“How do you think we’re going to stop this, Dev?” I asked.
“Solve the mystery and fix what’s gone wrong.”
I exchanged a look with Edward, who without saying a word let me know that this was why Dev hadn’t been on his list of who to bring to Ireland.
It was Nathaniel who said, “Dev, honey, do you understand what fixing means for Anita and . . . Ted?”
“I’m not stupid, Nathaniel. I know. I didn’t say I wouldn’t do what’s necessary. I just said I’d rather not kill people. Why is that a bad thing?”
“Because it makes us all wonder if you’re a shooter,” Edward said.
“My scores are good at the range.”
Edward looked at me, as if to say, Explain it to him.
“You know that’s not what we mean when we say someone is a shooter, Dev.”
“I know what it means, Anita. I know you pride yourself on your kill count being higher than any other vampire hunter in the U.S.”
“I may have the highest legal count worldwide, not just in America.”
He frowned at me. “And that’s great, but even you prefer not to kill when you don’t have to, or did I miss something?”
“Would I prefer not to have to kill people while we’re in Ireland? Yes, but I’ll still do it.”
“And if you need me to pull the trigger, I will, but why did I lose guy points from everybody in this truck because I said I’d prefer not to?”
“It makes us wonder if you’ll hesitate when the time comes,” I said.
“I didn’t hesitate in Colorado,” he said.
“No, you didn’t.” In my head I added, That wasn’t the problem.
“Those were zombies,” Edward said. “It’s easier to kill them, because they look like corpses.”
“You’re saying that I’ll hesitate because the vampires look like people.”
“No, I’m saying that I’m concerned you might hesitate when I need you, or Anita needs you, or Nolan needs you.”
“And you’re more worried because I said I didn’t want to kill people if I didn’t have to?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t most people prefer not to kill other people?”
“Yes,” Edward said.
“So what did I say wrong?”
We all exchanged a look, and I mean all of us. Nathaniel understood something that Dev still didn’t seem to get, but then Nathaniel had picked up a gun and killed to save our lives before. The guard that had dropped the gun had been shot to death at our feet, but Nathaniel hadn’t frozen; he’d picked up the gun and used it. He’d never been one of the armed guards, but he’d proven everything he needed to prove to me that day. Dev still hadn’t. Though come to think of it, I wasn’t sure that Nathaniel would have been as cool under fire with the zombies in the hospital. It had been one of the worst things I’d had to do, and that was saying something. Maybe I wasn’t being fair to my golden tiger?
Dev looked at Jake sitting beside him, as if for help. “You must stop looking to me for help, Mephistopheles,” he said.
“Why would he look to you?” Nolan asked.
“I am older and more experienced,” Jake said, his face and voice utterly bland. He was smiling slightly, and I realized that his pleasant face, which was one of his versions of blank cop face, was very similar to Dev’s; was that where my golden tiger had learned it? I knew that Jake had helped raise and keep safe generations of golden tigers. He’d been one of the Harlequin who had hidden the entire clan bloodline from the Mother of All Darkness when she’d declared that it needed to be destroyed. Legend handed down for thousands of years said that the clan tigers were the key to defeating her, but in particular the gold tigers, because they were supposed to rule over all the rest. Jake and others had rescued a few gold tigers, and that was Dev’s family line.
“I thought Devereux was an athletic pretty boy who wouldn’t look up to anyone like that,” Nolan said.
“Why is being athletic and pretty bad?” Dev said.
“It’s not, if you have more going for you than just muscle and looks,” Nolan said.
“I don’t know if I have much more going for me than that.” It was a remarkably self-deprecating comment coming from someone who had been handsome, athletic, and charming all his life, as far as I knew. People like that don’t do self-deprecating very well.
“It’s too late to play humble, Devereux,” Nolan said.
“Am I playing?” Dev looked at him, and suddenly there was confusion on his face, and he looked younger, as young as he was, I guess, since he was still a few years under twenty-five. Nathaniel was only a little older, but he never seemed as young as Dev did from time to time.
“Every man I’ve ever met who was as big and handsome as you was anything but humble.”
Dev flashed him a smile. “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.”
“You’re too young to know that commercial,” Nolan said.
“There are whole websites dedicated to old commercials,” Dev said. “My first serious girlfriend showed it to me, because she agreed with you. She also didn’t like the fact that I got more attention than she did when we went out to the clubs.”
“Beautiful women are used to being the center of attention,” Kaazim said.
“A woman won’t date someone she thinks is prettier than she is,” Nolan said.