A Girl's Guide to Vampires

you bringing them together.'

'Romantic my Aunt Fanny,' I snapped, and would have said more but the woman waiting to have her runes read coughed politely. I apologized for the delay and gave her the 'think of a question' spiel, using her moment of indecision to whisper to Roxy.

'I'll need you to help me a little later Obviously, the Bobbsey Twins are going to make a stink if I try to talk to Milos by myself, so you'll have to help me get away from them.'

'Talk to him? Why do you want to talk to him? He's a killer! I have to say I'm with the guys on this, Joy. Let the police handle the situation. Let Raphael do it—if he's a spy, he'll know all about truth serums and stuff. Let Christian mind-meld with him, but there's no reason for you to talk to him by yourself.'

'Raphael doesn't see the truth, he's too stubborn. He needs my help whether or not he realizes it. Besides I won't be by myself,' I said, shaking the amethyst runes in the bag. 'I'll have you.'

There wasn't much she could say to that, not with me laying out the runes and telling the woman what they said, but she sure sent me a look that promised retribution at the earliest possible moment. I grinned back.

Sometimes silence truly is golden.

Chapter Nineteen

I read runes for another two hours, looking up periodically to find either Raphael or Christian watching me. I ignored both of them, as well as the two men Christian posted on either side of the aisle. There were just no words to adequately express my disgust with either overprotective, pigheaded, domineering man. Individually, I could have dealt with them; working together, they were almost impossible to conquer.

Almost.

'Are you done here?' Raphael asked as I was tucking away my stones.

I started to glare at him, then realized he was looking at me with a strange expression on his face. 'What is it? Is something wrong?'

He sighed and waited for me to finish putting things away, then took my hand and steered me toward the long lawn. 'Yes, something's wrong, something is very wrong, but unfortunately, I find myself in a position—'

I had a sudden premonition of what he was going to say.

'—of needing to ask you for help.'

'Yes,' I said immediately, squeezing his hand and all but jumping up and down with the warm glow of pleasure that filled me. He needed me! He wanted my help! He finally acknowledged the fact that I was the one who was put on this earth to aid him in his greatest hour of need.

'You don't even know what I want you to do,' he answered, pulling me to a halt behind the aura photography booth. His lovely eyes were grim.

'I don't care, I'll do it.'

'It's dangerous—' He ran a hand through his curls, then shook his head. 'Hell, what am I doing? It's too dangerous for you, I can't ask you to put yourself in that sort of a situation.'

'Yes, you can. Raphael, I trust you. I know you'll keep me safe no matter what I have to do.'

He stared at me for a moment, then took my face in his hands. 'Baby, I wish there were another way, but —'

'I'll do it, I'm happy to, honest.'

'There's no time to come up with another plan—'

'I'll do it, Raphael, I'll do it! Do you hear me? I'LL DO IT!'

'—and Bartos feels that you are the key… I know he's right, but still—'

'I'll make a very good key,' I promised. 'I'll be the best damned key there ever was. Let me help you, please!'

He looked me straight in the eyes, indecision mingling with regret and love in his face. He kissed me, hard and fast, his mouth gone before I could respond. 'I need you to help trap Tanya's murderer.'

My legs went a bit weak at his words. 'Anything, Bob, I'll do anything you need me to do. Um… this wouldn't involve guns, would it? Because I don't like guns, and I don't know how to shoot one.'

He turned us toward the long lawn, where the main stage was set up. 'No guns. You have to do everything I say, exactly as I tell you.'

I saluted him. 'Aye-aye, mon capitaine.'

'I'm serious, Joy. If you do anything, anything that I don't instruct you to do, I'll pull you out. Do you understand?'

'I'm your woman,' I reassured him. 'I won't even breathe without your express permission.'

He sighed again and nodded to Bartos as we passed him. 'I don't like it, but… hell. Paal and Christian's men will stay with you until it's time to bring you to the caves.'

Excitement rippled through me at the thought. Here I was, madly in love with a dashing spy and he needed my help to catch a killer. Could life get any better?

It could, as a matter of fact. Raphael stopped at one side of the stage, his thumb rubbing gently on my wrist. I smiled secretly to myself. Now he would tell me everything, now he would bare his soul and take me wholly and completely into his confidence, proving without a doubt that he trusted me with his life.

'Paal will bring you to me after the magic show,' Raphael said before turning to speak a few words with Henri. Then he left—he just left, walked off without even a glance back at me.

So much for trust.

By the time I stopped glaring at Raphael's disappearing figure, the crowd was gathering to sit on the ground before the stage. It was a low wooden structure about two feet off the ground, ringed with large black speakers used later by the bands, and backed by an area of draperies hung on a metal frame. Roxy had told me how much she enjoyed Dominic's magic act, saying it was surprisingly professional, much better than the phony vampire act he put on. Since I couldn't shake the two watchdogs who stuck to me like glue, and because I wanted to tell Roxy the latest news, I searched the crowd until I spotted her, following her to the spot near the stage she had staked out earlier.

I whispered the plan to her, then spent several long minutes rehashing my feelings for Raphael until Roxy finally had enough.

'Be quiet. Dominic is going to do this really cool disappearing trick. He goes into a glass box, it fills with smoke, and when it clears, he's gone. Then they do the smoke thing again, and voilà! He reappears. It's really great. I can't figure out how he does it, since the box is made of glass and they twirl it around on stage so you can see all the sides.'

'Hrmph.' I sat with my arms crossed and pouted slightly. I'd much rather talk about Raphael than watch some silly magic act.

'I wonder if he's going to do what he did last night?'

'What's that?' I asked, toying with the brooch Christian had lent me.

'Dominic went into the box, and Milos came out of it. I didn't know Milos was a magician, but he did some pretty amazing things after that. You should see what he does with three eggs—'

Onstage a couple of the fair workers wheeled out a large glass cube that rested on a dolly. Dominic did a little patter about the powers gained from his time studying the black arts.

I turned to Roxy, puzzled by what she said. 'What do you mean, Milos is a magician? He was on the stage with Dominic? That can't be! Raphael said Tanya was killed right before he found her—her body was still warm. I know, I touched her.'

'I don't follow you,' Roxy said, her attention still on Dominic as he explained the illusion to come.

'Try this: If Milos was on stage doing a magic trick, he couldn't have killed Tanya.'

Slowly her head turned to look at me. 'If he didn't, who did?'

A wave of gooseflesh ripped down my arms and back as I looked back at the stage. 'It couldn't be…'

'Oh my God,' she breathed, her eyes huge.

I watched as Dominic strutted across the stage, tall and elegant in stark black with a red ruffled shirt. He flashed his fangs, playing up his vampirism to the crowd. He was working them like a veteran of the stage, teasing