Page 40 of Midlife Vampire Unexpected

“You know I was thinking about if it’s the Dark Fae,” Mae said.

“It’s not,” Antonio said as he ran into the room from the kitchen. He must have come in through the back door of the house. He wasn’t even out of breath, though he must have run all the way back.

I marveled at his muscles and the warm feeling I always got whenever he was in the room.

“They flew a stealth jet. They were illegally in DGC country, on the rim, probably from Asia if they were coming in at the edge of New Attica, it would be the easiest in and out.”

“Asia in general,” I said. “That’s kind of a lot of ground to cover.”

“It couldn’t be Asia. It would have to be a pocket of Asia because Asia in general is light Fae territory. I don’t know why they would be putting hits out on shifters, especially on DGC land. It doesn’t make sense,” Jane said quietly.

“Well, until we start finding answers to some of our questions, a lot of this isn’t going to make sense and we’re still going to be reacting to every fire they put on us.” Mae groaned.

“Is there any way we can find out where that chopper was going?” I asked.

Antonio chuckled lightly. “Not unless you know all the wrong people. I’ll ask Matheus and Toern.”

There was a knocking on the door. We all exchanged a look.

“Are you expecting anyone?” I asked Mae.

“No,” she said.

“It might be the delivery I ordered,” Antonio said.

“You ordered a delivery to my house?” Mae said. “To The Estate?”

“It’s the crystals Drake ordered,” he sighed. “Besides, it’s a courier.”

I went with Antonio to the front door. I didn’t have a good feeling about this. We were down one Coven member still and the last thing we needed was another problem at the door. I was completely disarmed when the door opened and we were greeted by a short curvaceous middle-aged Asian woman with round cheeks and a big smile.

“I brought the crystals,” she said without introduction.

“Where’s Frank?” Antonio asked.

“Oh, he couldn’t make it. He told me to bring them here,” she said. “My name’s Kartika.”

Antonio stared at the hand she was holding out I looked at him. He was being his rude crabby self. I elbowed him and he reached out to take her hand.

I stretched past him, reach out my hand, and shook hers. “I’m Chloe,” I said. “Thanks for bringing the crystals.”

“May I come in?” she asked. “I really have to go to the bathroom. I had to fly to Portland from Phoenix, then drive here. I’ve needed to go forever. I hope these crystals bring you what you want.”

I exchanged looks with Antonio. I could see he didn’t want her coming in. She was a middle-aged woman that had to go pee. What was I supposed to do? I had to go pee every thirty minutes nowadays.

“Come on in,” I said, holding the door back and letting her. Antonio glared at me, shaking his head but I glared right back and shut the door behind her, welcoming her into The Estate.

Chapter 28

It turned out Kartika didn’t need to just go to the bathroom. Apparently, she needed to eat as well and then she needed to rest. She stayed almost the entire afternoon while I had a deep conversation with Trina about the different types of crystals and their properties.

Jane was still feeling okay, but I knew she was weak. We all gathered around the kitchen table and prepared food. There were sausages and Pierogies and salads and dumplings and a wide mixture of food for everybody’s taste. Trina even made dim sum for Kartika.

Kartika looked at the food and then to Trina. “I’m American, you know. I mean, I’m Asian obviously but I’m American. My parents aren’t Chinese, either. I don’t eat dim sum.”

“Sorry.” Trina seemed genuinely remorseful. “I thought I had gotten that right. I shouldn’t have assumed. Where are you from?”

“My family is from Indonesia,” Kartika said. “We eat similar to what you think of as Thai food, but you don’t have to go to any trouble. I’m happy with everything you’ve put on the table. It’s amazing.”

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