as possible.
Except for me. I’d get to see them as they really were.
“Hey, Shiarra?” A voice I didn’t recognize piped up from across the table, mangling my name. I twisted in my seat to see a young kid, maybe five or six years old, seated between a couple I took to be his mom and dad and waving to get my attention. “My dad says you’re an investigator. Do you fight bad guys like that scum-sucking leech Alec Royce all the time?”
“Hush, Billy, she doesn’t want to talk about that kind of thing right now,” the guy seated next to the kid said, giving me an embarrassed, apologetic look. He probably hadn’t realized he’d been overheard or hadn’t expected to have his kid parrot off his description of the elder vampire.
“No, it’s okay,” I said, amused with the way the kid was squirming with delight that I was paying some attention to him and his not too far off the mark description of Royce. “I try not to fight bad guys if I can avoid it. My job isn’t to fight them, just to find out stuff about them. Most of the time, I’m hiding somewhere they can’t see me, taking video or pictures.”
“But Dad said you killed some bad guys!” He was now giving his mortified father an accusing look. “He said you fought a mage and a vampire and the Moonwalker leader.”
It was my turn to feel embarrassed, especially as an intent, interested hush fell across the room. Everyone else was listening in for my answer. Peachy. “I did fight them once, but they’re stronger and faster and a heck of a lot scarier than I am. I almost died.”
His eyes widened; he was suitably impressed. “Wow! Did you get hurt? Do you have scars?”
“Yes, I have some.”
He promptly tugged up his shirt, showing me a purplish line just under his ribcage. “I got my ’pendix taken out. Does it look like this? Can I see?”
“Billy,” the woman next to him hissed this time, “put your shirt back down!”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Yes, it’s like that. Don’t worry, ma’am, it’s okay. I’ll tell you what, Billy, I’ll show you later.” Somewhere not in front of fifty pairs of prying Were eyes.
His parents both looked extremely gratified that I wasn’t upset, though Billy’s mom was still mortified. Billy looked like he’d just won the biggest prize at the carnival. Chaz was grinning at me, leaning in to whisper in my ear. “Much better.”
I gave him a wry grin of my own, and a suggestive waggle of my brows. “Practice.”
“For what?”
“When we’ve got one of our own.”
His shock slowly faded into a pleased, possessive look, and he leaned in for a kiss. I didn’t care that everyone was watching—no, not just watching, cheering—since it was exactly the response I’d hoped to get out of him.
Chapter 6
Over dessert, a few of the other Weres came over and introduced themselves, switching out seats with ones at our table every few minutes so everyone got a chance to talk to me or Chaz. Some of the Weres who hadn’t been too cordial with me earlier warmed up over this reception.
After dessert, some left, headed for their cabins or the gaming room. Daisy the bartender put a hockey game on the big screen, pouring drinks for the guys who exchanged their tables for bar stools. The evening was winding down.
Paula, Kimberly, Sean, Nick, and two other Weres I knew, Simon and Dillon, joined us for a round of beers at the table. Everyone was pleasant except Paula, who seemed a bit surly and quiet since returning from a short trip to her cabin. I didn’t pay her much mind, as everyone else was making up for her silence.
Simon and Dillon had been present for the fight I had miraculously survived in the basement of Royce’s daytime resting place about a month ago. The same one during which I’d drunk some of Royce’s blood so Max Carlyle couldn’t call me to his side. Seeing them again made it difficult to forget, as I’d tried so hard to do. It must have been hard for them to see me, too; they’d lost their friend, Vincent, in that fight.
Neither one mentioned a thing about what had happened, keeping the conversation limited to sports and movies, and it helped put me at ease.
“There’s a special midnight showing of Rocky Horror downtown on Friday the thirteenth. You guys want to come?” Dillon asked, looking far too excited at