"Penny, what are you thinking?" I grabbed her shoulders and made her face me again.
"I'm thinking it's time I told her the truth. About what I am. See if she wants to join the club." Penny's eyes filled. Oh, great. Here came the waterworks.
"Not tonight. You've got the date with Trey to look forward to. Telling her now would totally screw that up. Put the Jenny thing off. Maybe tell her tomorrow night. Ask her over after the rats are gone. Better yet, after you get settled in with your job with Ian. And after the semester ends. Doesn't she have final exams coming up?" I was trotting out every delay tactic I could come up with.
"Oh, gosh, you're right. I totally spaced on that. With the lab closed, I'm out of the loop at school. And there's the dinner with Mom and Dad. Jenny would never be able to keep this kind of secret from them." Penny sagged against the sofa cushions. "Wow. Thanks for talking me down, Glory. It's just that Jen and I have been so close all our lives and I hate to see us grow apart like this with a monster secret between us."
I kept my opinion to myself. Which was that a "close" sister would have helped Penny look a heck of a lot better than the Penny who'd arrived on my doorstep. And it wasn't as if my fledgling didn't want to look good. She'd taken every bit of my wardrobe advice to heart and had been thrilled with the way she'd attracted male attention since then. Made me wonder why the perfect Jenny hadn't steered her sister along the same path.
"Fine. So you can introduce Jenny to Trey tonight. Won't that be a rush? He's cute. On top of Josh's big confession, it's become obvious that you're turning into a regular femme fatale." I grinned at her. "And you can always whammy her again if Jenny sees something she shouldn't here." I got up. "I need to get back to my friends. Are you okay now?"
"Guess so." Penny grabbed her purse. "I want to watch the band. It's starting soon and I need to get with Trey and arrange for Jen and her date to get in." She jumped up and hugged me. "Thanks for talking me off the ledge, Glory. I get so overwhelmed sometimes. You know?"
I patted her back. "Sure I do." I thought about the demons and how pressured I felt. "I really do. One word of advice. Don't go to the bathroom with Jenny. No reflection in those mirrors and wouldn't that raise questions? And of course there will be a bunch of other mortals in there too. Not only will you have the mirror thing to explain but-"
"Bloodlust." Penny made a face. "I'm doing better. Honest. The bartender is a vamp and he's been pumping me full of synthetic. He's cute too. If this thing with Trey doesn't work out . . ." She opened her purse and pulled out a cocktail napkin. "He gave me his number." She grinned. "What is it with these paranormals? Don't they notice the junk in my trunk?"
I laughed. "Lucky for us, a lot of them are ancient and have that old-time love of a well-rounded woman. And I don't mean a woman with a lot of interests." I hooked arms with her. "Now get out of here, have fun, but be careful. I'll want a full report tomorrow night."
"Thanks, Glory." She opened the door, then took off.
I was feeling really ancient myself as I walked out of the room and ran straight into Rafe.
"Oh, hey, I was hoping I'd get a chance to see you without your lord and master." Rafe looked me over with an appreciative smile. "You look amazing tonight. New dress?"
"Yes, Penny and I hit the mall. And thanks. But not for the lord and master slam. You know that wasn't nice." I backed up, pressed against the wall when Rafe moved close to let a group of giggling college students go past on their way to the ladies' room.
"You let Blade get away with that possessive crap, so I figured you got off to it." Rafe didn't move back now that the hall was clear, just stayed in my space.
"No, but some battles just aren't worth fighting." I put my hand on his chest with the intention of pushing him away.
"I get that, I so get that." He dug in his jeans pocket. "Here, I have something that belongs to you. Taking it was stupid. I realized that after the fact. It was something Blade would do."
I looked down and saw the vial Ian had given me. "What? You stole this out of my apartment?"
"Yeah. Protecting you from yourself." Rafe made a face. "I said it was stupid. But you know how I feel about Ian's shit. You had bad side effects from his diet drug. Remember?"
"Sure I do. But good ones from his daylight thing. It worked and it was amazing, my glimpse of the sun was longer than Ian's clients usually get. Still, it was too short for the cost." I sighed. "I can't believe you took this, Rafe. What were you thinking?"
