He gave me his boyish grin as he glanced at the bedroom, then winked at me as he took my hand. "You ready to go?"

For a moment I wondered if he meant my bedroom, then realized he was teasing me. He released me to scoop up my jacket, then helped me into it before he grabbed my purse and handed it to me.

We held hands as we walked down the stairs. Mrs. Taylor's rat of a Chihuahua, Terror, yapped at us as we passed the open door of the apartment below mine.

Mrs. Taylor stood just inside her doorway. Her face was heavily lined and I was afraid if she ever tried to smile her face would crack.

I gave the grumpy-faced woman a smile. "Hi, Mrs. Taylor." She slid one hand into a pocket of the apron that she wore over her powder blue granny dress, jerked her head in a short acknowledgment, and then she shut the door of her apartment, blocking out the outside world from her and Terror.

After wading through the seven inches of newly fallen snow, Adam and I reached the street. By then we were laughing and Adam had a firm grip on my hand.

Chill air stung my nose and cheeks. I glanced at Adam. "A little different than Belize." He grinned. "We can always go back."

"Mmmm." I rested my head against his shoulder. "I'd love to. Next time we get a break, I say let's do it."

He squeezed me to him and I sighed, a feeling of happiness welling up inside me.

I took in the sparkle and glitter of the holidays in the city. "The decorations are beautiful." My words came out in frost-laced puffs of air. "There's nothing like this in Otherworld." Adam looked down at me. "You don't celebrate holidays where you come from?"

"No." I shook my head. "Some races of Fae in their parts of Otherworld might, but Elves don't.

Especially Dark Elves ... They've got that belowground thing going on."

"Hard to imagine that you come from anywhere other than here," he said and I met his gaze.

"You're a city girl through and through."

I grinned. "Even when my hair is blue?"

Adam laughed. "I guess then you belong to the night." He squeezed me tighter. "But no matter what time of day, you belong to me."

I sighed again.

"Ready for some hot chocolate?" he said and I nodded.

When we reached Broadway and neared the closest Starbucks, the strong smell of dark roast hit me even before the door to the coffee shop opened.

As usual, the place was jammed. Some human-looking paranorms, but mostly norms. "Excuse me," we said to at least fifteen people as we made our way to the end of the order line.

Still holding Adam's hand, I dodged one woman in time to slam into a man's chest. The man's body wasn't hard or soft, just in between, about average.

"Sorry," I said as Adam steadied me by my shoulders and I looked at the person I'd almost run down.

In a quick glance I saw that the male was balding, probably late forties, and someone needed to teach him how to dress. Plaid wool pants would get someone killed on the streets of this city.

But the moment I met the man's gaze I froze. He was staring back at me.

A horrible feeling, like worms wiggling across my flesh, caused goose bumps to rise on my arms.

My heart thudded against my ribs. I stumbled back and stepped on someone's foot.

Sounds of coffee cups hitting the table and floor, and liquid splashing. My chest hurt as I tried to breathe. I glanced behind me, unconcerned about the spilled coffee, and focused on finding a path through the crowd.

Immediately I looked back at the man.

He was gone.

As if I had imagined him.

The thump of my heart was strong when I held my free hand to my chest as I looked around to see if the man was still in the coffee shop. I'd had that creeped-out feeling before. And it had been recent.

"Watch where you're stepping," a man was saying behind me but I couldn't move.

"She doesn't even have the courtesy to apologize," a woman said.

I barely heard them over the rush of blood in my ears. When I shook my head it didn't clear away the web of my racing thoughts. Why those eyes had bothered me so much, I didn't know.

"Nyx." Adam's voice, close to my ear. "What's wrong?" My words stuck in my throat and my insides shuddered. "I think I just saw a Vampire."

FOUR.

Wednesday, December 22.

Trying my best to not think of Vampires, I unlocked the door to my and Olivia's PI office.

I brought my fingers to the collar that circled my neck. It couldn't have been a Vampire that I'd seen in Starbucks last night. I hadn't caught the familiar dirt and must smell that most Vampires have, and as far as I knew, they didn't drink lattes. Blood was their stimulant, not caffeine.

If not a Vampire, then what?

Adam had done his best to reassure me that the Vampire mess that had almost destroyed our city was history. Problem was that I was so sure I'd glimpsed Volod one night during our trip to Belize.

That glimpse was enough to keep me unsettled at the mere mention of the V-word.

Not going to think of Vampires, I told myself and gritted my teeth. After what Volod had done to me ...

