That was the last sight I remember.
28
I can’t believe they let you out of the hospital to come to a wake.” Bruno shook his head and handed
me a frozen margarita. I licked some of the salt off the wide rim to blend with the sweet, powerful drink
as it slipped down my throat.
“Wel , I was nearly healed anyway, and they had to let me out tomorrow by court order. I have to
report to Birchwoods.” The authorities have no sense of humor. They tried to prove telepathic
manipulation in connection with my release prior to the bal game. On Roberto’s advice I agreed to take
a battery of tests, al of which I failed spectacularly. I’m not a telepath. I’m a siren. But they didn’t ask
that
“You should have appealed,” Emma added. “You know the law school faculty would have helped you
fight it. You’re admittedly a little nuts, but a
”
I shook my head and took another sip of drink before answering. “There were a lot of witnesses to
the Birchwoods incident. But they couldn’t push too hard. Not after somebody leaked it to the press.
Besides, there must have been twenty ordained priests, pastors, rabbis, and monks lined up to testify
at the hearing that I was fighting the demon, not helping him.” Stil , it was touch-and-go, and I’d been
forced into agreeing to an inpatient stay until the
Bruno nodded at Emma. “The Feds pushed to put her in a state facility.”
That made me spit out a harsh laugh. “Fat chance. I can afford Birchwoods. Sixty days, with day
passes for Vicki’s and Gibson’s funerals, and I get to stay in Vicki’s old room that looks out over the
ocean. I can do that.” I hadn’t asked for the view, Dr. Scott had insisted. Partial y because of my siren
blood, no doubt. But also I think as an apology. After al , he’s the one who’d pushed for Dr. Greene to
be my therapist.
They laughed just as another poor soul stepped up onstage to assault our ears with bad karaoke.
This time it was Alex, which made me smile. She began to sing “Wind Beneath My Wings” and the air
chil ed again and confetti began to spin and rain down on the hardwood floor. It was nice that Vicki had
decided to attend her own wake.
Her parents weren’t too happy with this particular aspect of her last wishes. I think they’d expected a
more somber affair, a tasteful memorial service that the press could attend, rather than a wild wake at
La Cocina y Cantina, with cheesy sombreros and pinatas for decorations. The pinatas were fil ed with
both confetti and little pouches of Pop Rocks—Vicki’s favorite guilty pleasure when she got drunk. The
place sounded like there were firecrackers going off after we broke open the first papier-mache burro,
and the cops had come in more than once, only to leave with annoyed shakes of their heads when they
saw the cause of the commotion. The police are my
risk because too many people felt I shouldn’t be committed. The judge was afraid someone would slip
me out of the country before the hearing. Since I report for my confinement tomorrow, the judge
insisted on guards at the door of the wake and Dr. Scott attending to be sure I wasn’t
anyone. He seemed to be having an okay time—if the pickup game of darts in the corner with El Jefe
was any indication.
“This was their song.” I said it to nobody in particular as Alex began to cry and raised one hand to
touch the cold breeze swirling around her head, stil singing into the mic while sobbing. Emma nodded
and smiled, too. Yeah, this party real y was what Vicki wanted and there was no denying that Jason and
Cassandra’s daughter was having the time of her undead existence. Everybody who’d ever known her
was there. I’d had to real y dig into online records to find everyone she’d listed on the back of the
napkin.
When the song was done, I looked up to see that Bruno was staring hard at something across the
room. I fol owed his gaze to see John Creede sitting on the other side of the bar, next to Cassandra.
They were real y glaring daggers at each other and I nudged Bruno to get his attention. But he was lost
in his own world, so I just shrugged and started to talk to Emma again. It was nice to be able to talk to
her.
I tried to touch on the subject delicately. “Have you heard from Kevin?”
Emma shook her head, her face both concerned and sad. “Not since he resigned from the university.
But”—she reached into her pocket and pul ed something out—“he left this on my desk. I completely
forgot to give it to you.”
It was a plain white envelope with my name printed on the front. I slit it open and looked inside. It held
a yel ow sticky note with two sentences written on it.
I passed it to Emma to see, because she was twitching so much to know what was going on that she
was about to climb over the table and grab the note anyway. She frowned, but then again, she didn’t
know about Jones’s offer. I was a little worried about the
target” on the list and he was giving me advance warning? Or was it a warm and fuzzy confirmation that
we’d see each other again?
“That’s like Kevin. He thinks he’s tel ing you the whole situation and it’s only in his head.” Emma
shrugged, so I did, too, and then she changed the subject. “So, Matty real y stood up for you in the
hearing? I thought he couldn’t stand you.”
I nodded. “You and me both. He might not
She raised her glass and clinked it with mine. “To respect.” I dipped my head in thanks and thought
about Matteo at the courthouse. He’d seemed genuinely pleased to see me when I showed up, which
surprised me. I doubt it made much impression on their mom, but she’s a tough nut to crack. The
hearts of her babies aren’t to be trifled with. Like I consider either of her boys a
As if on cue, Bruno touched my arm. “C’mon. We need to talk.” My brows rose at his very serious
expression. Unfor-tunately, there weren’t many places to go where we could be alone. After hurriedly
tel ing Emma to watch our drinks, I stumbled away with Bruno pul ing me forward by the elbow. We
wound up in the ladies’ room, because it was bigger than the men’s.
“So what was al that about? What do you and John Creede have against each other? You were
glaring at each other so hard, I was afraid I was going to have to stand between you like
