Romeo nodded and took a sip of beer before he cleared his throat. “That is really strange. You’re right.” Suddenly, he smiled widely and then began to chuckle, shaking his head.
“What’s so funny?” For a second, I thought my unicorn had lost his mind.
“Just when I think Prosper Woods can’t get any weirder, it does.”
I smiled. “Yeah, I have that same feeling. It is a strange place. Look, I’ve run into hundreds of ghosts over the years, but I’ve never seen a place like this. I mean we have a unicorn, werewolves, ghosts, a witch, a medium, evil vampires, and I’m guessing a lot of other kinds of shifters like your hedgehog sheriff’s deputy.”
“And a poodle. Don’t forget a poodle shifter,” Rome said.
My mouth dropped open. “You didn’t tell me about the poodle.”
Rome laughed. “I know. It just happened today.”
“What happened?” I asked.
Rome took another sip from his beer bottle. “My dispatcher, Precious, is a poodle shifter.”
I frowned, trying to remember if I’d met the poodle shifter. I couldn’t picture her. “Okay, tell me about Precious. I haven’t met her. Not that I know of anyway.”
“Like I said, she’s our dispatcher at the sheriff’s station. She’s about twenty or maybe a little older and dresses like a teenager.”
“So, she just told you she was a poodle shifter?” I asked, a little incredulous.
“Well, she dresses just like a poodle. Knowing this town, I wasn’t surprised. We were having a conversation about Mary, the hostess I met when I went to Todd’s Hash House one day. Mary is her girlfriend, and I saw them kissing…
“Anyway, when I asked her about whether she was Mary’s girlfriend, Precious said yes and then said something about the humans, so I picked up on the fact that she already knew I wasn’t fully human. After that, we had a really good laugh. I mean, in human form, she looks a lot like a very pampered poodle, collar, a pink pouf where she draws her curly white hair up on top of her head. There’s also something about how she walks, and then there’s the fact that she’s allergic to chocolate, so she never bakes with it, and…”
I held up my hand to stop him because I couldn’t stop laughing. I shook my head. “Prosper Woods is the weirdest town. You’re right.” I looked at his beer which was empty. “Are you done? You look dead on your feet, and I think you should sleep now.”
Romeo nodded. “Seriously, I want a shower, to make love to you, and then get some sleep.”
I rose, taking his plate to the kitchen and washing it, using vampire speed. I was back in front of him in the blink of an eye. I took his hand as he chuckled, muttering something about racy vampires and how ridiculous I was. I ignored him and led him down to my basement bedroom to put him to bed. He kissed me as soon as we were in the bedroom, but I shook my head as he started to undress me. I felt the tingle of my fangs, knowing I had to resist. Time to change the subject.
“No. Not now,” I said, putting him away from me. “You need that shower and sleep. There’s plenty of time for the rest later,” I told him. “You won’t be any good to me at all when you’re this tired. Look at you, Romeo. You’re dead on your feet.”
He chuckled, holding onto my waist. “So are you.”
I grinned. “Not like that. Now, get in the bathroom and take a shower. That’s an order, lawman.”
He laughed but let go of my waist, walked into the bathroom and shut the door. I quickly slipped out of my clothes, and then went about turning down the bed. By the time he was out of the shower, I was waiting, clean towel in hand. The bathroom door opened, and I kissed him lightly on the lips, loving the smell of my citrus body wash on him before deliberately walking past him and closing the door.
I stepped under the spray in the steam shower, taking my time to wash off. When I was finished, and I’d brushed my teeth and fangs, my raging libido was once again under control. I stepped out of the bathroom with the steam swirling out into the bedroom only to find my glorious man, stretched out in my bed fast asleep. I stared down at him for a few seconds and dropped the towel I was holding before slipping into bed and rolling against him. He sighed as I snuggled up behind him, spooning his warm body against me.
Within seconds, I was asleep, feeling safe and warm against the unicorn I was in love with.
Romeo
I woke to a cozy warmth pressed against my back and as my mind slowly cleared from its first fuzzy haze of early morning, I remembered where I was. It was dark but then again, it was always pitch black in Vincent’s secret underground bedroom. In my former life—the one I’d had before meeting my sexy vampire—I’d enjoyed waking to the sound of birds and sunlight streaming in through the blinds. It was such a little thing in the big scheme of everything and one I knew shouldn’t matter. There were so many more important things in life.
Since moving to this small town in the California redwoods, my life had turned upside down. Only a couple of days after arriving in town, I’d found out what my true nature was. Come hell or highwater, I was a unicorn. Sometimes when reality set in, I wanted to deny it,
