Wanted: Undead or Alive

“Can one of them postpone his tests for a week?” Phineas asked.

Toni shook her head. “Their final in Werewolf Studies requires them to shift, and the moon will be full three nights from now. I’d send Davy with you—he graduated last year—but with Phil gone, we need him here to administer the test.”

“Oh my gosh!” Vanda jumped to her feet. “Why didn’t I think of this before? There’s a perfect solution.” She gave Toni a pointed look. “Right down the hall in the teachers’ lounge.”

Toni sucked in a deep breath. “Of course!” She and Vanda smiled slowly and turned toward Phineas.

He stepped back. The glint in their eyes looked downright suspicious. Surely, they weren’t thinking—

“No one knows the territory better,” Toni said. “She grew up there.”

With a gulp, he stepped back again. Oh no. Hell no.

“And she could guard you during the day,” Vanda added.

“She’d probably kill me,” he grumbled.

Vanda exchanged another sly smile with Toni, then gave Phineas a wide-eyed innocent look. “You know of whom we speak?”

“You’re not setting me up with her,” he growled.

“It’s a job, not a date.” Vanda’s eyes twinkled with humor. “Unless you would like a date?”

“I’m not taking Big Bad Wolfie-Girl with me, and that’s final!”

Toni’s mouth twitched. “Big Bad Wolfie-Girl?”

“Sounds like a term of affection to me,” Vanda murmured.

“Are you crazy?” Phineas shouted. “Why would I have any affection for her when she hates me?” Why, indeed? He had to be crazy.

Toni stood. “We’ll just ask her about it.”

Phineas’s breath caught. “You don’t have to ask her. I know why she hates me. I’m a Vamp. She hates all Vamps—”

“Whoa, Phineas,” Toni interrupted him. “We’re just going to ask her if she’ll go to Wyoming with you.” She strode toward the door.

“But I told you I’m not taking her,” he insisted.

“Don’t be such a wuss,” Vanda fussed at him. “You’ll be fine with Brynley.” Her mouth twitched. “As long as you follow her Three-Step rule.”

He frowned. “What’s that?”

Toni snickered. “You’ll have to ask her. We’ll get her. She’s just down the hall.”

“We’ll be right back.” Vanda accompanied Toni into the hallway, and he heard their poorly concealed laughter.

His hands curled into fists. This was bad. He couldn’t share a cabin with Brynley Jones. It would be sheer torture. In many ways. She would torment and tease him. He would waffle between wanting to jab at her or jump her.

He couldn’t jump her. She was the daughter of the most powerful werewolf Pack Master in North America, a rancher with huge amounts of land, money, and influence. She was a freaking princess.

And he was a poor Vamp from the Bronx. If he laid a finger on her, she’d probably bite it off. Hell, she’d chew all ten of his digits down to mere stubs, and then her father would sic a pack of werewolves on him to rip apart the rest of this body.

Her dad was already pissed that his eldest son, Phil, had married vampire Vanda. Pissed enough that he’d disowned Phil and declared his second son the heir to his empire.

So as much as Phineas was tempted by Brynley, he didn’t dare pursue her. For her sake, as well as his own. She could end up disowned and rejected by her own people. She could lose her status as princess.

Jumping her was out of the question, so all that was left was jabbing at her to keep her at a distance. And since she always poked back, that had to mean she didn’t want anything to do with him. Why would she? She could have her pick of any werewolf in the world. Someday her prince would come. And he’d be a rich and hairy Alpha dude who howled at the moon and pissed on fire hydrants.

Phineas hated him already. He hated this whole situation. Tension coiled inside him, threatening to spring into full panic. He couldn’t allow Brynley to accompany him. He had to find someone else. Fast.

LaToya. She knew about Vamps and could guard him during the day. If he could explain how much he needed her help, she might agree to come with him. As a police officer, she understood the importance of catching bad guys.

Anger seethed inside him that he was forced to beg a favor from a woman who had rejected him. Damn. What a desperate fool he was. He’d do anything to avoid being with Brynley.

He pulled out his cell phone, then recalled LaToya’s threat to never answer a call from him. He grabbed the phone off Toni’s desk, so the call would come from the Dragon Nest Academy.

“Hello?”

“Hey, LaToya.” There was a pause, so he quickly told her what was going on before she could hang up. “So what do you say? You could have an all-expense-paid vacation in Wyoming while we hunt down a nasty vampire villain.”

“Phineas—”

“She has to be stopped, LaToya. She betrayed vampires in the worst way, and she’s killed mortals. The world would be a safer place if you help me bring her in.”

There was a pause, then LaToya finally spoke. “Can’t you find someone else? Why don’t Lara and her husband go with you?”

“Lara’s in Budapest. I told you, all the MacKay employees are across the world. There’s no one else available. I wouldn’t have called you if I wasn’t desperate.”

LaToya sighed. “I can’t take a week off work on such short notice. And frankly, I’m too busy chasing down live criminals to worry about the Undead ones.”

“She’s really bad—”

“I’m sure she is, but you need to find someone else to help you. Good luck.”

“Wait!” He stopped her from hanging up. “Look, I know you don’t like vampires, but—”

“It’s not that,” she interrupted. “I know Lara is happy with Jack, and I know she’ll eventually become a Vamp, too. It’s her life and her decision, so I’m trying to be understanding.”

“You mean you’re starting to accept Vamps?”

“I don’t want to lose Lara, so I’ve decided to accept Jack for her sake.”

Phineas bit back a sharp reply. Three years it had taken her to come this far? If she hadn’t been so damned slow, he might have had a chance with her.

“But I don’t want you to get the wrong idea,” LaToya continued. “Just because I’m making an exception for Jack, it doesn’t mean I’m accepting the rest of you guys.”

“Of course not,” he gritted out.

“I’m morally opposed to the whole vampire thing.”

“You don’t have to explain. I know why you rejected me.”

“I don’t think you understand,” she said quietly. “Even if you were mortal, I wouldn’t go out with you.”

“What?” All this time he’d thought it was his Undeadness that turned her off. It wasn’t personal, he’d told himself.

LaToya huffed. “The problem is you, Phineas. I just don’t like you.”

Chapter Five

“So who do you think is the father?” Sarah asked.

Brynley shrugged and stuffed a handful of popcorn into her mouth. She was in the teachers’ lounge at the Dragon Nest Academy with Sarah, a mortal who taught preschool and elementary grades; Teddy, another mortal who served as headmaster and taught math and science; and Marta, Vanda’s vampire sister who worked in the office.