Mandy snorted. “We always eat there.”
“Because it’s close and…open 24-hours.” My cheeks warmed. “We could drive a little farther into the city if you want. Maybe Denny’s or—”
“Forget it.” Mandy sighed. “I’ll make a sandwich after I wash this crap out of my eyes.”
“Sorry,” I said, my voice flattened by the weight of guilt. “There was no other choice but to let him go.”
“I listened, didn’t I?” Mandy snapped. “I don’t need a lecture.”
“Okay.” There was nothing else to say. Nothing she wanted to hear, anyhow. I thumbed a knob on the dash, turning on the radio, and let the crooning classic rock fill the silence while I fretted over our future.
It had been two months since I died, and a month since the department shrink cleared me to return to work. Of course, that had been the easy part. Having a soap opera star for a twin sister had finally worked in my favor. For once.
Laura was good. Really good. Her return to Missouri had been inspired by my death, but her lingering stay had more to do with guilt. Guilt over our broken past, mostly. But there was also the unspoken question of what would become of me if she left again. What the hell would I do without her?
Laura filled in for all the daytime activities I couldn’t manage anymore. Even signing on with the K9 unit and taking the night shift hadn’t been enough to solidify an independent lifestyle. Not during the peak of summer, anyway. As it was, I couldn’t even finish out the last hour of my shift.
Sunrise times were slowly extending, but in mid-August, that was only a quarter past six. My shift didn’t end until six-thirty. That meant slipping off and meeting up with Laura long enough to trade clothes and vehicles—and give her a rundown of the night so she could work out her script before having donuts with the guys.
God, I missed donuts. Laura hated them, always on some diet or another. She pulled off the stunt by doing the stealthy chew-and-spit-into-a-napkin maneuver. And she’d added half an hour to her workouts for fear the minuscule bit of sugar she was consuming would somehow catch up with her if she weren’t vigilant. Would somehow destroy her chances of landing an acting gig once she returned to Tinseltown.
She didn’t say it out loud, but we both knew the day was fast approaching. By early October, there would be enough time after my shift to make it home and get tucked in before sunset. Of course, I’d need Laura’s help again for a few weeks in November to get through the monkey wrench that was daylight savings time. And from mid-February to mid-March. I could pull off the last two weeks of March, but by the first of April, I’d be pretty much fucked until October rolled around again.
All of this was assuming Laura came back after she left for Hollywood. I liked to think that we’d patched up most of our issues, but it had taken ten years and me dying before she returned the first time. And if she landed some prestigious acting role that required months of filming, how could I ask her to give that up for the sake of my career?
I had to face reality. No matter how good Mandy and I could have been in the K9 unit, we wouldn’t be. And not just because we had to constantly worry about House Lilith. Unless the department’s night shift hours were miraculously altered and ran from nine to five, we were shit out of luck.
The realization was slowly breaking my heart. Giving up my new position as a detective had been hard enough, and my fighting spirit had only endured because of the opportunity with the K9 unit. My mother had excelled as both a detective and a K9 officer, and now I could say that I’d failed as both. In record time.
I’d already begun scouring the job listings in the newspaper and online. Factory work, bartending, sorting mail—I’d take just about anything. I couldn’t afford to be picky right now. Mandy would have to understand, and she would be welcome to stay with me, even if we weren’t working together. The mouthy punk was growing on me.
As if on cue, she turned and blinked her swollen eyes at me across the cab of the cruiser. “What? Do I have a bat in the cave or something?” She ran her hand under her nose and frowned at me.
“You did good tonight,” I said, turning my attention back to the street ahead.
“Whatever.” The word lacked bite, and I could see her faint smile in my peripheral as she leaned forward to switch the radio to an alternative rock station.
* * * * *
Blue light glowed through the blinds on the front window when I pulled the cruiser into the driveway. Laura didn’t have to be up for another couple of hours. Mandy’s brow creased, her curiosity matching my own. We climbed out of the cruiser and made our way up the front walk.
