Free Blood Hunt by Lucienne Diver

fire-breathing beasts—well, some of them anyway.
    â€œWe’re not talking about Detective Reyes.”
    â€œOh, right, because, well, murder.” Matricide. Patricide. Scrambled brains.
    I pulled Nick off toward the gate. It wasn’t very far from the house, but it was far enough that probably Viktor couldn’t overhear or oversee, and it put us between him and escape…not that I thought that was likely. “Show him,” I told Neith.
    She pulled out her phone again, pulled up the pictures and handed it to Nick. He took it, slid a finger over it every once and a while to scroll through or used two fingers to enlarge a section for better viewing. He didn’t turn green, but neither did he look ready to break for lunch.
    â€œI’ll need copies,” he said. “And details. Case files, if you have them.”
    â€œI’m not law enforcement,” she told him, going through the whole museum thing again, “but I’ll give you what I have. Maybe we can work together.”
    â€œAnd me,” I said, echoing her. “I’d like copies and…whatever.”
    â€œI told you to stay out of this,” she said. “It’s too dangerous.”
    â€œWhat about Nick? And Detective Reyes? It’s not dangerous for them? No, thank you. I have a client and a case, and you don’t have the authority to remove me.”
    Neith tore her gaze away from Nick and took a step toward me until we were chest to chest. All I could think was that Hermes would have paid money to see it. Hell, Hermes probably would have snapped his fingers to make it a cage match. Or, more likely, bikini wrestling or something equally ridiculous.
    â€œDo you want to test that theory?” she asked.
    â€œWhat, you’re going to beat me down to protect me? That makes a helluva lot of sense. And here I thought you were the mistress of strategy.”
    â€œIf by maiming I protect you from death…”
    â€œIt’s not your job to protect me.”
    We weren’t just chest to chest now. We were breathing each other’s air. And there wasn’t enough for the two of us.
    â€œLadies,” Nick said, voice tinged with amusement I kind of hated him for at that moment. “There will be no maiming.”
    When neither of us moved, he stepped up to us, shoved his hands between us and pried us apart like he was the jaws of life.
    I went only because it was pretty silly not to. Also, a uniformed officer jogged toward us, squinting into the bright sunshine after being inside the darker house. “Place is clear. Shower is still wet, like it was used recently, so there might be some trace there. Also, we found the packaging for prepaid phones.” He shot a glance toward Viktor. “Detective Reyes says I can escort him in to tell her what might be missing.”
    â€œThen by all means,” Nick said, nodding toward the house. “I’ll be right behind you.”
    He waited for the officer to escort Viktor and for them to disappear through the doorway.
    â€œYou will wait and give statements,” he said to us. Us …as if Neith and I had a common bond.
    â€œOf course,” I said.
    Neith didn’t say a word, but apparently Nick took it as agreement, because he also vanished into the house.
    She stared after him.
    â€œNo,” I said. “Just no.”
    Her head swiveled back toward me, eyes blazing.
    â€œYou dare ?” she asked.
    I’d thought Neith/Athena/Minerva and whoever else she might have been was supposed to be a virgin goddess. Chaste. Untouchable. Beyond such things as human entanglements. But if the way she looked at Nick was any indication…
    â€œHe’s been through enough,” I told her.
    â€œYou have history.” It was a statement, and she made it as though it tasted bitter on her tongue.
    â€œWe do. Not so long ago, he had third-degree burns over a good part of his body from taking on a fire-breathing