Page 54 of Perfectly Perfect Pixie

Sedrick’s bushy eyebrows rose high on his forehead, amusement shining brightly in his deep brown eyes.

My bartender huffed and stomped a hoof. “That shit’s not okay, boss. Someone needs to—”

“Thank him,” I interjected again, immediately shutting Johnny down.

“Thank him? What . . . I mean, what’s going on?”

“Please lower your voice.”

Control.I repeated that mantra over and over again in my head. Assuming Sedrick was correct—and I had no reason not to believe him—someone had tried to either weaken or kill me. I supposed it could be an innocent happenstance. Perhaps the human donor truly was ill due to no nefarious reason. Humans were fragile that way. Given the constant health monitoring, I found that difficult to believe.

Moving in closer, Johnny made a shooing motion toward Sedrick. Getting the message, Sedrick scooted over, making room for the faun.

“Okay, I’m stayin’ quiet. Now, what the fuck is goin’ on?”

“The blood’s foul,” Sedrick answered before I could. “I’m not sure what’s going on with it. Not exactly. All I know is that it doesn’t smell healthy.”

Johnny sat back as if he’d been physically slapped. “That’s not possible.”

Funny, that had been my initial response as well. “Impossible or not, I believe we need to investigate this further. I do not believe the bottle was tampered with.”

“Not on my watch.” Johnny puffed up, righteously offended.

“No. I imagine not. Which indicates something might be wrong with one of the donors. As part of my contract with them, it is my responsibility to care for any health concerns. I would like for you to track down the humans and make sure they are well. You may recruit Leon to assist, but I do not want any others to know there is a problem. Am I understood?”

“Crystal clear, boss-man.” Johnny gave a two-finger salute before scooting out of the booth. “You want me to bring you something else to drink?” Johnny stared at the bottle as if it might jump off the table and physically attack him.

I stared at it with more possibilities. “I want you to keep this blood. We need to have it quietly analyzed. If Sedrick is amenable, I would like him to scent the remaining bottles. For now, please bring me a glass of generic human blood, something any other vampire would order.” It could be that someone had a beef against all vamps, but this seemed a bit more targeted to me.

“You got it.” Johnny swept the bottle off the table, heading toward the bar.

“I don’t mind,” Sedrick said. “You didn’t exactly ask, but I thought I’d tell you that I don’t mind taking a whiff of the other bottles.”

“Thank you. Your acute nose is appreciated.” I wanted to rub my forehead. Vampires didn’t exactly get headaches. When we were blood deprived, we became sluggish and achy, but it wasn’t exactly what other species went through.

Head tilted to the side, Sedrick finally asked, “What’s going on, Lucroy? You told me the last time I was here that the vampire council is investigating you, Peaches has unknown wolves and vamps nosing around his barrier, and now this. Something’s up.”

Something indeed.“All nests have their issues, their troublemakers.”

“Yeah. Packs generally have them too. That’s why I’m content with the size of mine. Is that what this is? You got a vamp or two that’s not happy with the way you’re running the show?” Sedrick leaned in, attention keen.

“Hmm, I suppose you could say that.” I thought of Frederick. The vampire was a menace, and he was stirring up more trouble than his life was worth.

“You think one of your own is responsible for your contaminated blood?”

“I believe that is entirely possible.”

“Shit. I can’t believe the vampire council will look kindly on that.”

“Indeed. They will not.” And I had every intention of outing the responsible party.

Johnny dropped off a fresh glass of cold blood, sliding it in Sedrick’s direction first. I nodded in appreciation.

Sedrick inhaled deeply before pushing it in my direction. “Smells okay.”

“Excellent. Thank you, Johnny.”

“You got it, boss.” Johnny turned and headed back to the bar. I glanced around. It was still early, and Dusk hadn’t officially opened yet. The few employees around were busy with their work and not paying attention to our little corner.

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