"You have a bigger threat." "What?" asked Jesse.
"The Big Bad Boogeyman vampire of Spokane," I said, sitting on the table.
"He's coming to get her." It wasn't a sure thing, but it didn't have to be as long as we could convince Marsilia of it.
If I had been Marsilia, I would've been worried about Blackwood.
ADAM AND JESSE WENT HOME.
SAMUEL WENT TO BED, and so did I.
When my cell phone rang, I was in the middle of a dream about garbage cans and frogs--don't ask, and I won't tell.
"Mercy," Adam purred.
I looked down at my feet, where Medea slept.
She blinked her big green-gold eyes at me and purred again.
"Adam." "I called to tell you that I finally got in touch with Marsilia herself." I sat up, suddenly not sleepy at all.
"And?" "I told her about Blackwood.
She listened all the way through, thanked me for my concern, and hung up." "She's hardly going to panic over the phone and swear to be forever friends," I said, and he laughed.
"No, I don't think so.
But I thought I'd do my bit for goodwill and let her two baby vamps go." "Besides, now that Jesse knows they're there, you're not going to be able to keep her away." "Thanks for that." "Anytime.
Hostage-holding is for the bad guys." He laughed again, this time faintly bitterly.
"You obviously haven't seen the good guys in action." "No," I told him.
"Maybe you were just mistaken on who the good guys were." There was a long pause, and he said in a soft, midnight voice, "Maybe you're right." "You're the good guy," I explained to him.
"So you have to cope with all the good-guy rules.
Fortunately, you have an exceptionally talented and incredibly gifted sidekick ..." "Who turns into a coyote," he said, a smile in his voice.
"So you don't have to worry about the bad guys very much." And we settled into some serious, heart-accelerating flirting.
Over the phone, passion brought on no panic attack.
I hung up eventually.
We both had to get up in the morning, but the call left me restless and not sleepy in the slightest.
After a few minutes I got up and took a good look at the stitches in my face.
They were tiny and neat, individually tied and set so when my face altered, they wouldn't pull.
Trust a werewolf to give me stitches so I could shift with them.
I stripped out of my clothes and opened my bedroom door.
And as a coyote, I popped out of the newly installed dog door and dashed out into the night.
I covered several miles before heading out to the river and my favorite running ground.