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Though, clearly, I owed him a few yarks.
I pressed my fingertips into my eyes, willing myself to wake up if this was a nightmare. Because this couldn’t be the way Iris Scanlon departed this earth, huddling in a closet, waiting for the angry, weakened vampire outside to recover enough to swoop in and devour her. At this sad point, my options were:
1. Go charging out of the closet, screaming Xena-style, and hope that the vampire was weakened by the sunlight or doubled over laughing at my weak attempt at overpowering him.
Likely result: Death or, at the very least, humiliation.
2. Duck out of my closet just long enough to grab for my purse, hoping that the vampire didn’t catch me, and then call 911 … and carefully explain to the police what I was doing in a vampire’s home where I had no legitimate business.
Likely result: Three to five years for breaking and entering. Which was inconvenient, because I looked really washed out in orange.
3. Hide in this closet overnight until sunrise.
Likely result: Being yanked out of the closet and drained as soon as the vampire recovered.
I split the difference between options 1 and 3, waiting until I had the nerve to crack the door open and scan the room for Gropey Groperson. All was quiet in the bedroom. I couldn’t see the silver pie server. I wondered idly whether it was still stuck in the vampire’s chest.
From the other side of the door, I could hear the faintest impression of Cal’s voice calling. I waited several long minutes, listening for any sound of the injured vampire. I grasped the can of silver spray firmly in front of me and kicked open the door. The well-lit bedroom was empty. And my mom’s silver pie server was gone.
I was so glad she wasn’t around to ground me for this one.
“Iris!” Cal yelled, his voice tinny and remote from the earpiece on the floor. “Answer me!”
“I’m fine.” I wheezed, putting the module back in my ear. “I’m fine.”
“What happened?”
“I, uh, I just got spooked,” I told him, carefully poking my head into the hallway and flicking on the light switch. I didn’t see any evidence of a smoking vampire’s trail, but there was no way he had gotten out of the house in broad daylight. I went to the window and pushed the button to lift the shade. A breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding rushed out of my chest.
“I heard the growls and your screams.”
“I’m fine,” I insisted as I blazed a path through the house to the door, turning on lights and opening windows until all of the rooms were sunlit.
“Don’t lie to me. You’re frightened. I can hear it in your voice,” he insisted. “What happened?”
“There was someone in the house, but I’m fine,” I said, bolting for the front door. My car was down the street, untouched. I jumped in and pulled out into the street without bothering with a seat belt. I did, however, manage to find the lemon drops in my center console.
“What do you mean, someone in the house?” he demanded. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.”
“You keep saying that, but I don’t believe you.”
I didn’t answer, crunching my teeth through the citrusy hard candy instead. A few houses down the street, I forced myself to pull over. I took a few deep breaths, leaning my head against the steering wheel. I had nothing against the guard at the booth. I didn’t think it would be nice to run him down. “I’ll be home in a few minutes. I’ll explain then. Just let me get out of here. I just can’t—I can’t talk right now.”
Breathing. I focused on breathing, on keeping my hands steady on the wheel and distinguishing the gas pedal from the brake. My losing track of the pedals would surely upset the other drivers.
“Start talking to me,” Cal said, his voice like a gentle caress against my ear.
“About what?” I asked. I sniffed, wiping at my eyes and pushing the car back into gear.
“Anything. It occurs to me that I’ve entrusted my entire existence to you, but I know very little about you. What’s your favorite color?”
I scoffed. “Really?”
“It’s to get your mind off of your state of panic. So, favorite color?”
“Blue.”
