“I need protection. Thanks to you, I ain’t got any right now,
Somehow, I couldn’t think of Frank and myself in those terms. I started to say so, but he interrupted. We were coming up on the drop-off point again.
“Look at it this way: who’s going to pay you to kill that Hellion if I don’t? You can settle your blood feud—and get paid for it. I can go back to sleeping at night. It’s what I call a mutually beneficial situation.”
“Mutually beneficial, huh?” He had a point, now that I thought about it. But then I thought of an entirely different point. Kane would
“All right, Frank. I’ll sign on as your protection until the Hellion is killed. You pay me five hundred a day, plus expenses.”
“Three hundred flat.”
“Three-fifty. And you provide meals on the job.”
He stuck out his hand. “Welcome to the team.”
I explained that Difethwr would attack only at night, and I needed to get some supplies before I started my first shift. We agreed that I’d meet him at his condo at seven and stand guard overnight. In the meantime, I’d grab some much-needed sleep. I climbed out of the limo, trying to look like I rode in a car like that every day, surreptitiously glancing around to see if anyone I knew was watching. No such luck.
Of course, now that I was on the team, I might catch a ride home this way every day. Me, on Frank Lucado’s team. God, what would Kane say?
15
WHEN I GOT OFF THE ELEVATOR, I COULD ALREADY HEAR Juliet’s TV blaring through the closed door of our apartment. I unlocked the door and walked inside—to see myself, in all my life-sized, blood-spattered glory, in a still photo behind an overdressed anchorwoman. The caption read “Boston shapeshifter saves human.” Lovely.
Juliet hadn’t gone to bed yet. She sat on the sofa, a bowl of popcorn in her lap.
“How bad is it?” I asked.
She glanced at me and smiled, showing her fangs. “We’re famous,” she said. “Top story on CNN; they’re showing the tape almost continuously. I look good, but you’re definitely the star. Look, it’s coming on again.” She nodded at the screen and tossed some popcorn in her mouth.
My God. The segment started with the humans stampeding out of Creature Comforts, then cut to me, blood all over my face, hands, and clothes, yelling “There’s no food here” at the vampires. Then the picture jumped inside the bar, showing the director screaming while the out-of-town vampire and the female zombie gnawed on various body parts. Kane was shouting and trying to drag the zombie away. There was a close-up of Juliet, watching with an amused half-smile and stirring her Bloody Mary, then I charged in like the cavalry to grab the vampire and detach him from the director’s neck. And that was it. That was America’s view of what had happened in Creature Comforts last night.
From there, the network cut to a talking head in a studio: a female professor of paranormal zoology at Boston University. Her commentary didn’t help much. She didn’t support outlawing PAs, but even as she spoke in favor of keeping PAs legal, she managed to convey the impression that we monsters were a bunch of wild animals. She was more interested in studying PAs than in learning to live with us—like Sheila Gravett and her biotech lab.
While the so-called expert was prattling away, CNN replayed the part of the tape that showed Kane pulling on the zombie’s ankles and me pinching the nape of the vampire’s neck. The director’s face contorted and his eyes squinched shut as he screamed. The images definitely didn’t convey an impression of “let’s all get along and live happily ever after.” The BU professor never even bothered to point out that the guy’s saviors—Kane and me—were every bit as paranormal as the creatures attacking him.
Watching the CNN coverage was like witnessing a car wreck. You didn’t want to see it, but you couldn’t look away. Kane was going to be livid.
The network cut to a story about some pop singer who’d been arrested for drunk driving, and Juliet hit the Mute button. “Has Kane called?” I asked.
Juliet selected a piece of popcorn from the bowl as she shook her head. “That cop did, though. The good- looking human one from the bar.”
“Daniel?” I felt a flutter in my stomach, then remembered the only thing I’d put in it since last night had been three shots of tequila. That would explain the fluttery feeling. Sure it would. “What did he say?”
“He wants you to call him. Something about witches—he didn’t say more than that. You know how cops are. Especially norm cops.” She held up a piece of popcorn, then stuck out her tongue and placed the piece on the tip. She curled her tongue around the kernel and drew it into her mouth. “Mmm.” Trust Juliet to turn eating popcorn into soft-core porn.
“Did you write down his message?”
Juliet waved vaguely in the direction of the phone. She crunched another piece of popcorn, then licked her fingers, one by one. “He likes you, you know.”
“I’m helping him with an investigation.”
“Hah, that’s amusing. I’m sure he’d enjoy investigating you.” She threw a piece of popcorn into the air and caught it between her teeth, then let it fall into her mouth.
“Don’t be ridiculous. And look, this is how you’re supposed to eat popcorn.” I grabbed a handful and shoved it into my mouth. I could feel my cheeks bulge like a chipmunk’s. When I swallowed, my stomach felt a little more normal. “Not everything has to be a sex act, you know.”
“Who’s acting?” Juliet’s leer showed her fangs in their full glory. “Stop changing the subject. That delicious- looking cop wants to get to know you better. Are you going to do anything about it?”
“I’m a witness in one of his cases—cops can’t fool around with their witnesses, you know. Plus, I’m already dating someone.” Although I wondered whether that would still be true after Kane found out that I was on assignment for Lucado.
“Dating? When’s the last time you and Kane had an actual date? You both work too hard. You see each other, what, maybe once every ten days? That’s three whole times a month.”
More like twice a month, unless he had to rescue me from the Goon Squad, but I wasn’t going to admit that. “Our work is important to us. That’s why we’re good together. Neither of us makes demands on the other.”
“You call that being
“Well, what do you call it?”
She shook her head. “When that oh-so-yummy cop looks at you, the whole room starts buzzing. You shouldn’t let that kind of attraction go to waste.”
“You’re telling me I should cheat on Kane?”
“You’re the one who insists that you two aren’t ‘going steady.’ ” Her voice took on a sarcastic tone as her bloodred nails wiggled quotation marks in the air.
“Yeah, but that’s only because we’re both too busy to date anyone else.”
Juliet sighed. “You’re impossible. If I had a good-looking norm panting over me like that . . .” She paused, licking her lips. “Well, I do, of course. Several of them. All I’m saying is that perhaps you should go for a little pleasure once in a while, instead of work and . . . and whatever it is you and Kane do.”
The Creature Comforts story was coming on again. I watched myself staring down the hungry vampires outside the bar. How many times could they show the damn thing? Wanting to think about something—anything— else, I asked, “Were there any other phone calls?”
“Only about a million. You’re in demand, Vicky. Every news station in town is begging for an interview. And that’s just the beginning. Have you ever wanted to be on
“Is that supposed to be a joke?”
She shook her head. “The phone wouldn’t stop ringing. I finally unplugged it and let voice mail take over. I changed the message, though.” Juliet loved changing the message for our voice mail, just like she loved turning on the TV. She changed it about three times a week. Now, she licked her lips and lowered her voice to a deep, husky tone that would’ve been perfect for phone sex. “Hello. You’ve reached the voice mail of Vicky and Juliet. Our
