Page 30 of Blood and Bonbons

She then went to the kitchen and looked around before opening the flour container. She dropped the ring inside and shook it.

“Why did you just pollute my flour?” I hurried to pull it from her hands, but she held tight.

“He’ll never find the ring in here. He’ll see his pouch and go straight for it. I’ll buy you new flour once he’s dust. Okay?”

I reluctantly released the container and nodded.

With a contented smile, she placed the container on the counter and headed to her room. “I’ll be ready to go soon. Are you packed?”

“Uh, yeah.”

I glanced between the ring pouch and the flour. While I knew Vena was probably right and that the vampire was dangerous, he was only coming here because we took his ring in the first place.

Feeling guilty, I crumbled Vena’s original note and went to throw it away.

Miles’ list that Vena had taken was sitting on top of the trash. It included the ingredients to use with the sun charm. I wasn’t familiar with most of them as I skimmed the list. But the last couple of lines caught my attention.

Chemical reactions should begin once the vampire is in range. Vampire should turn to ash. Possible inferno may happen. Proceed with caution.

Inferno? Proceed with caution?

Vena was going to burn the house down along with the vampire? Was she insane? We couldn’t afford that kind of damage. What would the neighbors think?

With my mind made up, I dug through the flour to find the ring. After cleaning it thoroughly, I removed the small stone charm from the pouch and slipped the ring inside.

The stone didn’t seem like it could kill anything, let alone a vampire, but I wrapped it in a paper towel and tucked it into my pocket. If the vampire hated my blood bonbons, then we’d still have the sun charm as a backup.

Feeling a little better about the situation, I went to grab my bag. It was time to flee.

Vena was only a few steps behind me as I headed for the door.

“I’ll drive,” I said.

I preferred driving because then I controlled our destination and how long we stayed.

We weren’t on the road for long before she said we were close to the texted coordinates.

“Slow down,” Vena said, her gaze swinging from her phone to her window.

I pulled over to the side so the evening commuter traffic could flow around us as I idled along the sidewalk lined with nice bars and restaurants.

“Are you sure this is the right place?” I asked as I spotted it. “It’s a strip club.”

Vena glanced at her phone again. “Yep. This is it.”

We both looked over at the three-story brick building with unlit arched window openings.

“Why would someone send these coordinates to Miles?” Vena asked.

“That unknown number was probably one of his friends wanting to grab a lap dance.”

“Not Miles. He’s too focused on his research.”

I knew she was right, but the need to live in my world of denial a little longer had me saying, “He’s also twenty-five. Even if he doesn’t want to go, his friends probably do.”

“Then why send the coordinates? Why not tell him to meet at the club?”

Vena’s logical reasoning was sinking my delusion boat. Itwasodd to send numbers instead of the club name.

---