Wolf Ties (A Rue Darrow Novel Book 2) Read Free Page B

wasn’t particularly proud of, and I was sure there were many more in my future. My actions aside, I wondered what Silvano was involved in that the police couldn’t pin on him. Well, it was not my business, and I didn’t want to police nonhumans. Someone else could have the job, thank you very much.
    Violet led the way to her squad car, and I hesitated before climbing into the passenger side. Since becoming a vampire, I preferred my travel to be perpetuated with my own feet. Not that I feared cars now. They just felt so confining.
    Violet flipped the switch on the siren and peeled out into traffic. I winced and covered my ears, groaning, “Why?”
    “It’s less likely Silvano will hear us,” she said as she sped down the street.
    “I doubt he will care one way or another.” My head spun. The sound from inside the car was a million times worse than being outside it. How could she bear it? “As long as what you tell me has nothing to do with vampires or his business, Silvano will ignore what you say.”
    Violet flipped the siren off, and I collapsed against the back of the seat. The ringing in my ears subsided and with it the pain. I glanced at her and noted how she gripped the steering wheel and her tight mouth. I had the feeling it wasn’t the noise that bothered her.
    “Doesn’t the noise hurt you?” I asked.
    She glanced at me and then focused on the road again. “I’m used to it. Plus I wear ear plugs.”
    I peered into her ear and spotted the flesh colored bud. “All the time?”
    “On duty, yes.” She hesitated. “When I first started, it took everything in me not to howl.”
    I snorted, and she blushed. “Truly? Wait, that’s right. Dogs howl when they hear the fire truck sirens. I remember it from when I was a girl.”
    Violet sneered at me. “You speak like an older woman sometimes.”
    There was no love lost between us any more than her and Silvano. “I’m older than I look.”
    “No, you’re not. I can tell you’re new.”
    I shrugged. I had no need to tell her this body I was in wasn’t my original body. I might look twenty-eight and not yet a year old in vampire years, but I had been on the earth longer. Besides, my way of speaking was the product of being a southern girl from North Carolina, which I was proud of. I didn’t need to defend myself to this werewolf.
    Now I’m beginning to sound like Silvano.
    “Where’s your partner tonight, Violet?”
    She glared at me, probably recalling the last time I had seen the woman. At that time, Violet had allowed me to drink her partner’s blood to save me. She would have preferred to let me rot.
    “None of your business. Look, it doesn’t matter. There’s been a murder.”
    I stiffened. In that moment, the only reason I could think the police would seek me out to tell me about a murder was if they thought I was responsible. Violet showed no signs of arresting me. Then another thought occurred to me. She might have come to tell me someone I knew had been killed. If my blood were not already cold, it would have run that way now.
    “N-not Nathan?” I whispered.
    Violet eyed me in silence.
    “Tell me now,” I demanded.
    Her hands squeaked on the steering wheel. “Nathan isn’t dead, but he is in trouble.”
    “How so?”
    “Do you know Dalton?”
    “Yes, his roommate. I met him once or twice when I stopped by their apartment.” Dalton seemed to live for women, and even I being one of the undead wasn’t out of his scope. When Nathan introduced us, the werewolf had turned on the charm so strong, I found myself drowning in it. I supposed there were women who would melt if they were the focus of his attention. After all, Dalton was similar to Nathan, very tall, muscular, and having an inner beast under tight control added a sense of danger. Unlike Nathan, who was sweetly helpless to his darker nature, Dalton knew what he was and used it to full advantage. The result turned me off more than it attracted me, so I had rebuffed him to