I brushed my teeth, then got dressed, choosing loose, gray sweats and one of Bruno’s ratty Bayview T-shirts. I didn’t bother with shoes or socks, preferring to go barefoot. I went to the living room, settling onto the couch as Bruno brought me a bowl of soup. I had to clear a space among the flowers on the coffee table to set down the bowl. There were flowers everywhere. Huge arrangements, small arrangements, plants, and every conceivable color and type of flower. The scent was thick enough to walk on.
“Can I ask you a favor?”
“Name it.” He smiled.
“I hate to ask, but I’m going to be taking in Minnie the Mouser. Is there any chance you can do an aversion spell? I don’t want her to get sick from gnawing on any of this.” I gestured at the greenery.
“No problem.”
He was as good as his word, working the spell as I slurped my soup. When I’d finished eating, I went to bed. He climbed in beside me, not saying a word, and held me till I fell into a dreamless sleep.
I woke at four in the afternoon, feeling much better. I padded out into the living room to find Bruno sitting on the couch, working on his laptop.
“Don’t you have a meeting on campus this evening?” I asked.
“This is more important.”
I was more important than the job he loved—that was so good to hear. His work meant as much to him as mine did to me. “I’m fine. Really,” I assured him.
“Uh-huh.” His sarcasm was evident.
“Sweetheart, you can go. I’ll be fine. I promise I’m not going to do anything but lie around, maybe look through the mug shots Alex sent me.”
“I’m not leaving you alone.” It was a simple statement of fact and his tone of voice didn’t invite argument.
I argued anyway. “Bruno, you just got this job and you’ve already spent days having people cover your classes. You can’t afford to piss them off. I’ll be fine.”
He glared at me, his jaw set in a stubborn line. I knew that look, knew exactly what it meant.
I sighed. He wasn’t going to bend on this. I knew it. It was annoying, but only a little bit. I really wasn’t doing that well right now. But I also knew that he needed to be at that meeting. Getting started on the wrong foot could really hurt him when it came to campus politics. “All right, how about a compromise? Why don’t you call Emma, see if she can come. Then you can go to your meeting and I’ll have somebody to watch over me.”
He waffled. “You’re sure? I’ll stay if you need me to.”
“Go. If Emma can’t make it, maybe Dawna can come.”
He closed the laptop. Leaning over, I gave him a kiss. He whispered. “I love you. You’re the best.”
“I love you.”
While he was making calls to line up my babysitter, I went over to my computer and got online. Following the link Alex had sent, I began searching for familiar faces. Slugger was there. His name: Rob Douglass. I found the second guy, too, but there was no sign of either Suit or the leader. Not that I got through all of the shots. Not hardly. There were far, far too many of them. It was downright depressing knowing just how many career criminals were at large here on the West Coast.
Bruno came up, sliding his arm around my waist. “Emma said they can be here by seven. Think you’ll be all right until then?”
“I’ll be fine. I really am feeling better.”
“If you’re sure.”
“Go. Scoot. Git.” I made a shooing motion with my hands.
He laughed at that. “Fine. I’m outta here. Call me if you need anything,” he said as he ducked out of the door.
It was seven on the dot when I heard the sound of cars in the driveway and the buzz of the intercom. I pressed the button for the speaker at the same time as I pulled aside the curtains to take a look outside.
There were a pair of vehicles in the drive. Emma’s little beater and Chris’s das Humvee. Even from this distance I could see that Dawna had Dottie with her, and that the big SUV was completely packed with stuff.
“Come on, girlfriend, I know you’re in there,” Dawna called. “Open the gate already. No more moping.”
I found myself smiling. She was right. I had been moping. I was alive. I had friends who cared enough to come to see me, to make sure I was okay. That was no small thing. So I hit the gate release and said, “Come on in,” with as much gusto as I could muster. I’d barely made it across the room when the front door swung open, admitting the sounds of laughter and the smells of a dozen different kinds of food. Delicious aromas assaulted my nostrils from cartons of the spiced broth and drippings from one of my favorite restaurants, plastic containers filled with strained pho lovingly made by Dawna’s grandma, and a Sunset Smoothie.
“Get out of the way,” Dawna shouted. “It’s a girls’ night in.”
“Barbara even sent some margaritas in a sealed container,” Emma added.
