This Side of the Grave (Night Huntress, #5)(81)

“Hi, guys,” I said, giving both of them a hug to make up for my initial, selfish wish that they weren’t staying.

“I’m so sorry about your uncle,” Kira whispered, patting me when I let her go. “If there’s anything we can do . . .”

“Thanks,” I said, forcing a smile. “The flowers you sent were beautiful.” All the arrangements had been, but I’d had them sent to a local hospital after the memorial. None of the burly team members were keen on the idea of taking them home, and I didn’t have room for the dozens of floral sprays, bouquets, and wreaths.

“It was the least we could do,” Mencheres replied with his usual reserved courtesy. “I regret to impose on you at this time of sorrow. However—”

“It’s fine,” I interrupted with another mechanical smile. “I know the bad guys don’t call a time-out just because someone dies. I appreciate you handling things for the past few days, but it’s time for Bones and me to get back in the mix.”

I gestured for them to sit down, doing the polite hostess thing by asking if I could get them anything to drink. As Bones predicted, neither of them asked for an authentic version of a Bloody Mary, but just took water instead. That, at least, I had plenty of.

Mencheres waited until I was seated to dive into why they’d come. “I have found out what happened to Nadia Bissel,” he stated.

I just stared at him blankly. “Who?”

Bones also cocked his head in puzzlement. Glad I wasn’t the only one who felt lost.

“The human female you were seeking,” Mencheres amended. At my continued confused look, he sighed. “The one who worked with the reporter you are friends with and who disappeared while investigating rumors of vampires?”

“Oh!” I said, the light bulb finally going off in my memory. I’d forgotten all about sending Nadia’s picture and information to Mencheres so he could circulate it among his allies, looking for a clue as to what happened to her.

“She’s dead?” I asked in resignation. Poor Timmie. He’d held out such hope that she was okay.

“No,” Mencheres said, surprising me. “On the contrary, she’s quite well, according to what I discovered.”

“So why do you have that uh-oh tone to your voice?” I asked warily.

His lips curled. “My uh-oh tone is because you indicated your friend had more than a platonic interest in Nadia, and she is now the lover of a powerful vampire who has no intention of sharing her.”

“Oh,” I repeated, more thoughtfully this time. Then, “His willing lover?” Some vampires weren’t up on the whole “no means no” concept.

“Her willing lover,” Mencheres corrected.

Well. Timmie’s chances with Nadia just went from slim to never gonna happen. I was glad she was alive and not being held against her will. Considering I’d thought Mencheres had come to bear more grim news about Apollyon, this was almost cause for popping the champagne, if I’d had any. Timmie’s heart might be bruised, but there were far worse things that could have befallen Nadia. She’d gone looking for vampires and apparently found a whole lot more than just proof of their existence.

“Your sources are good? There’s no doubt Nadia’s with this vampire of her own free will and not just tranced into staying?”

“I know the vampire Nadia is with,” Mencheres stated. “It would be very unlike Debra to force a human into staying with her, even one who’d discovered our race. Debra could have easily sent Nadia away with no memory of her discovery.”

“Unless Nadia is like me,” Kira said, with a slight smile. “Erasing my memory didn’t work out so well for you when we met.”

Mencheres let out a growl so edged with passion that I had an urge to glance away. “It worked out extraordinarily well in the end,” he murmured to Kira.

Her soft laugh was also filled with things that were best left behind closed doors. Technically, they weren’t doing anything but sitting on the couch together, but with the newly charged air around them, I felt almost like a voyeur in my own home. I looked away to study my fingernails, as if struck by an urgent need to get a manicure.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Bones’s slight grin. He knew how this would affect me, but the sudden heat coming off the two of them did nothing to discomfit him, of course. Mencheres and Kira could start boinking like rabbits right in front of Bones, and he’d probably just warn them that the sectional they were on tended to flip over during such activity.

If Mencheres and Kira wanted to take this upstairs to a guest room, they were welcome to, but if they were staying down here, I was defusing the mood.

“Not nice for Nadia to disappear without telling her friends she was okay, though,” I said, clearing my throat.

Mencheres rescinded the energy he’d been emitting until the room felt back to a PG–13 level, instead of R heading into NC–17. “Debra is what you would refer to as old school,” he replied, pulling his gaze away from Kira to look at me. “She would not want Nadia contacting people from her former life, especially those who had an interest in exposing our race.”

Her former life. I almost let out a snort. That was the damn truth, because once a person became involved in the vampire world, nothing about their life would ever be the same again.