The Good, The Bad, And The Undead

Ivy cleared her throat, jerking my attention away from his quick, dark eyes. Somehow the sight of his teeth hadn't instilled my usual knee-jerk alarm. 'Piscary,' Ivy said, 'this is Rachel Morgan and Jenks, my business associates.'

Jenks had flitted down to the hot-pepper shakers, and Piscary gave him a nod before turning to me. 'Rachel Morgan,' he said slowly and with care. 'I've been waiting for my Ivy girl to bring you to see me. I think she's afraid I'll tell her she can't play with you anymore.' His lips curved into a smile. 'I'm charmed.'

I held my breath as he took my hand with a high gentility that stood in sharp contrast to his looks. He lifted my fingers, bringing them close to his lips. His dark eyes were fixed on mine. My pulse quickened, but I felt as if my heart were somewhere else. He inhaled over my hand, as if scenting the blood humming within them. I stifled a shiver by clenching my jaw.

Piscary's eyes were the color of black ice. I boldly returned his gaze, intrigued at the hints beyond their depths. It was Piscary who looked away first, and I quickly pulled my hand from him. He was good. Really good. He had used his aura to charm rather than frighten. Only the old ones could do that. And there hadn't been even a twinge from my demon scar. I didn't know whether to take that as a good sign or bad.

Laughing good-naturedly at my sudden, obvious suspicion, Piscary sat down on the bench beside Ivy as three waiters struggled to get by with round platters. Glenn didn't seem at all upset Ivy hadn't introduced him, and Jenks kept his mouth shut. My shoulder pressed into Glenn as he shoved me down until I was nearly hanging off the edge to make room for Piscary.

'You should have told me you were coming,' Piscary said. 'I'd have saved you a table.'

Ivy shrugged. 'We got one okay.'

Half turning, Piscary looked to the bar and shouted, 'Bring up a bottle of red from the Tamwood cellar!' A sly grin came over him. 'Your mother won't miss one.'

Glenn and I exchanged a worried look. A bottle of red? 'Uh, Ivy?' I questioned.

'Oh, good God,' she said. 'It's wine. Relax.'

Relax, I thought. Easier said than done with my rear hanging half off the seat and surrounded by vampires.

'Have you ordered?' Piscary asked Ivy, but his gaze was on me, suffocating. 'I have a new cheese that uses a just-discovered species of mold to age. All the way from the Alps.'

'Yes,' Ivy said. 'An extra large—'

'With everything but onions and peppers,' he finished, showing his teeth in a wide smile as he turned from me to her.

My shoulders slumped as his gaze left me. He looked like nothing more than a friendly pizza chef, and it was setting off more alarm bells than if he had been tall, thin, and slunk about seductively in lace and silk.

'Ha!' he barked, and I stifled my jump. 'I'm going to make you dinner, Ivy girl.'

Ivy smiled to look like a ten-year-old. 'Thank you, Piscary. I'd like that.'

' 'Course you would. Something special. Something new. On the house. It will be my finest creation!' he said boldly. 'I will name it after you and your shadow.'

'I'm not her shadow,' Glenn said tightly, shoulders hunched and his eyes on the table.

'I wasn't talking about you,' Piscary said, and my eyes widened.

Ivy stirred uneasily. 'Rachel… isn't my shadow …either.'

She sounded guilty, and an instant of confusion crossed the old vamp's face. 'Really?' he said, and Ivy visibly tensed. 'Then what are you doing with her, Ivy girl?'

She wouldn't look up from the table. Piscary caught my eye again. My heart pounded as a faint tingle rippled across my neck at my demon bite. Suddenly the table was too crowded. I felt pressed upon at all sides, and the claustrophobic feeling beat at me. Shocked at the change, my breath left me and I held the next one. Damn.

'That's an interesting scar on your neck,' Piscary said, his voice seeming to scour my soul. It hurt and felt good all at the same time. 'Is it vamp?'

