Interesting.
“Hi, Rossi. Can I have a couple of minutes of your time?”
“This isn’t ideal, Delaney.”
“It won’t take long.” I stepped into his house. I didn’t have to be invited across a threshold—human had its advantages—and he stepped back, the annoyed rolling into a simmering frustration that was not quite anger.
Really, if he wanted, he could send one of his family members to take care of me. Vampires were at least three times as strong as a human. If he wanted me marched off his property, he could make that happen with a snap of his fingers.
But it would be really stupid of him to push this to a physical kind of confrontation. Better just to see me in and answer my questions rather than fight me and watch as I locked him and his entire clan up in a silver and garlic-lined prison cell.
Yes, I was human. I was also a Reed. That meant some things. It meant I didn’t back down, I didn’t break easily, and I had the kind of endurance that let me manhandle god powers if I had to.
“I see you have company.” I waved vaguely over my shoulder toward Ryder’s truck out front.
“So do you.” He flicked a look at Crow, then crossed his arms over his chest. He might have looked intimidating if he wasn’t wearing soft gray yoga pants and a worn out shirt with: LET’SGETDOWN, DOGwritten across the chest.
“Is Ryder taking up yoga?”
Old Rossi almost never smiled with his teeth, but would curve his lips. He had the kind of face that said “smolder,” and his smile reached his eyes with a sort of diamond-hard glitter. If one didn’t know he was a vampire and couple thousand years old, one might think he was a handsome cologne-ad model, even though his eyebrows were thick and low to his eyes and his nose was strong. His messy dark hair, a little too long, only accented those killer cheekbones of his.
So the unfulfilled smile carried a power. It made one want to see his teeth, see his smile, see what would make a creature like him laugh.
Sort of like a spiderweb looked incomplete—all those holes—and therefore safe for a fly to duck through.
“Delaney,” Ryder’s familiar voice called out.
I looked down the hallway past Old Rossi. Ryder walked my way.
My heart took a jump and went for a double-Dutch beat. I’d just seen him last night, but there was no denying the happy that flooded my senses when he was near. I practically thrummed with it.
Behind him was the man I’d seen arguing with Ryder on his doorstep the other night.
“What brings you by?” Ryder asked.
“Yes, Delaney,” Old Rossi asked. “What brings you by?”
“I just wanted to check a few things with Rossi.”
The vampire’s eyebrows flicked up. Behind him, Ryder’s did the same.
Okay, so maybe I wasn’t sounding as casual as I thought I was.
“Don’t think we’ve met.” Crow strode up past me and Rossi, aiming straight at the man I still hadn’t been introduced to. “My name’s Crow. I run the glassblowing shop here in town.”
“Pleased to meet you.” The man’s voice was a low rumble with a bit of an accent from the other side of the continent. He shook Crow’s hand. “Name’s Jake Monroy.”
“Friend of Mr. Rossi’s?” Crow asked.
“No,” Ryder said. “He’s here with me. Mr. Monroy is looking at investing in land and businesses in town. I told him I’d show him around while he’s here.”
“Are you selling land?” I asked Rossi.
He finally realized he wasn’t going to get rid of me or Crow and turned his body to open up the circle of conversation.
“I am not selling.” Rossi motioned to the living room and we all made our way toward a more comfortable setting.
“I might be interested in hiring Mr. Bailey to remodel my studio.”
