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“I just don’t see how it could be. I’m Connie.”
“Harry.”
“So what brings you to Norman, Harry?”
“Taking a look at a player,” I said.
Her eyes brightened. “Ooooo. You’re a scout?”
“Maybe,” I said, in the same tone she’d used earlier.
Connie laughed again. “I’ll bet you talk to silly college girls like me all the time.”
“Like you?” I replied. “No, not so much.”
Her eyes sparkled again. “You may have found my weakness. I’m the kind of girl who likes a little flattery.”
“And here I was thinking you liked something completely different.”
She covered her mouth with one hand, and her cheeks got a little pinker. “Harry. That’s not how one talks to young ladies in the South.”
“Obviously. I mean, you look so outraged. Should I apologize?”
“Oh,” she said, her smile widening. “I just have to collect you.” Connie’s eyes sparkled again, and I finally got it.
Her eyes weren’t twinkling.
They were becoming increasingly flecked with motes of molten silver.
Cutie-pie was a frigging vampire.
I’ve worked for years on my poker face. Years. It still sucks pretty bad, but I’ve been working on it. So I’m sure my smile was only slightly wooden when I asked, “Collect me?”
I might not have been hiding my realization very well, but either Connie was better at poker than me, or else she really was too absorbed in the conversation to notice. “Collect you,” she said. “When I meet someone worthwhile, I like to have dinner with them. And we’ll talk and tell stories and laugh, and I’ll get a picture and put it in my memory book.”
“Um,” I said. “Maybe you’re a little young for me.”
She threw back her head and gave a full-throated laugh. “Oh, Harry. I’m talking about sharing a meal. That’s all, honestly. I know I’m a terrible flirt, but I didn’t think you were taking me seriously.”
I watched her closely as she spoke, searching for the predatory calculation that I knew had to be in there. Vampires of the White Court—
* * *
“Wait,” Dean said. “Vampires of the White Castle?”
I sighed. “White Court.”
Dean grunted. “Why not just call her a vampire?”
“They come in a lot of flavors,” I said.
“And this one was vanilla?”
“There’s no such thing as…” I rubbed at the bridge of my nose. “Yes.”
Dean nodded. “So why not just call ’em vanilla vampires?”
“I’ll … bring it up at the next wizard meeting,” I said.
