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Tyler froze and gave me one of his patented Nowakowski stare-downs. I was immune to them by now. Our relationship went back over six years and had begun with dating before devolving into general mistrust and hatred on his part. You know, typical after a bad date. Now we were friends, coworkers, and probably knew each other better than anyone else on the planet.
So his hateful stare wasn’t going to throw me off.
He loved me.
I just might not make it onto his Christmas card list after this stunt. Normally when I so boldly violated the rules we had established as a team, I did it in foreign countries where there were no witnesses.
Tyler set a tablet down in front of me, where he had opened a video that displayed the main entrance of the Hotel Beverly. The clip clearly showed me leaving the hotel side by side with the demon who hadn’t yet told me his name.
The caption read, Werewolf queen spotted with demon.
“Do you think they’re implying something untoward?” I asked. “Should I tell Desmond?” My husband, Desmond Alvarez, would probably find this hilarious.
The corner of Emilio’s mouth quirked up in a smirk before the expression vanished.
Tyler saw it.
“This isn’t funny.”
“It’s a little funny,” Emilio offered.
“She brought a demon into the office.”
“Oh, come on, Tyler, chill out,” I said. “This is what we do. He came in willingly to help us. Maybe. I hope. But the point is it’s not like we’re showing the world something they didn’t know existed.”
“Demons aren’t the same as vampires, Secret.”
“Uh, to Joe Human they might as well be.” I drummed my nails on the table. “Something scary they don’t understand.”
“We want to normalize vampires,” he countered. “We don’t want to normalize demons.”
“If people knew what demons were and how to spot them, they wouldn’t let their stupid asses get possessed. Did you ever think of that, smart guy?”
“Did you ever think that if we start telling the human population what the signs of demon possession are, they’ll see those everywhere they look? Everyone’s malcontent neighbor is going to be a demon. Oh God, the church is going to lose their minds over this.”
“The church is maybe the only one who already thought demons were legit, so they’ll be cool.”
“Cool? Secret, you just paraded out of a hotel with a guy whose mouth is filled with razor-sharp teeth, and he was waving to the cameras like he was opening up for Britney Spears in Las Vegas. This is a disaster.”
“It’s fine.”
“You’re going to put me in an early grave,” he announced, burying his face in his palms.
“Been there, done that.”
“Stop bragging about your premature death,” Emilio tsked. “Not all of us have nine lives, you little weirdo.”
“How dare you.”
He smirked at me.
“The two of you are never allowed in the same room together.” Tyler pointed between us, and we gave him matching who me? expressions.
We take our jobs very seriously, you see.
The truth of the matter was, in spite of the appearances given off by our most ludicrous staff meeting of all time, we were serious about what we did, and we were good at it. The fact that the government had allowed us to grow from a staff of three to a staff of eighty-five with our own downtown Los Angeles office was incredibly impressive.
It was still Tyler, Emilio, and me at the helm, but it was cool to know we had lab geeks and fresh-out-of-Quantico special agents who were desperate to impress us. There were guys who were afraid to look me in the eyes. I loved it.
