a second vampire and never even knock on my back door. Jerry had to see that logic and gave in, reluctantly. So I headed down to the shop alone.
"Glory, did you forget that today is payday? Lacy said to tell you she'd call and see if her check might be ready later tonight." Erin greeted me at the door. "I know you've been busy, with your new roommate and all, but, uh, I have to eat and pay rent, you know."
I held up my hand. "I'll get right on it, Erin. So I'll be in the back room, taking care of it." I headed straight there. I'd spoiled my clerks. Doing my bookkeeping on my day off, Monday, so that their weekly checks were waiting for them on Tuesday. Now I had to sit with time cards and payroll. Some fun. Somehow business hadn't entered my mind after the hell-storm of the weekend.
I pulled out my records and sat with my laptop on the worktable, ready to knock this out. I only had five employees, two full-timers and three students who worked part-time. They were on the honor system and left their time cards in the back room for me. Lacy managed the day, Erin the night crew. I hired paranormals exclusively. It was the way we helped each other. I'd just signed the last check when I felt a presence on one of my shoulders.
"Finally. We didn't want to interrupt you." Emmie Lou sighed in my ear. "Figured it was good for you to get your work done."
"Thanks. Let me run these out to Erin and then we can talk." I stood as soon as Emmie flew up to join Harvey on his perch at the top of the shelving unit. I slipped the checks into envelopes, wrote the names on the fronts and then sealed them. I took them out to a busy Erin, then actually took the time to glance around the shop.
It looked pretty good. Stock was straight, though it was still on the skimpy side. There were several customers with clothing on their arms, obviously getting ready to try them on. And the vintage books were getting some interest from a pair of professor types. Best of all, no sign of Caryon or Spyte. That cheered me.
Because I still had these waves of depression, I'd guess you'd call it. One would hit every time I remembered how Lucifer had attacked me when I was naked and vulnerable. Damn him. Ha. Like that weak word was anything but a compliment to the creep.
Then to top things off, I'd had that stupid reaction to Ian's potion. You can bet Jerry had been upset about that. Of course that had gotten me a lecture. Not a long one. Jerry figured out pretty fast that I was in no mood to hear how wrongheaded I'd been to try anything a MacDonald gave me. And he'd clearly still been reeling from the Lucifer invasion himself, treating me like I was made of glass. I took a breath, then finally walked back into the workroom.
"What's up, guys? Any demon sightings?" I tried to sound flip, but felt anything but.
"They'd better not come in here." Harvey flew down to land on the table in front of me. "I tell you, little gal, their boss has gone too far."
"Yep, Harvey's right. Too far. And someone higher up is not goin' to stand for it." Emmie Lou settled beside her husband.
I sat on the chair. "What could anyone higher up do about it besides send you two here? Lucifer is the head honcho in hell and he does what he damn well pleases." I shuddered. "I had a demo of that." And the idea that these two gentle souls somehow knew? I blinked back tears.
"Now, now. Don't go fretting about anything we know or don't know. I'm just telling you that we got word this evening that the Master is keeping a special eye on you. He knows you're good through and through and he doesn't like seeing decent people pushed around." Harvey popped his suspenders, his face red. "Trust me, there ain't no bullies sitting at the banquet table up where we've been."
"You've got that right, honey bun." Emmie patted Harvey's knee. "Those black-hearted good-for-nothings need to stay down below where they belong." She gave me a sad smile. "So we're gonna try to even things up a bit. Got some special stuff to help you. As long as you're in this back