Page 18 of Blood and Bonbons

I wasn’t going to argue with my boss about something trivial. I simply didn’t want the “boss’ pet” label to stick any more than it already had. But since Sierra was already gone, I didn’t have to worry about her spreading rumors.

Plus, with the whole vampire and fairy hoard thing still in the back of my mind, having an escort to my car after dark wouldn’t hurt.

I really,reallydidn’t want this morning’s treasure hunt to come back and bite me.

CHAPTERFOUR

The ringtoneI assigned to Vena jarred me awake, and I grappled for my phone on the nightstand. Tapping the screen to answer, I cut the obnoxious “Bribes are imminent! Bribes are imminent” short and squinted at the time. Eight a.m. Why did she hate me?

With a small groan, I set the phone to my ear.

“Why are you calling me when your room is ten feet away?” I asked, trying to process anything beyond the fact that I needed an injection of caffeine immediately.

“I’m not at home,” Vena said, her breath coming out in a staccato rhythm. I knew that tempo from all the times she dragged me out of bed as part of her “Everly needs cardio” campaign.

Vena was running.

I sat up, no longer needing that jolt of caffeine.

“What do you mean? Where are you? Did you go back to the cave? Did you put the ring back?”

I knew I should have knocked on her bedroom door when I’d returned from my shift the night before. I’d wanted to talk to her about the ring but hadn’t wanted to wake her.

“Ev, go to Miles’ apartment now.”

“Why? What’s going on? Are fairies chasing you?” Even as I questioned her, I hurried out of bed.

“I need you to be calm about this—”

“Calm? You are running and telling me to go to Miles’ place.”

“Ev, I can only talk and run for so long. Miles is either ignoring my calls or sleeping. Take his spare key from the hook and tell him to call me immediately.”

“Is this a break-traffic-laws kind of hurry or as-fast-as-you-can hurry?”

“As fast as you can, Ev.”

When she ended the call without a sarcastic reply, I knew the situation was serious.

Twisting my hair up, I rushed to dress and ran out the door. I brushed my teeth as I drove and tried not to give into a complete freakout, assuring myself it wasn’t a life-and-death emergency. If it were, she would have told me to break traffic laws. It didn’t help calm me down much, though. She’d been running for a reason.

If Vena’s idiotic hunts didn’t kill me, the stress of them would.

I parallel parked at the curb in front of Miles’ six-unit apartment building and headed up the walkway to his faded green door.

With my thoughts on Vena, I took out his key without paying any attention to my surroundings. Before I could stick it into the door, a blue-winged devil zoomed out of the bush under Miles’ window.

It charged at me, aiming for the key.

Yelping, I closed my eyes and batted at the air. My hand connected with a tiny body. Its high-pitched squeal had me freezing in dread.

Shit.

I peeked down at the fairy wobbling and dazed on the grass then glanced around for witnesses. Thankfully, no one was around.

Jamming the key into the lock, I slipped inside before the fairy could take flight again.

“Miles,” I called, turning on a light. “You need to wake up and call Vena. Stat!”

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