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There’s silence on the other side of the line.
“Celeste! Why was his phone in your office?”
“He’s a short kid with a bunch of tattoos?”
Without noticing that I’m doing it, I jump back up from the chair. “Yes!”
She sighs. “I caught him sneaking around in my warehouse.Remember we were going to have dinner that night when Alastor got to you?”
My stomach feels like it’s been punched. “Yeah.”
“Someone had broken into my warehouse that day and I was hoping you and Mel could find out whether Charon’s Veil were behind it.Well, turns out you didn’t have to, because he came back a few days after that.”
“So… what did you do?”
I can basically hear the shrug through the phone. “I dealt with it.”
“What do you meanyou dealt with it?” My voice is more agitated than I’m trying to let on. “Did you hurt him?”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
I can’t tell whether she’s angry that I’d think she’d hurt him or that I think he doesn’t deserve to be hurt. “Did you?”
Her scowl is practically audible. “No! For crying out loud, Deni, who do you think I am? I got some intel out of him and let him go.”
Considering that she just sent me Alastor’s severed head, I don’t think her defensiveness is entirely appropriate. “What about the phone?”
“I didn’t even know it was his, I just knew someone left it in my car.”
“But–”
“Nobut, Deni! What do you want from me? You realize he’s involved intrafficking people,don’t you? He’s lucky I didn’t kick his ass.”
I kick the chair before turning back towards the house. “He’s just trying to survive! How the hell am I supposed to find him now? He could be dead in the streets for all I know!”
Her voice is bitter when she replies, “I’m sorry I’m not keeping track ofallthe vampire delinquents in this town, Deni. It seems I have my hands full with one.”
Ugh!I hang up before she can say anything else and give the chair another kick. It skids a little over the tiled terrace, letting out a high-pitched scraping sound in protest.Vampire delinquents? Unbelievable! From the woman who just spent three days cursing me out and begging me for drugs?
Rather than storming into the living room and scaring the life out of Emelie, I force myself to take a few deep breaths before stepping back inside.I’ll find him.
The girl is curled up on the lounge with her knees tucked against her and hardly even notices me, she’s so engrossed in Celeste’s book.
“How are you liking it?” I ask to announce myself.
She startles, nearly dropping the book, even though I’ve kept my voice low.Poor thing.
After gathering herself back up, she replies, “It’s incredible. No wonder it’s banned.” Her voice is bitter. “Imagine witches actually having any kind of power. Nobody would like that.”
I clear my throat. “I’ve actually never read that one.”Or any of the others.
“Oh! It’s a lot more like her Grimoire. It feels very personal.”
Oh look, I’m jealous again, even though Celestejustcalled me a vampire delinquent. Why? I can read. “So… fewer instructions?”
“There is some spellwork in it but also just a lot about the theory and methodology of blood magic, controlling your connection to the medium and stuff. It’s interesting, I always knew it felt weird when vampires drank my blood, like all these sensations crashing in on me, but it never even occurred to me that I was feeling whattheywere feeling!”
I pause in the middle of angrily gathering a bunch of lose cables that Celeste spilled from their box at the bottom of a shelf. “Wait, what?”
