For once I was glad friendliness came hard to me. It made it easy to keep my face expressionless and my words hard. Although I did glance at my dad’s back.
Neither he, Peri, nor Jasper had flinched at my announcement. They stood, their palms resting on the hilts of their swords.
At least my family stands with me…
“That,” a woman from the Coopers pointed to Considine’s profile. “Heis yourfriend?”
Several of the Patels shook their heads, but while shock and disbelief swept across my audience, none of them were standing and shouting, or trying to lead a rebellion.
It’s a start.
“Yes,” I confirmed. “He’s been my partner on the task force since early November, and my neighbor since September.”
Whispers erupted from the families, who huddled together to speak in lowered voices.
I don’t think they’re going to believe me that we’re actually friends, but I suppose that’s unavoidable—
“Jade,” Sunshine said, her voice low and quiet.
I glanced down at her, meeting her brown eyes.
Sunshine held up her cellphone. “I’m texting you some pictures. Pull them up on your cellphone to show them.”
My phone buzzed with the incoming text message, and I opened it up as instructed, pausing when I found the first photograph. “How did you get these?”
“Some of them he sent to me—whether I asked for them or not,” Sunshine wryly said, “I think he was proud and wanted to show them off. Others I took, because I knew he wanted as many pictures of the two of you as he could get.”
I hesitated, then brought up the first photo.
It was of Considine and I, our faces smashed together so Considine could take the selfie. Just enough of our shoulders were visible to reveal our navy-blue task force uniform and our gold patch.
I recognize the tables in the background as part of the task force muster room—this was probably one of the many times we’d shown up early and were waiting for Sarge while the rest of the team played go fish/old maid.
I was looking at the camera with a startled expression, but Considine was beaming, his left arm thrown haphazardly over my shoulders.
Silence consumed the room, bringing an absolute stillness that felt eerie.
I understood the silence. It was unheard of for a vampire to willingly get that close to us—to slayers. No one wanted to be that close to a poison that could kill them.
No one, except for Considine.
I took a breath, then brought up the next photo.
It was a picture of us from the night of the vampire gala, in our evening wear.
I was smiling in this photo and looking at the taker of the photo—I remembered Hazel Medeis had snapped this shot when Considine had requested it at the end of the party.
Considine’s red eyes gleamed in this photo, his smile was smaller, but his arm was settled around my waist, his head tilted down and to the side so he could lean the side of his head against mine.
I waited for any kind of audience reaction, but there was none, so I brought up the last photo.
It was of me, sitting at my desk, leaning forward at a very unergonomic angle with my right hand on the computer mouse and my left arm braced on my desk.
Considine was in his cute little bat form, dangling from a lock of my red hair with one wing splayed down the back of my neck.
I remembered the moment—he’d been bored while I was finishing the last few notes I needed to add to a case before we could leave for the night. He’d transformed, saying that he was experimenting with ways to hide in my hair. I’d thought it was an excuse to pull on my hair and voice his discontent, but now I could see it was obviously an excuse so he could get Sunshine to take a picture.
While I wasn’t paying attention in this photo, Considine had posed for maximum cuteness. His little bat eyes were shiny andexpressive as he hung upside down, and the wing he rested on my neck was only partially unfolded.