The grass bordering the cracked stretch of concrete hissed against the bottom hem of my brown pants. It needed to be mowed—a task Laura considered beneath her. I wouldn’t have minded doing it myself, but mowing in the dark just didn’t sound like a very bright idea. I was sure my neighbors would agree. The kid Laura had hired for the task was off to Texas, settling into his dorm at UT Austin before his first semester of college began.
Thinking of college reminded me of Serena, my late partner Will’s daughter. She’d be starting at MU soon. She and her mother Alicia were coming over for dinner Monday night. It was sooner than I would have preferred, with the daylight still being problematic, but I knew Serena wouldn’t have much time to spare once school began.
Mandy paused at the porch steps, letting me go ahead of her to unlock the front door. The K9 training had rubbed off on her human habits, and she always seemed to be one step ahead of me. It was a loyal and protective stance that filled me with equal parts pride and discomfort. She was just a girl—a girl I was responsible for. I should have been the one protecting her.
When I pushed open the front door and stepped inside the living room, Laura gasped from her curled up perch on the recliner. Her cell phone was tucked between one shoulder and ear, and she nearly dropped it as she fumbled with a bottle of pink nail polish. She shot a foot out to catch her balance, pressing her freshly painted toes to the edge of the coffee table.
“Jenna’s back. I have to let you go,” she said into the phone, ending the call before whoever was on the other end had a chance to say goodbye. “You’re home early,” she said, ignoring the skeptical frown I gave her as I dropped onto the end of the sofa.
“What are you doing up so late? And who was that?”
Laura’s face flushed and she bit her bottom lip before glancing at Mandy. “Oh my God. What happened to your eyes?”
Mandy groaned. “I’m going to take a shower,” she said, heading for the hallway that led to the room and bathroom she shared with Laura. I stared after her, wanting to apologize again but knowing it would only irritate her.
“Accidental pepper spray incident,” I answered, hardening my gaze as I turned back to Laura. “Who were you talking to?”
Her chin lifted, but the blush in her cheeks didn’t match her indignant act. “None of your business,” she said, which could only mean one person.
“Really, Laura?” I sighed and shook my head. “You deserve better. You’re worth better.” I untied my boots and slipped them off before nudging them under the coffee table. I started on the buttons of my uniform shirt next.
Laura cleared her throat and tightened the cap on her bottle of polish. “So are you off the clock, or am I going in earlier than usual for some reason?”
“We’re done for the night,” I answered. “It’s a three-day weekend, just for you.” I stood and pulled my shirt out of my waistband before stripping down to the white tank top I wore underneath. I threw the shirt over my shoulder and headed for my room, eager to discard the brown pants, too. Laura’s breath hitched, stopping me as I reached the hallway.
“I’m glad you’re home early, and we have a chance to talk,” she said, lifting an eyebrow as if in question.
“Let me change into my jammies, and I’ll be right back.” I hurried off, hoping she hadn’t noticed the wince pinching up my face with panic. If she was taking calls from he
r ex, I knew what it meant.
David Steckleman, the prick I none-too-affectionately called Hollywood, had whisked Laura away to California after our mother’s death. It looked as if he were set to do so again. Over my dead body, I thought bitterly. Then a soft snort escaped me as I remembered that I was dead.
Anger tightened my limbs, and I closed my bedroom door a little harder than necessary. I threw my shirt inside the overflowing hamper between my bathroom and closet and stripped out of my pants and socks before adding them to the heap. Then I located a pair of cotton shorts in a pile on top of my dresser. I hadn’t broken Mandy of riffling through my clothes, but she was getting better about not leaving things on the floor at least.
I made a detour into the kitchen, snagging a bag of blood out of the refrigerator before joining Laura in the living room again. I had a feeling the comfort food was going to be necessary for this conversation.
Laura eyed the blood but refrained from making a face. “I’ve become so desensitized to the sight of gore after the summer I’ve had with you, I could probably land a role as a slasher film villain.”