I shook my head, smiling as I looked at the three of them. Dawna, still dressed for work in a designer suit and heels, was carrying a box filled with plastic shopping bags and take-out boxes. Emma wore jeans and a T; she held a large gray cat carrier with a mewing Minnie inside. Dottie, in her usual sensible shoes and a mint green track suit, brought up the rear with her walker.
Dawna breezed past me, heading straight into the kitchen. Dottie paused just long enough to give me a kiss on the cheek before following. Only Emma actually stopped. When she was sure the others were out of earshot, she spoke. “Are you okay?”
The hug I gave her was a little awkward because of the cat carrier, but I did it anyway. I’m not much of a hugger, but she deserved it. When Bruno called, she knew I was in trouble and brought the gang to the rescue. You don’t get a better friend than that.
“Thanks, Em. I’ll be fine. It’s been a rough few days, but I’ll get through it.”
She waved away my thanks. I could see she was debating what she should tell me, what she could say without compromising the future and making things worse. Finally she said, “Celia, I looked in the mirror, tried to see what was coming up.” I wasn’t surprised. Emma wasn’t a very powerful clairvoyant, but with the mirror she’d inherited from Vicki as a focus, she was getting much more accurate. “You need to be really, really careful. These people are smart and absolutely ruthless.”
Did she really think I didn’t know? I’d just spent days in the hospital with burns over most of my body because Hologram Guy wanted to make a point. I shuddered, remembering Slugger, my stomach roiling. “I know, Em, but I don’t know what I can do that’s going to make a difference.”
“I know, I know.”
I took the cat carrier from Emma. I set it on the floor but didn’t open it. Knowing Dottie, there was an entire car load of cat accoutrements waiting in the SUV, and I didn’t want to risk Minnie getting loose and running off. “Do we need to unload the car?” I asked.
“Oh, yes.” Emma nodded vigorously. “Dawna said that Chris told her your inner bat had to pretty much take over to heal the burns, so you’re probably going to be back at square one on things like eating solids and fighting against the bloodlust. Dad agreed. So we’ve brought you lots and lots of your favorite liquids to stock the fridge and freezer. Dottie brought all of Minnie’s stuff, too.”
I knew it. Where I’d put the cat condo, scratching tower, and velvet cat bed I had no clue. Not to mention the litter box. My place was already ridiculously overcrowded. I really needed to find an office sooner rather than later. I shook my head, laughing a little at the byplay between Dawna and Dottie in the kitchen as I followed Emma outside.
It took three trips to get everything. But by the time we’d finished there were drinks and food waiting on the coffee table.
The combination of a Sunset Smoothie and a perfect margarita began working its magic. I felt myself start to unwind and was able to hold my own in a vigorous debate about who was the World’s Sexiest Man and which superhero was likely to be the best lover. Now out of her carrier, Minnie the Mouser began cautiously exploring her new digs.
We ate, we drank, we made merry, each of us determined to set aside her problems. Dawna was still upset with Chris. It was obvious that Emma had something heavy on her mind she didn’t want to talk about. So Dottie rose to the occasion, regaling us with tales of the things she and Fred had been forced to do to avoid getting caught with Minnie on the premises.
“I’m so glad you agreed to take her. I really think the landlord was getting suspicious. We could’ve moved to Fred’s place out at the lake if we had to. But it’s so far from everything, and with his heart the way it is … besides, he only has a life estate in it, and Mickey is pushing to sell, so that wouldn’t have worked long-term either.”
Apparently Mickey wasn’t too bright. In the currently depressed real estate market, they weren’t likely to get a fraction of what the place was worth. Of course, if he was out of work and strapped for cash, he might not have a lot of choice. Still, that he’d even consider putting his own father out of his home didn’t impress me even a little bit.
“It really has gotten a lot more urgent now that he’s come for a visit. Minnie hates him.” She looked over to where the cat was pawing intently at a box in the corner. “I don’t know what’s wrong. He walks in the room and she just arches up and hisses. She even took a swipe at his ankles when he walked by.”
I turned to look at the little orange-and-white fur ball, who had moved on and was now happily grooming herself by the French doors. She’d been our office cat for quite a while. I’d never seen her react badly to anyone—not even Ron, and he was a jerk. It made me wonder about Mickey, especially on top of everything else.
When the sun sank toward the horizon, the vampire side of me began to rise. Even though I’d finished my smoothie and some broth besides, I could feel the need to hunt stirring within me. My friends’ bodies began glowing, my hearing becoming so acute that their laughter hurt my ears, and the beating of their hearts was like so many drums.