past. The way things are now, no one dares.”
Cold, I tugged my robe closed. “You can feel strong without the vampire virus.”
“Yeah, right,” she said, and my expression froze at her flash of anger. “I like being a vampire. It’s losing my soul that scares me. If I knew I wouldn’t lose it when I die, I might try harder to…conform.” Her eyes met mine, my magic books stacked between us, all brought down this morning from the belfry. “You really think you can make me human?”
Jenks’s kids came rushing in with a burst of noise and silk, and I shrugged as he corralled them, pushing them out ahead of him as he went to see what had them in a tizzy. “I don’t know,” I said in the abruptly quiet kitchen. “Trent has a treatment. It only has an eleven percent success rate, and it only makes the virus and neurotoxins dormant. If you survived taking it, you’d still become an undead and lose your soul when you died. Rynn Cormel would say it was a failure.” I smiled thinly, thinking it sucked to be a vampire, even one as respected as Ivy. “It might make your life easier. Or it might kill you.” I wasn’t going to risk an 11 percent chance of success. Not with Ivy.
“Actually,” I said, hesitant to bring it up, “I was thinking along the lines of a curse that can turn you human.”
“Or witch?” Ivy said, surprising me. There was a soft vulnerability in her and I blinked.
“You don’t want to be a witch,” I said quickly.
“Why not? You are.”
Jenks came back in with one of his kids, her wings tangled up in what was probably spiderweb. “I think you should be a pixy,” he said, fingers sifting dust as they gently ran over Jrixibell’s wing to clean it. “You’d look so cute with your little wings and your sword. I’d let you fight in my garden anytime.”
A smile quirked her lips, then died. “A witch can’t be turned,” she said shortly.
“Neither can a Were,” said Jenks, smiling as he boosted his child into the air and the little girl zipped out, hurting my ears with her shout to wait for her.
Ivy was lost in thought, and I couldn’t help my smile as I thought of David. I think she was, too, when she turned to her computer, blushing. Cormel would freaking kill me if I turned Ivy into anything other than a vampire with an eternal soul. But seeing as I couldn’t be what I wanted, why not use my liability to give Ivy the chance to be what she wanted?
Feeling like something had been settled even though it hadn’t, I pushed myself up and went to the pantry. Everything that had been in our fridge was outside. “You want pancakes? I feel like cooking.”
“Sure.” Her fingers were clicking on the keys, but her eyes were on the three bottles of potion against the wall by the disillusion pot of salt water. “You got the book?” she asked.
I came out of the pantry with the box of mix. “Last night. I’m going out to try it tonight at Fountain Square. You want to come?”
“Will there be news vans and screaming?”
“Probably,” I said sourly.
“Count me in,” she said, and Jenks snorted from the sill where he was feeding his sea monkeys. The tiny tank of brine had taken the place of honor at the window ever since I’d moved Mr. Fish to the ever-after as my canary, to know if the ever-after was poisoning me.
Leaning against the counter, I read the back of the box. If we had eggs, they were frozen. “Actually, I’m going to rent a van and park it in the garage. Could you help keep people away?”
“If the van’s a rockin’, don’t come a knockin’!” Jenks said, gyrating beside me.
“God, Jenks,” I said. “We do have kids in the church.”
“How do you think they got here, baby?” he said, laughing.
I set the box down hard, and the mix puffed up into him. “Hey!” he shouted, dusting heavily as he shivered his wings and the mix made a cloud.
Ivy was smiling with closed lips. This was nice. We’d come a long way in a year-all of us. “After you whip that demon’s ass, I’ll take you and Pierce out for pizza,” she offered.
“Deal.” Bending, I got the frying pan out from under the counter and put it on the stove. My thoughts went to what spells I could make today to help ensure that Al wouldn’t get so pissed he took his mistake out on me. They’d be earth charms, so I wouldn’t have to tap a line, but that was where I excelled. Sleepy-time charms for sure.