“There’s an idea. It’d be a perfect role to distance yourself from that dying soap opera. I knew it wouldn’t last long without you,” I added, hoping my suspicion was wrong. But the pained look on Laura’s face was all the confirmation I needed. “Laura, he cheated on you!”
“I’m not taking him back,” she protested. “Yet.”
“Really? Why?” Red throbbed at the edges of my vision. I chomped down on the corner of the blood bag, hoping to stave off my frustration.
“He’s offering to double my salary if I return to the show.” She bit her bottom lip, and a mischievous sparkle touched her eyes. “He hasn’t admitted it, but I heard through a friend of a friend that the network is threatening to drop the show if ratings don’t improve this season.”
The blood bag crinkled as I sucked it dry, and my fangs extracted with a sharp pop. “Good,” I snapped. “He deserves to fall flat on his ass, and you should let him. Besides, I thought you wanted bigger and better roles. I thought you wanted him to cower at your glorious comeback. What happened to that game plan?”
Laura shrugged and pulled her legs up into the recliner, tucking her knees under her chin. She glanced down at her shiny, pink toenails and scraped a fingernail at a smudge of polish on her foot. “I haven’t had any other offers. My agent thinks this is my best option right now, too.”
“It’s been two months. You should give it more time.” I tried to keep my voice even and encouraging rather than succumb to desperate whining. “You can do better.”
She glared up at me through her lashes. “So could you. Do you think I haven’t noticed the shit job listings you’ve been circling in the paper?”
I took a disheartened breath and licked the blood from my lips. “That’s different. I don’t have a choice—not if you eventually want to go back to your star-studded life.”
“You don’t have a choice?” Laura pressed her lips together. “Bullshit. How many times has that FBI agent called you?”
I shook my head and pushed up off the couch, heading for the kitchen. I’d underestimated how much blood I would need. This was definitely a two-bag encounter. Laura stood and followed me, refusing to let up.
“I’m not saying this for my benefit,” she said. “Don’t you think I would rather you work a boring, safe job like putting together toolboxes in a factory?”
“Then what’s the problem?” I yanked open the fridge door and cringed as the hinges protested.
My strength had increased over the past few months, and I was still getting used to it. I wasn’t She-Hulk or anything like that. I couldn’t lift a car over my head—not that I’d tried to—but I’d definitely surprised myself a few times. It scared me. Not so much the thought of breaking all the things, but the idea that my strength might be another royal scion gift that average vamps didn’t have.
Part of me wondered if Roman’s persistent calls weren’t just to make sure I was behaving and keeping to the shadows. I couldn’t bring myself to believe he wanted to work with me again—if what I’d done with him could actually be considered work. I’d served more as a handler for Mandy. It was her coveted tracking skills that Roman had really been after. I was just a useless tagalong that had disobeyed an order to stay behind when he raided the Scarlett Inn’s safe house with Blood Vice, the underground vampire police force run by the Duke of House Lilith.
A throat cleared behind me as I stared into the abyss of the refrigerator. “Do you really have to think about it?” Mandy asked. “It’s either blood or blood. Hurry up, I’m hangry.”
I grabbed a blood bag and moved aside so she could dig out her sandwich fixings. Her eyes were still red, but the swelling around them had gone down. Her wet hair dripped onto the collar of a Metallica tee shirt, one that was actually hers and not mine. Laura had reluctantly taken Mandy to a few garage sales over her birthday weekend, while I’d slept the day away.
The girl had money stashed away—including the two thousand I’d stupidly given her to shift in front of Laura so we could fast-forward through her disbelief. What could I say? I was a sucker for convenience. My loss, Mandy’s gain. Though I couldn’t figure out why she was pinching her pennies so tightly. It wasn’t like I expected her to help pay for utilities—or even the massive amount of food she could put away in no time at all. And I was even splitting my check with her, right down the middle. It was only fair.
I bit into the second blood bag before turning around to face Laura again. She sat on a barstool at the counter, giving Mandy an apprehensive look as if she weren’t sure we should be discussing my tentative career in front of her.
