Iris,” Dick murmured. “How’s Cal handling it?”
“Also, beside himself,” Jane said as she grabbed her purse. “He’s talking about building some sort of secret underground lair to protect Iris. Again.”
“Well, good luck with that,” Dick said. “But if Cal is serious about the secret underground lair, I know a guy.”
Jane shot an alarmed look at Andrea, who said, “He hasn’t built one for us because I threatened to burn all of his t-shirts.”
“Of course, you know a guy,” Jane sighed. “And no, I will not encourage secret underground lair-building. Next thing you know, Gabriel will be shoving me into one, whenever he thinks I’m in danger.”
“Maybe stop being in danger so much,” Dick suggested.
“Stop saying ridiculous things,” Jane told him, kissing his cheek. “I’ll see y’all later.”
Jane dashed out the door, leaving us in her wake.
“I take it that you don’t have that sort of thing happen very often around here?” I asked.
Andrea shook her head. “Not since Jane and Dick took over the Council office. They’ve devoted so much time to getting humans and vampires on the same page, the humans tend to write grumpy letters to them now instead of outright vandalism.”
“It’s the first report we’ve had like this all year,” Dick mused. “And it just happens to be one of our friends.”
“You’re getting that look in your eye,” Andrea warned him. “That ‘Danger approaching, build a secret underground lair' look.”
“Please don’t tell Erik,” Meadow pleaded.
“I’m just saying that it helps to get ahead of the curve on these things,” he protested.
“All of your t-shirts, Dick,” Andrea said sternly. “Even the ones without writing.”
The bell jangled over the door. I turned, sure that somehow, my parents had psychically sensed me thinking about moving out earlier and had stormed into Specialty Books to put a stop to it.
But it was just Alex was walking through the door, that warm smile on his face. In his hands, he held a flat package wrapped in purple paper with a silver bow. In fact, it was the exact purple of the upholstery, mugs and walls. That seemed…odd.
“Hello,” he said, his expression confused, as I appeared to be surrounded by vampires. “Is everything all right?”
“Oh, I was just talking to Dick and Andrea Cheney, who run the shop. And this is Meadow Schwartz. She owns Everlasting Health down the street. Everybody, this is Alex Bonfils. He owns a music school here in town. He’s the twins’ coach.”
“Nice to see you again,” Alex said, offering his hand to Dick. He waited for Andrea to extend hers.
“Oh, you’ve met?” I asked.
“When I moved into the region, I made it a point to stop by the Council office and introduce myself,” Alex said.
My cheeks flushed warm. Of course, he’d met them. You didn’t just move into the Council’s territory without so much as a by-your-leave. I was reminded all over again how different my life was, compared to Alex and these other people who seemed to want to be my friends. Not for the first time, I wondered if we were making a big mistake even meeting here tonight. I thought it was smart to meet a vampire in a place he would be comfortable in, but members of my family wouldn’t be—other than Jolene, that is. But while Jane and Dick and the rest were super nice, they were also very loyal to my cousin. What if they told Jolene about this? And despite the fact that logically, I knew I wasn’t really doing anything wrong, the possibility of Jolene telling my parents seemed very real. And that was terrifying.
What was I thinking? I’d been so caught up in the moment, the excitement of Alex being interested in me that I hadn’t considered the very real consequences until he was right in front of me. It had seemed like some pleasant dream, a distraction from the drudgery I went through every day at home. But now it was real, and I was having second, third and fourth thoughts.
Vampires and werewolves didn’t date. In fact, generally speaking, we didn’t get along all that well. On our side, there was too much hostility—probably barely-repressed envy that they got to live out in the open. Vampires, particularly older ones, could be, well, snotty. We only enjoyed solid diplomacy here in the Hollow because of Jane’s efforts and her friendship with Jolene.
And I was processing all of these thoughts while standing in front of him. And Dick Cheney, whose eyes were tracking between the two of us as he