"No. Viktor Van Helsing is the Head of his House and the Head of his Family. Sorry, Pui," the man chuckled. I had come to the realization that no one introduced themselves around here.
"I am not a Cub. My name is Detective Sokol, and you will address as such." I was getting tired of all these men calling me Cub. I am not a fricking puppy.
"My apologies, it has been a long time since I have met a Pure-blood, and one that is so naïve to the world around her. My name is Lucas Vseslav and I am the Head of the House of Vseslav."
Ah, crap. Sitting across from me, in a casual outfit that he could have been playing football with his friends in, was a werewolf in human form. Apparently THE werewolf.
I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath.
"Excuse me one moment," I said to him as I stood up and left the room. I walked quickly to Mike's office and opened the door without knocking.
Startled, he looked up from his computer. "Nads, is everything ok?"
"You said that you had chocolate peanut butter ice cream and sprinkles somewhere in this precinct. I need it, now," I said.
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I walked back into the conference room, where I left a fricking werewolf, carrying a bowl of chocolate peanut butter ice cream with sprinkles on top.
"Alright," I said as I took my seat across the table. "Let's restart this whole conversation, shall we?" I continued, taking a spoonful of sanity, and waited for the next ball to drop.
"Did you seriously leave this room to get ice cream?" He asked incredulously. "Is there peanut butter in there?"
"Yes, I did. And yes, there is. Now, talk, and start from the beginning please, and thank you."
"You do know that I am the Head of my House and Head of my Family, right?" He asked, sniffing at my ice cream.
I moved it out of his reach and nodded. "Yup, you are the Head, Viktor is the Head, everyone is a Head. Now, what does all this have to do with my case? And I can only assume that you are talking about the Central Park case." Yup, I was nailing the mature career woman image.
"Yes. V called me and told me about what you said about the silver bullet and the throat being ripped out. I talked to those living in the city and they have all said that they know nothing about it. It is not werewolf related."
"Uh-huh," I nodded, taking another bite. "So the fact that the two victims were shot with a silver bullet at the time of death?"
"Nothing to do with my House," Lucas assured her.
"And the wolf hair found on the two victims' bodies?"
"Nothing to do with my House."
"Right. So where did the wolf hair come from? Any ideas?" I asked, not looking at the man.
"That seems like a you problem, not a me problem," he snipped back to me.
"Right, then why don't I just go grab THE Van Helsing and take him down to Central Park? Let's see if he agrees that it has nothing to do with your House."
I noticed that I was all out of ice cream, so, knowing that the conversation was over, I got up and left the conference room. He could see himself out.
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I looked at my phone and realized two very important things: number 1, I didn't have Viktor's number to be able to call him, and number 2, I never plugged in my phone.
Sighing, knowing that I was going to have to go to the Knight Securities building itself, I poked my head into Mike's office and let him know my location.
Without a working phone, this was the next best thing.
"Just a sec," he said as I was about to close the door behind me. "I'll go with you. You drive."
Well, this was not how I expected things to go.
---------
Once again, I stood in the lobby, this time with my boss, asking to see Viktor, without an appointment.
"I'm sorry, you need to make an appointment if you want to speak to our CEO," said the secretary. She was not the same one as yesterday, I missed her.
"I understand. Can you please call him and tell him that a Detective from the NY Homicide Unit is here to talk to him?" I asked in my politest voice. After all, my boss was standing right beside me.
"Yes, I understand that, but unfortunately policy states that no one can meet with the CEO unless they have an appointment."
Stupid policies.
"Is Hatmanu available? I was told that I could contact him with any questions," I said, improvising.
"He is not available right now, but I can contact Sasha, his replacement, if you would like," she said.
"That would be perfect."
She picked up the phone and dialed a number. After a few seconds, the call was picked up and a male voice came on the line.
"Yes?" He asked.
"Sorry to bother you, Sir, but I have two detectives here from the NY Homicide Unit and they would like to speak to the CEO,"
"Do they have an appointment?"
"No, Sir, they don't."
"You always follow protocol-"
Screw it, I did try to be nice.
"Spune-i lui Van Helsing să-și bage fundul aici jos acum sau vin eu. Trebuie să vorbim." I was cranky and made sure to say it loud enough that whoever was on the other side of the phone could hear me just fine.
The secretary and my boss looked at me in curiosity. It was very clear that they did not understand what I just said. The man, on the other hand…
"Did you really just threaten Mr. Singer?" He asked through the phone, shock and wonder in his voice.
"No, I just politely asked him to get his ass down here or I would go up. Now please, be a good Knight and pass on the message," I said, my voice dripping with honey.
"No need to pass on the message, Pui mea. Come on up. I'll leave a message at the front desk that you are allowed up any time." Viktor's voice could be heard loud and clear through the secretary's phone.
Ah, crap, he heard me. Was it too late to run?
Now that we had been granted permission, Mike and I took the elevator to the top floor and the man that just might take my head.
"I didn't know you could speak another language. Which one was that?" Asked Mike as he looked up at the floor numbers over top of the doors.
"It's Romanian, I haven't spoken it in years," I replied, staring at my shoes.
"But you remembered enough of it to tell off the CEO of one of the biggest weapons manufacturing companies in the world?"
I shrugged my shoulders, my head still down. "They also train bodyguards," was the only response I could think of.
"Right, bodyguards," Mike chuckled as the elevator reached its floor and with a ding, opened its doors.