Mandy closed the fridge door and dumped her loot onto the counter before shooting a bored glance at us. “Don’t stop bickering on my account.” She reached across the counter between Laura and me to grab the loaf of bread.
Duncan, my sister’s spoiled Chihuahua, pranced a circle around Mandy’s feet, his buggy eyes watching for any stray crumbs that might fall his way. Mandy bared her teeth at him until his scavenger path widened. Once she was satisfied with the distance, she tossed him a slice of turkey, earning a grunt from Laura. The pooch had put on some weight this summer, straying from his usual diet of high-end kibble.
“Okay,” Laura said to Mandy as she sat up straighter. “Maybe it’s best you’re a part of this since it affects you, too.”
My throat tightened with panic. I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. Laura was right, and she accepted my defeat with a tight grin. I sniffed at her before biting into my blood bag.
Mandy twisted open a jar of mayonnaise and slicked some onto a slice of bread with a butter knife. “I have exceptional hearing, but who needs it when I live with the two of you?”
“You heard all that?” Laura gave her an apologetic wince.
Mandy licked the butter knife clean before dropping it into the sink. “It’s nothing I didn’t already know. I’m not stupid.”
“But what will you do?” Laura asked.
I pulled my teeth out of the blood bag and swallowed hard. “She doesn’t have to do anything. She can stay here as long as she wants. Maybe get her GED online, or…or mow lawns. Hell, she could mow our lawn. I’d pay you to do that,” I said, turning to Mandy.
“Lucrative.” Her eyes widened with sarcasm. “But I think I’ll pass.”
“So what will you do?” Laura tried again as Mandy layered several slices of cheese and turkey onto her sandwich.
“Probably head down to Spero Heights,” she said, grunting as she popped open the pickle jar. “It’s a pretty nice little town, and there are hardly any humans. Plus, most of the girls I used to work with are thinking about staying there after they get out of rehab.”
It was a good, safe plan, but my heart dropped at the thought of her leaving. Even more so than the thought of Laura going back to Hollywood. “But you worked so hard, reading that K9 manual from cover to cover.”
“Twice,” she added with a pointed look. “But if you’re not joining Blood Vice, then I sure as hell ain’t.”
“What?” My hand squeezed the blood bag a little too tightly. A stream of tacky red squirted out onto my white tank top.
“There’s an idea,” Laura said, folding her arms and raising both eyebrows at me.
“That’s the only other place my recent training would be useful,” Mandy went on in spite of my horrified expression. “But I don’t like bloodsuckers enough to deal with them directly.”
“But…I thought you didn’t want anything to do with House Lilith.” I ignored the blood on my shirt and resumed anxiously sucking on the bag in my hand.
Mandy shrugged. “That was before they helped bring down the Scarlett Inn. All I knew about them before that were rumors being spread by the scum of the underworld.”
So it was either say goodbye to both Laura and Mandy and begin a job I would undoubtedly loathe, or attempt to work with the likes of Roman Knight. If that wasn’t a rock and a hard place, I didn’t know what was.
Something low in my stomach clenched anytime I thought of the half-sired agent who’d taken over the case that had started this whole undead mess I was in. After feasting on his blood, I felt irrationally attracted to him. Irrationally, because other than his blood, I couldn’t stand the guy. He was rude and broody, and getting the tiniest sliver of information out of him felt like a hostage negotiation.
“So, what’s it going to be?” Mandy asked, flattening her tower of a sandwich with the heel of her hand. She lifted it to her lips and gave me a quizzical frown before cramming a corner of the monstrosity into her mouth.
The alarm on my wristwatch buzzed, alerting me that sunrise was fifteen minutes off. Saved by the bell. I held my hand up and tapped the face of the watch. “Darkness calls. We’ll have to finish this conversation later.”
Chapter Three
I was dreaming again. It seemed like such a little thing, but I cherished it. Even though the dreams were bizarre and more lucid than I remembered from when I was alive. Then there was the awkward fact that they were all in shades of red. Win some, lose some, I guess.
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