Reborn

Chapter Five

“What is it?” Steve asked, obviously sensing her quick turn to mean trouble.

“Vampire?” she muttered, and took another deep breath, half expecting it to be Chase, the panty perv.

But nope. This scent was different, and she could tell that even with the tangy, fresh aroma of blood mixed in. Human blood. B negative and … another type.

Della felt her eyes grow brighter.

She stared up and barely made out the bloody vampire passing overhead. She half considered going after him or her.

Before she could decide, another vampire scent hit, and this one she recognized. Della pulled away from Steve.

Burnett dropped beside them. He wore only his jeans, and his hair looked sleep-mussed. The man was all muscle and brawn. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“Fine,” Della and Steve said at the time.

“Someone jumped the north fence,” Burnett said, giving them a suspicious look.

“I know,” Della said, trying hard not to notice the man’s chest. The camp leader might be old, or at least too old for her, but he could do Diet Coke commercials. “I heard and smelled them. They flew past. I think they’re gone.”

“Yeah,” Burnett said.

“Did you catch the scent?”

“Yes,” she said. “With blood. Two different types.”

Burnett’s jaw muscles tightened. “Human?”

She nodded.

He growled. “What are you two doing out at this time of night?”

Della internally flinched. “I couldn’t sleep,” she said, and since it was the truth, her heart didn’t race.

Burnett glanced at Steve. “I was…” Steve’s heart fluttered with a lie. He glanced at Della and said, “I was hoping she couldn’t sleep.”

Della cut him a cold look, but Steve shrugged. Burnett sighed.

Right then Burnett’s phone rang. He yanked it out of his jeans pocket. “Shit,” he said when he looked at the number. He turned around and took the call. “Agent James.”

The way he answered told Della it was official. She tuned her hearing to listen to the caller.

“We’ve got two bodies right outside Fallen city limits. Looks as if our killer is vampire.”

“Damn it,” Burnett spouted out. “They passed by here. What’s your exact location?” Burnett got the address. “I’ll be right there.” He hung up and faced Della and Steve.

“Do you want me to come?” The possibility of going on a live mission sent a shot of adrenaline through her. This was what she wanted to do, what she felt she was meant to do.

“No. Stay here and keep an eye out. Call Lucas, Derek, Perry, and Kylie and have them join you and Steve, and all of you be on guard. Call me first thing if anyone passes by again.”

Disappointment spiraled through Della. “But I caught the scent, and only I’ll know if it was the same person.”

Burnett sighed. “It’s not pretty, Della.”

“I never was fond of pretty.”

“Fine.” He turned to Steve. “Call the others and you guys patrol the grounds.”

Steve nodded.

“Meet me at the gate, I need to go grab a shirt.” Burnett took off.

Della started to take flight behind him, but Steve caught her arm.

“Be safe,” he said. Della could see the worry in his gaze. Before she knew his intent, he’d leaned down and kissed her again. She kept it brief. As good as it felt to know he cared, it was just another reminder that this thing between them had gone too far.

Nodding, she took off. She’d only gotten a few feet when she caught another scent. A familiar one—Chase. Glancing down, she spotted him in the trees. How long had he been there? Had he been spying on her and Steve? She almost went down to give him hell but knew Burnett wouldn’t tolerate her being late. So she passed Chase by and went to meet Burnett by the front gate.

But later, she and the panty perv would have a chat, and she didn’t expect it to go nicely.

Della told herself she could handle it. She wasn’t a kid. Blood didn’t bother her, it made her hungry. The second time she threw up, she wondered how she could have been so wrong.

But blood wasn’t food when it came with dead bodies. It was ugly. It was emotional. It was death and murder. And that was so wrong.

She felt a touch on her shoulder. Her hearing must be going on the fritz again. Growling, she swung around, angry and embarrassed that someone had witnessed her weakness. Her growl came to a quick halt when her gaze landed on Burnett.

She’d fled from the scene under the bridge and hid behind some trees. Obviously, she hadn’t hidden well enough.

“I’m okay.” She jerked away from his touch. “I just ate too much human food when I was at my parents’.”

He arched an eyebrow, leaving little doubt he’d heard her heart lie, but when she glanced up into his eyes, it wasn’t condemnation she saw, but empathy. That pissed her off even more. “I’m fine,” she snapped.

He leaned in and spoke quietly. “I puked every time my first year working cases like this.” Honesty rang from his voice in the silent night. “Actually, if you hadn’t gotten sick, I would have worried about you.”

