from time to time and Damian's crowd had been known to keep mortal pets. Nice that he'd let Penny see that. "You're right. A vampire with experience can drink from a mortal." I grabbed one of Penny's fists. "But you, my dear, are about five minutes old and haven't learned to control your blood-lust. Put you close to a mortal and you're liable to go too far. You want to kill Josh?"
She sighed and unclenched her hand, drawing it away from me. "I did. When he left me on that hilltop. But now I just want a date with a cute guy. Is that so horrible?" Her eyes filled with tears. "I want to be normal."
"The normal train left the station the night you were turned." I pulled her down to the couch. I hoped this didn't turn into a sobfest. "Tell you what. Meet Josh. I'll follow you every step of the way. I'll do you a favor and stay out of sight unless I see you start something that will become dangerous to him. I'm afraid that's as close to a normal date as you're going to get right now." I hit the fridge and grabbed a cold bottle of synthetic. "Did you drink one of these yet? You need to fill up before you get close to him."
"Thanks, Glory. I'm sure you have better things to do tonight than trail after me." Penny twisted off the top of her bottle.
"I do, but I'll deal." I opened my own bottle and noticed I was running low on regular synthetic. "Hey, stay away from the Blud-Lite, it has alcohol in it."
"Glad you warned me, though I kind of figured that out from the name and the label." Penny smiled. "Blood with alcohol. They make vampire drugs too?"
"Yes. That Simon Destiny the demons want is a vampire drug dealer. Vampire Viagra is his big moneymaker."
Penny grinned. "You're kidding. Vampires need Viagra? My illusions are shattered."
"No need." I smiled back. "I don't know if you're, um, experienced or not . . ." I remembered that nineteen in this day and age wasn't the same as it had been way back when. I'd married at sixteen, been widowed at twenty, and had found Jerry and bliss at twenty-two.
"I'm not a virgin." Penny winked. "I even lived with one of my lab-rat boyfriends for a while last year. My parents stroked out, but they got over it. Sending me away to college when I was so young, they had to get used to the fact that I was going to try everything I could as fast as I could, you know?"
"Not really, but let's try to slow down on the vampire thing, okay? Just know that vamp men have got it going on and on." I actually flushed. "Never mind." I sat on the couch. I could see myself in a mirror. Wow. I grabbed my purse and pulled out the compact I carried strictly for the powder. I opened it and gazed into the mirror I'd never bothered to look in before. My skin was so pale. When summer got here, maybe I'd try one of those spray tans.
"Earth to Glory." Penny sat beside me. "You've really not been able to use a mirror in hundreds of years?"
"Nope." I snapped the compact closed. "Wonder how long this'll last. The demons have got to know I'm not harvesting souls for them, no matter how bad the person is who crosses my path."
"But maybe you'd be doing a service. For the Lord." Penny looked serious.
"Penny, don't even think about it. The Lord wouldn't want you to even speak to a demon, much less trust one. You can't do anything connected to hell without payback. I had a demon inside me and I got to know their kind way too personally. It's an impossible situation. There's no way I could just merrily send bad guys to hell and not get sucked down there myself. Besides, who am I to decide who is good and who is hell-worthy? I sure don't want that kind of responsibility."
Penny's phone rang. She picked it up off the coffee table. "It's Jenny. I've got to answer this."
"Fine. But you can put her off if she wants to meet. Until after your date with Josh." I sat back and waited for her to answer the phone.
"Hey, sis." Penny listened to her sister exclaim over how hard it had been to reach her. "Yes, I was in the lab. Had to turn