She opened the front door and almost tripped over a medium-sized cooler on the welcome mat. “Uh, Tobias?” she called back into the house. “You have a delivery.”
“It’s my daily blood supply,” he yelled. “Put it in the fridge, please.”
She bent and grabbed the handle of the cooler and carried it into the kitchen. Setting it down on the counter, she flipped up the lid and saw four bottles of blood in a wire basket. She opened the large refrigerator and shook her head to see it was empty except for one lonely glass of blood. “Well, here now you have four new friends,” she murmured, and put the bottles on the shelf. She set the empty basket in the cooler and headed back toward the front door. “See you later,” she yelled back to Tobias.
“All right.”
On her way home, Nix called Dante. He answered on the first ring. She glanced at her watch. Six a.m. “Oh,” she said. “This early I thought I’d get your voice mail.”
“I’m always up early to get the horses fed and turned out into the paddock,” he said. “Did something happen?”
“No. Tobias and I are heading back down to Tucson this morning, and wanted to see if you’re available.” She turned into her parking lot and pulled into her spot. Holding the phone between her cheek and shoulder, she shut off the car and hopped out.
“Sure. Do we want to grab some breakfast first?”
Remembering the look on Tobias’s face when he’d mentioned making sure they ate first, she grinned. “I’m just gonna fix myself something here. Why don’t you meet us at council headquarters around seven thirty? Does that give you enough time to do what you need to do?”
“Yep. See you then.” He ended the call.
Nix dropped her phone into her purse and let herself into her apartment. Rufus was waiting, whining, and pressing against her legs. She went down on her haunches and loved on him for a minute, letting him lick her and doing her best to reassure him he was all right. “Let’s go outside,” she said, and grabbed his leash.
After he’d taken care of business she put out a scoop of dog food for him and slid a couple of pieces of bread into the toaster. Waiting for the bread to toast she peeled a banana and put it on a small plate, then grabbed a yogurt and took off the lid. The toast popped up. She slathered one slice with peanut butter and the other with orange marmalade.
Nix wandered into the living room and sat on the sofa with feet propped up on the coffee table. Rufus finished his food and sat beside her, his head resting on her shin, his big doggy eyes looking pitiful. She gave him the last bite of her toast, the one with peanut butter, laughing at his antics when the toast stuck to the roof of his mouth. Getting up, she carried her empty plate into the kitchen.
An hour later she was dressed in clean clothes and on her way to the council building. Dante was already there, leaning against the front fender of his truck, and, as she got out of her car, Tobias pulled up in his SUV.
“Well, the gang’s all here,” Dante said, pushing away from his vehicle. As usual he wore a suit jacket and button-down shirt with blue jeans and sturdy work shoes. When she’d commented to him once that she was surprised he didn’t wear cowboy boots, he’d responded that it was too hard to run in boots. Thick-soled work shoes like the beat cops wore were better.
The passenger side window of the SUV rolled down. “Let’s go,” Tobias called out.
Dante opened the back door, grinning at Nix. This time she was fine with riding up front with Tobias. She just sent the grin back at Dante and opened the front passenger door. Just as she was about to climb in, one of the council guards called her name. She turned to look at him.
“The council wants to see you and Tobias,” he said.
“Now?” She frowned and glanced at her watch. It was just now seven thirty. Why in the hell were they in so early?
“Now.”
She heard Tobias’s aggrieved sigh and closed the door. Dante closed his door, too, and they stepped away from the SUV so Tobias could park it. She looked at Dante. “Do you want to wait for us?”
“May as well.” He jerked his head toward the building. “Is there a spare office I can use? I have my laptop with me and can work on some reports while I wait.”
She cleared her throat. “They really don’t want non-preternaturals in the building unless they’re there for a meeting. Sorry.”
He shrugged. “No problem. The cab of my truck’ll work.”
Tobias walked up to them. “So you’ll wait for us?”
Dante nodded. “As long as you don’t take too long. Some of us do grow old, you know.”