Howell.”
Vlad stomped out of the room, muttering, “I hate living here,” under his breath.
Nina crossed her arms in front of her chest and smiled at me. “We’re good parents.”
I put the sweater Nina had tossed to me down on the couch. “Nina, when I went to UDA last night Mr. Sampson wasn’t there.”
Nina blinked and hopped off the table. “We’re going to be late.”
I grabbed Nina’s cold arm and pulled her to the couch. “You don’t get it. He escaped.”
“He didn’t escape. He’s a grown man, Sophie. He doesn’t have a curfew. And UDA’s a job, not a prison”— Nina held up a single finger—“although it can feel that way sometimes.” She craned her head over her shoulder. “Are you ready, Vladimir? Come on.” She went to the kitchen and rummaged through the refrigerator, pulling out a bottled Starbucks for me and a couple of blood bags for herself and Vlad. “Ooh,” she said before she punctured her bag, “Ooh, AB negative!”
Living with a vampire took a lot of getting used to.
Nina’s fingers hovered above the key rack. “Want me to drive? I can strand you after work so you can ride in the detective’s squad car of love.” She wiggled her butt and shimmied with her chest. “He can turn on his love siren and—”
I held up a silencing hand. “It ate my car.”
Nina’s cheeks went hollow as she sucked the last of the blood from her pouch. “Whoa. Sounds like we’re out of UDA and straight into
I gave her a look.
“I know,” she said, tossing her pouch in the trash, “more than meets the eye. Vlad, come on!”
Vlad stomped out of the room, looking more sullen than the usual brooding vampire. He had kept on his suit pants but changed into a fitted black T-shirt and lost the ascot.
“Better,” Nina said, examining him. “Almost.” She rolled up on her tiptoes and mussed his perfectly coifed and gelled back hair until it stood up around his crown in slick black spikes.
“Gosh,” Vlad said, ducking Nina’s hand, “Aunt Nina, stop!”
We were halfway down the hall when Nina leaned into me. “So, are you going to tell me what happened or not?”
I looked over my shoulder at Vlad, sullen, earbuds pressed in, black iPod peeking out of his pocket. “I don’t know—can he hear us?”
“Yes,” Vlad said.
I leaned closer to Nina, whispering. “I don’t know if it’s appropriate to talk about it in front of him. I wouldn’t want to scare him.”
Nina scrunched up her forehead. “Soph, he’s sixteen.”
“One hundred and twelve,” Vlad corrected.
“For a long time, he brought ugly death and carnal destruction to the entire eastern seaboard.”
My eyes widened. Nina held up her hands, placatingly. “But that was a super long time ago. He’s over that now, aren’t you, Vlad?”
Vlad simply shrugged and I quickened my pace.
I filled Nina and Vlad in on last night’s activities as we pulled into the police department parking lot. Nina’s brows were furrowed, and she was gnawing on her lower lip.
“But you’re okay though, right?” Her eyes were as wide as saucers, and there was a tiny bit of flush in her normally pale cheeks. “You didn’t actually get bitten or anything, did you?”
“Werewolves are always looking to increase their numbers,” Vlad said from the backseat, his eyes focused on his iPod.
I felt myself sink back into the passenger seat as Nina’s cold eyes slipped from my face to my collarbone.
“Or scratched?” She shook her head. “It doesn’t take much.”
“No, I didn’t get bitten or scratched, and I’m fine. You mean it doesn’t take much to be turned into a werewolf?” I frowned.
Nina pressed her lips together. “A bite, a scratch.”
Vlad leaned forward, his cold fingers brushing the back of my neck as he craned his into the front seat. “In the olden days it was drinking rainwater out of a wolf’s paw print.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Gross.” I leaned forward, out of Vlad’s reach. “And, Vlad, I’m trying to be a good hostess, but you’ve seriously upped the creep factor in here by like, a thousand.”
He grinned, pleased with himself.
I turned to Nina. “I’m not concerned about me turning into a werewolf. I’m really worried about Mr. Sampson. Did you guys hear anything at Dirt last night, anything about anyone going rogue or new blood in the city or anything?”
“No,” Nina said, her fingers trailing over the steering wheel. “As a matter of fact, Dirt was pretty quiet last night.” She looked at me sideways. “Do you really think Mr. Sampson could be in trouble?”
“I hope not,” I said, staring through the windshield.
The UDA was humming by the time we walked in. Lines were already starting to form, and the waiting room chairs were all filled. There was a wizard snapping the pages of a two-month-old
“Uh-oh,” I muttered to Nina, “this doesn’t look good.”
Nina just shrugged and pointed to the calendar pinned to one wall. “It’s the first of the month,” she said matter-of-factly. “It’s always crazy on the first.” Nina grabbed Vlad by the arm. “Come on. I’ll take you to the mailroom. You’re going to be working with a banshee named Ari. He’s super nice. Just don’t look him directly in the eye or show him his reflection. It sends him to a parallel dimension, and he gets so pissed when that happens. It also really messes up payroll. Let’s go.”
Nina skipped down the hall, dragging a very slow-moving Vlad sullenly behind her.
Lydia, a pixie from HR, looked up while handing out papers to a group of Kholog demons. She narrowed her eyes when she saw me, and instantly I heard her voice reverberating in my head.
“Thank God you are finally here,” she said. “This place is about to explode, and half the staff is MIA!”
I squeezed my eyes shut; no matter how long I’ve worked here, I never seemed to get comfortable with her telekinetics.
“What do you mean half the staff?” I said to Lydia after we’d gotten behind the counter.
She stamped the Khologs’ papers and slammed her window shut, her blond bangs falling into her eyes.
“Mr. Sampson is out today, and you guys are”—her violet eyes darted to the clock on her desk—“forty-five minutes late. Esme in receiving never showed.” Lydia drew her long, slender fingers to her temples and rubbed in little circles. “I swear, this place is a zoo.”
“Did Mr. Sampson
Lydia’s face went pinched, annoyed. I stepped back, remembering—you should never anger a pixie. “I’m just asking,” I said calmly, “for your sake.”
Lydia pinched her pink lips together and raised a questioning brow. “Wouldn’t you know? You’re his little pecksie.”
I turned on my heel and headed for Mr. Sampson’s office.
I was standing with my hands on hips, surveying the damage in Pete’s office when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I whirled, my stomach in my throat. “Oh,” I said, clutching my chest, “it’s just you.”
“And I’m thrilled to see you, too,” Parker said, his grin wry.
“I’m sorry. I was just hoping …” My eyes wandered back to the broken chains and I sighed, hugging my arms to my chest. “I guess I was kind of hoping last night didn’t happen. Or that Mr. Sampson would have come back by now.” My eyes raked over the damage, and I swallowed the lump in my throat. “It looks pretty bad in here.”
