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“Wow, thanks. You and Kira are my absolute favorite. At the beginning, I thought Omar had a real shot to be the one for Kira, but after the first couple episodes, Iknewit was all you.”
Any chance I’d have to hear anything from these three was over, and if I didn’t get out of here, I was afraid they’d talk my ear off and waste my time.
“Well, I’ll let you get back to work.” I waved and left the room. The three of them started arguing as soon as I was out of sight.
The next stop was the greenhouse-style sunroom attached to the second-floor patio. They’d outfitted the room as a staging area for witches to help with the challenges. A fallen angel was in there with the witches and techs. As soon as he saw me coming, he met me at the door, placing a hand on my chest.
“Can I help you?” He stared at me with the weird, jet-black eyes some fallen angels had. No whites, no pupils. Only solid black orbs.
With my bestlet’s-be-buddiesgrin, I patted him on the shoulder. “Stopped by to talk.”
“About?”
This was obviously not going to go how I wanted. Time to cut bait. “Maybe I should get the hell outta here.”
The fallen angel nodded grimly, keeping his eyes locked on mine. “Yeah, maybe youshouldget the hell outta here.”
Once he removed his hand from my chest, I managed to step away a few paces. I pointed my thumbs over my shoulder as I continued backward. “So, I guess I’m just gonna go fuck myself. Cool?”
“Cool,” he grunted and shut the door with a loud click.
I’d almost given up on having any success until I found two young medical witches outside. The women looked like they were on some kind of break, both sitting with mugs of steaming liquid. There was no way I could sneak up on them from where they were sitting. That meant eavesdropping was out of the question. I’d have to rely on my charm instead.
Both women’s eyes went round as they saw me step outside and walk toward them. “How are you two doing?” I asked, pulling up a chair and joining them.
The blonde looked at her friend, the brunette, and smiled in a confused manner. When she looked back at me, she was blushing.
“Sorry, Mr. Rivers, we weren’t expecting you.”
I shrugged nonchalantly and gave them my most charming smile. “Why would you? Anyway, how are you guys liking our season? Are we putting on a good show?”
The two shared a look, then laughed. Finally, the brunette said, “We’re both teamKwyatt. It’s the best pairing we’ve had in several seasons. You guys have no idea how big of a deal you are. Ratings are higher than they were for the tenthandtwentieth anniversary seasons. Even higher than the thirtieth anniversary. Which is saying a lot.”
“Interesting,” I said. I couldn’t care less about ratings. Though, if Kira and I were successful in sabotaging the show, the more people watching the trainwreck, the better.
“Yeah,” the blonde added. “Everyone is crazy about you guys.” I recognized her now. She was one of the healers who helped Chelsey after she’d been stabbed in the stomach by that monster.
The brunette put a hand on my wrist. “And Mr. Thornton is really freaking excited about the ratings. Though, he’s been a little more pissy than usual. Not sure what that’s about.”
This was what I wanted. They were already talking about Von. If I steered the conversation further down that path, it wouldn’t look like I’d brought it up.
“How is it working with Von? He’s a pretty interesting guy, from what I’ve noticed,” I said. “Like, what’s his backstory? What did the guy do before the show?”
Again, that shared look between the two women. An unspoken conversation they thought was only between them, though my training saw right through it. I’d questioned enough suspects in my time, watched them try to be sneaky with their partners or lawyers or wiccan counsels. I knew what these two witches were saying. Was I trustworthy? Should they tell secrets? Sure, why not? Who’s really going to know?
Anticipation and excitement coursed through me, but I managed to maintain my composure. I didn’t want to seem too eager.
The brunette shrugged and her smile widened, showing off her brilliant white teeth as she leaned a bit closer to me. “We can’t tell you a lot because he sort of keeps to himself when it comes to his background.”
“Yeah,” the blonde added. “He’s more concerned with flirting and getting you up to his room for, uh, dinner, you know?”
“I can imagine,” I said. Unbidden, a mental image flashed through my mind of Von, naked and surrounded by writhing bodies of men and women as he sucked the lifeblood out of a nubile young witch. I had to clamp my fist tight to prevent a shiver from running through my body.
“He tried to get me to go up a few nights ago,” the brunette said.
The blonde laughed. “If you’re under the age of sixty, he’s probably tried to get you to come up to his room. The guy’s insatiable.” She pulled a face. “Not my type, though.”
“Same,” the brunette said. “Anyway, the only thing anyone knows is that he’s several hundred years old. Some people think he was maybe born near the ocean or something. He talks about sailing a lot when the cameras are off.”
