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Maisie looked around the room and said, “Where’s Pussy Willow?”
“She’s at Vein doing her sound check,” Giguhl said. “Her first show is tonight.”
“Oh.” Maisie frowned. “I didn’t know.”
Adam and I shared a tense look. We hadn’t specifically decided not to invite Maisie. It’s just that, well, with her pulling the hermit act all the time we’d just assumed she wouldn’t want to go out in public.
“Don’t let me keep you then.” She turned to scurry off.
“Maisie, wait,” I said, jumping forward. “Do you—I mean, I don’t suppose you’d want to go with us, would you?”
She paused with a foot at the threshold, tensed for flight. “I don’t want to intrude on your date.” Something about her tone made my conscience prickle.
Adam stepped up to her. “It’s not a date. We’re all going.”
The hurt drained from her expression. “I don’t know.”
I gritted my teeth. Why was it still so hard to talk to her?
“You should totally come,” Giguhl said. “It’ll be the balls.”
Maisie looked to me for confirmation. “He’s right. Pussy Willow is an amazing performer.” A memory of the first time I’d seen the faery perform at the drag club in New Orleans made me smile. “Her shows are not to be missed.”
Adam shot my twin his trademark Lazarus smile, the one that usually charmed my pants off in five seconds flat. “Come with us, Maze. You’ll love it.”
And then a miracle happened: My sister smiled. Her hand flew up like that smile had escaped despite her best efforts to remain miserable. “It has been ages since I’ve been out.”
I stifled my urge to laugh out of relief and continued as if what she’d just done was a normal thing. “So how about it?”
“I—” She hesitated. “Will there be lots of people?”
I reminded myself to be patient. “Yes, but it’ll be safe. Promise.”
“I’ll be your personal bodyguard,” Giguhl said.
“Sabina’s allowing you to go out in your demon form?” She frowned at him. “Isn’t that kind of risky?”
“No, she’s not.” The demon glared at me. “But don’t worry. I’m a badass attack cat when I need to be.”
I laughed. “Yeah, right. If anyone gives you trouble, he’ll hump their leg like a berserker.”
“Hey! I haven’t humped anyone in months.” The demon pursed his lips. “Anyway, we’d better head out soon.” He shot me a pointed look. “Someone made us late.”
“Sorry, guys,” I said, holding up the cooler. “I ran into some hassle at the blood bank.”
“What happened?” Adam asked.
I sighed. “Just a misunderstanding. They have a new girl on staff who wasn’t aware of my ‘arrangement.’ But we got it worked out.” My “arrangement” being that the bank supplied me with their diseased or almost-expired blood. Yeah, I know. Gross. But it beat the bullshit I used to deal with by feeding from live humans. “Anyway, after that, I got distracted by a crime scene across the street.”
I’d considered not mentioning the murder at all, but (a) only a blind man would have missed the flashing blue lights coming through the wall of windows in the living room and (b) they’d see the scene on the street when we left anyway. Not mentioning it would have been even more cause for speculation.
Giguhl rushed to the window, smelling drama like a bloodhound on the trail of a prison escapee. “Ooh! What happened?”
Adam looked curious, but not overly concerned. This was New York, after all. Crime and the city weren’t exactly strangers.
“They found the body in a Dumpster. Seemed pretty nasty, but I moved on before I could get the whole story.” I forced a casual shrug to cover my evasion.
“Aw, man,” Giguhl said, coming back from the window. “Looks like they’re already wrapping things up. You know I hate missing drama.”
I pushed down my conscience. Giguhl would have loved to hear the sordid details I was keeping to myself, but sharing them now would only open the door for questions I didn’t want to answer.
“Anyway,” I said, and cleared my throat. “I just need to grab a quick pint and we can be on our way.” I opened the cooler and removed a bag of blood. “Maisie? Do you want some?”
Her eyes jumped to the bag of blood I held toward her. She recoiled like I’d offered her a cobra. Her face swung wildly side-to-side. “No!”
Before I’d offered excuses for my tardiness, she seemed fine. Now her complexion had gone ashen and a fine sheen of sweat coated her brow.
“Maze?” Adam said, moving toward her. “What’s wrong?”
I pulled the bag away and hid it behind my back. With my free hand, I reached for her. “Shh. Maisie, it’s okay.”
Her eyes were wild. “I-I can’t.” Magic crawled up my spine. In the next instant, Maisie disappeared.
I watched the spot in shock, my stomach sinking. “Shit.”
“Nice going, Red,” Giguhl said.
“I didn’t mean to—Oh, gods, I didn’t mean to upset her.” My chest clenched with guilt.
“It’s not your fault,” Adam said. But we both knew that was a lie. His stoic gaze met mine. “I thought she was getting better.”
“Are you kidding? That was better,” Giguhl said. “Remember how she was when we first got back from New Orleans?”
Of course we did. I’d been there when Adam pulled the lid off the tomb where our grandmother had confined her. Saw the feral beast lurking behind her gaze after a week of starvation and being fed upon by her own flesh and blood. And all that was before Lavinia unleashed my blood-crazed sister on Adam, a horror that almost resulted in his death. When Maisie finally killed our grandmother, I’d hoped the poetic justice would alleviate some of her guilt over nearly killing Adam, but, if anything, the violence had only intensified Maisie’s issues.
The simple truth was Maisie still needed time. According to Adam’s aunt Rhea, my sister’s condition was what mortals called post-traumatic stress disorder. The physical wounds resulting from her captivity had healed quickly, but three months wasn’t long enough to heal the emotional damage.
“Do you think it was the mention of the murder scene that set her off?” I asked.
