Page 28 of Blood and Bonbons

“Can you tell me what this is?” she asked the kind-looking woman, showing her the cryptic text Miles had received.

“A phone number?” the woman said, as clueless as we were.

“Nah,” a customer said beside us. “Too long for a phone number. The plus and minus look more like longitude and latitude to me. It’s the kind of stuff hunters use to look for treasure.”

Vena turned to look at the bald man.

“You work with hunters?”

He shrugged. “I’ve been known to sell information a time or two.” He reached into his pocket and handed her a card. “Been known to buy it from time to time, too.”

She took his card and slipped it into her back pocket. “You might have just saved a life. Thank you.”

“That’d be a first,” he said before resuming his hunt for the perfect headscarf.

Vena grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the exit. The moment we stepped outside, I inhaled the fresh air and tipped my head back to the sun.

“I am never going back there again.”

“It’s not so bad. They’re only trying to make a buck like everyone else. Besides, getting hit on isn’t the worst thing that could happen. Did you see the centaur's face when I told him his sun charm was overpriced? I thought we were going to get donkey kicked into next Tuesday.”

“You’re lucky we didn’t. Do you think that number really is coordinates?” I asked.

“I hope so. I don’t know why I didn’t see it before he pointed it out. Miles usually writes coordinates down on a piece of paper for me, so it’s not one long string of numbers.”

“Can we go home now?” I asked hopefully.

“Yep. We’ll grab your car then head home so I can brew up a trap and do some research. Once I’m done, we’ll head to Blur for your shift. After that, we’ll go to my parents’ place to wait out the night. Come morning, half our troubles will be dust.”

Filled with doubt, I chewed on my lip.

“I know you think killing him is the answer, but what if the spell or whatever Miles wrote on that note doesn’t work? What then?” I asked, returning to the questions she’d tried not to answer earlier.

“Then we regroup and try again.”

Try again on an angry vampire? I couldn’t see a second attempt ending better than the first one.

While she drove me to my car, I debated the wisdom of attempting to kill a vampire at all. He wasn’t living in the same world anymore. He couldn’t go around killing people and get away with it. Neither could we, even if our victim would turn to dust.

When we returned home, I had enough time before work to pull out what I needed to make bonbons. While Vena worked on her plan, I worked on mine.

Chocolate made everything better. Nothing could soothe rage like the rich decadence of a good dessert. If I added today’s modern culinary genius to it, I was sure a batch of bonbons would distract our recently woke vampire from any revenge-focused rampage.

Vena took over the dining area while I took over the kitchen. Too distracted with her research, she didn’t notice me measuring ingredients. The bonbons had to be perfect. No one could stay mad for temporarily borrowing a ring after tasting heaven.

I went to pour the condensed milk into the bowl. A loud bang followed by Vena’s curse startled the can from my grasp. I fumbled to grab it and cut my finger on the lid.

Blood dripped into the bowl.

CHAPTERSIX

I stareddown at the ruined mixture and wanted to swear.

“What happened?” I asked Vena instead, wanting to know what was so important that she startled me.

“The coordinates on Miles’ phone are in D.C. Close.”

I wrapped paper towel around my finger and set the can on the counter.

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