to settle myself down, or I might do something I regret before Jerabeth comes up with a fix.”
“She should be back up here soon. She took the flowers to see if she could work out what’s in them, but she mentioned she might need a blood sample from you.”
“Not a problem, but let’s call Dr. Fox too. I know Jerabeth’s on top of this, but it can’t hurt to have a medical professional on the case as well. Any help he can give would be great. Plus, he might be able to flush whatever this is out of my system if it comes to that.”
“Excellent idea. I’ll get him now.” She picked up her phone again.
“Thank you. I’m going to take a quick shower and change.” Donna went to her bedroom and did just that, getting out of her wet suit and under the hot spray. Cold water might have been a better idea, but she couldn’t convince herself of that. She rinsed the chlorine from her hair, then got out, towel-dried it, and twisted it back up in a clip. It could dry the rest of the way on its own.
She dressed in comfortable clothes, the leggings, T-shirt, and big cardigan that were becoming her around-the-house uniform, then went back out to see if Charlie had been able to reach Dr. Fox.
Donna supposed being the physician to the vampire governor meant he was pretty much on call at all hours.
Charlie was making a new cup of tea to go with a plate of cookies that had appeared on the counter. She smiled weakly when she saw Donna. “I’m a stress eater.”
“No worries. I should probably feed. Can’t hurt with whatever’s going on, don’t you think?”
“I don’t know. I think it would probably be fine, but what if a feeding only gives the drugs more fuel? The fae could have designed it that way, anticipating that feeding is exactly what you’d do. Maybe you should wait until Jerabeth knows more about what you were dosed with. Or until Dr. Fox gets here. He promised less than half an hour.”
“Okay, I can wait.” Donna took a seat at the counter and helped herself to a cookie from the plate, a square of crumbly shortbread. “Do you think we should have responded to Dredward after that video?”
Charlie stirred some sugar into her tea. “And said what? ‘You’re going to pay for this’? ‘You’re all in big trouble’? I don’t know what we could have told Dredward that would have made things any better. Or different.”
Donna nodded as she chewed the bite of shortbread she’d taken. “That was my thought too.” She glanced toward Pierce’s room.
“Thinking about waking him up?”
“No. Better to have him well rested. Temo downstairs?”
“Yes. While you were in the pool, he came up to say he’d be downstairs if you needed him.” Charlie smiled. “Pretty sure he was going to FaceTime with Neo.”
Such a happy thought in an unhappy time. “They’re so cute together.”
“They really are.” Charlie sipped her tea. “What about you? Thinking about giving Mr. Donovan some more face time?”
Donna frowned. “Mr. Donovan?”
“Kace.”
Donna groaned. “I can’t be held responsible for the things I do while I’m under the influence of fae drugs.”
“He is quite the specimen. Most gargoyles are. All that rock-hard muscle and those sculpted good looks.”
“Hush. I don’t need the reminder.” Donna shook her head. “I think Pierce would be hurt if he knew I was looking at another man.”
“You’ve looked at Rico, haven’t you?”
“Yes.” And Pierce definitely knew about him. “But he was around first.”
“True. But you don’t have any commitment to Pierce, other than your vampire and assistant relationship. You’re not sleeping with him. Are you? Sorry, not my place to ask that. I just…ignore that.”
Donna couldn’t. “No, I’m not. I like Pierce very much. In fact, I love him. He’s been amazing to me. And I do find him attractive, but having a romantic relationship with him could turn awkward fast.”
Charlie nodded. “It could. Maybe you should talk to him about that.”
“Not now. Too much going on. And I’m not about to start dating anyone right this second anyway.”
Footsteps preceded Jerabeth’s entrance. Her already wild red hair was in a tumultuous knot on top of her head, and she had a rolled leather tool pouch in one hand. “Governor, there you are. I have bad news.”
“I already know. Or is this new bad news?”
“New, I’m afraid. Every single rose was laced with a powdered compound. I did a quick analysis of the