with her. It had occurred to him that he’d overreacted, been too quick to judge, and that she really was a good kid.
“Hey, any chance I can get more of those cookies out of you this week?”
Analie grinned at Thad. “Yeah, sure. Glad you liked ‘em.”
While Mouse and Ken were industriously putting everything away, Sebastian rubbed his chin and then turned to Christoph.
“Do you like action movies?”
Christoph nodded enthusiastically to Sebastian. “Hell yeah. Die Hard, Transporter, anything with explosions.”
Analie poked through Christoph’s clothes, folding them and putting them away or hanging them up. He had nice stuff. She wiped her eyes as they watered from her yawning. She was going fast. She looked over at Mouse and Ken and squinted a bit. They looked a little blurry.
“I’m gonna head out. My eyes are feeling funny,” she mumbled, rubbing her eyes with the heels of her hands and shuffling out of the apartment.
Mouse nodded, glanced around at the mess of empty bags, shrugged and followed her out. Ken gathered the empty bags.
“Me, too,” Ken said. “I still have some work to do tonight. Did Alec tell either of you boys when you’re supposed to get started?”
At Ashi and Christoph’s blank looks, he sighed again.
“Okay, I’ll come get you when it’s time for your fittings and debut. We still need to get a few of these things tailored, find your signature scents…” Muttering to himself, the blond vampire followed in Mouse and Analie’s wake.
Sebastian and Thad were quite pleased with Christoph. Sebastian came over to clap him on the shoulder companionably and lead him to the couch, throwing out his arm in an expansive gesture to point out all the movies.
“My friend, I think we are all going to get along just fine.”
* * *
Royce was suspicious. Analie had been sneaking around without supervision. She always came back, but she had a hint of someone else’s scent—Were, no less—clinging to her.
She’d snuck out again, ducking and weaving through the foot-traffic, and he was following from a few blocks back. Normally he would have sent John or Angus to investigate and handle something like this, but John was needed in the main office and Angus was working security for an opening at one of the new restaurants. It didn’t bother Royce having to do the work himself. In a way, he preferred it, since he so rarely had the opportunity to handle such errands himself, and there was always a possibility he could turn the situation in his favor if she was breaking the agreements he had with the Goliath alpha by feeding information back to them.
The wind was in his favor, keeping her off his scent as he maneuvered through the evening foot traffic to follow her.
Freddy was visiting from Pennsylvania again and Analie felt like a kid at Christmas. Not only did she get to play Secret Agent Man and sneak out, but she got to hang out with someone who was A) not a vampire and B) not enamored of one. In other words, someone normal and sane. And she got hot chocolate to boot.
She bolted across the street, ignoring the honking cars. As the number of people increased, she wished she could go by rooftop, or at least jump over a few of the thicker groups. Royce had warned her against doing such things. She knew better now, and that she’d cause trouble not only for herself, but for other supernaturals in the area by showing her powers so blatantly in such a heavily populated area. Instead, she shouldered through the crowd until she spotted the familiar thin figure through the window of a Starbucks, sitting at a table with two cups.
“Hey!”
Freddy turned around at the sound of Analie’s voice and smiled as she hurried inside. “Hey, yourself. I got you hot chocolate, but they forgot the whipped cream.”
“Undoubtedly run by Amberguard,” Analie sniffed, drinking the chocolate and scalding her tongue. “Damn their underhanded ways. So, you had a good trip?”
Freddy nodded. “Hitchhiked this time.”
Analie’s eyes went wide. “No way. That sounds so cool.” She tried her chocolate again. “How’s life in Penn?”
“Other than the woods, it's not all that great. Sorry, give me sunny Cali any day.” Freddy carefully sipped his chocolate. “How’s life with the leeches?”
Analie rolled her eyes. “School, work, house. You’ve heard it before.”
Freddy nodded. “You getting along okay with Mr. R?”