Chapter 28 28
The next morning was the first peaceful morning I’d had since Jeremiah’s phone call days ago. No weird ringtones waking me up or energized pup cleaning my house. Tristan and I were in the living room playing on our various electronics devices, I was so far behind on my games, when Connor strolled in around mid-morning with coffee in a to go cup. I couldn’t help but notice the phone number written on the side of it. Trust my partner to get a girl’s digits with his morning coffee.
“Any word on the murders?” I asked my partner as he joined us on the couch. Hopefully his contacts had come up with something. I was still waiting for mine to get back to me.
“Not on my end. You?” He seemed a bit distracted from the case. Might have something to do with him entering the phone number off his cup into his phone.
I shook my head and then excused myself when my phone sang its unknown caller song. When I answered it I was expecting a distorted voice. Instead I got miss overly perky inquiring about fairy figurines. Gah. Perky people should just be shot. Or duct taped to the ceiling and forced to listen to teen pop music. No, wait, they should be forced to watch musicals! No, that wouldn’t work. They’d probably like those. Damn perky people! After I slammed the phone on her I stormed back into the house. By slammed, I mean hit the end call button really hard. Sometimes I really missed the old corded phones.
“There are those who will not speak my name for fear of drawing my attention to them and you dare to have people essentially prank calling me?” My jaw was clenched so tight there was a chance I might break some teeth. It was hard to see the smirk on Connor’s face thru my narrowed eyes. Bet he stopped smirking once word got around about all the websites I had put him on.
“What can I say, I don’t scare easily. I’ll even say your name three times while looking in a mirror at midnight on Halloween.” I braced my feet in preparation of the punch that was about to land on his face. Before I could throw it his phone started vibrating on the table. He glanced at the screen and ran out the back door before answering. Pacing around the backyard he thought he was out of hearing range. Silly wizard. He should know better than that by now. Tristan was trying to act like he wasn’t listening, but, I could see the interest in his eyes. When my extremely agitated partner stormed back inside, I suddenly became very interested in my phone.
“My date for tonight, Chrissy, just called to cancel. I have spent weeks getting this girl to go out with me. She’s so hot she melted the hotness scale! Do you know why she canceled?” I gave him my best bewildered look. Listening to him rage while turning purple was really a pick me up. Who knew? “It seems my picture has been plastered all over the internet sites for STD awareness.” He’s eyes skewered me. I got the impression he was trying to force a confession out of me. Poor guy. Knowing he wasn’t getting laid tonight obviously was messing with his mind.
“Do you need to take off and get checked out by your doctor?” My eyes were sympathetic as I hooked my thumb towards the front door. He stared at me for what had to be a full minute grinding his teeth before he unclenched his jaw enough to speak.
“No, I do not need to go see my doctor!”
“Oh, so whatever you had has already cleared up? That’s good. Why don’t you call Chrissy and let her know you have the all clear to go back to man whoring?” Hey look at that, I can do perky! I kept my eyes wide and innocent while Tristan laughed and Connor glared.
“This is pay back for listing your figurines isn’t it? Damnit Cole! This is not funny.”
“That depends on your seat. From my seat this is freaking hilarious! You tried to “help” me sell my figurines. So, I’m helping you stop sleeping with bimbos so dim they are only ten watts. “Connor’s only response was noises. He seemed genuinely unable to make words. Satisfaction settled around me like a cozy afghan.
“Why are people afraid of you? You don’t seem that scary. You don’t even do that much magic. I mean you use a microwave when I’m sure you can use magic to heat up your blood.” Connor and I swiveled our heads to look at the kid in disbelief. Seriously? I reassured myself he would be terrified of me if he hadn’t been raised in the human world. “You’re tracking down a murderer so you can bring him to justice. You’re like an avenging angel or a super hero or something.”
“Make no mistake, I am no angel. Avenging or otherwise.” I dropped the human face and let my vampire side out. He jumped back , bounced his head off the wall and fell off the couch onto the ground. I didn’t bother trying to stop the laughter. His eyes all but bulged out of his head when he got a good look at my fangs. “I could be a super hero. I look damn good in leather.” I paused to indicate the leather pants I was currently in and put my human face back on. Talking with my fangs fully descended made it hard to enunciate. I rolled my wrists with my palms up in an exaggerated manner before continuing. “I don’t use magic to heat up blood because it leaves a weird after taste.”
My partner snorted. “Tell him the real reason you don’t use magic.”