FOUR
Axel growled lightly as he carefully navigated the dirt road. He had checked the last place Damion would have hid – Nyte's home in the mountains of southern France. The only thing left for him was to navigate down the dirt road then hit the airport in Marseille for his flight to Toronto. It would be sunrise by the time he arrived and Nyte dead asleep, but at least she would have some back up. Another vampire in the city worried him. He had remembered what happened to Nyte last time she encountered another of her kind with a territorial streak. It was in Europe – Pest to be exact and he had gone back to Wyoming. They had fought and when she walked out, he had left for the states. The phone connection was terrible – Nyte was on a payphone, but the pain in her voice was heart wrenching. She had only been able to say a few words when the connection cut out. It was all Axel needed. He was out on the next flight and found her collapsed in her hotel room. It took her a few days to heal and Nyte never spoke about what happened. All he knew was that she encountered a vampire that was not thrilled that she was in his hunting grounds and she got the short end of it. He was not going to let that happen again. Besides he had one advantage the vampire did not – he had no problems with sunlight.
Nyte continued to look down at Henry Fitzroy with a bored look on her face.
"Not even going to beg for your life?" Henry growled. He will first try intimidation and if that failed, he was not above killing.
"Oh please don't kill me. Please spare my life," Nyte said in a voice that was decidedly not begging and quite patronizing. In fact, Nyte was completely relaxed as if being held by her throat was a common day occurrence. Disgusted, Henry let her go. Intimidation was not going to work.
Nyte may have been relaxed to the eye but her muscles were ready – waiting in anticipation for the moment, he relaxed his stance. She grabbed the sword she conveniently left there. Convenient her ass. Nyte had things planned, why else would she let the vampire into the room in the first place. Now Henry was at a disadvantage with the business end of a rather sharp cutlass pressing against the side of his throat. Nyte, too, was not above killing. "I don't want your territory. In fact, I'd rather not be in this city at all but someone I care about has disappeared and I'm starting to wonder if you had any part in it."
"No I did not. Could you…." Henry asked, eyeing her carefully. She was fast enough to get the drop on him, meaning she was fairly close in age. It would be a close fight if it came to that. He gestured to the sword at his throat.
"No I can't." Nyte pressed the sword closer, enough to cause a flutter of pain as it broke the skin. Just enough to remind him of his mortality. "Where is he?"
"I don't know."
Nyte considered things. The tone of his voice was honest. "Does your partner know what you are and what this case entails?"
"Yes. I trust Vicki. You hired her and she'll do her job."
Nyte considered things. Blood was so hard to get out of carpet. She slowly lowered the sword but did not fully relax her guard. "Alright. There's gonna only be one way to do this…..I don't hunt in the city, I'll go across the border if you like, and you don't kill me…or Damion when we finally find his ass."
Henry studied her face, searching for any signs of duplicity. "Agreed."