in the world such creatures would be attracted to.
Thanks, Anne Rice.
Never mind that the apocalypse had almost happened in New York, or the surprising number of vampires living in Alaska during the winter thanks to the long hours of night. Nope. People were flocking to New Orleans, and as a result the city was tripping over itself to milk the cash cow.
These days people were crawling through the cemeteries at all hours, and anyone who had used the spaces for magic or meditation no longer had the haven.
Street crime was up too, to no one’s surprise. Any strides the city had made towards safety had been damn near obliterated.
Maybe Cash and my family were right to worry about me when I went running alone in the morning. Or at least they would be if I were a human.
“Hey.” A drunk girl on too-high heels with a too-short skirt stopped abruptly in front of us and jabbed a fake nail into my chest.
To say I didn’t have patience for this was the understatement of the century.
“What?” I tried to keep my composure, but she was toeing a fine line. I didn’t want to start anything with three cops standing no more than twenty feet away. I just wanted to make it to our destination and get out of here.
“Is he yer boyfriend?” she asked, leering at Wilder like he was the prime rib at an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Seriously? She was going to steal my date? This chick had balls. She took a big slurp from her fishbowl of alcohol and licked her lips suggestively.
Charming.
And people wondered why locals never came down here. Who would want to miss out on this glorious behavior? Even the grits at Clover Diner couldn’t make up for this.
“Sorry, doll. I’m spoken for,” Wilder replied, not missing a beat. He kept his arm around me, fingertips dangerously close to the underwire of my bra. It was a possessive, suggestive gesture, and I felt like a terrible feminist for liking the way he was displaying me as if I were his favorite prize.
Ugh, down girl.
“Yer loss. You are hoootttt. I’d blow you like ten times.”
My jaw went slack as Wilder guided me past her. “Did she seriously say that?”
“Don’t worry, Princess. I don’t ditch a lady for anything less than an offer of fifteen BJs and a public tug. A guy needs to have standards.” He winked.
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cringe, so instead I opted for neither and grabbed him by the wrist. I dragged us away from Bourbon and onto Toulouse, where the crowds were thinner and the signs offered more than just bulk liquor.
Funny how there was this mystical force field around Bourbon Street that managed to keep most of the douchebaggery contained to one long block. Tourist traps were everywhere, but somehow these side streets managed to maintain a vibe of old-world charm and mystery.
“You know I wasn’t being serious when I suggested a public tug, right?” Wilder’s cheeky smirk had vanished, and he looked downright worried that I might have thought he was propositioning me.
“Oh, hon. If I was going to stick my hands down anyone’s pants tonight, it would be my boyfriend’s, okay?” I nodded sternly, hoping this wouldn’t seem like a made-up line to keep him from thinking I was coming on to him.
“Boyfriend, eh? You never mentioned a boyfriend before.”
I had, but clearly Wilder suffered from the too-common condition of being deaf to the word boyfriend. I pretended he was right, though. “Yeah, well, it wasn’t really relevant to our previous discussions about automobile repair and murder.”
That seemed to pick his spirits up. If he was disappointed to hear I was off the market, it didn’t show. What was I hoping for? A crestfallen pout or a sigh of longing? I should be happy he was dealing with it like an adult. It meant there were no feelings involved to complicate things.
And that was good, wasn’t it?
Oh, Genie, you are in so much trouble.
I shook off the nagging sense of foreboding and dropped Wilder’s wrist. We were free of the crowds now, so there was no risk of us losing each other, and I felt he was capable of following me without assistance.
“Where are we going?”
“It’s better if you just wait to see it for yourself,” I said.
It didn’t matter what warning I gave. When he saw our destination for the first time, he still wasn’t going to believe it. It had taken me at least a half dozen