"You don't have to explain." Vanda grimaced. She'd seen the pile of guts and blood. She'd seen how awful her pajamas looked. And she knew her body had been squeezed too tightly. Even with the healing power of death-sleep, she was still sore.
"I didn't want to leave you lying in all that mess," Phil continued, "so I tried to clean you up. And the bed, too."
Vanda nodded. "I understand."
"I took the shower curtain from your bathroom and piled everything nasty on top," he said. "Then I cleaned up the carpet and the walls—"
"Walls?" Pamela asked.
Phil winced. "I was throwing the snake parts as fast as I could cut them up."
"Lord have mercy," Cora Lee whispered.
Vanda tried to shut out the terrifying images that flitted through her mind, but she couldn't.
"I was really…upset," Phil admitted with a frown, "so I took the snake's head and went in search of Max."
Vanda swallowed hard. "Did you find him?"
"He was in his apartment in his death-sleep." Phil stared into space, scowling.
Cora Lee leaned forward, her eyes wide. "What did you do to him?"
Phil took a deep breath. "I left the snake head on the pillow next to Max and turned his head so it would be the first thing he would see when he woke up. Then I wrote a note that told him if he ever came near Vanda again, I would kill him."
Cora Lee slumped with a sigh. "That's all?"
"I pinned the note to his thigh…with a knife."
Cora Lee brightened up. "Now that's more like it."
"Indeed." Pamela sipped from her teacup. "I say, old boy, good form."
Phil snorted. "I'm so glad you approve. Then I dropped by Roman's townhouse to shower and change clothes, and I made my report. Roman should be hearing about it soon, and he can make a decision on how to handle Max."
"They should lynch him," Cora Lee said, her eyes sparkling with excitement. "We should have a hanging like the good old days."
"Quite." Pamela sipped from her cup. "Now that was entertainment."
Vanda shook her head and finished her mug of blood before it turned cold. Cold-blooded like a snake. She shuddered.
"I had the door fixed, and I left three new keys on the counter." Phil motioned toward the kitchen. "I kept a key for myself so I wouldn't have to bust your door down again."
"Of course." Pamela bowed her head. "We're extremely grateful for your bravery and chivalry."
"That's for sure," Cora Lee added. "Why, if he hadn't come when he did, that snake would have crushed our poor Vanda to smithereens. Imagine waking up to find every bone in your body broken, not to mention all that nasty internal damage. And what if that snake had tried to eat her?"
"Enough!" Vanda made a face at her. "I don't want to hear about it."
Cora Lee huffed. "I'm just saying you would probably be dying in agonizing pain right this minute if Phil hadn't come to your rescue."
Vanda gritted her teeth. "I am aware of that. I can't move any part of my body without feeling some soreness."
Pamela tsked. "You poor dear. Hopefully, another round of death-sleep will have you back to feeling tip-top."
Cora Lee nodded. "And you'd better take it easy tonight. Don't worry about the club. Pamela and I can handle it."
"I'm perfectly capable of working," Vanda protested. If she did nothing all night, she'd keep imagining that horrible snake coiling around her while she lay helpless in her death-sleep.
Cora Lee was right. If Phil hadn't saved her, that snake could have remained wrapped around her all night, preventing her body from healing itself. She could have woken to find every bone in her body crushed. Or worse.
Her stomach roiled, and she quickly shoved the grisly images aside. She focused on her hands in her lap and took deep breaths. Father Andrew had taught her this exercise to help calm her anger. Hopefully, it also worked to calm horror.
"What are we going to do with the snake?" Cora Lee asked.
"I'll bag it up in a big garbage sack," Phil replied. "And I'll ask one of the Vamp guys to teleport it out. I would have taken it myself, but I didn't want to look like I was hauling a dead body out of the building. If security asked to see what was inside, it would be hard to explain."
"Yes, much better to simply teleport it away." Pamela returned her empty teacup to the kitchen.
A cell phone rang, jerking Vanda out of her deep breathing exercise.