"I’m okay. We weren’t actually that close," Bryan replied. "The important thing is that we're all in big trouble."
Trouble. Darn it. Trouble was something I had some experience with.
“Better tell us the whole story, and go slowly, we’ve had a few rough weeks…” I motioned for him to come in.
He stepped onto the porch but then froze. “Wait.” Whirling around, Bryan tensed, crouching slightly as if he were about to take off running.
“Someone else is out there,” Daniel said, a low growl erupting from his chest. “Another vampire.”
“Gotta go!” Bryan yell-whispered, and then… he was gone. Disappeared.
I blinked rapidly and tapped Daniel on the shoulder. “How’d he do that?”
“He’s a vampire,” Daniel said, but he was slightly crouched as well. Was he about to take off? “They can run so fast it seems like they’re poofing in thin air.
“Is the other vampire still out there?” I asked, getting a little nervous now.
He shook his head and backed up, nudging me back into the house in the process. “Whoever it was, they followed Bryan. Let’s get inside.”
After closing and locking the door, I peered out into the darkness and shivered. At least I had my powers to protect me.
I hoped.
ONE
Emma
Three Weeks Later
Beth was driving like a madwoman,the windows down to keep the stench from overwhelming us in her car. Her long blonde hair, usually curly and full of life, was sopping. Dripping down her back and shoulders, covered in mud, and who knows what else.
"I don't think I've ever felt this gross in my life," I told her, as mud dripped into my eye. I wiped it out, then glanced at my arm and saw another leech I missed. With a terrible shriek, I yanked it off and chucked it out the window.
Beside me, Beth laughed.
"This is so not funny," I told her, but I was already grinning.
She laughed harder. "Sorry, it's just nice to do these jobs with someone else. I mean, Carol and Deva helped whenever they could, but now you've become my ride-or-die partner."
I snorted. "Ride or die, yes? Leeches and diving into disgusting lakes? Not so much."
We pulled up to our new place of work. It was a little house with white siding, white shutters, and a bright purple door. Over the door was a sign in pink and purple letters that said, Private Pysch. It was only down the street from her old building, still close enough to walk to Carol's fabric and yarn store, Yarns and Yards, but it suited our needs much better than the old place. We’d just finished moving everything yesterday.
Beth killed the engine, and we climbed out, making the most disgusting slopping sounds as we did. Slamming the door, I shivered a little in the cold, wet air, then waddled... full-outwaddledto the front door like I was wearing a diaper full of poop. Only, I was pretty sure my underwear was just full of leeches and mud.
“Oh, ick.” I gently extracted another leech from my leg by breaking the seal between the disgusting little black slimy thing and my skin, then bumped the front door open with my butt and slung the leech out into the yard. “Gross, gross, gross.”
Who knew what else might be hiding under my jeans. “I’ve got to go change,” I muttered.
If we were at the old place, we'd be screwed right about now, trapped like this until we could get home. Thankfully, last month Beth’s lease had come up on the old Private Psych location, and she’d moved it. This new place had once been someone’s home. Now, this whole area was zoned commercial and Beth had a whole house to conduct her business in. A small house, but still.
There was a shower.
And we’d learned to keep a couple of changes of clothes here. Being Karma, somehow, turned out to be a messy business.
“Go ahead,” Beth said. “I’ll check my emails and go after you.”
Before I could slip upstairs to the bedrooms, the front door burst open. Stefano Barton rushed in. He was a siren, one of the rare few who chose to live on land rather than with his kin in the water. “Did you do it?” he asked excitedly. “Did you take care of the water sprite?”
