She could her him take a shaky breath. “All right. I’ll help—except. Shit.”
“What now?” she gently pounded her head against the glass wall in frustration. On the other side, a security guard looked up and shook her finger “no” at her.
“Brad insisted that I bring Bel’aliol over. To see his triumph. And I don’t have time to do both.”
“Tell Gisele!”
“Tell her what?”
“To change the contract.”
“Morgan—I can’t.” She could hear the sorrow and anxiety in his voice. “I want to, I truly do, but I can’t actually change my nature. I can’t tell her what she needs to do to fake the demo. It’s still a lie.”
“Shit!” She couldn’t even sacrifice herself right. She tried to pull up the document, but got a ‘no access’ warning. “I can’t access the files. Hayley already cut me off, and I can’t even get in the building!”
Her mother tapped her on the shoulder. And held up a badge, with Morgan’s name on it, no company.
Morgan stared at it and then threw her arms around her mother. “How?”
“I’ve got friends, like I said.” Her mother hugged her back. “Let’s go find some loopholes.”
She would have liked to run, but that would have ended up getting them kicked out again. She settled for a brisk walk. The security guard who had removed her saw her come in and moved to intercept, but she held up her shiny new badge and kept going. He shrugged, not paid enough to ask questions.
She powerwalked her way down the aisle, checking her phone. She had time. Well, six minutes until the demo. That wasn’t actually much time. And she’d have to do it without any of the current Zabloom employees knowing. No, she refused to come this far and fall short.
Then Auberon Vesper, senior partner of Ravenfell himself, stepped in her way.
33
Could her mom fight him so Morgan could get past? What would happen if her mother staked a vampire right on the tradeshow floor?
Her mother stepped up to the vampire. Leaned in. Kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you again, Bernie. You remember my daughter Morgan? We’re in a bit of a hurry.”
Morgan gaped at her mother. “You… You know him?” “Well, who did you think bought the badge, pumpkin?” Fiona said. Vesper blocked the sunlight streaming through the glass walls with an old-school (almost certainly enchanted) umbrella that reminded Morgan of the bankers in Mary Poppins. Somehow he made it look fashionable. He captured Fiona’s hand, kissed the back of the knuckles gently, and looked up at her mother with the devotion Morgan had seen countless times before—on the faces of mermen and werewolves and, of course, her father. Oh. One of the reasons Fiona had warned her off Luke, then. “He owes me several favors. This clears one of them.”
“But not the big one.” Vesper’s smile was crooked and a little sad.
“He, ah, knows?” What would he do when he realizedMorgan was trying to undermine the soul market scheme Renata had supported?
“The lovely Fiona here was kind enough to point out succeeding would make old Belly-bowlterriblysmug, and Idoso hate that,” the vampire said, continuing to make cow eyes at her mother, which was not at all awkward. He hadn’t dropped her hand.
“And Renata?”
“Oh, I’m sure she’ll be very miffed, but it’s just because she’s bored. It’s all right, I’ll tell her she showed nice initiative and give her a bonus and a promotion and she’ll be right as rain, the dear. Put her in charge of our regional operations of one of the little European countries, one of the pretty ones. Denmark or Belgium or something, she’ll like that. Not Transylvania: there’s a reason we all left Transylvania, all that fog and torches and such.”
Morgan nodded because it seemed to be expected. “It’s lovely to meet you and all but I’m afraid I’m really under a deadline here.”
“Oh, well, that’s not right at all,” the vampire continued, looking slightly affronted. “You’ll never get anywhere in corporate politics that way. You need to make them wait for you.”
“I’m sure you’re right, but nevertheless,” she said, shifting from foot to foot. This was costing too much time.
“Well, then we’ll have to help.” The vampire smiled sunnily. “What can I do?”
She almost replied reflexively that there was nothing they could do, but that wasn’t true. “I need as much time before Brad gives the demo as I can get.”
“Oh, I think we can help with that,” Fiona smiled. “Bernie,dear, do you feel like asking questions at the demo before theirs? A great many questions?”
“I am excellent at asking questions!” the vampire said proudly.
