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“Talk to Sharah, she’l help you.” I hesitantly reached out, then patted him on the arm. “Dude, you have to learn to live with this because it’s yours. For a long, long, long time to come. I know what it’s like. Look at me, Chase. Look at what happened to me, and I didn’t just get stabbed by a demon. I went through hel . . . I remember what happened to me. Every nuance, every cut of the blade, every touch of him on me and inside me.”
Chase dipped his head, blushing. “Yeah, and I know I sound like a baby next to you. I’m sorry. I forget sometimes, just what happened to you. I shouldn’t complain about my own problems.
They’re a drop in the bucket.”
“You know that’s not what I meant. I’m just saying, I understand what it’s like to have your life suddenly changed on you, to have everything you ever expected stripped away and replaced with something different.”
“Thanks.” Laughing then, he motioned toward the walk. “Let’s go.”
“What about her?” I jerked my head toward the body, not wanting to leave until they got her out of here.
“They’l bring her when they finish with the crime scene.”
I glanced over my shoulder, feeling the urge to cry. “Tel them to be careful. It’s dangerous to leave them here alone. Let me know when you find out who she was. You’re going to have to break the cause of death to the newspapers soon. You can’t wait much longer.”
Chase let out a long, slow breath, and I could feel the pulsing of his heart from where I stood.
This one made him nervous.
“I know. I’l do it tomorrow. But the fal out’s going to be hel .”
Unfortunately, I knew he was right.
I wandered back to my car. The bar was closed, but I needed to check in on Erin. As I unlocked the door, it occurred to me that once Chase leaked the story about the vampire serial kil er to the press, I’d better have safeguards already in place. Like maybe a steel gate in front of the door. It was wel known that a vampire owned the Wayfarer, and frankly, I didn’t want to have to go apeshit on any miscreants. I stopped in my office and dropped an e-mail to Lisel, my bookkeeper and part-time assistant, to cal about starting the process as soon as she got into her office.
As I locked the door behind me, I could hear noise coming from upstairs and headed up to see Erin. She was there, alone. Tavah was in the basement watching the portal.
“Hey, Erin. Everything okay?” I glanced around. Tavah had taken her charge seriously. The guest room was sporting a new TV, a DVD player, an Xbox, and a computer, and I knew that if I checked the mini-fridge I’d find bottles of blood. “Looks like you’ve got quite the setup here.”
Erin paused the DVD she was watching and broke into a beaming smile as she turned. She dropped to submission and I held out my hand for her to kiss.
“Menol y, thank you. And look what else we got.” She motioned to a smal bookshelf in the corner that was now stuffed with books. There must have been a good forty or fifty paperbacks sitting there on the shelves.
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.”
