Vampire Most Wanted(84)

            That curtain had not been closed last night. But then Jackie hadn’t been there last night either. Her gaze swiveled to the small clock hanging over the sink and Divine almost groaned aloud. It was almost three o’clock in the afternoon. They’d passed out on the floor and slept right through what had remained of morning and a good portion of the afternoon to boot. Jackie must have come searching for them when they hadn’t shown up that morning and—

            Divine sat up abruptly, horror sliding through her as she realized that the woman must have seen them like this. She peered down at the skirt-covered lump in her lap that was Marcus’s head, noted that the collar of her top was sitting down under her breasts, and closed her eyes. Wow. Well, this was embarrassing.

            “Taking without right or permission is the definition of stealing,” Jackie said firmly from the other side of the curtain. “It doesn’t matter that he brought the car back. Taking it in the first place was theft.”

            “God, you’re being as hard on him about this as his dad and the girlfriend are.” The younger woman sounded resentful.

            “Of course they’re being hard on him,” Jackie responded at once. “Theft is a serious business.”

            “He brought it back,” the girl stressed.

            “Right,” Jackie said sounding unimpressed. “And did he bring back the money he took from your purse to buy his pot?”

            Divine’s eyebrows rose. The girl had a real winner there. Shaking her head, she tugged her skirt up, eased Marcus’s head off her lap to rest on the floor, and then got silently to her feet.

            “You can see that in your crystal ball too?” the younger woman cried with dismay. “What else can you see? Is he screwing around on me? If he is, he’s out of my apartment.”

            Divine rolled her eyes as she brushed the worst of the wrinkles out of her skirts. So his being an uneducated, unemployed pothead who treated her like crap and apparently not only stole from her, but sponged off her as well wasn’t enough to convince the girl to leave. But if he was messing around he was done?

            At least the girl had some limits on what she would put up with, Divine thought wryly as she turned and slid through the bedroom to the bathroom door. She’d encountered too many mortal women who hadn’t seemed to have any limits at all on the bad behavior they would take from a partner. They didn’t seem to recognize their own value and that they deserved so much more, which was such a shame. Mortals had such short lives, so little time to enjoy all that life and the world had to offer. Why would they waste even a moment of their precious time on someone who didn’t appreciate and treat them well?

            Divine shook her head over that as she slipped into the bathroom and pulled the door closed, blocking out the voices from the other side of the curtain. She was in and out of the tiny room quickly, only taking the time to rinse her face and run a brush through her hair. She would have liked to stop to change her clothes then too, but when she slid out of the bathroom and stuck her head out of the bedroom to check, the sounds coming from the other side of the curtain suggested Jackie was wrapping up the session and preparing to see the girl out.

            Straightening her shoulders, Divine forced her head up and moved to the curtain to tug the end of it a few inches away from the wall. She noted that they’d set up a small round table between the sofa and chairs in the lounge, covering it with an antique tablecloth, and then placing what looked like an honest-to-God crystal ball in the middle. It was probably a prop, but still . . . Divine had never bothered with such stage setting, merely taking the client’s hand as if reading the future through some strange energy emanating from them. Which was really what she did. She read their thoughts and helped them clarify the situation they already knew about but were possibly ignoring, or lying to themselves about.

            Shrugging, Divine glanced to the women in the room. A petite blonde in jeans and T-shirt was just rising from one of two folding chairs set on either side of the table as Jackie got up from the other.