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Kane glanced at his outfit. “Will Merino wool set off alarm bells in your house?”
“I just meant there’s no need to dress for success here.”
His gaze swept the room with an imperious air. “Yes, I can see that.”
I walked to the kitchen, the only habitable room in the house aside from my bedroom—and I wasn’t offering him a return visit there. I’d ushered Ray out of the house and warned both ghosts to stay outside or there’d be a reckoning. Their laughter had been audible as they floated toward the cemetery.
Kane made himself comfortable at the small table. “To what do I owe this unexpected invitation?”
“A couple reasons.” I remained standing. “Let’s start with basic hospitality. Can I get you anything to eat or drink? I’m afraid I’m fresh out of vials of virgin blood.”
Kane’s expression was impassive. “I’m not a vampire, Miss Clay. Blood is for bathing in, not drinking.”
“Hardy har.” I opened the refrigerator. “Iced tea? I’m told it needs more lemon, but I’ll let you be the judge.”
“Iced tea would be lovely. Thank you.”
I poured two glasses and set one in front of Kane as I joined him at the table. I needed to ease into this conversation. First and foremost, I wanted to establish that I could trust him. It was a fool’s errand, really. How could I ever truly trust a prince of hell? On the other hand, right now he was my best bet.
“I’d like you to teach me chess,” I said.
He nearly spat out his iced tea. Clearly not the answer he expected. “Why?”
“Because I want to beat Otto.”
“Otto Visconti? Your date to the funeral?”
“He wasn’t my date.”
“Good, because I saw him leave with someone else. Tacky, if you ask me.”
“Can you teach me or not?”
He was quiet for a moment. “I don’t care for chess. Why not challenge him to a game of Scrabble instead?”
“He’s blind, Kane.”
“They make tiles with braille.”
“Well, I don’t own Scrabble.”
“They carry it in the toy store downtown. I’ll be right back.”
I laughed. “You’re going to zip down to the toy store and buy Scrabble?”
“Why not? It’ll take me ten minutes. The store won’t be busy at this hour.”
“I don’t need to practice Scrabble. I already know how to play.”
His eyes twinkled. “All the more reason to play together.”
He left the house before I could stop him. While he was gone, I returned to the ancient computer and searched online for a version of Scrabble with braille markings. It took five minutes to place the order, thanks to the sluggish connection. My skin prickled as the ward activated again. I opened the front door and immediately understood how Kane managed to return so quickly. A blackbird landed on the bridge, carrying a brown paper bag in its beak. Feathery wings retracted, and the bird morphed into the impressive body of Kane Sullivan.
Anger surged through me as he reached the porch in human form. “You’ve got to be kidding me. That blackbird is you?”
“Ca-caw,” he said meekly and thrust the bag into my arms.
I promptly hit him with it. “That’s a crow.” I thought of all the times I’d noticed the large blackbird on the iron finial of my fence. “Why have you been stalking me?”
