Page 42 of Psycho

He snapped his fingers. “Wait—I thought they had some healing shit in their venom. Or spit. Don’t they lick the wounds?”

I shook my head. “I… I don’t know. It’s possible. I don’t know any vamps to ask.”

“I do,” he growled.

Chapter 16

Misplaced Independence

Psycho

I picked up my cell and went to dial Viper, then I realized it was ten in the morning and the fuckers were probably asleep. So I shot him a text.

Me: Call me when you’re out of the coffin. I got shit to discuss.

I snorted a laugh at my joke and hit send.

“What’s so funny?” Nera asked me.

“Just made a vampire joke. To a vampire. I’m easily amused, you know.”

She grinned. “I see that.”

“So what brings you up to the office?” I asked, gesturing around.

“Can I borrow a car?”

“You don’t have a license,” I replied.

“Well, I do, it’s just lost. I know the number if I get pulled over.”

I sat in silence for a beat. “I have to ask—where do you need to go?”

“I need to visit that witch shop in the Quarter. I figured if I’m staying here, I might as well make myself useful. I identified one of the victims—her name is Penelope O’Shea. If I could find out where she lives, I could go visit. Maybe swipe her hairbrush. Do a locator spell.”

“You did? That’s genius!”

“Well, she said her name was Poppy. She had this flaming red hair. A quick internet search showed me her real name. Said she went missing from Texas. If we could get her address…”

“I’ll put Wizard on it. But yes, in the meantime”—I opened my bottom cabinet where I kept a wall of keys on the door, and handed her a set to an Audi SUV— “here you go. Do you want me to go with you?” I asked.

She eyed the stacks of paperwork on my desk and shook her head. “I’ll be okay.”

I pulled my black card from my wallet and handed it to her. “There’s no limit.” Before she could grab it, I snatched it back. “Do not get pulled over.”

Nera took it reluctantly and smiled. “I won’t. I’m a very good driver. And it’s seriously probably not more than a couple hundred, but okay. I appreciate it. I’ll pay you back.”

“Don’t worry about it. Go shopping for whatever else you need while you’re out.”

She looked as if she was thinking about it. “Okay. But I do have my own money, just not sure I should access my bank account. It’ll be flagged.”

“You don’t have to keep hiding. We can let the cops know you were found. We could just tell the truth, leave out the vampire part.”

“But what if they want me to do a mugshot sketch like I did with Chaos? If they find the bastards, the vampires will hurt the cops. They’re just human.” She chewed her lip.

“I thought about that, but Wizard’s good at listening in on what the police are up to. If they locate one of them, we’ll beat them to it. Go snatch him up.” I had thought about it earlier. I didn’t like that she was essentially hiding out here. I loved having her here, but I didn’t ever want her to feel like she didn’t have a choice to leave. She just wouldn’t leave alone. I would always have someone watching her. Like today. She might think she was going to the Quarter alone, but she’d be watched.

“I’ll think about it while I’m out today.” She held up the keys. “Thank you.”

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