Blood Trail - By Tanya Huff Page 0,116

was a remarkable woman. An obnoxious, arrogant, opinionated woman much of the time, but still, remarkable. On the other hand, he thought as he closed his fist around the keys, Vicki had known Henry since Easter so maybe none of this was new to her. Who knew what the two of them had been involved with?

During the gratitude and the good-byes, Stuart approached, hand held out. "Thank you for your help."

The tone wasn't exactly gracious, but Celluci understood about pride. He smiled, careful to keep his teeth covered, and took the offered hand. "You're welcome."

The grip started firmly enough but soon progressed so that the veins in both forearms were standing out against the muscle and Celluci, in spite of being nearly ten inches taller and proportionally heavier, began to worry about his knuckles popping.

Nadine, having caught scent of the competition, nudged Vicki and they both turned to watch.

"Do they keep this up until one of them breaks a hand?" Vicki wondered dryly, squinting at the joined silhouette straining in the fan of light from the car.

"Hard to tell with males," Nadine told her in much the same tone. "Their bodies seem to be able to go on for hours once their brains have shut off."

Vicki nodded. "I've noticed that."

If the sudden release came with any visible signals passing between the two men, Vicki didn't see them. One moment they were locked in stylized hand-to-hand combat, the next they were clapping each other on the shoulders like the best of friends. She figured that the correct internal pressure had finally been reached, tripping a switch and allowing life to go on - but she wasn't going to ask because she really didn't want to know.

While Stuart demanded to know what his mate was laughing at, Celluci found himself unexpectedly preoccupied by a logistics problem; who was going to sit beside him in the front seat on the way home. It seemed a childish thing to worry about but although the seat should by rights go to Vicki - she was the taller and entitled to the greater leg room - he didn't want Henry Fitzroy sitting behind him in the dark for the three hour drive.

Vicki took the decision away from him. Running her fingers along the car until she found the rear door handle, she opened it, tossed her bag in and climbed in after it, carefully removing Shadow - who'd been trying to get a few more licks in - before she closed the door. She'd known Mike Celluci for eight years and she had a pretty good idea of what was going through his head concerning this. If he thought she was going to run interference between him and Henry, he could think again.

Henry kept his face expressionless as he slid into the front seat and buckled his seat belt.

Shadow chased the car to the end of the lane then sat by the mailbox barking until they were out of sight.

By the time they reached the 401, Celluci couldn't stand the silence a moment longer. "Well," he cleared his throat, "are all your cases that interesting?"

Vicki grinned. She knew he'd break first. "Not all of them," she said, "but then I have a pretty exclusive clientele."

"That's one word for it," Celluci grunted. "What's going to happen with Rose and Peter, did they say?"

"As soon as Peter's better, Stuart's sending him to stay with his family in Vermont. Rose is pretty broken up about it."

"At least he's alive to send away."

"True enough."

"Rose is probably going to spend the next week howling in her room while the three adult males make themselves scarce."

"Three males? You mean her father... "

"Apparently it's a pretty strong biological imperative."

"Yeah, but... "

"Don't get your shorts in a knot, Celluci, Nadine'll make sure nothing happens."

"Only the alpha female gets to breed," Henry said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah? Great." Celluci drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and shot a sideways glance at the other man. "I'm still not sure where you fit in."

Henry raised a red-gold brow. "Well, in this particular instance, I acted as intermediary. Usually though, I'm just a friend." And then, because he couldn't resist, he added, "Sometimes I help Vicki out with the night work."

"Yeah. I bet you do." The engine roared as Celluci gunned the car past a transport. "And you probably had more to do with that... that... thing, we ran into last spring than either of you are telling me."

"Perhaps."

"Perhaps nothing." Celluci ran one hand up through his hair. "Look, Vicki, you can get involved with as many ghoulies and ghosties and things that go bump in the night," he shot another look at Henry, "as you want. But from now on keep me out of it."

"No one invited you into it," Henry pointed out quietly before Vicki could respond.

"You should be damned glad I showed up!"

"Should we?"

"Yeah, you should."

"Perhaps you'd care to elaborate on that, Detective-Sergeant."

"Perhaps I would."

Vicki sighed, settled back, and closed her eyes. It was going to be a long ride home.