“Our next plan of action is to look into the victim…” Vivian glanced down at a notepad on the table. “Chelsea Head. We’ll check out her home and try to retrace her steps over the last few days to see if we can discover how and where she came into contact with the Hurra demon.”
I leaned forward eagerly. I might not be the Council’s biggest fan, but this was definitely not an ordinary investigation. I was more than a little curious.
Vivian picked up on my interest, and she gave me a knowing smile. “If Raoul can spare you, you’re welcome to come with us.”
“Really?”
“You bagged the demon, so it’s only fair that you get to be on the job,” she said. “But we’ll take the lead.”
“Sure,” I agreed readily. “When do we start?”
Vivian laughed. “I’ve been traveling all night, so I’m going to freshen up and eat something first. We’ll head out at noon.”
“Are you staying here?” I asked her as we stood.
“If you have room. I normally stay at hotels, but I thought it would be better to be at the command center for this job.”
“We can sleep on couches if there are no available beds,” Aaron offered. I figured that in his job, he’d probably slept in a lot less comfortable places.
“We have one bedroom available,” Raoul said. “Vivian, you take that. Aaron and Eugene, we have couches or some army cots you can use.”
“I’ll show you where it is,” I told her.
We left the control room and walked to the main entryway to grab her bags. I grinned when I saw the large suitcase and a smaller carry-on. Unlike most warriors, Vivian Day apparently didn’t like to travel light. I might have found a kindred spirit in her.
I led her to the other end of the Spanish-style villa where the bedrooms were. One room was Raoul’s, and next to it was mine. I’d moved into Sara and Nikolas’s old room after they left because this place was a lot less crowded than the safe house.
Brock and Mason shared a room with twin beds since they were hardly ever here. Those two lived like college kids, and all they cared about, outside of being warriors, was surfing. If it had been safe to sleep on the beach, I think they would live there.
I showed Vivian to the room across from mine and left her to settle in. An hour later, I found her in the kitchen making a cup of tea.
“I always carry some Earl Grey with me,” she said as she added milk and sugar to the cup. “You never know if you’ll be able to find good tea.”
“I guess not.” I sat at the breakfast bar, resting my elbows on the granite counter. “So, you knew Nikolas when you were kids? What was he like back then?”
“I met him when we were sixteen, and we trained together. We were very competitive with each other, and I think that’s how we became such good friends.”
I tried to imagine Nikolas as a boy in training. “I wish I could have been there.”
Vivian smiled over the top of her cup. “I have a feeling you would have given us both a run for our money back then.” When I raised an eyebrow, she chuckled softly. “I read your file on the way here. You already have an impressive record for such a young warrior.”
I tried to hide my surprise. I didn’t like the idea of the Council having a file on me, but they probably had one on every warrior, even Nikolas.
“I started younger than most.” I grinned. “Thanks to Sara.”
“Nikolas’s mate? I’ve heard a lot about her, and I’m looking forward to meeting her.” She sipped her tea. “I work mostly overseas, and every time I plan to visit them, a new job comes up.”
“You’ll love Sara. I can honestly say there is no one like her.”
Vivian set her cup down on the counter. “I believe you. It would take a very special woman to claim Nikolas’s heart. Seems like only yesterday we were setting out into the world, and now he’s mated with a baby on the way.”
I made a face. “Having seen the way he is with Sara, I can’t wait to see how protective he’ll be over his daughter. If we could go gray, I think this would do it for him.”
Vivian burst out laughing. I wasn’t sure what it was about her, but I liked her. I could see how Nikolas had liked her, too. She had to be very good to work directly for the Council, but she wasn’t as serious as Aaron or Eugene.
“So, this is what you do, traveling all over the world to investigate for the Council?” I asked her. “Sounds like you’re not settling down anytime soon.”
“Lord, no.” She wore a look of mock horror. “Although, don’t say that to my mum. She wants grandchildren, but I’m perfectly content with my life.”
“Me, too,” I declared. “I have enough people trying to tell me what to do without adding some overbearing male to the mix.”
Vivian raised her cup to me in a toast. “Amen to that.”
* * *
“What was it like on your first official Council investigation?” Mason asked.
“First and only,” I corrected him. “And it was interesting.”
I took a bite of my hot dog and chewed slowly as I watched people walk by on the boardwalk in Venice Beach. It was good to be back on patrol after spending the last two days tagging along with Vivian’s team. I hadn’t lied when I said the work was interesting, but I much preferred to be in the action instead of observing.
I had to admit, the Council investigators were nothing if not thorough in their work. We’d started with Chelsea’s apartment in Burbank, which she had shared with her boyfriend of three years. He’d told us the night she died, she’d gone out with some girlfriends to celebrate a birthday. He was adamant she had never done drugs even though that was the official cause of death. The poor man was devastated, but there was nothing we could do to make it better. Neither the Council nor the human officials wanted the public to know a woman had died throwing up a parasitic demon. It would cause a panic, and that was something we didn’t need.
After going through her home, we’d checked out her workplace, a dental practice where she’d been a hygienist. That turned up nothing, as did the interviews with Chelsea’s friends who’d gone to the club with her. We’d gone through Chelsea’s neighborhood, visited her favorite coffee shop, and even scoured the little park where she walked her dog.
While the investigation had turned up nothing, Vivian and I had hit it off and she’d entertained me with stories about the jobs she’d done over the years. She led an exciting life, traveling all over the world, staying in five-star hotels, and driving fast cars. Not to mention the things she’d seen. The lifestyle held more than a little appeal for me, except for the part where she worked directly for the Council.
A phone rang nearby, and I peered past Mason at Brock as he answered the call.
“Yeah. We’re not too far from there. We’ll check it out,” he said to the caller before he hung up and looked at us. “Command picked up a nine-one-one call from a woman who claims a giant spider tried to eat her dog. The police aren’t taking her seriously, but Raoul wants us to have a look.”
“A giant spider?” It didn’t sound like any creature or demon normally found here, but anything was possible after the Hurra incident and the Geel appearance in Alaska.