmed.

The person with the baseball bat, a guy, snorted. “Get this. The little prince’s kitten thinks it can take us.”

The tiny growl continued as he spoke, but as it continued, it also deepened.

Strengthened.

Only instinct told me that the creature who stepped out of the shadows at my side was Twist, because my tiny two pound kitten was bigger than me.

She was...was she a panther? She looked like she weighed a couple hundred pounds easily, and she had fangs almost as big as her legs had been as a kitten.

She turned and looked at me with eyes that now literally glowed through the darkness. “Should we eat them?”

The guy’s voice had gone up an octave when he spoke again. “What the fuck is that?”

I grinned, and realized this was one of those few times in my life that my excellent memory was going to give me exactly what I needed.

I looked up at him. “Oh this? This is That Which Stalks the Darkest of Nights. Shatterer of Peace. Haunter of Nightmares. She Whose Name Shall Never Be Spoken.” I looked back up at her.

“You can feel free to eat them if you want. Just don’t let them give you indigestion. ”

She gave me a grin that showed all her teeth, probably modeled on the one I was giving her at that moment, then she turned and leaped at baseball bat guy.

I pushed up to my feet as fast as I could, because even if Twist was a badass, I wasn’t going to leave her to fight alone. Especially not when one of them had a knife. They might hurt her.