Page 4 of Howl You Doin?
He’s the one who started it!
“Youbastard.” I pick up the first thing that I can grab and hurl it at him, fuming as pink cupcake explodes on the wall.
“Whatever, see you next Tuesday, crazy woman,” he says, then steps through the opening, and the wall slides back into place as he escapes from the room.
Did he just call me a “C U Next Tuesday?”
“Motherfucker!” I screech at the empty kitchen, madder than I can ever remember.
Chapter 1
Connor O’Doyle
TWO WEEKS LATER
Skeleton’s make sandwiches?
“So,he’s not trying to murder me?” The tone in Jekyll’s voice has me looking at the phone with incredulity. I can just imagine the idiot’s green eyes full of hope, his expression like that of a wounded dog all because Vlad is mad at him.
I swap the device to my other ear. “No, Jekyll, if anyone murders you it will be me,” I say, setting my leather duffel on the ground as I open the side door into the quiet castle and make my way inside. “You shot me with a fucking tranq dart, you asshole. You should be more worried about whenIwill murder you.”
“It’s painless,” Jekyll intones, as if shooting me is trivial. “I even tried it on myself beforehand.”
I growl into the phone, unsurprised by the fact that he would test it on himself first.
“You’re the one who said Vlad was losing his mind over a human, and you wanted help,” he rushes out, then swallows loudly. “You’re certain he’s not trying to kill me?”
“I didn’t say that. He just isn’t trying to kill you right now.”
The heavy door shuts behind me, and not for the first time do I find myself wishing I had put in an elevator to reach the top floor. Vlad’s bitching be damned, the sight of the grand staircase and the many steps leading to the north wing leaves me feeling even more exhausted than I already am. The old vampire may have recently started eating again and found his mate, but any talks of renovations and Dracula gets testy, the fucker.
“Well, that’s good news then.” Jekyll sounds delighted at the prospect of Vlad killing him in future, rather than immediately, for absconding with his favorite nanny. Jekyll lost touch with reality long before I met him, and although he is younger than me in years, his mind is not.
“I cannot believe you took Hilda,” I mutter into the phone as I grip the large duffle and head up the many stairs to my destination. The smell of wood polish filters through my nose, informing me that at least the cleaning service is doing a good job.
“You make it sound as if I kidnapped her,” he grumbles, his voice muffled as he bites into something.
“Why did you take her anyway?” I ask, genuinely wondering if he will tell me, since he saw fit to call me in the middle of the night seemingly to chitchat as I made the drive back to the castle.
“Contrary to popular belief, I didn’t exactlytakeher. She wanted to come with me,” he mutters. “My gods, this is the most disgusting thing I have ever eaten.”
He chews loudly, smacking obnoxiously into the receiver and I wrinkle my nose. “Then why are you still eating it?”
“Hilda made me a sandwich.”
I stop at the top landing while my brows go up.
In the many decades that I lived with Hilda, I have never known her to make anyone food, of any kind, much less a sandwich. At most, she would bring Vlad a blood bag to get himto eat on occasion, but never took any for herself. It’s odd that she left the castle to begin with, and now she’s fixing him dinner.
“Youdidtake her. You walked into the castle uninvited and left with Vlad’s nanny in the middle of the night,” I snap, making my way down the long hallway to my bedroom, cringing a bit when I smell the subtle scent of... sweets? “It took me a week to convince guests that Hilda was in costume, and I even had to install animatronics in the hallways to sell it. It was a disaster.”
Hilda is ancient, so old no one truly knows her age, which is impossible to even guess at since she is literally a bunch of walking bones.
“Well, that’s clever.”
“Why are you calling me, Jekyll?” I cut to the chase, needing off the phone as my skin crawls with the desire to run. It’s been a fortnight since I’ve been able to let my baser self free, and Jekyll isn’t exactly my favorite person at the moment, although he’s more than oblivious to that fact.
“I’ve sent a new sample for you to try.” His voice is distant, as if he isn’t near the phone, then comes the sound of him gargling, and he spits loudly. “Blech, I’m never asking her to make me anything ever again.”