"Wasn't. It was me doing the bodyguard gig. Can't seem to drop the act, you know?" He gave me a rueful smile. "Now I'm giving it back, but I'd like to know what in the hell it's for. Come on, Glory. What is that drug going to do for you? And you said Penny has a vial too. You're actually condoning your fledgling taking Ian's drug? Wonder what the council would say about that." Rafe stared at me with a mixture of accusation, concern and, okay, a bit of a threat.
"You going to rat me out? Oh, cute, rat, yeah, I should sue the damned council for sticking me with a fledgling who brings home fifty-three freaking rats." I glared at Rafe. "I can't believe you'd do that, Rafe. Seriously."
"No, I'm not going to tell anyone what you're up to. But I wish you'd confide in me. Let me be around when you take whatever this is. In case there's fallout." Rafe was all concern now, his hand on my shoulder.
"I appreciate your protective instincts. I do." I felt the steam go right out of me. "But Penny's a scientist and Ian is offering her a job. I don't think he'd be poisoning her. Right?" I waited for Rafe's reluctant nod. "So just trust me now and back off." The truth was I knew I was probably taking a chance with this drug of Ian's. We did have a history and Rafe had been a witness to the side effects Ian's concoctions could have on me. But for the chance to enjoy real food and sit around eating with mortals, like I was part of a family . . . Something inside me just couldn't turn down that opportunity.
"Backing off." He held out his hands and took two steps away from me. "Do what you want. You have my number. If this goes down poorly, though, I hope you'll call me." He shook his head. "Yeah, I'm a fucking glutton for punishment." He turned and I knew he'd be gone in a moment.
I blinked back tears and grabbed his arm. "Stop."
He looked down at my hand. "Why?"
"You're just being a good friend. Don't think I don't appreciate it. It's just-" I sniffed.
"That you're going to do whatever the hell you want to do." Rafe shook his head. "I hope you don't regret it."
"Me too. I, uh, thanks for caring." I let him go when a waiter called his name from the end of the hall.
He said something over his shoulder, then rubbed his thumb over my cheek. "Yes, I care. But it would be better for us both if I didn't." He gave me a crooked grin, then strode off down the hall.
I took a shaky breath, stuffed the vial into my purse, then pulled out my compact. I hated to think that he was right. Where would I be if Rafe suddenly didn't give a damn what I did? Could I be indifferent to him? Not a chance in the world. I looked down the hall but he'd disappeared into the crowd. I opened the compact, figuring the best I could do right now was repair the damage the last few moments had done to my makeup. I sure wasn't going to solve any of my major issues standing here.
"Gloriana St. Clair. What are you doing?"
I glanced up from powdering my shiny nose. Flo gaped at me from a few feet away.
"Uh, fixing my face." I snapped the compact shut.
"I saw you look into the mirror and wipe lipstick off the corner of your mouth. Like you could see it." Flo grabbed the compact, opened it and stared into the mirror. "Pah! No magic there." She held it up to me and gasped. "No, I don't believe it." She waved it in front of me, then in front of her, back and forth five or six times, testing it.
The same group of students surged out of the bathroom again and I pulled Flo into that empty break room.
"Come here. Let me explain." I really didn't want to, but what choice did I have?
"Jeremiah got up to come see about you, but I insisted it was a woman's matter so I came instead. And I find this!" Flo staggered over to the couch and collapsed. "You tell me. How did you get a reflection, Glory?"
"Uh, well, I-" I stammered, not sure where to start.
"Let me, dear girl." Caryon shimmered into view, Spyte by his side. The room filled with a cloud of sweetness that tonight had a hint of cinnamon.
"You like? We followed you to the mall, Glory. They make those giant cinnamon rolls. They smell sooo delicious. It does give us a little something extra, don't you think? To add a little flavoring?" Spyte settled next to Flo on the couch. "Picked up a few souls while we were there. Those crafty creatures who man the carts. Very eager to make a deal for extra profits, don't you know." He smiled at Flo, showing her his mouthful of fangs.
"Get away from me, you hell creature!" She jumped up and grabbed my arm. "Glory, what are they doing here?"
"They are the ones who gave me my reflection. They're trying to persuade me to do Lucifer's work. To get me to harvest souls for him."