“Well, we didn’t know what you’d like—”
“And whether you wanted to go casual,” Jen added.“You know, an ‘I fight off attacks on mybardricdaily’ kind of vibe, or dress it up a bit—”
“Oh, the last one!”Sophie said.“Those assholes are still dressed to the nines, so you can’t go in there in jeans—”
“She can go in whatever the hell she wants,” Jen said indignantly.“Sheatetonight.”
“Ha!Literally,” Sophie said, pulling out dress after dress, spills of red sequins, black lace, and sapphire velvet, the latter with so many cutouts that I didn’t see how it would be possible to wear underwear with it.Not that I had any of that currently, either.“Although you shouldn’t have had to,” she added to me.“You should sue the hotel.For what they charge around here, security ought to be included.”
“It is,” I said, thinking of the vamp.
“Well, obviously not enough!”Sophie was indignant.“How about this one?”she held up a sparkly, backless number that was mostly a fall of silver paillettes.
“That would show off my… everything,” I said, because it also plunged to my naval in front.
“So?Let it!”Sophie suddenly looked furious.
“I’m not at my best—”
“And why is that?Let them see the price you paid for their incompetence, not to mention cowardice!I didn’t see anybody else fighting but us and Arnou—”
“Others were fighting,” I said, remembering Sunchaser, which wasn’t even one of the larger clans, tearing me a path through Rand.
“Some of them,” Sophie grudgingly admitted.“But not all.Not most!They just stood around with their fingers up their butts—”
“Sophie!”Jen said.
“Am I wrong?”the fiery redhead challenged.“Rand was outnumbered like hell tonight, and they knew it, but they attacked anyway!Which meant they expected no one to intervene.How are we supposed to win a war when we’re this divided?”
Good question, I thought.
But someone else didn’t think so.
“Not the time.”Kimmie, who had been quietly standing on the sidelines as usual, suddenly said.
“What?”Sophie looked surprised to have been interrupted mid-rant.Maybe because, when she got up a head of steam, she could go for a while.
“I said, not the time.And stop telling Lia what to wear.She’s tired, she’s injured, and now she has to go deal with those assholes down the hall.”She looked at me, and there was anger in the usually calm dark eyes.“You want to go in a bathrobe, go in a bathrobe.Let ‘em know you aren’t gonna be there long.”
“But everybody else is dressed up,” Sophie protested.“And I picked out some great stuff—”
“Which she can wear another time.”Kimmie, who usually stayed out of the constant drama stirred up by the others, was firm.
“Yeah, as fast as Weres go through clothes, she’ll need them,” Jen agreed.“Have you seen her closet?It’s half empty—”
“What were you doing in my closet?”I asked.
“Looking for stuff,” Jen waved it away.“The point is that you’re Lupa now.You can’t go around in ratty t-shirts and jeans all the time—”
“My t-shirts aren’t ratty—”
“There was one from, like, the nineties.Some old band called Nirvana—”
“It’s vintage!”
“Shh!She’s old,” Sophie said, in what she fondly believed to be a whisper.“She probably bought it new at a concert—”
“I did no such thing!”I snapped, because I was only a little over a decade older than Sophie.Then I closed my eyes and took a breath.