His words of comfort had her nose and throat stinging with tears that she’d be damned before she let fall. Unbidden, the image of what she’d just seen sprang to mind. Two victims right outside their car. Their throats torn. Their eyes open wide in horror. And all that blood—like they’d been bathed in it. What they must have felt as their lives were wrenched from them. “How could … how could anyone do that?”

He exhaled. “Sometimes it’s hunger, a recently turned vampire not having someone to help them through the change. Other times it’s a lack of respect for humankind.”

Della inhaled deeply and fought the need to throw up again. “We’re monsters,” she said, not meaning to say the thought aloud.

“No, we’re vampires. And we’re no more monstrous than any other species. Humans included. Good, bad, and evil isn’t species-specific. Don’t you ever question that.”

She blinked, hating that she’d expressed her insecurity to the one person she longed to impress more than the others.

He reached out and squeezed her shoulder. She nodded and looked away.

“Did you get a trace of his scent?” Burnett asked as if he sensed her need to change the subject. “Or was it too contaminated?”

Della looked back toward the bridge before facing the camp leader. The glow from the crescent moon reflected off his black hair. His dark eyes still held a touch of empathy, but he was back to being a tough FRU agent.

“I can’t be a hundred percent sure, with all the scents of the others, but I think it was the same vampire who passed over Shadow Falls. There’re traces of what seems like the same scent.”

He shrugged. “Which means you coming here was futile. I’m sorry I allowed you—”

“I’m not,” she said. “I want this, Burnett. I want to be a part of the FRU. It’s what I’m meant to do. I can handle it. I can. Even you said you got sick at first.”

He nodded. “Yes, but … there are easier ways to make a living, Della.”

“I don’t want easy. I want to catch the bad guys. I want to make a difference.” The words rolled off her tongue with honesty and sincerity.

He arched one brow. “You sure you just don’t want to kick someone’s ass?”

“Well, there’s that, too,” she admitted, and almost smiled, hoping that would ease the tension.

“That’s what worries me,” he said with a tone so dead serious that it wiped the half-assed smile from her face. “You’re tough, Della, I know that. But you’re going to run into bad guys who are tougher than you, and with your attitude you’ll end up like our Jane Doe back there. Being willing and eager to fight doesn’t make you a good agent. Knowing how to avoid a fight that you’ll lose, and being able to set your pride aside are better qualities. Qualities you haven’t developed yet.”

She tilted her chin upward and bit back her urge to argue with his opinion of both her toughness and her character. “I’ll learn.”

“I hope so.” He turned.

She reached out and touched his arm. “I want to help work this case. I want to get justice for … them.” She motioned back to the crime scene.

He sighed. “We’ll see.”

“Please,” she said.

“I said, we’ll see. The case won’t start until we get full reports back from the autopsies.”

He left her and went back to join the other FRU agents. But the sting of his words Qualities you haven’t developed yet stayed behind and cut her to the core. Burnett didn’t think she had what it would take to make it into the FRU.

Somehow, someway, she’d prove him wrong.

And to start, she forced herself to go and face the gruesome murder scene again. With each step she took, she vowed to not throw up again. It didn’t matter if Burnett had done it for a year, she wasn’t going to do it again.

She’d prove to him that she had what it took. Then she’d catch the bastard who did it.

It was almost four in the morning when Della got back to her cabin. Kylie was sitting at the table, looking kind of eerie in the dark wearing a white gown. Her blond hair hung down around her shoulders and her expression told a story that was a cross between The Exorcist and Friday the 13th. Or maybe Della was just overreacting after seeing … real death.

“Hey, you okay?” Della asked.

Kylie blinked. “Yeah, just couldn’t sleep.”

Bullcrappy! Chances were, Kylie had company. The kind of company Della couldn’t stand. “Are we alone?”

Kylie shrugged. Della moaned. The chameleon was a full-fledged, over-the-top ghost whisperer, and while Della hated to admit it, that scared the living shit out of her. If Kylie wasn’t one of her best friends, Della would’ve kicked the spirit magnet out the door. But being mean to Kylie was like being mean to a hungry puppy with a hurt paw. And frankly, if anyone was mean to her, Della would kick their butt so fast they wouldn’t know what hit ’em. But they sure as heck would know they’d been hit.

“Don’t just shrug. Tell me the truth, are we alone?”

“Right now we are,” she said with an apologetic voice.

“But someone just left?”

