Page 52 of Soul Sucker

“Not when you are drunk.”

“It helps to be drunk. I won’t remember the details in the morning.”

He guided her toward her bedroom. “I thought you said you were beyond hooking up for sex?”

“I am. This is different. I know you. If you like, I could erase your memory afterward.”

“You wouldn’t want to.” He smiled down at her as he opened the door. “When we make love, we’ll both remember every screaming, sweaty second of it. I guarantee it.”

She focused all her energy on his shields and couldn’t find a way through.

“You’re so conceited.”

He maneuvered her over to the bed and gently sat her down. “Go to sleep, Ella. I’ll be outside if you need me.”

She clutched at his polo shirt. “I need you now.”

“No, you need a good cry and a good sleep. You’d hate yourself in the morning if you fucked me now.” He kissed her on the forehead. “Goodnight.”

She reluctantly released her grip on his shirt and he dimmed the lights and shut the door behind him. A tear trickled down Ella’s cheek and she rolled over onto her stomach and thought about Laney. Even though the only one who might hear her was Vadim, she still cried silently into her pillow, a habit she and Laney had learned together at school. A habit she doubted she would ever get over.

* * *

“Good morning,”Vadim greeted Ella with a slight smile. “What do you want first, coffee or orange juice?” He pointed to a paper bag. “I picked up some croissants on my way back from my morning walk.”

“Stop being so cheerful. It’s justwrong.”

Despite her fears, she’d slept the whole night through and had the headache from hell to prove it. To her amazement, Vadim had not only cooked dinner, but also cleared everything away. Her kitchen looked shinier and in better order than it ever had before.

She wrapped her ratty dressing gown more securely around her waist and managed to climb up onto one of the stools by the countertop.

“Here you go.” Vadim slid a glass of orange juice and a buttered croissant in front of her. “I’ll get the coffee. I hope you don’t mind, but while I was cleaning up last night I made a few adjustments to your cupboard space.”

“What?”

Vadim opened her pantry. “You don’t have much in there, but what you do have I reorganized according to type of product, ease of reach and sell-by date. It should make it easier to find things now.”

He carried on talking as she forced down the orange juice and picked bits off the flakey outer shell of the croissant. The coffee smelled good, so she drank some of that too and slowly started to feel human.

“What time is it?”

He glanced at his watch. “About seven-thirty. I checked the ferry schedule. We should be fine if we leave in the next half hour.”

She considered him through narrowed eyes. “We’re not driving?”

He shrugged. “I didn’t guarantee your car would work forever, just that it would get you home.”

“Hmph.” Ella picked up her coffee. She knew she should be more grateful but she just couldn’t muster the energy. And he had turned her down… “I’m going to shower. I’ll be ready in ten minutes.”

10

“We’ve contacted Peter Jameson,the proposed OCOS mate, and confirmed that he did speak to the victim on Sunday afternoon. He insists that the conversation went really well, and that they were planning to talk again the next day.” Feehan paused to write something on the whiteboard. “We’ve also confirmed that he was at home with his parents and couldn’t physically have been in Walnut Creek during the time of the murder.”

“Unless he is more than fifty percent Otherworld,” Vadim said.

Feehan consulted his notes. “He lives on our side and he’s one-sixteenth Otherworld. I doubt he has the necessary powers to get himself through time and space.”

“Did you check where the nearest portals were to Walnut Creek?”

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