Damon shot her a sardonic look. “Nice try, but I don’t have to prove anything to you.”
“Nick has great dexterity and flexibility along with super vamp speed,” Daniella proudly proclaimed. “I don’t know if you realize that vampires move really fast.”
“Damon demonstrated that earlier this afternoon when he tore through the place searching for the mysterious book of spells because he thought we had hidden it somewhere. Part of him still thinks that,” Zoe said.
“It’s his job to be suspicious,” Nick said.
“He’s particularly suspicious of witches,” Zoe said.
“Guilty as charged,” Damon said without any remorse.
“We don’t need them to play this game,” Daniella said. “We can do it ourselves. Come on. It will be fun.”
Zoe didn’t know about that, but she knew from the challenging look Damon gave her that she wasn’t going to back down the way he clearly expected her to. “We’ll use the three-minute rule,” she said. “The first one to touch the mat with anything other than your hands and feet within three minutes is out.”
Zoe deliberately let Daniella win by touching her elbow to the moon-shaped symbol within the first thirty seconds.
Daniella was thrilled with the win and challenged Nick to play with her.
“No fair using vamp speed,” Zoe warned Nick.
As she watched Daniella and Nick grappling and laughing, Zoe was struck by how much the two of them were in love. It was bittersweet to see because Zoe had thought she and Tristin were that much in love.
That memory stuck with her as she prepared for bed a few hours later. Gram had produced a screen behind which Zoe could change into red flannel pajamas while Damon stood by the door guarding her.
It had been one hell of a day. Nick was downstairs with Gram, which left Zoe with Damon.
“Hey, there,” Daniella announced as she walked in after knocking. “I thought you might like some company.”
“Don’t you want to stay with Nick?” Zoe asked.
Instead of answering, Daniella said, “I know how uncomfortable it can be to have a vampire hanging over you. Well, it’s uncomfortable if it’s a strange vampire. I like Nick hanging over me now, but I didn’t that first night. I don’t have to change clothes. I can sleep in these lounge pants and top.” Daniella hopped onto the bed and patted the space beside her. “Join me and we can play Angry Birds.” She waved her iPad, which Zoe hadn’t noticed before.
They’d barely played one game before Daniella fell asleep. Zoe gently removed the iPad from Daniella’s hand while Damon took a white afghan throw from the foot of the bed and tucked it around her. His actions surprised Zoe.
Seeing her look, Damon stepped back and softly said, “She has to get up before dawn to make cupcakes.”
Zoe nodded. She felt too vulnerable getting horizontal with Damon so close by, so she propped a pillow behind her and rested against the headboard in a sitting position.
“You should sleep, too,” Damon told her.
“I’m just going to rest my eyes for a minute,” Zoe said.
“You do that.”
The next time she opened her eyes, pale sunlight filled the room and Daniella was gone. Damon was not. He was sprawled in a chair he’d brought in from her workroom, his intense gaze on her. She felt as if he were touching her with his eyes, which should have been creepy but was instead hotly arousing. Had he slipped her a vampire roofie or something?
“What did you do?” she asked suspiciously.
“Nothing,” Damon said. “You fell sound asleep while you rested your eyes.”
“He’s right,” Bella said from the foot of the bed, where she was curled up on the white afghan Damon had used to cover Daniella.
Zoe rubbed the crick in her neck before checking her watch. “The cable guy is scheduled to come this morning between seven and ten.”
She got out of bed and headed for the attached bathroom before remembering the all-seeing surveillance cameras. “I am not taking a shower with a camera on me.”
Damon typed some text into his smartphone. “You have ten minutes before the camera goes on again. And if you pull anything, your grandmother will pay the consequences.”
She paused for a second by the closet to grab clean clothes and underwear before racing to the bathroom and locking the door. She used her own brand of Sunshine soap, one of her favorite citrus blends, in the shower. The combination of orange, lemon, and pineapple along with touches of other fruits and spices made her feel energetic and ready to face the day most of the time. Knowing there was a sexy vampire right outside her bathroom door timing her before turning on the cameras might be more than even the Sunshine soap could handle, however.
She made it out with five seconds to spare. The stress of trying to hurry had her heart racing. She was wearing black yoga pants despite the fact that she was a yoga class dropout. Her V-neck knit top was a powerful red. Not trendy coral or dainty pink. No, this was kick-ass red and matched the polish on her toenails. Her fingernails were bare because she hadn’t had time to paint them yet—she had been too busy dealing with vampires and demons to do that. She reached for her good-luck cameo bangle from the nightstand drawer and slipped it on before touching her neck to make sure the necklace she always wore was still there. The slim chain was the only visible part; she kept the rest hidden beneath her top.
Damon watched her, tilting his head as if he could hear her pulse.
Ignoring him, she marched downstairs and poured some Frosted Mini-Wheats and skim milk into a bowl for breakfast.
Nick and Damon consulted each other and their smartphones while Zoe ate. Gram didn’t like getting up before noon.
“I’m leaving you in charge,” Nick told Damon. “I need to get back to the bar. Be safe.”
“I won’t hurt him,” Zoe said between bites of cereal.
“Very funny,” Damon said before returning his attention to his smartphone.
He ignored her after that as she waited for the cable guy to show up. She spent the time making notes about possible new combinations for her soap line. Mint and lavender was a possibility. She didn’t return to her workroom but stayed in the living room. She didn’t want Damon messing around in her work space. Not because she had something to hide but because that was her sanctuary.
Eight o’clock came and went. So did nine and ten. Finally at ten thirty there was a knock at the door. “Who is it?” she called out.
“The cable guy” was the muffled reply.
She hurried to open the door only to have Damon leap forward and jam a dagger into the man’s throat.
“You just killed the cable guy!” Zoe shrieked.
Damon was unremorseful. “He was evil.”
“He was only half an hour late,” she whispered. “That doesn’t mean he was evil.”
“True, but
Zoe tried to stay calm while inside she was shaking like a puppy in a thunderstorm. “I didn’t know they could do that.”
“There’s a lot you don’t know.”
Obviously. Just for clarification, she had to ask, “This doesn’t mean all cable guys are demons though,