“Someone’s playing with me.”

“Playing with you? You make it sound like fun.”

Kylie frowned. “It’s not. But he/she keeps whizzing past, not saying anything and not slowing down long enough for me to get a good look.” Kylie made a face. “Holiday would say that’s a sign. Who do I know that zips past and doesn’t slow down long enough to be recognized?” She tilted her head and then pointed her finger at Della. “You.”

“Sorry, I’m not dead.”

“I don’t mean you exactly. I mean … a vampire. Maybe my new ghost is a vampire.”

“Great. We’ve got a dead, pissed-off vamp hanging around.”

Kylie made her frustrated face. “I didn’t say he/she was pissed off.”

Della walked up to the table. “So he/she wasn’t pissed off?”

“Yeah, but I didn’t say it.” She grinned.

Della rolled her eyes. “I swear, you’ve been hanging around Miranda too long. You’re using her logic.”

“I sometimes like her logic,” Kylie said.

Della did, too, but she wasn’t in an agreeable enough mood to admit it. She glanced back at her bedroom door and considered going and falling into oblivion. Then she refocused on the empty chair across from Kylie and considered just spending a little time with her best friend.

The chair won. She sank into it and tried to stop her shoulders from drawing up from the tension.

“Where have you been?” Kylie asked.

Della’s gut tightened. “I went for a run and we had an intruder that flew past. I picked up on his scent. Burnett showed up a second later and he got a call from the FRU. I went with him on the call.” She bit her lip, unsure she could talk about it without making it hurt even more.

“What kind of a call?” Kylie asked.

Della hesitated, then decided that if she wanted to do this, to be an agent—and it was what she wanted more than anything—then she needed to learn to deal with it. “Two people right outside of Fallen were killed.”

Kylie’s expression went to pure empathy. “Was one of them vampire?”

Della understood what Kylie meant. She thought the ghost who’d shot by had been one of the victims. Della shook her head. “Human.” She had even checked. As hard as it had been to look at them directly, she’d done it. “But it looks like a vampire killer,” she forced herself to say.

Kylie frowned. “Does Burnett suspect rogues?”

“I don’t know. They aren’t suspecting anyone yet. They took the bodies in to be checked and then they’re going to do a code red.” Code red meaning they’d stage the deaths as an accident so the human world didn’t catch on.

Kylie’s eyes showed heartfelt emotion. “Was it … terrible to see?”

“No,” Della lied. Then her breath shook, along with her lying heart. “Yeah, it was awful.”

“Sorry.” Kylie put her hand on Della’s. “You want a diet soda?”

Della almost said yes, then sighed. “No, I need to try to get some sleep.” She slipped her hand away from beneath Kylie’s and stood. Dad blast it if she didn’t feel the emptiness from the lack of Kylie’s touch. If she were just a little weaker, she would ask Kylie for a hug. One of those long ones that helped heal the worst heartaches. But she wasn’t that weak.

“Why don’t you just sleep in tomorrow?” Kylie said as Della got to her bedroom door.

Della looked back and considered it. Then she remembered that Burnett already saw her as not tough enough. “No, I’ll be fine.” She needed to convince Burnett that she could handle this. Handle the murder, the mayhem, and the sleepless nights that came with it. Convince him that she had what it took to work for the FRU.

She walked through the door, then glanced back. “Thanks,” she said.

“For what?” Kylie asked.

Della shrugged. “I don’t know. For being awake.”

Kylie grinned. “You’ll have to thank the ghost for that.”

“Not likely.” Della glanced around. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for, especially considering she couldn’t see them, but sometimes when Kylie said they were here, she felt a cold chill. One that reminded Della of death.

And with death came the death angels—those who stood judgment over all supernaturals. Those whose punishment was swift and final. Who wanted their life splayed open and checked for mistakes. God knew she’d made plenty.

Realizing she was staring at nothing, she glanced back at her friend. “He/she’s not here now, are they?”

“No,” Kylie said.

“Good, keep it that way.” Della walked into her bedroom. A silent room where she was alone with her thoughts. At least she hoped she was alone. She glanced around, trying to sense if Kylie’s ghost had returned. There was no unnatural chill.

As soon as she plopped on the bed, her mind shot away from Kylie’s possible visitor, to the terrible scene she’d witnessed tonight. Images flashed in her head again.

The woman had only been a few years older than Della, and the guy had looked like her boyfriend. It appeared as if they’d been parking in the moonlight, probably making out, high on kisses and sweet touches when they’d been attacked and fled their car. Two people having a romantic night and then brutally murdered. Maybe thoughts of the ghost were better.

