Page 48 of Hot Summer's Prey

“I don’t think so,” he mumbles.

“They’re these annoying little parasites. Bloodsuckers.”

“Ah, like your vampire myths,” he says.

“Oh, but you know about vampires,” I grumble, turning him so I can check everywhere.

“Kalixto and Cirro often share stories about human myths.”

I raise an eyebrow. “Cirro is another friend?”

“Yes, you may meet him, but unlike Kalixto, he is perpetually shy and very grumpy.”

“Maybe ticks don’t like sea monster blood,” I say quietly. “Lucky bastards.”

“Uh,” Dawn’s voice from the entryway. “Am I interrupting something?”

“Hello,” Pacari calls out, still holding Slugger at a distance above my head while I’m planted firmly between his legs.

I just finished looking around his shorts for any stowaways. Which meant my hands were planted firmly on his hips when she walked in on us. I let out a laugh. What a weird sight this had to be. Oh—Pacari’s hands!

I stand up quickly and take the dog from him. He hides his hands behind his back before Dawn can see anything. We hope. She’ll probably kill me if she finds out I’m now in love with a sea monster without giving her a heads up, but also, I’m still sorting through a few things and I still haven’t seen his secret garden. Which I don’t think is a euphemism, considering how frank we’ve been with each other so far.

“No, nothing weird and kinky here. We’ll be doing plenty of that later,” I say with a wink to Pacari.

He tenses for a moment, hardens his jaw. Storing all those pearls in his sifon must be driving him nuts. I wonder if it’s like ben wa balls for yacunayi. And if he doesn’t normally come, I wonder what’s in store for him with all the unintended edging.

…Or maybe it is intended. Either way, I intend to make things very hard on him.

“What are you guys doing out here? Also, hello, Hottie-with-the-dog,” Dawn says.

“Hello, Lady-With-the-Book,” Pacari replies.

I snort before introducing them. When that’s all over, I cut to the chase.

“Okay, we need to actually leave you with a few things—and also, wow, we just keep finding weird little mysteries. Are you having this luck too, or is that just us?” I ask.

Dawn’s eyes go wide. “What did you find? We found some old love letters in the attic. Did you know the illustrious Nina Martinez was a lesbian?”

“Aww, Zephyr’s not the first queer in their family, they must be so excited,” I laugh.

“They’re hunting down more information at the library right now.”

“Ah, that explains why little miss Anelisa is with them, but not why you aren’t.”

Dawn looks a little embarrassed. “Well, for once, I slept in. And for two, I might have found something that’s either a secret compartment or something and I didn’t want to tell anyone else about it ’til I found out if it was real.”

“Are you kidding me? Oh! Pacari! Show her what you found!” I exclaim, slapping him on the arm to nudge him on.

“Ah,” he laughs, rubbing the spot, feigning like I actually hurt him.

“Oops, should I kiss it better?” I ask, fluttering my lashes.

“Please,” he grins back.

Dawn rolls her eyes. “Can you save this for later? No offense. But you can’t dangle a new mystery in my face like this.”

“Her fault,” Pacari says quickly. “Sorry.”

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