Wulf laughed again.
He heard Talon let out a happy sigh.
"Coffee arrived?" Wulf asked.
"Oh yeah."
Wulf smiled, wishing he could find pleasure in something as simple as a cup of coffee.
But no sooner had that thought crossed his mind than he heard Talon snarl, "Ah, man."
"What?"
"Friggin' Fabio alert." Talon spat the words out contemptuously.
Wulf arched a brow as he thought about Talon's own blond hair. "Hey, you're not too far from the mark either, blondie."
"Bite me, Viking. You know if I were a negative person, I would be seriously annoyed right now."
"You sound annoyed to me."
"No, this isn't annoyed. This is mild perturbance. Besides, you should see these guys." Talon dropped his Celtic accent as he invented a conversation for the Daimons. He raised his voice to an unnaturally high level. "Hey, Gorgeous George, I think I smell a Dark-Hunter."
"Oh no, Dick," he said, dropping his voice two octaves, "don't be a dick. There's no Dark-Hunter here."
Talon returned to his falsetto. "I dunno..."
"Wait," Talon said, again in the deep voice, "I smell tourist. Tourist with big... strong soul."
"Would you stop?" Wulf said, laughing.
"Talk about inkblots," Talon said, using the derogatory term Dark-Hunters had for Daimons. It stemmed from the strange black mark that all Daimons developed on their chests when they crossed over from being simple Apollites to human slayers. "Damn, all I wanted was a drink of coffee and one little beignet."
He heard Talon tsk-tsking. Then his friend started debating out loud. "Coffee... Daimons... Coffee... Daimons..."
"I think in this case the Daimons better win."
"Yeah, but it's chicory coffee."
Wulf clicked his tongue. "Talon wanting to be toasted by Acheron for failure to protect humans."
"I know," he said with a disgusted sigh. "Let me go expire them. Talk to you later."
"Later." Wulf hung up the phone and switched off the computer. He looked at the clock. It wasn't even midnight yet.
Damn.
It was just after midnight when Cassandra, Kat, and Brenda returned to their college apartment complex. They let Brenda out in front of her unit, then drove around back to where they shared an apartment. They got out of the car and made their way inside their two-bedroom flat.
Ever since she'd left the Inferno, Cassandra had had a terrible niggling in the back of her mind, like something wasn't right.
She went through the entire evening again in her mind as she got ready for bed. She'd driven down to the club with her friends after Michelle's class, and they had spent the night listening to Twisted Hearts and then the Barleys play.
Nothing unusual had happened other than Michelle meeting Tom.
So, why did she feel so... so... strange.
Uneasy.