Enough.

I shoved the door open. Fae bells tinkled above the glass that had our agency logo and our names in purple and sapphire-courtesy of a chocolate-loving Pixie named Nancy.

NYX CIAR.

Olivia DeSantos PARANORMAL CRIMES.

PRIVATE INVESTIGATORS.

By appointment only The office was empty of norms or paranorms when I walked in, save for Kali. She was perched beside the office inbox on the Dryad-wood credenza and her brilliant gold eyes studied me as she licked one paw.

"Good morning, Your Highness," I said to the blue Persian as I set down my purse beside the inbox and removed my black blazer. I wore a cobalt blue silk blouse with a mandarin collar, black slacks, and one of my favorite pairs of designer heels in cobalt blue.

I started to flip through the mail. "Anything interesting come in?" Kali said nothing. I didn't expect her to. Not that she talked, although sometimes I wondered if she could and I just didn't know. It wouldn't have surprised me if Rodan-my mentor and former lover-had gifted me with a magic cat.

Kali did manage to travel secretly from my upstairs apartment all the way to the ground-level PI office. I still hadn't figured out how in the Otherworlds she managed to do it, but I'd tried.

The cat gave me a haughty look before jumping off of the credenza and onto the tile floor with amazing feline grace. She turned her back on me and her tail twitched back and forth as she started toward the break room.

Uh-oh.

In order to save my panty drawer from her, I did my best to stay on Kali's good side. That cat had one bizarre panty fetish for shredding them. Trying to stay on her good side didn't help much, said my stack of Victoria's Secret receipts.

I'd made a mistake naming her after Shiva's fierce and destructive Hindu wife. Kali lived up to her name and then some.

With a sigh I went back to sorting through the mail. Paranorms, like norms, didn't communicate a whole lot via snail mail. In my office we normally received nothing more than the junk flyers our Werewolf mailman brought us.

Our main modes of communication were email, phone, and video conferencing. Sure, I came from the world of the Dark Elves, a world that remained in the Dark Ages, but in my office in Manhattan we were a little more high-tech.

Which wasn't much but it was better than parchment and a quill.

Boring. The flyers were specials on Were nail trimming and tooth sharpening, Shifter maid services, Faerie-made warding bells, Witch garden care, Fae grocers, Sorcerer litigation services-Goldbug & Oz ... The usual.

"Junk, junk, junk." I threw each flyer into the wastebasket that was parked next to the credenza.

I stopped when I reached a Nymph lingerie sale flyer, then decided to toss it, too.

Fae bells tinkled and I looked over my shoulder to see Olivia pushing open the door. She looked pissed, her brows angled inward and a scowl on her face, her dark eyes flashing.

"Um, hello?" I dropped the rest of the flyers into the wastebasket and straightened.

Olivia put her hand up in a "stop" motion, as if she was still an NYPD police officer directing traffic, before she was on the SWAT team. "Not in the mood, purple wonder." It was rare for Olivia to come in looking like she was going to take the Sig Sauer out of her side holster and start shooting first and asking questions later.

I leaned my hip against the credenza and folded my arms across my chest. "What happened?" Olivia shrugged out of the New York Mets jacket she wore during the cold months and tossed it onto her desk. The neon green sticky notes on her desktop fluttered and a large stack of case folders teetered, threatening to slide onto the floor.

She blew out a breath and faced me. "Got a freaking speeding ticket from that wiener of a cop, Freeman."

I winced. That was enough to ruin Olivia's mood for the day.

Then I noticed her T-shirt.

YOU'RE A REALLY GOOD FRIEND BUT IF THE ZOMBIES COME.

I'M TRIPPING YOU I didn't laugh. If it had said anything but Zombies-except maybe Vampires-I would have at least grinned. I didn't know why, but just the mere mention of Zombies made my insides feel like someone had gutted me with a Drow-forged blade and twisted the dagger just to hear me scream.

"That sucks." My words teetered on the verge of trembling as I grabbed my purse off of the credenza and headed toward my desk, my heels clicking on the ceramic tile. "Traffic school?"

"I already took a class after the last ticket Freeman gave me. This one will give me points." Olivia made a low sound in her throat. "Any other cop in this city would let me go-"

"And has," I put in as I rounded my desk, then slid into my leather office chair.

"-but not that jerk," she finished saying with an even darker expression. Somehow she still managed to look beautiful, even when ticked off.

