Chapter 86

Zuka, Ki, and Nick step back as I walk from the room. That deep bit of anger was now gone, replaced with emptiness. Nick grabs my hand and I look back at him. All of these powerful vampires behind me were sweating. Ki looked as nervous as the night I had nearly ended Beck and lost Jerry.

My eyes swivel up to Nick's and I see something I hadn't seen since before our wedding. Distrust. His hand gripped mine tightly, invoking pain in my brain that was fogged by the numbness as he says through gritted teeth, 'Ki, is there are room where Nina and I van speak privately?'

Ki seems to shake himself mentally, smiles and nods to the room two doors down from the holding cell Beck was in. Nick gives a curt nod and drags me to it. I could smell that rusty smell of anger on him and I could feel the tattoo on my back sting and burn, as if it is trying to pull away from me, escape.

Nick flings the door open and pulls me in. The room was dark until he flicks on the light and shuts the door behind him. We were in another interogation room, and the mirror showed my face. It was pale, exhausted... no haunted as I look at Nick's reflection. He was so much larger than I, a mountain in comparison to my small frame. His face was cabled with rage as he asks the haunted woman before him, 'What was that?!'

Without looking at him, but his reflection like a person opserving I murmur, 'An interrogation.'

'Not that Nina...'

It was then that I knew what he spoke of. I stare at his frame, as he turned away and paced a few steps, then turns, hand running through his hair as he says, 'It felt like our connection was completely severed. I couldn't sense you at all, what ypu were thinking, feeling, or...'

He steps before me as I continue to stare at his reflection. His face was pinched with worry and something I couldn't place. It was as if some truth was flickering just behind his eyes but I couldn't decipher it.

His touch pulled me from my observation of these two people back to myself and I look up at his face, as if seemingly for the first time. It was jarring as I see his pain and frustration in every calm feature of his face. Though I knew his pheremones were strong, they didn't effect me. It was a mix of spicy lust ans sorrowful rain, as he whispers, 'What aren't you telling me Nina?'

I didn't reply, but I knew there must have been a flicker of something in my eyes, as he continues, 'Something has happened since we arrived in Kotowa that you are hiding from me.'

Glancing back at the mirror, I see the determined stance of a powerful man as he continues, 'Nina, I married you to protect you, to keep you safe. Don't shut me out.'

I felt the brush of his fingers on my cheek as his palm craddled it. Sinking into its warmth, I look up at him. His eyes were pained and I knew that I should trust him. He hadn't done anything to display that he had done anything wrong. I loved him, even if he didn't remember me from the past. The fact that he had married me despite the backlash of his peers and the chance at continuing his lineage should be enough. So why wasn't it? Why was something inside me still pulling away?

Just as I open my my mouth to speak there is a knock on the door. Nick doesn't react, his eyes lasered on my mouth, waiting for words that would not come. The spell of telling him everything was broken as another knock sounded. Growling, he snaps, 'What?!'

Then he realizes that no one can hear us in this room and pulls away. With that pulling away it felt like a sudden crack had appeared in my perfect picture of this man as he flings the door open. Ki stood there and says, 'Lord Aname has requested your presence with reguards to security at tomorrow's party, as well as other matters of state.'

Nick growls, looks back at me and I can see the hurt on his face. Could he feel it too? This crack? But without another word he turns away and replies, 'Make sure my wife gets home safely.'

'Of course.'

With that Nick is gone and I feel the sense of loss. It wasn't a big shift, but one I fwlt nonetheless. Ki looks at me and says, 'Nina, you can come out now.'

Nodding I step out of the room just as Igor steps out of the room they had been watching when the interrogation had started. He looked undisturbed like the others as he looks over at me. Ki seemed nervous to be standing next to me as Igor comes up. He holds out my hat and says, 'Ki, I will take her home from here. Start researching Grey Talbot.'

Ki seemed greatful for the chance to eacape and disappears while Zuka watched with golden eye intensity.

Igor sweeps his hands to the hall and says, 'Come Lady Dracul.'

-D-

The air was cool but not cold as I walked along the marble streets. It was quiet, very few vampire littered the streets of Kotowa. I had expected hundred of thousands. Igor walks beside me, his cane clicking softly with each step. He didn't seemed irritated or uncomfortable with the silence and surprisingly I wasn't either.

It was as if he knew what I was going through. He was letting me compute things. Even when I suggested walking back to the Library. I had no intention of going home, of seeing the hurt in Nick's eyes. It was running away, and unfortunately I knew I was good at it. But there was so much nagging at me, pulling me to continue my research.

My eyes glance at Igor for just a moment. He was as calm and unaffected as he always was. The click of his cane reminded me I wasn't alone, but that I was alone with someone who bared no qualms in hurting me.

My mind played over Beck's responses to my questions. She knew the leader yet didn't know the true name of her superior. Was it a ploy? Yes. It was. I knew that from the moment she said it. It was a fake, a way to continue an investigation I had already solved.

'It seems you have much on your mind. Care to share?'

Blinking, I look up at Igor. His black eyes sucking me in, but I just shake my head as we start across a large bridge I had seen on the way to the library. As I do, I look out at the majestic cityscapes before me. This place was huge as I ask, 'The city is so quiet.'

'There are very few vampire left. Before this all came about, it would be filled during the summit meetings of the clan leaders. Now only a few remain to take refuge.'

'That is quite morbid.'

'But is truth personified.'

A small smile tugs at my mouth as I stop and look out, leaning on the rail. Then a question pops out of my mouth before I can stop it, 'What Beck said about the leader wanting to dominate is false.'

Igor, standing stiffly beside me, looking out at the world answers, 'I know.'

'How do you know?'

'Like all of us, we have tells. Hers are easy to read.'

'And mine?'

Slowly his eyes shift to me, before he replies, 'At times.'

I stare at him openly now. He was a surprisingly interesting specimen. My eyes take him in for a moment and his past, as well as his present. I murmur, 'You are on a tight leash, Night Hunter '

Now he fully turns to look at me, a breeze lifting his ponytail and me clasping my hat on my head as he says, 'The same applies to you Mrs. Dracul.'

I hated when he called me that, though I loved it when Nick said it. Igor almost seems to spit if out like poison. Letting out a huff of air, I ask, 'Is there anything new that's happened?'

'You.'

This makes me jerk and my eyes raise to his. They were cold as ever and I felt a sense of dread and self preservation blanket me. No pheremones or power flowed from his black hole in space. He simply stated before saying, 'You seem to be gaining control of whatever it is you displayed back in Mart. You have secrets that lend me to believe something that could be deadly for us all.'

'You've made it clear you don't trust me.'

'Trust is always finite.'

Just then a gust of wind blows past, ripping my hat from my head. I reach out for it and cry out, 'My hat!!!'

Then I hear something I didn't expect from this cold vampire, a chuckle and him murmuring wistfully, 'Ah the vanity of a hat.'

Something inside me clicks and my head swivels around with a snap as I stare, asking with a tremble in my voice, 'What did you say?'

Author's Notes: Thank you all for your patience. I have contemplated deeply how I feel this story should progress with six possible endings, thus the long wait between these past few chapters. These chapters are the turning point in the future telling and thus I wish it to be the best it possibly can be. Again... thank you for your patience and support.