Ivy stood in a fast motion, and Jenks and I jumped. Either she wasn’t hiding her vampire speed, or she was having trouble controlling it. Seeing Jenks’s and my alarm, her face scrunched in amusement. “Glenn’s car is at the end of the street,” she said, and Jenks rose higher, his expression one of disbelief. “I’m getting dressed.” Coffee in hand, she walked out.
“Tink’s little red thong,” Jenks blurted, following her. “You can hear that from here?”
“Today I can,” she said, her words fading as she went into her room.
I tightened the tie on my robe. Would I give up being that special in order to love someone, or would I just find someone new to love?
The creaking of the front door and the ensuing pixy uproar told me Jenks had let the FIB detective in, and I was smiling when the tall man entered, a paper grocery bag in his grip. Pixies wreathed him, noisy as they darted in and out of the bag while he set it on the counter. His eyes went to the empty space where the fridge had been, a question in his expression. “Where’s your fridge?”
“I blew it up,” I said, taking in his fading bruises and bare scalp, newly shaved to even out the mess the hospital had left. I didn’t think I’d ever seen him in jeans before, and a dark sweater showed from underneath a leather coat. “You look better,” I said as he eyed my robe.
“Uh, it’s three in the afternoon,” he said, suddenly unsure.
“It sure is.” I gave him a hug, truly glad to see him. “How are those locator amulets I gave your dad working? You want some coffee? Pancakes? I owe you for helping me get out of the hospital. Thanks for that.” I couldn’t stop smiling. I’d thought he was going to die or be hospitalized for months, and now he was standing in my kitchen with a bag of groceries and only the faintest hint of stress showing in his face.
Glenn’s gaze slid to the coffeepot, then back to the empty spot. “Uh, amulets are working, I guess, you’re welcome for the help breaking out, and no thanks on the coffee. I can’t stay. The department heard what happened last night with you and Ivy, and the guys wanted me to bring you both something. You’re not invincible, you know. There’s no big S on your chest.” He hesitated, brow furrowing as he leaned close enough that I could smell his aftershave. “How’s Ivy? I heard she was hit hard.”
“She bounced right back,” I said dryly, peeking into the bag with the pixies to find…Tomatoes? He bought tomatoes with the FIB’s gift fund? “Ah, she’s getting dressed,” I added, surprised. Where did Glenn get tomatoes?
“Damn, vampires heal fast,” he said, his dark eyes interested as he leaned to see into the bag while I poked around. “It took me five days. No wonder Denon wants to be one.”
“Yeah, well, we all make mistakes.” Three of Jenks’s kids rose up with a cherry tomato, arguing over who got the seeds. “Glenn, did you get all this by yourself?”
He grinned, rubbing a hand behind his neck. “Yeah. Too much?”
“Not if you’re going to have a family reunion,” I said, smiling so he’d know I was messing with him. “Damn, Mr. Man! I’m proud of you! You actually went in a store and everything?”
He came close to the bag, leaning to look in, his eagerness charming on a big black man. “You should have seen the looks I got,” he said as he reached in and the bag crackled. “Did you know there is more than one kind of tomato? This one is a beefsteak.” A huge tomato the size of my two fists hit the counter. “It’s good for slicing up on sandwiches. And the lady at the store said you can quarter them and grill them.”
“No kidding,” I said, hiding a grin as his dark fingers pulled out a bag of plum tomatoes.
“These long ones are Romas,” he said as he set them down. “You cut these up and put them in salads, on pizza, and in sauces. And the little ones here are cherry tomatoes. You can put them in salads or eat them like candy.”
I had never eaten a tomato “like candy,” but I ate one now, the acidic fruit not mixing at all well with the coffee. “Mmmm, good,” I said, and Jenks laughed, hovering at the lintel with the tomato his kids had swiped. Behind him, one of his daughters waited, wringing her hands.
“I’ve got three that were vine ripened,” Glenn said, showing me the top of his bruised and cut head as he looked for them. “Those babies were expensive, but they’re really red.”