My hand rose unbidden to hide it. Jenks's wife had sewn me up, and the tiny stitches were almost invisible. I didn't like that he had noticed them. 'It's demon,' I said, not caring if Glenn told his dad. I didn't want Piscary thinking I'd been bitten by a vamp, Ivy or otherwise.

Piscary arched his eyebrows in a mild surprise. 'It looks vampiric.'

'So did the demon at the time,' I said, my stomach tightening in the memory.

The old vamp nodded. 'Ah, that would explain it.' He smiled, chilling me. 'A ravaged virgin whose blood has been left unclaimed. What a delectable combination you are, Ms. Morgan. No wonder my Ivy girl has been hiding you from me.'

My mouth opened, but I could think of nothing to say.

He stood with no warning. 'I'll have your dinner out in a moment.' Leaning to Ivy, he murmured, 'Talk to your mother. She misses you.'

Ivy dropped her eyes. With a casual grace, Piscary snagged a stack of plates and breadsticks from a passing tray. 'Enjoy your evening,' he said as he set them on our table. He made his way back to the kitchen, stopping several times to greet the more well-dressed patrons.

I stared at Ivy, waiting for an explanation. 'Well?' I said bitingly. 'You want to explain why Piscary thinks I'm your shadow?'

Jenks snickered, taking his hands-on-hips Peter Pan poseatop the pepper shaker. Ivy shrugged in obvious guilt. 'He knows we live under the same roof. He just assumed—'

'Yeah, I got it.' Annoyed, I chose a breadstick and slumped against the wall. Ivy's and my arrangement was odd no matter what angle you looked at it. She was trying to abstain from blood, the lure to break her fast almost irresistible. As a witch, I could fend her off with my magic when her instincts got the better of her. I had dropped her once with a charm, and it was that memory that helped her master her cravings and keep her on her side of the hallway.

But what bothered me was that it was shame that made her let Piscary believe what he wanted—shame for turning her back on her heritage. She didn't want it. With a roommate, she could lie to the world, pretending she had a normal vamp life with a live-in source of blood yet remain true to her guilty secret. I told myself I didn't care, that it protected me against other vamps. But sometimes… Sometimes it rankled me that everyone assumed I was Ivy's toy.

My sulk was interrupted by the arrival of the wine, slightly warm, as most vamps liked it. It had been opened already, and Ivy took control of the bottle, avoiding my look as she poured three glasses. Jenks made do with the drop on the mouth of the bottle. Still peeved, I settled back with my glass and watched the other guests. I wouldn't drink it because the sulfur it broke down into tended to wreak havoc with me. I'd have told Ivy, but it was none of her business. It wasn't a witch thing, just my own personal quirk that gave me headaches and made me so light sensitive that I had to hide in my room with a washcloth over my eyes. It was an oddly related lingering remnant of a childhood affliction that had me in and out of the hospital until puberty kicked in. I'd take the developed sulfur sensitivity any day in exchange for my misery as a child, weak and sickly as my body tried to kill itself.

The music had started again, and my unease at Piscary slowly filtered away, driven out by the music and background conversations. Everyone could ignore Glenn now that Piscary had talked to us. The rattled human downed his wine as if it were water. Ivy and I exchanged glances as he refilled his glass with shaking hands. I wondered if he was going to drink until he passed out or try to tough it out sober. He took a sip of his next glass, and I smiled. He was going to split the difference.

Glenn gave Ivy a wary glance and leaned close to me. 'How could you meet his eyes?' he whispered, hard to hear above the surrounding noise. 'Weren't you afraid he'd be-spell you?'

'The man is over three hundred years old,' I said, realizing Piscary's accent was Old English. 'If he wanted to be-spell me, he wouldn't have to look into my eyes.'

Face going sallow behind his short beard, Glenn pulled away. Leaving him to mull that around for a bit, I jerked my head to get Jenks's attention. 'Jenks,' I said softly. 'Why don't you take a quick peek in back? Check out the employees' break room? See what's up?'

Ivy topped her glass off. 'Piscary knows we're here for a reason,' she said. 'He'll tell us what we want to know. Jenks will only get himself caught.'