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Well fuck.“And you didn’t check on me? I’m insulted.”
He shrugged. “You went outside later, when I was reviewing the video, so I knew you were okay. It just seemed a good time to come check on you in person.”
When the kettle beeped, I poured hot water into over the tea bags in the mugs. “Everything’s fine.”
“I’ve lived next door to you for six years, Ava. You’ve never been carried home before. Is everything okay?”
No, not really.Somehow, I didn’t think my sweet neighbor—no matter how good-looking—was going to be much help when dealing with a coven of vampires, a missing soul and whatever else was looking to screw me over.
Still, even the offer helped the loneliness.
“Yeah. You know how it is. I had a little too much fun. It happens.”
He took the cup of tea when I handed it over, his smile not returning. Instead, his expression screamed disapproval. The graying hair helped. “And the person who brought you home?” There wasn’t any mistaking his tone about Kase.
Jealousy?Doubtful. Troy hadn’t shown any interest in me in all the years he’d lived next door. I figured he saw me as an annoying little sister at best. He probably visited me because he felt responsible, since I had no family of my own, and that made him the one to lecture me about proper courting practices. He was for sure the type to take in neighborhood strays.
I shrugged as I took a seat across from him. “A friend.”
He snorted softly then took a drink. After a long moment, he set his cup on the table. “Be careful, Ava. Sometimes friends aren’t as…friendly as you might hope.”
The words felt ominous, especially when he darted his gaze to my throat.
Except, that was insane. I scolded myself for being so damned paranoid. It had to have been my night. Digging up corpses and getting sucked into mysterious voids were the sorts of things that would put anyone on edge.
Troy was perfectly nice, had always been a wonderful neighbor, and he was most likely looking for a hickey so he could lecture me about drinking too much and going home with men I didn’t know.
He opened his mouth, and before he could start the lecture—I’d never been a fan of them—I interrupted him. “I need you to look into a missing person.”
Thatgot his attention. “What for?” Some of the time he seemed like such a sweet, fun neighbor, but every once in a while, he gave me a look that reminded me of how he must look to criminals. I suddenly understood why he was a detective and almost felt the hot light of an interrogation room.
“A friend of a friend kind of thing. I just need you to see what you can find on her, see if there’s anything that stands out.”
His eyes narrowed, and somehow, they looked even brighter. That blue-silver seemed to shine as he studied me. “I’m serious, Ava. If you’re in trouble, I can help. Whatever it is, I can help you.”
Damn, that was tempting. Having someone else on my side, someone I could run these things by. Except, I immediately thought about Kase, about Colter, about Olin, about all the other horrible things that were in a part of the world Troy needed to be nowhere around, and that made the decision easy.
I couldn’t let him get any more involved than I had to.
“No, I’m not in any trouble. I just need whatever information you can find on her.”
He nodded, though the sharpness in his silver eyes said he didn’t fully believe me.
Even so, he took the piece of paper I wrote down everything I knew about Rachel on and tucked it into his pocket.
Getting more involved was the last thing I should be doing, but something about the void, about the way some small part of mestillfelt frozen meant I couldn’t just walk away.
* * * *
The night wore on after Troy had left, and sleep didn’t come easily. It never had.
When it finally happened, when I finally relaxed enough to close my eyes, the same dream as always hit me. The mist came, surrounding me, swallowing me. It was thick, dragging me under it, filling my lungs until I clawed at my throat. It choked me, made me wake exhausted and gasping.
That inability to sleep left me sitting outside my favorite occult shop, waiting for it to open.
Gran never opened early, but I’d planted my ass on the bench outside at five. It let me bask in the silence and watch the sun creep up above the mountain line.
When she did show—at eight sharp—I didn’t fight the smile I had.
