Night Owls

EPILOGUE

One month later

JUSTIN POKED HIS head into the back room. “Val? Chaz? I think you guys had better come see this.”

Chaz took his feet off the supervisor’s desk, where he’d been working out the next week’s schedule. With both Justin and Val restricted to postsunset hours, he’d had to do some finagling with the rest of the crew. It was a huge pain in the ass, but at least now that fall was in full swing and the days were getting shorter, both of them were available earlier in the evening. “What’s up?”

Val surfaced from further in the back, where she’d been unpacking a shipment. Justin shifted from foot to foot. He’d gained some confidence along with his vampirism, and Elly’s Hunting lessons had helped him shed some of the shyness, but learning the ropes also meant relearning his limits, and it made him self-conscious. There were times Val had to remind him that normal people couldn’t lift six boxes of books at once, or while it was nice to get the shelving done quickly, he really needed to keep the speed down to human level.

“It’s, uh. I think you just need to come see.”

“Oh God, did you dent my car?” He’d sent Justin out to pick up some books from an elderly couple on the other side of town who wanted to sell their collection. Val was planning to look them over tonight and see what she wanted to buy.

“No! No, but, um. Just come see?”

Val sighed and followed him. Chaz scrambled along after them, tallying up the things he’d do to Justin if there were so much as a scratch on the Mustang.

But when they got to the car, everything seemed fine. “In the trunk,” said Justin. He put the key in the lock and opened it up.

Chaz peered inside. “Oh. Huh. Couldn’t fit their stuff, huh?” The trunk was filled with swag from the last few trade shows he’d attended: book bags with publisher logos, tee shirts with the covers of new books or catchy slogans for popular series, buttons and key chains and posters galore, and, most importantly, tons and tons of books. He probably had three years’ worth of advance reading copies sitting in there. “You could’ve put the boxes in the backseat.”

Justin looked at him like he’d lost his mind. “You don’t see it?”

Chaz took another gander, squinting around in case there was some big ugly bug clinging to one of the books. “Uh. No? What am I missing? Val?”

Val was staring into the trunk, too, her brow furrowed in consternation. She glanced at him. “Oh. Wait. Here.” She extended her fangs and pricked the pad of her thumb with one. She smeared a drop of blood over each of Chaz’ eyes. “Now look.”

He turned back to the trunk and jumped about a mile. “GAH! What . . . what the fuck . . . No. Who the fuck is that?”

There was a dead man curled up atop the swag. At least, he looked dead, his skin all grey and saggy. A bit of bone shone through on his forehead. He looked up from a promo copy of the newest James Patterson thriller and grinned at them with yellowed teeth. “Hiya.”

“Justin?” said Val, offering the dead man a weak-fingered wave.

“Yeah?”

“I think you’d better go call Cavale and Elly and get them to come by. I don’t have the slightest idea what to do with a wraith.”

“A wraith that’s living in my trunk,” Chaz corrected.

As if that clarified anything.