Burnett’s words from earlier filled her head. We’re no more monstrous than any other species. Her heart throbbed and it felt raw. It didn’t matter what he said. The fact that it was a vampire who had done this despicable act made her ashamed of her species. Ashamed that she needed blood to live.

Not monsters, my butt. If she weren’t so afraid that her own parents would see her as just that, she’d tell them the truth. She could still be a part of her family. Still be her daddy’s little girl. Instead, she was an outsider forced to visit, only to realize how much she’d lost. Forced to let them think she was probably doing drugs, might be pregnant, and would stoop so low as to steal from them.

She tried to chase away the images of the two dead bodies lying faceup on the wet ground, their necks mutilated from so many bites, their open eyes missing any sign of life. She tried, but couldn’t get it out of her head.

“We are monsters,” she whispered into the silent—with any luck—ghost-free room.

She felt a few tears slip down her cheek and she batted them away. Hopefully the fact that she wanted to catch the bloodsucker who murdered that innocent couple—that she wanted to make him pay—hopefully that made her a little less of a monster.

“I’m gonna catch you,” Della said, vowing to never forget the scent of the killer who’d rushed by tonight. Someday, sooner or later, she would run into him again. “And when I do,” she spoke into the dark room, “I don’t care what Burnett says, I’m gonna enjoy kicking your ass.”

“Della?”

The deep voice echoed in her mind and penetrated her dream. A familiar dream. She stood again in that dark alley in her Smurf pajamas. The monster, the supersized, chubby gargoyle, stood about five feet in front of her. His eyes glowed red and evil. His intent, to maul her, was made clear by the gooey-looking drool that dangled from his jowls.

What the hell did this ugly, loose-skinned, slobbery varmint want with her?

“Della, are you okay?” the voice came again, from behind the garbage can. Which was a shame, because that was exactly where she planned to toss the ugly monster, who commenced charging at her.

She flinched, prepared to fight, and instantly became more coherent.

“Della?” This time the voice hadn’t come from behind the garbage cans, but from the other side of the dark curtain in her mind. A side where real life existed. Where gargoyles didn’t exist. Where the monsters walking the earth were simply vampires.

When she felt a touch brush across her brow, she became fully alert. With vampire speed and strength, and even before her eyes fluttered open, she caught the hand and held it away from her face.

Her vision hadn’t completely cleared when she recognized the dark-haired, dark-eyed shape-shifter standing over her.

She dropped her tight hold of his wrist. “What are you doing in here?”

Steve frowned. “I tapped on your window and when you didn’t stir it worried me.”

“So you just decided to help yourself into my bedroom?” she snapped, coming to the pissy realization that her hearing must be off again. What the hell was up with this?

“I came in to check on you. You’re usually awake by the time I get anywhere close to your window. I knocked for a whole five to ten seconds and you didn’t even roll over. Are you feeling okay?”

He reached down to touch her brow again and she swatted his hand away.

“Don’t touch me.”

He scowled down at her. “I’m checking your temperature. You didn’t feel right.” He put his hand back on her brow.

She almost swatted his hand away again, but realized she was taking her frustration with the dream and her hearing problems out on him. “I’m vampire. I’m friggin’ cold, remember?”

He grimaced as his hand tenderly moved across her brow. “I know, that’s what’s wrong. You don’t feel … as cold. I think you might have a fever.”

“I’m fine.” She sat up. “I just didn’t get any sleep.” Her gaze shifted to the window. The sun hadn’t completely chased the night away yet, but the little corner of the sky she could see through the glass panes had streaks of pink in it. “What time is it?”

“Five-thirty.”

She flopped back onto her pillow. “That means I’ve slept a whole hour,” she muttered.

“Sorry for waking you. I was worried. I told you to call and you didn’t.”

“When did you tell me to call?” She cut her eyes at him, now sitting on her bed, looking morning peppy. She hated morning people. Then she tried to remember their last encounter, when Burnett showed up. “You didn’t tell me to call you.”

“In the note, I told you to call me as soon as you got back.”

“What note?” she asked.

He pulled a piece of notebook paper that rested half under her shoulder. “The one you’re sleeping on. After you took off, I got worried, so I came here and left a note on your bed. I barely slept myself, I kept waking up every ten minutes checking my phone. All I could think was that something went wrong.”

