“All right,” Adam said. “Both of you retreat to your corners so we can figure out what the hell’s going on.” He turned to Alexis, who stood by watching the scene with a disdainful scowl. “Will you help Mr. Malone out from his hiding place, please?”

I crossed my arms and slouched against the wall, shooting glares at Slade, who was returning them with a pretty intense glower of his own. Alexis ignored both of us and helped Tiny get unwedged from beneath the desk. A few grunts and curses later, Alexis yanked him up and pushed him toward the rumpled bed in the corner. On his way down, Tiny knocked over the cache of sex toys he kept within easy reach of his casting mattress.

“Now,” Adam said, his tone overly patient. “Let’s back up. Mr. Malone, we just have a few questions.”

Tiny flailed on his back like a disoriented beetle. When he finally managed to heft his upper body up, he was red-faced. “You motherfuckers! I ain’t telling you shit!”

Alexis lurched at him, a knife flashing in her hand with menace. “Stop!” Adam yelled, obviously annoyed. Turning toward Tiny, he softened his tone and said, “Mr. Malone, I must apologize for my colleagues. Things have gotten way out of hand. We just need a couple of things cleared up and then we’ll be out of your hair.”

“What’s in it for me?” the fat vampire said. His spit a wad of saliva on the toe of Adam’s boot.

At that point, Adam had reached the edge of his patience and diplomacy. He bent over and grabbed Tiny by the collar. “Listen to me, you fat fuck! We just killed all your men. Do you really think we’d hesitate to kill you, too?”

Tiny stuttered and a white globule of spit beaded on his lower lip. “What do you want?”

I stepped forward. Now that the first wave of adrenaline had worn off, I felt more steady. “For starters, where were you the night the mage was killed at Vein?”

Adam released the vampire but stayed close enough to loom over him. Slade remained where he was, looking like he was ready to shoot all of us for screwing up his chance to exonerate himself with the Despina.

Tiny’s beady little porcine eyes widened. “Is that what this is about? I didn’t have nothing to do with killing that mage.”

“He’s lying,” Slade said. “He might not have done the deed himself, but he orchestrated it.”

“No, I didn’t!” Tiny said. “I swear!”

“Cut the shit, Tiny,” I said. “We have a witness who claims you’ve been trying to undermine Slade’s position as leader of the Black Light District.”

Tiny ignored that statement and narrowed his eyes at me. “Wait a second. You look familiar. Who the hell are you?”

I crossed my arms. “I’m asking questions, not answering them. Now, do you deny you’ve been working against Slade?”

Tiny crossed his arms over his enormous belly and pursed his rubbery lips together like a recalcitrant toddler.

“All right, that’s it,” I said. “We’re not going to get anywhere like this. I think it’s time to unleash the Iron Maiden on you.”

Adam shot me a warning look. I shook my head to let him know I hadn’t changed my stance on torturing Tiny. But I’d never promised not to threaten him with torture.

Tiny forgot his silent act and stuttered, “W-what?”

Alexis came up next to me. With a quick, decisive slash downward, she embedded the knife in the mattress, right between Tiny’s fleshy thighs. He yelped and jerked backward, hitting his head against the wall. “You crazy bitch!”

“Start talking or next time I won’t miss on purpose,” she said, her tone ice cold.

“Okay, okay!” he yelled. “I admit I tried to get some vampires together to unseat The Shade.” He swallowed hard, making his Adam’s apple bob beneath his many chins.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because he’s gonna sell us out to the Despina!”

I glanced at Slade, whose face had gone hard. “What does he mean?”

Slade shook his head. “He’s delusional.”

“Ha! I know all about how that ugly Despina’s gonna come in here and start calling the shots. You ask me, once a Domina, always a Domina. The vampires of New York won’t take it, I tell ya. We all came here to escape those crazy bitches.”

“Watch your fucking mouth,” Alexis said, her voice low and deadly.

Tiny ignored her. “So yeah, I figured The Shade deserved to see what New York vamps do to traitors who sell us out.”

I stilled. “So you admit you were behind the murders?”

Tiny stilled, his face hot and red. “No! That’s not what I said.”

“You just admitted you had motive,” Adam pointed out.

“Motive isn’t the same as doin’ it.”

“Okay, for argument’s sake, let’s assume you’re telling the truth,” I began.

“I am telling the truth.” Tiny’s voice took on a hysterical note.

I nodded. “Yeah, yeah. You already said that. So if you didn’t do it, who did?”

He looked taken aback. “How the hell am I supposed to know?”

