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I laughed, feeling the stress of the night ebb away. “I can see that my credit card got in a good workout.”
Erin blinked. “I’m sorry—did I spend too much?”
“No, not at al .” I’d be paying on the haul for months, but Erin looked happy and that was what counted. She was also back in a pair of nice jeans and a button-down shirt, neither of which Sassy would let her wear, and looked more her old self than since she’d been turned. I sighed. I’d better go talk to Sassy soon, before she showed up here. But there was another phone cal that was even more important for me to make.
“Let me go make a cal , then I’l come back and we’l talk for a while, okay?” I headed toward the door.
“Sure thing. And again, thank you. I feel like I’m me again. At least as far as I can be ‘me.’ ”
I scurried downstairs to my office and dropped into my chair, staring at the phone. Final y, I decided it wasn’t going to make the cal itself and pul ed my Rolodex toward me, flipping through the cards. Stevens . . . Stevens . . . there it was. Wade Stevens.
My hand on the receiver, I swal owed a bitter taste in the back of my throat. I so did not want to cal Wade. He’d pissed me off so badly I’d wanted to stake him when we’d argued. Now, I had no choice. I’d promised Roman. And truth be told, if I was honest with myself, I’d worked out my fury at the idiot—I didn’t feel much of anything.
That’s not true, either, a voice inside me whispered. You know you don’t want Terrance to become Regent. You know Wade would be a better choice.
Blinking, I shook off the voice and punched in his number. After three rings, he picked up.
“Menol y?”
“You must have Cal er ID.”
“Yeah, I do.” He sounded suspicious, but beneath it I caught a nuance of hope. Yeah, that would last a long time once he found out I wanted him to drop out of the running. “What’s up?”
“Let me say up front, this is not my idea, but I promised I’d talk to you about it and I have to keep that promise.” In a rush, the words raced out of my mouth. “You need to come here, to the bar. I have to talk to you about the election. It’s important, Wade, or I wouldn’t bother you.”
“I can’t make it over there now.” He paused, then said, “What about if I meet you at the bar tomorrow night? Wil that be soon enough?”
“Yeah.” I never felt tongue-tied, but this was an awkward situation. I’d be damned if I was going to apologize for kicking him out of my life after the stunt he’d pul ed, but I couldn’t just leave everything on a sour note, either.
“Listen, on an entirely different subject, we’ve got trouble in the vampire community. Tomorrow, Chase is going to break news that wil put al of us at risk.”
“What are you talking about?”
“We’ve got a vampire serial kil er on the loose, and Chase can’t hold it from the public any longer. You’d better tel the group at Vampires Anonymous to watch their backs.” The mention of the group stil stung. I’d been making friends there when Wade kicked me out. But I wanted to warn them. “I have a feeling the backlash won’t be pretty. Five women dead so far, al human, and al raped.”
Wade’s voice dropped an octave. “You’re kidding. Please tel me you’re kidding.”
“No, we’ve got a fruitcake on the loose and it’s going to get worse before it gets better. I’m looking for him, so if you or your . . . friends . . . know of any newly minted vampires around who are wacked enough to pul this sort of stunt, you’d better get that info to me ASAP. He likes to hunt in the Greenbelt Park District.”
“I’l see what I can find out,” Wade said, any arrogance gone. “I’l see you first thing after sunset at the bar. Until then . . . take care, Menol y. I . . . I’ve missed you.”
“Yeah . . . see you.” I sat there, receiver in my hand, listening to the dial tone. You’ve missed me so much you haven’t bothered to try to contact me, or apologize. Right, dude.
Slowly, I replaced the phone in the cradle and headed back upstairs, my mind racing over everything that had happened in the past twenty-four hours. The vampire serial kil er . . . Erin . . .
Roman . . . and now Wade. Couldn’t a vamp girl catch a break?
Arriving home shortly before five thirty, I first slipped into Camil e’s room. She was lying in the huge new bed Smoky had bought for them. Tril ian snuggled on her right side, his arm draped around her. Smoky was on her left, his hair lightly playing across her arm in his sleep. Morio was curled up on the bottom of the bed in fox-form. They looked like a perfectly formed jigsaw puzzle, with al the pieces in place. As I slipped over to the bed to wake her, both Smoky and Tril ian woke, eyeing me with sleepy frowns.
“I need to talk to Camil e,” I said aloud, seeing that they were both awake.
Smoky gently poked her in the arm til she woke up. Blurry eyed, she sat up and yawned.
“What?”
“I need to talk to you and Delilah, downstairs. Won’t take long, but it’s important. I need you two to do me a favor before the day’s out.”
As she clambered across Tril ian, her naked body brushing against him, I grinned. Both he and Smoky were staring at her, hunger rife in their expressions. Morio was stil asleep—or doing a good job of pretending.