It had gone wrong, Della thought. Two innocent people were killed and then she learned Burnett didn’t think she had what it took to be an FRU agent.

The images of the victims flashed in her head, making her chest feel like it had been filled with syrup. The really thick kind of syrup. But there was nothing sweet about the weighty feeling. Just heavy empathy for two young lovers.

“I finally just decided to come over here and check for myself,” Steve said. “Besides, I have to leave in ten minutes.”

He’d been worried. He was leaving? Della’s mind spun to keep up with him. It was Monday, he didn’t go to play doctor on Mondays—not that it was really play. Just as she longed to be an FRU agent, Steve longed to be a doctor, a supernatural doctor. Because there weren’t really schools to study supernatural medicine, someone wanting to go into this field had to get a degree in either regular medicine or veterinarian medicine, as well as work under another paranormal doctor. Steve trying to get ahead of the game, assisted the only supernatural doctor in town. “I didn’t see the note. I … was exhausted.”

He ran his hand up and down her forearm. “Are you really okay?”

“I’m fine.”

His eyes twinkled. “You are fine. I especially like the Smurf pajamas.”

See, there was nothing wrong with Smurf pajamas! Crap! Why was she thinking about that low-life vamp?

“And if that new vamp mentions your pajamas again, I might have to teach him a lesson.”

Why was he thinking about…?

Steve straightened the collar of her PJ top and then leaned down. “I’m the only one who can tease you about what you sleep in, or don’t sleep in.” He wiggled his brows and then went in for a kiss.

She fully intended to push him away, but the moment his lips brushed against hers, she … well, she didn’t do a dad-blasted thing. Hadn’t this been how they’d gotten in trouble on the mission? She’d let him kiss her while in bed, and the next thing she knew their clothes started falling off.

Yup, that’s what happened, and she was going to stop this right now. She put her palm on his chest to give him a good-bye shove. Not hard enough to hurt him, just … Then his hand slipped under her pajama top and his palm eased ever so softly over the naked curve of her waist. Well, maybe she wasn’t going to stop it right now, but for sure before their clothes started …

Just when she really started feeling all tingly, he pulled away, his expression puzzled, his lips a little wet from their kiss. “Are you on your period?”

Her mouth dropped open and she gave his chest a hard thump with her palm. “A guy isn’t supposed to ask a girl that. And if you thought I was going to—”

“No!” He shook his head and chuckled as he sat up. “I didn’t mean … I’m asking as a doctor, not as your boyfriend.”

“You’re not my boyfriend.”

“Right,” he said, as if he didn’t believe it.

Oh, Lordie, was he her boyfriend? Had she slipped up and let this thing between them get that out of hand?

“Seriously, are you on your period?” he asked.

She frowned at him. “You’re not my doctor, either.”

He shook his head as if she was silly. “Look, sometimes when a female vampire is on her cycle, she runs a slight temperature. You really do feel warmer.” He put his hand on her forehead again.

“I just didn’t get enough sleep,” she said, but then remembered her headache and hearing problems. Could she have some kind of flu?

“Are you on your cycle?” he asked again.

She rolled her eyes and nodded. It wasn’t exactly the truth; she wasn’t due for about three days. She wondered if PMS could mess with her hearing as well.

She sat up and looked at him sitting on the edge of her bed as if he had every right in the world to be here. Then she remembered him saying he was leaving. “Where are you going?”

“To work with Dr. Whitman.”

She shook her head. “But you don’t go on Mondays.”

“I do now. Dr. Whitman asked Holiday if I could come in four days a week instead of three and stay there at night. Half the supernatural clientele comes in after hours. He’s got a room where I can sleep in the back of the clinic.” He studied her expression. “I was going to tell you last night, if you hadn’t run off to play FRU agent.”

It hadn’t been play, Della thought, and then her mind went to Steve and his new schedule.

“What about school?” Della didn’t like the sound of this. She didn’t like that he wouldn’t be around at night when she went out for a run to clear her mind. Then she didn’t like the fact that she didn’t like it. Depending on people got you in trouble. Jeepers! Had she already started depending on him? Face it, with Miranda with Perry and Kylie with Lucas, she’d had some time to fill.

Not that she blamed them … well, she sort of did, but she also understood. When she’d gotten with Lee, she’d basically ignored her friends, too.

“School’s not a big deal,” Steve said. “Before I even came here I tested out of high school.”

