Bittersweet Blood by Nina Croft Page A

for sex. More’s the pity.”
    The elevator doors opened and she followed him out into the reception area.
    “Say, is that your friend?” Graham asked.
    Jamie loitered on the other side of the glass doors, looking out of place and uncomfortable. His eyes latched onto her like a lifeline, and she smiled.
    “Yes, that’s Jamie.”
    “He’s cute.”
    She ignored the comment. “Right, I’m off.”
    “Just a moment.” Graham led her across to the reception desk and reached over the counter. He pulled out the red file she’d left earlier. In that long ago time, when she hadn’t believed in reanimated corpses, vampires, or any of the other things that go bump in the night—or lurk in darkened alleys.
    He handed it to her. “You might want to read that now.”
    She slanted him a rueful smile. “I doubt it.” But she took the file and stuffed it in her bag.
    “And here’s my card. Just in case you feel the need to talk.” He nodded toward Jamie. “It’s best you don’t mention any of this to your friends.”
    “Who would believe me? Trust me—you don’t need worry about that.” But she took the card as well and slipped it inside the file in her bag. “At the moment, I don’t want to think about it, never mind talk about it.”
    He smiled. “Come on, you can introduce me to your friend.” He led the way out through the doors and came to a halt in front of Jamie.
    “Hi, I’m Graham.” He held out his hand. Jamie took it with obvious reluctance.
    “Jamie,” he muttered.
    Graham appeared amused, but he dropped the hand and turned to Tara. “Remember, call me if you need to talk.”
    She nodded.
    “What are you going to need to talk to that guy about?” Jamie asked as Graham went back inside the building and the doors shut behind him. He stayed on the other side of the doors and watched them.
    “Sorry?” she said to Jamie.
    “I asked, what are you going to talk to him about that you can’t say to me?”
    He sounded jealous, but Jamie had never come on to her like that.
    “Nothing. I don’t plan to go back. I’ve sacked Christian Roth from the case. I decided it was a waste of time. I’m going to do some research into the kidnappings and missing persons myself.”
    “So how come you were still at the offices?”
    “God! What is this, twenty questions? If you must know, I wasn’t. I’d left already. Luckily, Christian found me.”
    “Christian? Found you where? Where did you faint?”
    “In an alley,” she mumbled. “On the way back to the station.”
    “What the hell were you doing in an alley?”
    She heaved a huge, audible sigh. “Leave it will you, Jamie. I fainted but I’m okay, honest, just a little shocked. I’ll go to the doctors tomorrow,” she lied. “I’m probably anemic or something.”
    Jamie’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. Then he shrugged. “Let’s go get you something to eat.”
    “A steak,” she said. “I want a nice, big juicy steak.”
    “But you’re a vegetarian.”
    “Not any longer.”
    …
    Just how long was he supposed to give her, Christian wondered on waking the following evening.
    A month, a week, one night?
    One night sounded good. He was tempted to go and see her later that evening, but he’d promised to give her time. In most cases, he would have cleared her memory of the whole vampire thing before he sent her home last night. Piers had been pissed off that he hadn’t, but Tara was different. She had her own issues, all tied up with why a dead woman had been caring for her for the past twenty-two years.
    But those issues could wait. They weren’t likely to be pressing, whereas Gabriel dead and gangs of super-strong demons roaming the city were. His first priority was to kill the demons or send them back to the Abyss where they belonged. Then he’d be free to pursue his little human.
    How difficult could it be? He could sort out the demon problem tonight, and see Tara tomorrow.
    …
    The Order was housed in an office block, in the center of