“She didn’t agree to anything!”
“She didn’t. It has to come out of the protection budget,” he said.
“But it won’t get her to buy anything.” She was terribly aware that he’d spent too much of his budget on her already.
“I know, but no one will buy anything if she dies and I go to wherever people on this plane get sent when they kill someone!”
“Will it work?”
“I don’t know, unless you stop talking and let me try!”
Morgan bit her lip and stopped talking. She held Hayley’s hand, stroking it and trying to send her good vibes—as if vibes could help with a concussion.
Finally, Luke opened his eyes. “I think I fixed it. She’s going to be OK and she’s not going to remember any of this.”
Morgan felt her shoulders unkink a tad. “What’s it going to cost?”
“We’re going to need one of those souls to be a really big Deal,” he admitted. “Someone ambitious: someone who’s going to ask for something huge. We’re going to need to find a way around the vampires, because I don’t know how we can do this without Brad.”
***
“I got an email from our landlord and he’s happy to let us renew but he’s raising the rent in September,” Gisele greeted them. “How was shuffleboard?”
She was not only failing at soul-buying, she was failing at adulting in general. Morgan pitched face forward onto the couch. “Multiple hospital visits, Hayley’s off the list, and we have to defeat a vampire VC firm somehow.”
Luke held up his bracelet. “Bel’aliol got a note from Accounting. He wants to know when we’re planning to offset the expenses.”
“That good, huh. Sounds like we need a new game plan,” Gisele declared. She managed to sound businesslike for a woman padding around in fluffy pink axolotl slippers.
Morgan tried to pull herself together. “We’ve established Brad needs to know what he’s signing.”
“Ooh, can I get a whiteboard?” Gisele interrupted. “We should get a whiteboard.”
Luke perked up. “You want a whiteboard?”
“Luke, focus.” Morgan glared at him, trying to mentally beam thoughts into his head. He’d agreed Gisele was off-limits. She thought hard about how much she wanted him to leave her friend alone.
“You can’t really help yourself, can you,” Gisele said. Rix noticed that his people were excited and decided to help with the being excited. He started bouncing in circles, which was not particularly helpful.
“It’s harder to ignore after the drinks with all the fruit in them that everyone wanted so much,” he complained, trying unsuccessfully to get Rix to sit back down. “Why does your neighbor want shoes with red bottoms so badly? They’re nowhere near as good as Gisele’s shoes: hers havefaces on them and her feet don’t hurt. Anyway, we should get a whiteboard and then she’ll stop wanting one and then I can focus.”
“Do you even know what a whiteboard is?” Morgan asked.
“I’m going to take a wild guess that it’s a board that’s white.”
“Are you going to offer me a whiteboard in exchange for my soul?” Gisele asked, amused.
Luke’s panicked gaze flicked to Morgan.
Gisele’s eyes narrowed. “Why are you looking at her?”
“I—Morgan—” he pleaded with Morgan.
Shit. He wasn’t a human, he couldn’t lie. She admitted reluctantly, “Because I banned him from offering you anything.”
“Excuse me?” Gisele asked, her tone flat.
“What?” Morgan said. It was the right thing to have done.
