Yummy’s eyes were wide and glowing in the night.
“You might find you don’twantto be a free vamp,” I said. “ ’Specially now that you done challenged Torquemada’s followers. It ain’t easy being on your own. You’ll have to figure out a place to live and a way to make money, just like a regular human, but—”
Yummy threw herself at me and her arms around me. After a good two seconds, I realized she wasn’t letting go. I patted her back with one hand. The hug increased in pressure. I breathed out my uncertain embarrassment and hugged her. I could feel a hard lump at her chest, and remembered the necklace Ming had hung around her neck, taken from the neck stump of one of the attackers at the clan home. There was magic in the lump, but I didn’t say that aloud.
“I have money saved,” Yummy said into my ear, “and the gold from the men killed at Ming’s. Everything they carried on them is mine now. Together it’s enough to buy a small place in Oliver Springs and get it set for day-sleepers and humans. Thank you.”
“Ummm. Yeah. Uh. You’re welcome.” I tried to find a way to push her back, but vampires were strong. I finally reached up, grasped her arms, and pushed. She released me and I stepped back.
“I’ll patrol now,” she said. “I’ll be back at dawn. If I could spend one day in your home, I’d be grateful.”
“My house isn’t set up for day-sleepers. No windowless rooms. But I have a closet and quilts and stuff. You shouldn’t burn. Too much,” I added.
Yummy laughed under her breath. “You’re too kind,” she said, sarcasm in the tone. She gathered up her satchel and her duffel and looked at me.
“Door’s unlocked,” Occam said.
Yummy set her things inside and leaped off the porch to the ground. In an instant, she was gone. I walked to my car andopened the trunk, pulling the oversized vampire tree out by the roots and scooping the dirt into the empty pot. I’d need to vacuum the dirt out of the trunk later, but for now, I carried the tree and its too-small pot to the tree line and upended the pot into the woods.
“You’un listen to me, you green thing,” I said to the tree. “You’un want to share Soulwood with me. I get that, in some strange twisted kinda way. And I’m willing to have a protective tree to carry around. But I want something small, something that starts small and stays small and don’t try to grow to all sizes overnight. You can’t do that, then you ain’t goin’ with me to work. Period. So here’s a pot and you got a day or so to think about it. But the next time I’m using the land, and your dang tree Hulks out on me, it’ll be the last time I carry one, even to protect myself.”
Feeling righteous, I all but stomped back to my house and up the stairs to the porch. “Dang tree.”
* * *
Occam came into the house behind me, chuckling under his breath, a chuffing huffing sound, all cat.
I stopped in the middle of the main room and turned to him, feeling all kinds of uncertain. About the case. About the dead body. About Yummy. About vampires maybe hunting me because I had touched the Blood Tarot. When I spoke, it was not about the major, dangerous things, but maybe the least important thing.
“I can’t be lead on this case,” I said.
Occam, visible in the dim light, his body lean and long, shirtless. Beautiful. He said, “FireWind didn’t assign anyone lead, which is odd. Until we have a COD and a species, technically it doesn’t matter.”
“Good. ’Cause we’uns is alone.”
“I noticed,” he said, almost a purr.
It was rare we were alone at night in the house. Usually we had Mud in the house, and though consensual sex between unmarried people while children were in the home was the norm at the church where I grew up (my mother wasn’t legally married to my father and was one of three so-called sister-wives), I wasn’t comfortable with Occam at a sleepover while Mud washere. Tonight she was at Esther’s, and since I had locked the door on any possibility of Yummy’s unexpected return, we had time to ourselves. Private time.
Occam glided past me, all cat-man grace, and stoked up the wood-burning stove. He took my hand and led me to my bedroom, where he proceeded to strip me down. I pulled him to my bed, where we made love, an act I was liking more and more. After that, we reopened the bedroom door to let the heat in, and ate toast and jam, all homemade, in bed together, the three cats and the dog skittering in with us, sitting on the foot of the bed, alert for treats. And we talked about our upcoming wedding.
“You sure about not marrying in the church, Nellie? Don’t make that decision on account a me.”
“It’s not on account a you’un. I broke with the church a long time ago. It’sourwedding. I want whatwewant, and getting married onSoulwoodatourhome is whatwewant.”
“Your mama is sure gonna blame me,” he said.
“She’ll be mad as a wet hen,” I agreed. When we were alone, no one else to hear, our city accents went out the window. We talked slower, canoodled more, like cats in a basket full of blankets. “I jist wish that rose you gave me would have blooms, but it’s barely rooted. I’d like to have lavender roses in my bouquet.”
The rose Occam had given me was in a pot on the porch, a single stick, ready for winter, alive and happy. It would sprout come spring, not sooner. I wasn’t delaying my wedding for a flower.
“We can order them, you know, get them flown in. It’s what I did.”
“I ain’t buyin’ no flowers, dagnabbit. Not when I can grow my own.”
Occam’s damaged lips pulled on one side, a teasing smile. The skin looked fine, but the nerves and muscles were still healing beneath.
I said, “You’un’s pickin’ on me, ain’tcha.”
