to put a bolt through a man’s head to save the nasty she was shacked up with.
I sat up. Our host was standing in the doorway with a breakfast tray. If she cared that we were both naked, it didn’t show in her face.
“I thought you should have a bite to eat,” she said to Selwyn.
“I’m not going to turn it down,” Selwyn replied.
There were also several newspapers tucked under Jodie’s left arm. She brought the tray over and carefully set it on the bed in front of Selwyn. There were eggs, toast, some bacon, OJ, and a big-ass glass of Guinness. Them pretty blood dolls need their vitamin C and iron, right? Selwyn thanked her and wasted no time getting to work on the food. The sight and smell made me a bit queasy.
“I’m sorry, Quinn,” Jodie said in that soft, silky voice of hers. She had an accent I hadn’t noticed the night before. Haitian maybe. Or Jamaican. “I don’t have anything on hand for you. I’ll have something by this evening, though. I put out feelers.”
She dropped the papers in front of me. The Post was on top, its cover-page headlines every bit as lurid as you’d expect: MYSTERY CREATURE’S ORGY OF BLOOD. Selwyn was reading over my shoulder.
“An orgy?” she mumbled around a mouthful of egg. She washed it down with Guinness. “Jesus, lady. You get to have all the fun.”
SEVEN DEAD
BEAST STILL AT LARGE
“One of those is mine,” said Selwyn, pointing at the page. “They better not give you credit for all seven.”
“Actually,” said Jodie, “the body count’s now at nine. They found two more after the papers went to press. They’re still trying to figure out what to make of the security guard.” She looked at Selwyn. “Is that the one you did?”
“Damn straight.”
“Where did you even get a crossbow?”
I cleared my throat. “She can lay her hands on ghoul skulls and Hell merch, and you wonder where she got a crossbow?”
I was assuming Jodie knew all about the source of Selwyn’s income.
Selwyn tapped me on top of the head. “It’s Quinn’s,” she said. I swear, she was getting her rocks off on the mayhem and pandemonium. What was it I said earlier about how she’d have probably become a serial killer if she hadn’t found me?
“It’s in that gym bag I brought in with us last night, with all her guns and stuff.”
“Fuck me running backwards.” I sighed. Or something to that effect. There was a garish color photograph of a body beneath a bloodstained sheet.
Selwyn ate, and I read. The Times had a photo of the flipped-over Volkswagen, cops and paramedics crowded around it. ESCAPED COUGAR SLAYS SEVEN. There were quotes from eyewitnesses and exactly the sort of vague, noncommittal statement from the chief of police. On page two there was another photo, this time of Selwyn’s building. The doors hung crooked on their hinges, what was left of the doors. Yellow crime-scene tape and plastic sawhorses were up to keep the looky-loos at a distance.
I tossed the papers to the floor.
“Hey,” Selwyn protested, “I wanted to read those.”
I glared at her. “Why don’t you shut up and eat?”
Jodie sat down on the foot of the bed, where, by the way, she’d laid out some clothes I could wear, jeans and a Yankees sweatshirt.
“It seems to me no one has any clear idea what really went down last night,” she said. “And no one’s going to swallow the monster angle. But whatever was in your apartment, Selwyn, you’d best consider all that a complete write-off. No way you’re getting back inside, and even if you did, well . . .” And she trailed off.
Selwyn stopped nibbling at a crispy strip of bacon.
“Fortunately, it wasn’t much,” she told Jodie. “Tuesday was a payday. I got lucky.”
“And none of the safe-deposit boxes are in your name?”
Selwyn laughed and took a sip of Guinness. “Hell, no. No way they can trace those back to me.”
“You hope,” I said and lay down again. I wanted to go back to sleep. No, I wanted to feed again, then fuck, and then go back to sleep.
“Nothing comes with an ironclad guarantee,” Jodie added. “You should not be so confident.”
“Listen, the both of you. Don’t sweat the damn safe-deposit boxes, okay? Jesus. I’m going to clean them out before anyone’s the wiser, just in case.”
Jodie clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. Not just once, but several times. For a moment I considered the possibility that she