Seventh Seal - Jacquelyn Faye Page 0,5

wives might appreciate the silence. Hard to fight when all you can say is, Glaaaaah."

Yuki giggled. "I miss Squishy."

"I don't miss the smell."

"No."

She flicked on the stereo and we danced in our seats to K-Pop for the five minutes it took to the bookstore. Even from outside, I could tell it was still busy, even though they were closing in an hour. "We should check to see if they ate. Or if they even had time to eat."

Yuki wasn't looking at the bookstore, she was staring at the diner and frowning. "Go ahead. I'm going to pop my head into the CFD."

"What's wrong?" I already knew it had to do with the town's vampire population. That worried me, and I wanted specifics.

"Nothing's wrong… I don't know what it is. But I'm going to find out."

"Want me to go with you?" I pulled into a spot in front of the police station and put it into park.

"No. Not sure how the vamps will react. I'm going in cautiously and planning on running if I have to."

"Keep me posted."

"Yes, Master." She got out of the car and weaved through the moving traffic on Main like a ballerina on speed. Hopefully, nobody noticed her display.

Showoff.

Worried.

Okay. Be careful.

Getting out of the car, I stood there for a moment just to make sure nobody came flying through a plate glass window. When I saw Yuki's head as she sat down at one of the occupied tables, I relaxed.

You good? She didn't look like she was in trouble, I just wanted to make sure.

Yes.

Keep it that way.

I felt her mental chuckle more than heard it and headed for the bookstore. Chief was standing by the front desk of the station but talking on the phone. Smiling and waving, I headed past.

The bookstore was even more crowded than I thought. The registers were packed, but the aisles were even more so. "What are you doing here?"

I narrowed my eyes at Jason. "Is that any way to greet the lady who signs your paychecks?"

"When she was expressly forbidden from showing up on Boxing Day, yes."

"Boxing Day? Did we move to Canada?"

"We're close enough." He chuckled and spared me a smile, stepping a little closer and giving me a quick hug.

"Who are the new kids?" I motioned to the pair manning one register while Shea ran the other.

"That's Peter," he said and pointed to the kid scanning books and punching keys. "And the other one is Suzy. This is her first day so she's learning and bagging. The two of them together can't keep up with Shea. I don't think I would have made it through the day without him."

"Have you guys eaten?"

He grinned.

"What?"

"Worked it out with Herb. There's food in the back." He motioned toward the stock room, giving me a gentle push.

"Don't try to feed me, I already ate."

"Just showing off my brilliant idea and making sure you don't mind."

I pushed through the heavy swinging plastic door and whistled in surprise. "You had food catered?" There were four steam trays with Sternos on a longer table against the back wall.

"Yep. Already paid for a week. They deliver after lunch and after the dinner rush. Which works out good since we don't open until ten and the second crew comes in at five."

"You're brilliant."

"And because we are repeat customers, they're not charging us even half of what they should be. Just wanted to make sure this was okay with you. We're working everybody to the bone–"

I silenced him with a kiss. "This isn't just my store. Not anymore. It hasn't been since the day you started working. If you think it's a great idea, I think it's fucking genius. You never need to ask me about shit like this."

"Can I ask you for another one of them kisses?"

"Tell you what, why don't you," I paused and put my lips next to his ear and whispered the rest. "Stop by the house and I'll kiss you where it really counts." I pulled away and ran my hand over the front of his jeans.

"Ooh. A bonus."

"No. A bone me." I gave him a saucy smile and squeezed, nearly groaning as he swelled under my hand.

"I'll see you tonight. Can I use your shower?"

"Since that's where I was planning on giving you those kisses, absolutely."

A dizzy, dreamy grin spread across his face and Dar snickered behind us. "Can I get some of those, too?"

"You gonna be home tonight?"

"Well, I wasn't, but maybe I can talk Shea into having a sleepover at