I frowned. Something told me the Thornwicks were key to all of this.
My phone buzzed before I could voice that thought. It was a text from Ellie.
Don’t forget we’re supposed to catch up over coffee today. Virgil made scones.
Guilt prickled my throat. I’d totally forgotten about our coffee date.
“I told Ellie I’d pop by Bean Me Up. She’ll be offended if I don't show my face.” I looked at Samuel. “It’s only ten minutes away.”
He grimaced.
“Fine,” he finally muttered. “But I’m not drinking anything with theword ‘moon’ in it.”
Bo perked up in the back seat. “Great. All this angst was making me hungry.”
We soon pulled up outside Bean Me Up. The chalkboard sign readNow Serving: Blood Orange Scones (No Actual Blood). Underneath, in smaller letters, somebody had added(Probably).
“I’m already regretting this,” Samuel said.
I could smell the usual miscellaneous supernatural clientele inside as we headed for the door, Bo’s tail wagging so fast it blurred.
Ellie spotted us and lit up like a Christmas tree where she was clearing a table.
“You made it.” She waved with her usual energy as she came over and knocked a ghoul’s brain muffin to the floor. “Oh. I’m so sorry! I’ll get you a replacement.”
Penny, the witch barista, released a long-suffering sigh behind the counter. Her gaze lowered to Bo, who’d parked himself in front of the cake display and was eyeing everything with sparkling eyes.
“You want a muffin?” the witch asked.
“Half a muffin,” I said sharply before my dog could acquiesce.
Penny arched an eyebrow.
Bo’s ears drooped. “I’m on a diet,” he told the puzzled witch glumly. “It’s terrible.”
“Yeah, well, at least you don’t have to try and squeeze into a summer bikini in a few months,” Penny muttered.
Samuel’s expression indicated he wanted to scrub his ears clean after hearing this. Virgil appeared fromthe back, took one look at him, and went pale. Or paler, which was an achievement for a vampire.
I still hadn’t figured out why he was so intimidated by the Hawthorne alpha.
“Oh, hey,” Virgil said awkwardly. He swallowed and straightened his100% Ethically Sourced BloodT-shirt. “Can I get you something? We have a new Moonshine?—”
“Coffee,” Samuel said flatly. “Cream. Four sugars.”
“Right.” Virgil retreated to the gleaming drinks machine with the urgency of a vampire who’d just remembered he had somewhere else to be.
Ellie hugged me hard enough to crack a rib.
“You look a bit stressed,” she said, pulling back to examine me with a slight frown. She brightened. “Want me to make you your favorite drink to go with that scone?”
Penny visibly tensed. Virgil’s shoulders knotted.
It seemed Ellie’s barista apprenticeship was an ongoing, uphill battle.
“How about you have that break and we catch up instead?” I suggested diplomatically.
Penny and Virgil approved the idea hastily.