If five-foot-two non-Twiggy-esque women with melon-sized breasts could be supermodels, Olivia would have knocked the modeling world on its collective butt. With her Kenyan and Puerto Rican ancestry, her flawless brown silk skin, rich dark hair, and beautiful dark brown eyes, she was gorgeous.

But Olivia had to be the most down-to-earth human I knew. Despite her hefty salary as a PI and Tracker, she stuck to driving an old GTO and shopped at Target and Wal-Mart for T-shirts with funny sayings, and blue jeans. She also had an extensive collection of colorful Keds sneakers.

"Ready to head off to Rita's for Christmas?" I asked as I placed my purse in a cubby beneath my desk out of Kali's reach.

"Sure." Olivia's purple Keds squeaked on the tile before she reached her own chair behind her desk and plopped into it. "I always look forward to large family events where my parents shout at each other over the dinner table and ultimately one of them ends up wearing the dessert." Maybe I hadn't chosen the best topic to take her mind off the speeding ticket. Olivia's parents had divorced after the last daughter, Katelyn, had graduated from high school. Frank, Olivia's wealthy plastic surgeon father, hadn't wanted to pay spousal maintenance to Jan, Olivia's successful lawyer mother.

It didn't matter to Frank that Jan had stayed at home to raise their six daughters and that she hadn't been able to start her own career until five years prior to the divorce. Frank had done his best in court to "color" the truth, but Jan had easily and rightfully been awarded a healthy monthly alimony check. Unfortunately the split wrecked their joint family events in a big way.

Time to put a different spin on the upcoming holiday. "You like spending time with your sisters." I turned on the large screen monitor on my desk. "It's not like you get to see all of them at once very often."

"Each time is more than enough to last for months on end." She braced her forearms on the note-laden top of her desk as she looked at me. "You have no idea what it's like to have five sisters, all of whom don't believe in letting the others get a word in edgewise." I did my best not to smile. I was sure Olivia did more than an adequate job at inserting her opinions. "You're right about the siblings," I said. "I don't have sisters so it'll be quiet as usual when I go see my father and mother for Christmas. Although I do seem to end up in arguments with Father over one thing or another." Like the fact that he hated me being in the Earth Otherworld and not the Drow Realm.

"Arguments?" Olivia blew out a huff of air. "Don't get me started on the last time my sisters and I got together."

No, I didn't want to get started on that topic. I really, really, really didn't, no matter how much I loved my friend and partner.

Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead or Alive" came from inside my purse and I gave a silent prayer of thanks for the interruption as I reached in to pull out my XPhone. I had a thing for eighties hair bands, especially Jon Bon Jovi. Be still my heart.

Said heart melted and forgot about Jon when I checked the caller identification screen and saw that it was Adam.

"Hey there," I said, a flush warming my cheeks as Olivia glanced at me. The tone of my voice had undoubtedly told her who was on the other end of the line and she loved to make cracks about my infatuation with the darling detective.

It was almost a relief to see her load up a rubber band with an eraser and aim it at me. Meant she was cooling off if she was going to start shooting me with erasers.

"Hi, Nyx." Adam's voice had a smile to it, but then I straightened in my chair as his tone went serious. "We have a mess here. You'll want to call Rodan and freeze the scene and you and Olivia need to see this."

The way Adam said it sent a chill through me. "Where?" Olivia frowned and put down the eraser and rubber band as she listened to my tone and watched my expression.

"West Seventy-third and Riverside Park, along Cherry Walk," he said, and I almost groaned.

A Demon had almost murdered me near that location and I would have died if another Demon hadn't saved my life. But that second Demon was another story altogether, one I still hadn't figured out and wasn't sure I wanted to. Torin, or T as I called him, might remain a mystery for the rest of my life.

I'd faced certain death more than I wanted to admit over the past few months. Demons, mad scientists bent on wiping out the Werewolf population, Vampires ...

"We'll be right there." I stood and snatched up my purse. "Calling Rodan on my way."

"Damn, Nyx." This time the note in Adam's voice was concerned, as if he had bad news to deliver. "I think we have a Vampire problem again." It felt like my stomach hit my shoes and I almost couldn't stand. "Be there in less than ten," I said, trying not to sound like I wanted to go anywhere than that park and whatever was waiting to greet me there.

"See you," he said and then he was gone.

Olivia was already putting on her jacket as I rounded my desk. I set down my purse long enough to slide into my blazer then press the speed dial number for Rodan. Olivia didn't ask me what was going on as we headed out the office door. She knew that she'd hear it while I told Rodan. Saved me from having to repeat it.