Page 69 of Blood and Bonbons

Right. Dangerous, Everly,I silently reminded myself.Don’t be pulled in by pretty eyes.

“Would you care to explain why it smells like a wolf’s den in here?” Cross asked.

“I don’t know…maybe I stink from my shift at work. It’s an everyone’s-welcome kind of place.”

He shook his head, his fathomless gaze holding mine as the shower continued to rain down on my back.

“Wolves have been here, in your home,” he said. “One recently and another less than a day ago.”

The only people who’d been inside were Shepard and Anchor, and I defeatedly acknowledged what I’d been trying so hard to ignore. The men at Blur were overly protective of those they considered family, excessively strong, and had ridiculously good hearing and smell. If I were watchingThe Other House,I would have already laid money on them being wolves.

Dammit.

“Can wolves smell vampires like you can smell them?” I asked, thinking of Shepard’s similar reaction to Cross’ scent last night.

“Yes.”

Well, that explained how they got their “evidence.”

Any anger at Cross for interrupting my shower dissipated until I remembered our busted front door from yesterday.

“Cross, you didn’t break in again, did you?”

“Not this time. The train rattled the window latch in the pantry loose. I came in through there. When I broke in through the front door, I was in a temper.”

“What are you now?”

His amber eyes leisurely scanned me from head to curtain as if he could see through the material.

“Curious,” he said finally. He turned and opened the bathroom door. “I will wait for you in the living room.”

No longer needing a shower to wake up, I finished quickly and wrapped myself in a towel to go change in my room.

I didn’t look into the living room when I scurried from the bathroom to my bedroom and snapped the door closed behind me.

Picking out comfortable jeans for a day of hopefully non-life-threatening activity, I changed and tucked my charm into my t-shirt. As protection against malicious intent, it’d already proven its worth when it had repelled Cross. And with Vena determined to chase down leads, who knew what today would bring? More vampires, wolves, and who knew what else, probably.

Once I was decent, my first stop was at Vena’s door to pound on it loud enough to wake her. “Anchor’s gone. Cross is here.”

Ignoring Cross’ inspection of our living room, I headed to the kitchen to pour a giant mug of coffee, topping it with enough sugar and creamer to make it palatable.

“Do vampires drink coffee?” I asked.

Cross appeared on the other side of the counter. “Some do. Some don’t.”

“Let me rephrase. Do you want coffee?”

“No. Thank you.”

I nodded and showed him my phone as I sipped my sugary concoction.

“The guy from the pawn shop messaged. No offer for your coin yet, but they’d like to meet at seven to take a closer look. I would have told you right away, but I didn’t know how to contact you.”

“There is always a way to contact me.” His slow smirk made me nervous about asking. I lived by the motto, “Ignorance is bliss.” So I didn’t question him.

“Vena thinks asking us to come in at seven before the shop opens is a little shady.”

“It’s a lot shady,” Vena mumbled, ignoring Cross as she dragged herself to the coffee pot.

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