Wolf at the Door - By MaryJanice Davidson Page 0,49
love that you said that. But you mustn’t be mad at him.”
“Yeah? Mustn’t I? Just watch.”
“My duty became my pleasure about five seconds after I met you. If I’d known you were waiting, I would have come here much sooner.
“Ah, Edward. Stop me if you’ve heard this . . .”
“ ‘I’m not the vampire queen’?” he guessed.
“Well, yes. But also, you’re too good. Anyone else would have greeted me with a stake through my upper ribs.”
“Yeah, well. It’s not even the weekend yet. So then what? We’ll get back to your asshole cousin. What happened after you met them?”
“When we finished ‘visiting,’ I let myself out. I wasn’t so much gathering info as I was indulging in a quick gossip with the gals (and zombie). Which is when you spotted me.”
“No, because I didn’t see you then. I saw you the next day. Right?”
“Ah! Yes. Because after bluff sex, my contact in downtown St. Paul texted me about another murder. I realized that my wanting to see you had actually cost some poor creature her life. When I realized the depth of my carelessness, I went back to the mansion straightaway.”
“Me, too, me, too!” he interrupted excitedly. “I’d blown off calling Boo because I didn’t have the smoking gun. Any gun. So I wanted to see what else I could find out. That’s when I spotted you.” This time he was the one to sigh. It sounded like a soft breeze through a cemetery.
“That’s when I knew it was all over but the cleanup. You . . . and me . . .” She opened her mouth to interrupt, but he shook his head. “I might have given her the wrong information on purpose. I mean, to delay her. Which I’ll pay and pay and pay and pay for. But we’ve got a little time now. I figured I’d let Boo come and just get out of the way and let her do what she does. You know, like Hoover brand vacuum. But I couldn’t . . .” He was looking into her eyes as his own shone with tears that hadn’t dropped. “I couldn’t just . . .”
“Throw me to the wolves?” she guessed. “So to speak?”
“And here we are.”
Her heart didn’t break, nothing that dramatic, but it did get a tiny cramp when she took in Edward’s crestfallen expression.
He really wanted to believe in a world right out of a Xanth novel and, of course, wanted the truth here and there, but could never hide how bummed he was to discover yet another thing he relied upon was about as interesting and romantic and magical as track lighting.
The latest reality check? The mystery gal is just another spy spotted in the wrong place. It’s nothing. No, it’s even worse than nothing . . . it’s explainable.
Edward’s problem isn’t that magic isn’t magical, she thought with deep sympathy. His problem is, he’s the biggest romantic I’ve ever met. He wants knights to slay dragons and then marry the Maiden Fair and live happily ever after. He wants all that, he would live for all that. He doesn’t want to back up servers and coordinate audits.
But no matter what it is, what paranormal stereotype he encounters, it’s always both more than it seems, and less.
“This time I was able to warn them—the vampires—and they warned me. They knew you were out there.”
“Aw, man.” He shook his head with a rueful half smile. “And here I thought I’d been so sly.”
“Nope. Don’t feel bad; you weren’t bred for that sort of thing. That’s when I—” She paused. Took another look at his expression. “Well, they told me that one of them was taking care of you. I was—I didn’t know what that meant. I was afraid I did know. So I . . .”
“Rode to my rescue?” Edward clasped his hands to his chest and sighed as he fluttered his eyelashes. Typical of men who don’t give a shit about such things, he had long, lush eyelashes, the lucky bastard. “Did you, Rache? Ride to my rescue on your . . . uh . . . steed?”
“Turned my back on one of them long enough for her to clip me with a sturdy knife handle,” she said dryly.
“Her being the vampire queen?”
“Oh, no. No, it was her friend, the beautiful little blond girl who dresses like she’s late for Catholic school.”
“Um . . . okay. We’re gonna circle back to that, because I didn’t get to meet that one, wouldn’t you