“Yes. Which is why I’m ordering it with a side of fries. Oh, and a chocolate milkshake. Breakfast isn’t breakfast without a milkshake.”
She rolled her eyes and turned to Darius. “Are you going to feign normalcy?”
He stared at her with a blank face for a moment before answering. “Nothing for me, thank you.”
“Say, listen,” I said in a low voice, leaning her way. I glanced around us in the busy restaurant, making sure no one was paying attention to what was said. “You get a lot of people through here. Anything unusual going on lately? Anyone with out-of-control magic?”
Her brow settled low over her eyes and her lips tightened. “What are you, a narc?”
“Not at all. Just a very violent girl who wants to pick a fight with the most powerful members of the magical community. I’d even battle a mage—I don’t care. Just maybe not the shifters. They’re hard to shake off your leg once they latch on, hear what I’m sayin’?”
As soon she heard the word “mage,” her expression closed down even more. A spark of fear lit in her eyes. That was noteworthy. But if I pushed, I’d get no help at all. Back off, and maybe she’d warm up throughout the meal.
I shrugged. “How about a really rough bar? I could go for a good fight.”
Her expression turned quizzical, but the fear didn’t melt away. “Is something wrong with you?” she asked.
I pointed at Darius. “I’m traveling with a vampire. That should’ve been your first clue.”
Her huff turned into a laugh and she shook her head. “You won’t be fighting anyone after you eat that breakfast.” She walked away without another word.
I blew out a breath. “She knows something and it’sgot her nervous. Do you think that mage is skinning magical people?”
“You would’ve heard if the victims were magical,” Darius said. “I agree, though. She seems frightened of something. The question is whether it is the same reason we were called here.”
“Iwas called here. You just gave me a lift and paid for my room.”
He studied me for a moment. “You should know that the couple who got up from this seat were shifters.”
I jerked around, unable to stop myself from looking in the direction they’d gone. Unfortunately, someone was walking up the aisle at that exact moment. My sudden shift spooked the man, who flinched and took a step back, right into our waitress holding two waters. The liquid splashed up between them. When he stepped away again, the glass his back had kept pinned in place was freed. It dumped water down on the waitress’s legs.
“What the hell, Henry?” our waitress shrieked.
He flinched again. The guy was awfully jumpy.
“S-sorry. The girl scared me.” Henry gestured, probably at me, but I hardly noticed. I was watching her jeans to see if her legs would suddenly morph into a big fish tail. It didn’t seem plausible, and I’d never heard of it happening, but that Tom Hanks movie from the eighties had been pretty specific. I’d figured the writers might know something I didn’t.
The waitress jammed a half-full glass on the table in front of me. “What are you looking at?”
“Nothing.” I jerked my eyes up.
She scoffed and smacked Darius’s empty cup down in front of him. “Better me than you, I guess. At least I don’t smell when I get wet.”
“You smell all the time, actually. Like seaweed. It is horrible.” Darius clasped his fingers on the table and looked up at her placidly.
Shaking her head, she stomped off.
This was going well.
“You should get lost,” I mumbled to Darius. “Those shifters are going to call their friends. Why else do you think they gave up their table? They don’t want to battle right now, and probably assumed you would.”
“I am outside of their jurisdiction. I have broken no rules.”
“It’s not about trying to kill you. They can make your life hell. They hang around all the time and stick their noses in your business. Trust me, that is my life in New Orleans. The shifters there are like tape stuck to my ass.”
He ignored me and looked down at his phone screen again.
It was just as well. If the shifters here were anything like in NOLA, it wouldn’t matter if he left now. They’d track him down and stalk him like he’d been stalkingme. It might just serve him right.
