Not even she was entirely immune to it.
She'd been stunned to learn at her sister's wedding three years ago that Nick actually worked for the undead. Rumors on the street had always abounded on what Nick did for a living. Every native who haunted the Quarter knew the man had a ton of cash and no real job that anyone could discern. When he'd shown up as best man for Kyrian, she'd been completely shocked.
But since that night, she and Nick had forged an odd alliance as drinking buddies and partners-in-crime who lived to rankle the Dark-Hunters. It was really nice to have someone she could talk to who knew that the vampires were real and who understood the dangers she faced every night.
Tabitha sat down on the cobblestoned walk to wait on Nick. Valerius still wasn't moving. She cocked her head to study Kyrian's great Satan. According to her brother-in-law, Valerius and his Roman family had been the worst sort of bastards.
They had killed and raped any- and everything that came into their paths as they led bloody campaigns across the ancient world. She would have taken Kyrian's aspersions with more grains of salt if it wasn't for the fact that other Dark-Hunters concurred.
To her knowledge, no one liked Valerius.
No one.
But as she watched him breathing lightly, he didn't look so ominous.
Probably because he's practically dead.
Actually, he was all dead. But still breathing. The moonlight cast shadows over the handsome planes of his face and showed the tears in his clothing where he was bleeding. If he could bleed to death, she'd hold a compress to his chest wound, but since he couldn't she stayed put.
"How did you die?" she whispered. Kyrian didn't know, and in all her readings about ancient Rome and Greece, Valerius's name had seldom been mentioned. For all the brutality that Kyrian accused him of, Valerius Magnus wasn't much more than a footnote in history.
"Hey, Tab, you in here?"
She breathed a sigh of relief at the sound of Nick's deep Cajun drawl. Thank goodness he only lived three blocks away and knew how to hustle in a jam. "I'm over here."
Dressed in a pair of faded jeans and a short-sleeved blue shirt, Nick quickly joined her, then cursed the instant he saw who was lying on the ground.
"You've got to be kidding me," he snarled after she asked him to help her get Valerius up. "I wouldn't throw piss on that man if he were on fire."
"Nick!" Tabitha said, shocked at his rancor. Normally Nick was the most laid-back of men. "That was uncalled-for."
"Oh, yeah, right. I notice you didn't call Kyrian for this. Why is that, Tabitha? 'Cause he'd kill you both?"
She stamped down her own temper, which would only set his off more if she started telling him how juvenile he was behaving. "C'mon, Nick. Don't be like that. I don't want to help him, either, but Ash won't answer the phone and no one else seems to like him."
"Damn straight. Everyone, but you, has a brain. Let him rot on the street."
She stood up and faced him with her hands on her hips. "Fine. You explain to Ash why one of his Hunters was killed, then. You deal with his anger. I'm out of it."
Nick narrowed his eyes on her. "You really suck, Tabby. Why didn't you call Eric for this?"
"Because it's awkward to ask your ex-who is happily married to someone else-for favors, okay? I somehow thought my friend Nick wouldn't hassle me over this, but I can see now that I was wrong."
He gave an exaggerated wince at that. "I really hate this man, Tabitha. I've known Kyrian too long and owe him too much to render aid to the man whose grandfather crucified him."
"And we are not responsible for the actions of our family members, are we, Nick?"
His jaw ticced at that.
Nick's father had been a convicted murderer who had died in a prison riot. It was well known by everyone that the man was a repeat felon who had spent the whole of Nick's youth in and out of jail for all sorts of unsavory crimes. Nick himself had been well on his way to repeating his father's fate when Kyrian had stepped in and saved him.
"That's low, Tab, real low."
"But it's true. Now, please, forget that he's a dickhead and help me get him home, okay?"
Nick growled at her before he came near them. "Do you know where he lives?"
"No, do you?"