Gaslight (Crossbreed #4)(5)
Still. Just the fact he’d brought it up made me push away my untouched shot glass.
Niko extended his arms across the table, his hands cupped together. When his slender fingers drifted apart, he revealed a perfectly constructed origami swan. “We all start out as ugly ducklings.”
I touched the paper in amazement. “How do you do that if you’ve never seen a swan?”
He drew his arms back and laced his fingers together. “Someone left one of those on a table. I wasn’t sure what it was at first, but I memorized how to assemble it by taking it apart.”
“Good thing it wasn’t a penis.” When his cheeks flushed, I chortled. “Someone taught me that trick a long time ago, but he used a cloth napkin. Be careful what you fondle in a bar.”
Niko reached out to where I’d moved my shot glass and touched it with his fingertips. I’d grown used to his idiosyncrasies, the ways he learned his surroundings by sound, touch, and smell. I had no idea if every blind person lived that way, but it was undeniably Niko. I couldn’t imagine how difficult life must have been a thousand years ago for a visually impaired person in a time before braille, guide dogs, and paved sidewalks. He was fortunate to perceive energy around him, but inanimate objects were his biggest obstacle.
“Christian mentioned you were researching Vampire trafficking?” he asked.
“Sort of. Just a cold-case file that everyone’s ignored.” I leaned back and propped my foot on the chair beside me.
“You already witnessed firsthand how difficult it is to take on the black market. Our time is better spent on cases we can close. Trafficking is a complicated matter, and most of our leads hit a dead end. Why that and not another that doesn’t have so many obstacles?”
I answered with silence since Niko’s question was rhetorical. While he didn’t know all the sordid details of my past, he sensed it. Even if those victims thought they knew what they were getting into, seeing them auctioned to Vampires compelled me to take action. Humans were na?ve, and someone was taking advantage of that.
“Once you join this world, whether by choice or by force, you’re easy prey,” I explained. “I don’t think those victims going up for auction have any idea what they’re getting into. Someone’s deceiving them, and that’s worse than a kidnapping.” I leaned forward, lowering my voice. “We exist to make a difference. It’s not just about the money. Maybe I want to do something that matters.”
“And what we’ve already accomplished doesn’t matter?”
“No, I meant something that’s—”
“Personal,” he finished. “Maybe that wasn’t the word you were about to offer, but it’s certainly the correct one.” His almond-shaped eyes looked toward me, black lashes framing them. Niko had kind but dangerous eyes. They peered into your soul and saw things that the seeing world couldn’t. “Needn’t worry, Raven. There’s no right or wrong case. If you come up with enough evidence, you’ll have my support. I still have to abide by Viktor’s command, but I too have personal beliefs about slavery. The human world actually prevents us from being able to do more about it.”
Truer words were never spoken. It was hard disguising and protecting Breed jails, so we couldn’t keep expanding them. The comparisons between the two worlds were stark, especially as I’d lived in both. Breed didn’t have nearly enough law enforcement, and slander laws were a royal bitch to work around. On the flip side, the death penalty was carried out almost immediately, freeing up jail space.
I drummed my fingers on the table, a metal stud from my leather wrist cuff tapping against the wood.
Niko scooted over to the chair on my right, the katanas on his waist knocking against the floor. Sometimes he wore them holstered to his back and other times concealed at his waist. He rested his right arm on the table and leaned in close, ebony hair framing his face. “What troubles you? Between the jokes and laughter, I see dim shadows in your light.”
I swung my eyes up to the bar. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what had been bothering me lately. I had a kick-ass career, a shiny new Keystone tattoo, a roof over my head, and I’d finally buried the axe with my father. My dark mood had nothing to do with Christian traipsing off to Europe, but his absence had left me alone with my thoughts. Maybe that wasn’t always such a great place to be.
“Remember what I said before about the past not being done with you?” I asked. “It feels like there’s a hole somewhere in the floor, and I covered it with a carpet. But now I forgot where the hole is, and I’m afraid I’m going to fall in. Does that make sense?”
Niko smiled with his eyes. “That’s why we must tread carefully.”
I dropped my foot to the floor and sat up straight when I spotted a familiar face entering the room. “This night is about to get interesting.”
Gem had a jaunty swing in her step, thanks to her four-inch heels with a one-inch platform. Black ribbon crisscrossed over her foot and wrapped around her ankle. If there were any interested men in the room, they were noticing her legs and not her shoes. Gem was five four on a good day—and I was probably being generous with that estimation—but she knew how to make her legs appear longer than they actually were. For a date, I preferred jeans. Gem, on the other hand, went for romantic. Her elegant dress, embellished with tiny sequins, floated above the knees. An empire waist set off the grape-colored fabric, and the sequins sparkled like diamond dust.