“Oh, come on, Tiny,” I said. “Do you really expect me to believe that the murders haven’t been a source of gossip among the vampire community? Surely you’ve heard something.”

Tiny pulled at his collar, like he could feel the noose tightening. “All I heard is some rumors. Not facts.”

“Enlighten us,” Slade said.

Tiny shifted his ass on the mattress. “Some vamps think the Despina’s behind them killings.”

Before any of us could react to that bombshell, Alexis lurched forward and slammed her knife into Tiny’s chest.

“Alexis! What the fuck!” I yelled, jumping forward to try to help Tiny. But it was too late. She’d struck so hard and fast that only the tip of the hilt showed from the wound. The instant the applewood handle pierced his skin, the forbidden fruit’s toxic juice robbed him of his immortality so the blade in his heart could do its job.

The problem with killing an obese vampire is that the results are always messy. All the blubber acts like an accelerant. Thus, two seconds after Tiny ignited, his body exploded.

My body flew back and slammed into the opposite wall. My head took the brunt of the impact, knocking my brain around in my skull. I woke up a few seconds later in a lump on the floor. The scent of Tiny’s charred flesh and burned silicone from the sex toys filled my nose. I groaned at the pain in my head and forced my eyes open.

As it turned out, I wasn’t the only one scattered to the wind by the explosion. Alexis sat on her ass, looking dazed and lightly flambéed. Slade lay a few feet away. His eyes were closed and black smudges covered his face. But he was a vampire. Barring decapitation or being impaled by an applewood stake, he’d live.

Adam, however, was not immortal, and his limp body was draped over the desk, moaning. I pulled myself off the floor with a groan and went to check on him. Rolling him over, I felt for broken bones and shrapnel wounds. His body flinched and one eye snapped open. “Please tell me that didn’t just happen.”

Relief that he was okay warred with anger in my gut. “I’m having some trouble believing it myself.” I helped him up and steadied him when he wobbled. We both turned to look at the smoldering mass that used to be Tiny Malone.

The bed was a swampy mess of blackened fluid, scorched bone, and glowing embers. The wall behind the bed had crumbled with the explosion. The resulting hole gave us a view of the blood room next door, where two frightened strippers huddled in the corner.

“Well,” Alexis said behind us. “That’s that, I guess.”

I turned slowly, feeling my temper rise like mercury in August. Alexis stood behind me with her hands on her hips, looking quite pleased with herself.

“Care to explain to me what you were thinking?” If Alexis had known me better, she would have recognized that my preternaturally calm tone was a warning. As it was, she felt no need to tread carefully.

“He was guilty. I killed him. End of story.” She ended in a careless shrug.

“End of story?” My tone was still deceptively quiet, but inside a tempest gathered strength in my stomach, waiting to be unleashed on the bitch. “Adam?”

“Yes?”

“Did you hear Tiny admit to killing a mage?”

“Nope.”

I raised an eyebrow at Alexis.

She responded by crossing her arms and jutting out a hip. “Please, we all know he was guilty.”

“Actually,” I said, my voice finally rising, “we did not fucking know he was guilty. Which is why we were interrogating him. So again, I ask, what the fuck were you thinking?”

“Sabina, your ego is showing,” she said.

I tilted my head. “Excuse me?”

“Oh, please,” she said, her tone defensive. “I just bet it chafes your ass that a younger, full-blooded vampire got the kill.”

Was this chick serious? I sighed the sigh of a woman who had outgrown such petty arguments. “I don’t give two shits about getting credit for the kill. My concern is that the kill shouldn’t have happened at all. Our job was to get either a confession or information that might lead to the real suspect. Now, thanks to you, we have neither. You were out of line and you know it.”

We stared each other down like two gunslingers at the O.K. Corral. After a moment, Slade groaned from his spot on the floor. “I’ll take care of it,” Adam said, sounding relieved to get away from the cone of tension surrounding Alexis and me.

After he’d walked away to help Slade, Alexis pursed her lips and shrugged. “We’ll just see what the Despina says about who was out of line.”

My lips tightened into a fake smile. “I’m fairly sure Orpheus will also have plenty to say.”

Instead of being intimidated, she smiled back, flashing some fang. Bitch.

15

Orpheus and Tanith received us at the Crossroads later that night. They’d moved their meetings out there to finalize details for the treaty signing, which was set to happen in one week. We walked into the Council chambers in the middle of a meeting. The entire Council, the Despina, and several other mages and vampires filled the room. And on the table in front of the mage and vampire leader, a speakerphone emitted the shrill voice of Her Benevolence, Queen Maeve of the Seelie Court.