since they now have a working relationship.
“Zoltan and I have a working relationship too. I got a bunch of blood for him. He should be oozing fond feelings for me.”
Never mind that I’d killed his giant guard tarantula. Maybe going to visit with Dimitri would be a good idea. Especially if he already had to return to Zoltan’s lair later, with whatever the vampire’s cut of the day’s earnings was.
Wrapped up in my conversation, I’d forgotten to dismiss Sindari when we got back on the trail. Someone zipping across the bridge on inline skates saw him, let out a startled yelp, and made the turn down the ramp harder than necessary. He hit the grass, flailed and almost caught his balance, but then ran into a rock. He flew off the bank and into the river.
“I think it’s time for you to go, Sindari,” I said as bicyclers came into sight. “You need to heal, and you’re scaring people.”
Me? You were the one talking about blood deliveries and oozing.
That’s not nearly as alarming as a giant silver tiger. I smiled as I made a shooing motion, then hurried to add, Thank you for your help this morning, before Sindari faded into mist.
Always a pleasure to pummel lesser great cats, came his parting words.
9
I passed people selling early-season vegetables, fresh-cut flowers, and local honey, and found my way to Dimitri, who stood like a brooding giant under a white awning stretched over his table of yard-art specimens. More of the metal statues crowded the ground around the table. A few people gave him curious looks as they passed, but nobody came close to admire his goods. Which was probably why he was brooding.
“How’s business?” I asked, walking up.
“Deplorable.” His shoulders slumped. “Nobody even comes up to ask questions about them. They only glance from the walkway and hurry past. I don’t know what the problem is. I’ve had some luck selling them from my website.”
“I hate to break it to you, Dmitri, but…” I reached up to put a hand on his shoulder. “You’ve got a face for internet sales.”
“What does that mean?”
“You’re big and scary looking. If you smiled more, that would help, but when you’re standing there being broody, you look like someone’s mafia bruiser.” I wasn’t sure smiling would make that much of a difference, but it couldn’t hurt.
“Oh. You’re not telling me anything I don’t know, but why would it matter for selling art?”
“Do you see anyone else manning these tables who looks like a security guard?” I waved to the predominantly female vendors, including two women at a soap table who had a box of puppies. I wasn’t sure if they were for sale or only there to bring people in. A lot of exclamations of, “Oh my God—they’re so cute!” came from that shop, and the handmade goat-milk soaps were flying off the table.
“You think you could do better?” Dimitri squinted.
“Me?” I gestured to my assassin-on-the-job couture, including a few tears where flying shards of the broken television had sliced through the fabric of my shirt. Given how the morning had gone, I was lucky I didn’t have black eyes and broken ribs. “I’m not dressed for sales.”
“That place across the way has all women’s clothes. I bet that floral midi dress would fit you.”
“Floral what?”
“Midi dress. You know, the hem at mid-calf.”
“I don’t know. How do you know?” Now I squinted at him.
“I’m an artist, Val. Not a mafia bruiser. Even if my father would have been more approving of that as a line of work.” He shooed me toward the clothing stall. “I’ll buy it for you if it’s less than twenty dollars.”
“Wow, you’re a regular sugar daddy.”
“Also, you have to stay for an hour and see if you can sell things better than I can.”
I was about to tell him that I wasn’t a sales clerk or here to work for him, but then I remembered my reason for coming. “I’ll try to sell some stuff for you if you do a favor for me. I need to talk to Zoltan tonight. Are you going to take him his money when this is over?”
“His money or, with the way things are going, his inventory back, yes.”
“Good, you can take me with you.”
“I agree to this scheme, but why can’t you go without me?”
“The last time I walked into his place, he sicced a giant woman-eating tarantula on me. I proceeded to kill it. I think we parted on decent terms, despite my