“I knew you were a smart … ass,” she said, hoping to hide her emotional upheaval with humor. But bullcrappers if her heart didn’t feel tight at the thought of him being gone.

“Like you’re not smart.” He grinned. “But Holiday is going to make me take some tests every Friday so on the record it shows I went here. It’ll look better on my files when I start college.” He brushed a strand of dark hair from her cheek tenderly. “Are you going to miss me?”

She frowned. Could he read her mind? “No,” she lied.

He made a face at her answer. “I’ll miss you. But we’ll see each other on Fridays and the weekends. Of course, if you’d stop pretending that you don’t like me, and would be seen in public with me, then we could spend more time together. I wouldn’t have to wait until the middle of the night or early morning to steal a kiss.”

He leaned in to steal one then, and she put her hand up and pressed her finger to his lips. “It’s late, I should be getting dressed.”

“Go ahead.” He flopped back on her bed and rested his head on his hands as if he was going to enjoy watching her. His reclined position did wonders to showcase the muscles in his arms and chest. He grinned that sexy bedroom smile at her and she wanted to kick his ass.

“Out!” she ordered.

He sat up. “After you kiss me good-bye.”

“No! You are incorrigible.” She shook her finger at him. “Presumptuous. Arrogant.”

“Call me all the names you want, but if you want me to leave, it’ll cost you a kiss.”

“And impossible,” she growled. “You do know I could pick you up, twirl you around like a baton, then toss your ass out the window, don’t you?”

“Could and would are two different things, sweetheart.”

Friggin’ frack! How did this guy know her so well? When had she opened up and invited him into her life? Into her heart?

He leaned in and collected a kiss. A short one, that’s all she allowed. But it was a hell of a lot more than she should have permitted. Right then she knew his leaving was a good thing. She needed to put some distance between them. Needed a slowdown.

“I’ll see you Friday. But promise me you’ll call me.”

“I don’t make promises.” She swallowed a slight lump in her throat at his expression. “I’ll try.” Try not to, she amended. She had to put on her emotional brakes. Stop these feelings before they got out of hand.

He put one leg out the window and then glanced back. “Stay away from that new vamp. I don’t like him.”

Me, either, she thought, but didn’t say it.

Della sat there hugging her knees, staring out the opened window, trying not to care about the dad-blasted shape-shifter who’d left her feeling less than happy. A cold blast of wind snaked in her bedroom, and she shivered. She popped off the bed to go shut the window, and that’s when it suddenly occurred to her. She felt cold.

Since she’d been turned, she’d been aware of temperature, but she hadn’t really felt cold. She remembered Steve insinuating that she might have a fever. Placing a hand on her forehead, she moved to the window. She got there just in time to see Derek watching Steve walk away.

Great. Now Fairy Boy was going to think she and Steve were dirtying up the sheets. Derek looked toward the window, half smirked, and started walking over. Her first impulse was to offer him the third-finger salute and slam the window. Then she remembered he was assisting in looking for her uncle. Was he here for that? Did he already have something for her? She leaped out the window and met him halfway.

“I’m not sleeping with Steve,” she said first thing, deciding to make that clear from the get-go.

He rolled his eyes. “I really don’t care.” Then his gaze moved over her. “Smurfs, huh?” He chuckled.

“Oh, please, give it a break. You guys just want to fantasize about us girls wearing sexy lingerie to bed every night. We wear what’s comfortable. We wear what we like. So get over it!”

He scratched his jaw. “I’ll try to wrap my brain around that.”

She shook her head, her dark, straight hair flipping in front of her face. “Do you wear thongs and lingerie to bed?”

“Uhh, no.”

“Well neither do women. So if you don’t like to floss body parts that don’t need flossing, why would we?”

“I…” he stuttered. “I didn’t say anything about … I meant, I just didn’t expect to see a vampire liking little blue people.”

“Why not? I’m not prejudiced,” she said. “I like people of all colors, nationalities, and species. I even like you. A little bit.”

He looked taken aback. “You do know Smurfs don’t exist, right?”

“Of course I do. And you know all women don’t wear thongs or sexy lingerie. And wearing Smurf PJs isn’t weird.” Steve had even liked them.

Derek had the decency to blush, and held up one hand. “Forget I said anything.”

She realized she was overreacting and being grumpy, especially considering he was probably here to help her. “Sorry. I didn’t get enough sleep.” And the new vamp’s insult about her PJs had obviously stung more than it should have. “Did you find something out about my uncle?”

He nodded. “That’s why I’m here.”