“Don’t give me that innocent look, Celia Graves. I’m not an idiot. You’re half vampire—you have
bloodstained pajamas. You’ve got a stack of messages an inch high from reporters and lawyers, and I
don’t know if that’s because of Vicki or the fangs or something you haven’t told me yet! You’re my
friend, and you know I’l stand by you. But you’re going to need my help, and if I’m going to be able to do
anything useful I need to know just how bad it’s going to get.”
I winced. Put that way, it sounded pretty awful. “It’s already bad. I’m honestly not sure how much
worse it’s going to get.”
Notice that I didn’t say it
tempt fate. Superstitious—probably. But magic exists. So does karma, and karma can be a bitch.
“What can I do?”
“Um, don’t you have a computer system to rebuild?”
She rol ed her eyes. “I’m not on the clock until nine. I usual y come in early to get out of the house and
have a quiet cup of coffee without listening to my sister’s screaming kids. So, what do you need?”
“In that case—” I rol ed my chair backward and checked the lights on the safe. It hadn’t quite been the
ful twenty-four hours, but the lights were flashing green. Green was good, but I wasn’t sure what
flashing was. I hoped that meant I could get past the wards on the safe and not that the whole thing was
fucked up beyond al relief … otherwise known as FUBAR.
“I
sizes. Also, a men’s large denim jacket and some running shoes in a seven wide.” I thought for a
moment, then continued. “And you’d probably better buy me a case of those diet shakes to keep here
at the office. Chocolate, please. Oh, and replace the ones I drank earlier.”
“I’m not worried about that. But shouldn’t you have something a little more … I dunno, substantial?”
“There’s a bunch of stuff the doctor ordered on the counter at home. This is just to get me through in
a pinch.”
She made a
“Exactly.”
“And just what happened to bring you here in your jammies? You haven’t said.”
I used the process of opening the safe to buy me time to figure out how to answer her. Taking a deep
breath, I ran through the steps to disarm the wards and punched in the combination with a little more
vigor than was strictly necessary. Closing my eyes and saying a quick prayer, I pul ed the door lever.
Dawna was careful y crouched behind my desk in case the whole thing blew. When the door opened,
we both let out a little whoop of joy.
I drew out the old-fashioned cash box I keep on hand for emergencies. I only kept a couple hundred
dol ars in there, but if Dawna didn’t go nuts, that should be enough to cover the basics.
“Last night we caught somebody messing with the gas line to the cottage. Before you ask, he got
away. And I didn’t think it was a good idea for me to meet with the cops after dark in my current …
condition. So I bugged out before they got there.”
She blinked rapidly several times, her expression one of complete shock. “Oh. But why—”
“Would somebody want to blow me up? No clue. And if I could’ve thought of somewhere else to go
that would be safe and unoccupied, I would’ve done it. I don’t want to put anybody here in danger.”
She sat up straighter, her face flushing, her breath speeding up. I noted the pulse on her neck without
meaning to but was able to tear my gaze away before she noticed. “Do you think we’re in danger?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. It would help if I had a clue what was going on, but I just don’t.” I gave her a
slow smile. “But I intend to find out.”
She shivered. “You scare me sometimes, you know that?”
“It’s the fangs.”
“No,” she said firmly, “it’s not.”
I didn’t know how to answer that, so I changed the subject. “Are you sure you’re okay with this?” I
asked as I opened the box and forked over the cash, which was actual y three hundred.
it’s a bother.”
She glared up at me from the pen and Post-it note she was using to make a list. “Don’t be an ass,”
she scolded. “I wouldn’t have offered if I didn’t want to help. I’l lock the door behind me on the way out
and you should have the whole place to yourself until I get back. Ron and the others aren’t exactly
known for getting here early, and Bubba just left.” She took the cash from my hand, tucking it into the
pocket of her suit jacket along with the note and pen.
I put the cash box and duffel into the safe, then closed it and put up the wards. I was going to be down
the hal for a bit, and I do
“Thanks, Dawna. Real y.”
“No problema.”
I grinned. It was her standard answer to everything—unless she was annoyed. Irritate her and she
got al formal, with a “yes,
other hand, gets about half a dozen “sirs” a day and doesn’t even catch the sarcasm.
Some people are just so dense.
I limped out of the office and down the hal to the bathroom. Hitting the light, I took a look around.
It’s a fairly good-sized room. Not big by modern standards, it would’ve been considered positively
luxurious back when the house was built. In those days, the standard was to have one bath for an
entire house. But this building had started life as a mansion. Along with real parquet floors and an
honest-to-God stained-glass window on the landing between the first and second floors, it had been
built with a bathroom on every floor. The original tub had probably been a big old claw-footed
monstrosity, but somewhere around the sixties an ambitious owner had decided to do an update of the
bathrooms. There was a shower, with ceramic tile squares and a matching oversized tub in flamingo
pink. They exactly matched the pedestal sink and toilet. The wal paper was candy-cane striped in pink,
silver, black, and white. It was loud but undeniably eye-catching. A plain white shower curtain hung on
the metal rod, the only
I rummaged around in the built-in linen closet and the medicine chest, lining up toiletries on the edge
of the tub. Nobody in the building used the showers much, but the plumbing worked just fine, and I
always kept supplies on hand, just in case.
I decided to brush my teeth first.
