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Even the dog was smarter than me, and had stuck to his one bottle of beer. Of course, the fact that he’s notactuallya dog probably had a good deal to do with his presence of mind and moderately decent judgment.
Elves, for the record, donothave decent judgment. At least not on their forty-first birthdays after getting pulled over and shot at by their fucking coworkers.
Fortunately, I at least had the day off, so I could wallow in self-pity under the blankets and pretend the highly judgmental dog wasn’t staring at me from the end of the bed, waiting for me to get the fuck off my pathetic ass.
And then—of fucking course—my phone rang.
I reached out a hand and pulled it under my blanket, squinting and glaring at the cartoon tiger face on the screen.
“Fuck.”
I hit the button.
“The fuck do you want, Tony?”
“Get your ass down to VCU medical. There’s a shifter in the ER who just survived a vampire attack after a botched kidnapping.”
It took far too many seconds for my brain to catch up to what Raj was saying.
“Fuck!” I threw the blanket off myself, but doubled over and had to put my head between my knees when I sat up too fast.
“Text me when you get here.” He paused, and I almost hung up. “No dogs, Hart. They won’t let him in the ER.”
Right. Double fuck. “Okay.”
The beep in my ear told me I could put the phone down, although it took another ten seconds before I felt like I could pick my head up.
Taavi was sitting up on the end of the bed, giving me a look.
“You heard him,” I said, because I was fairly sure Taavihadheard Raj’s warning to leave him at home.
Taavi growled.
“Not leaving you in the car in the parking garage, bud,” I grumbled, pushing myself to standing. “And you can’t come in. So you get to hold down the fort.”
He didn’t have a response to that, so I looked over at him on my way into the bathroom. He looked decidedly displeased.
“Not my call,” I told him.
He made a grumbling noise as I closed the bathroom door.
I didn’t have time to shower, but I did wash my face with cold water to try to wake up, brushed my teeth to get the revolting taste of hangover out of my mouth, and pulled a wet brush through my ridiculously unruly hair and re-braided it. If I didn’t wash it, it wouldn’t settle in a neat ponytail, so it was braid or full Einstein, and I didn’t quite pull off that look.
Taavi watched as I came back out and pulled clothes out of my closet. I debated going back into the bathroom or throwing him out of the room, but I just couldn’t make myself care. I had underwear on, so it wasn’t like he was going to get an extra eyeful of anything particularly salacious.
I did turn my back as I pulled on dark grey slacks and a yellow dress shirt. Dress socks, my shoulder holster, the matching jacket, and plain black shoes, and I was ready to go out the door in under fifteen minutes.
Except that I had to let the goddamn dog out to pee. Fuck.
“Make it fast, okay?” I held the door for him, and he scrambled down the stairs.
He did—and we were back up at the top within a couple minutes, although I didn’t bother going back in when I opened the door to let him go inside.
I stopped, my hand on the knob, and looked down at Taavi, who was standing in the living room, his mismatched eyes sharp.
“Sorry I didn’t make coffee, bud,” I told him. “I’ll bring back something good for dinner, okay?”
Chuff.
