Today really was looking to be a good day.
Chapter Three
I boughttwin coffees at Wanderlust Coffee and Tea, marked mine with a J, and took the drinks to a corner. Nursing Wayne’s cost me five minutes, as the last thing I needed was to be contaminated with either substance. Haste made waste and accidental partaking of illegal substances, so I took my time emptying both tiny prescription vials into his drink.
The baristas gave me the stink eye until I held up my CDC-issued prescription card. When I finished the job, I’d have to thank the CDC for their foresight.
Running a bounty became so much easier when the law sided with me. Had I known legalized kidnapping could be so much fun, I would have hit the bounty databases a little harder in search of a few extra dollars.
Alas, my perfectionistic nature meant I took few jobs but did an excellent job of them.
Truth be told, I probably could have made off with Wayne without the help of spiked coffee.
I considered spiking my own coffee, but I’d wait until my snuggling tendencies could be controlled—and that I could confirm my unwilling wolf companion wanted me to snuggle with him. Some lines I refused to cross, and unwilling snuggling happened to be one of them.
Unfortunately.
Five minutes ahead of schedule, Wayne showed up carrying a briefcase with him, his suit jacket draped over his shoulder. I saluted him with my coffee and took a sip. “I will never laugh at your choice of coffee, as it is delicious. Your coffee, Mr. Barnes.”
Wayne’s nose flared, and his eyes widened as he caught a good whiff of my scent without the perfume. “Joyce?”
“Yours is laced with the best pixie dust money can buy. Mine is not. I am a menace on pixie dust.”
I loved that I told the truth while lying. Money could, technically, buy the grade of dust I’d given him, but I hadn’t paid a cent for it, as it fell under an operational cost of the bounty.
While Wayne continued to take deep breaths, he sat down, picked up the coffee I’d set out for him, and he sniffed. While the pixie dust had a gentle scent, the influencer could fool even the sharpest of noses, and he stood no chance of detecting it. Satisfied, he sipped at it.
According to the CDC representative, the blend they’d given me would take thirty minutes to kick in, and after that, he’d obey anyone. As soon as the first symptoms of the drug showed, I would issue my first command, which involved him obeying only me.
The pixie dust would kick in a lot faster, and I planned to keep his attention solely on me, a single unmated female with a virus ready to rumble at the first sign of interest.
“I can’t see how it is possible for you to become a menace,” Wayne replied, and his smile promised the dose already worked its magic on the wolf.
“I’m a snuggle fiend,” I announced, rather proud of my status as ultra-affectionate when high.
“You’re a snuggle fiend?”
“Yep.”
“You’re a lycanthrope.”
There it was, the moment of truth, when I finally goosed Wayne and made him understand my apartment’s importance. “It’s hard to find somewhere to stay when you’re a loner female. I was an accidental infection.”
“An accidental infection?” While pixie dust made most problems go away, strong emotions could break through its influence, and until Wayne finished all of his coffee, the grade of pixie dust I’d given him wouldn’t be at its full potency. The lycanthrope growled.
I took a sip of my coffee. “Yep. It was a somewhat violent accidental infection, and as I don’t know who the bastard is, the CDC gives me fancy perfume to wear to work and most times I go out. I opted against wearing it this morning so you can understand precisely why that apartment is so important.”
“You can’t have any roommates who might be able to catch the virus from you.”
I nodded.
“How developed is your virus?”
Rather than answer, I pulled out my driver’s license and showed it to him. “You’d need to see my card for any lease signing anyway, because you can’t keep me in a building that isn’t rated for lycanthropes.”
“The building I have in mind for you is rated for lycanthropes.” Wayne took a longer swig of his coffee before taking my driver’s license and reading through the codes. “How’d you order my coffee with that flag on your card?”
“I can acquire dust directly from the CDC,” I replied. “There’s an office right down the street from where I called you, so I grabbed a vial.”
