Page 88 of Soul Sucker

“Hard to miss.”

“Let’s eat and see if we can get the waiter who called in his suspicions to the SBLE hotline to talk to us. I think he’s one of the Bonetti cousins, so he’s family.”

Another dark-haired waiter appeared and Ella checked out his nametag. “Hey, are you Mark?” She held out her hand. “I’m Ella Walsh from the SBLE. This is my colleague, Vadim Morosov.”

Mark briefly shook hands. “Thanks for coming. I talked to my uncle. Despite his initial blustering, he’s quite relieved I did something about this.”

“That’s good to know. How about we eat our lunch and get a feel for the place, and then maybe you can come and tell us what’s been going on?”

Mark smiled for the first time. “That’s not a problem. It’s also on the house. I’ll get your food and take my break when you’re done. Now what can I get you?” Vadim chose the spinach salad and the banana split.

Despite his disapproving stare, Ella went for the double cheeseburger and fries.

After the server left, he gave her a serious look. “That excuse of yours about eating what you like because you’ll die young is no longer valid. You are going to have to start taking care of your body.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“You’re still not convinced you’re going to live, are you?”

“Well, would you be?” She rested her chin on her fist. “I don’t think I’ll believe it until way after my twenty-seventh birthday.”

“Which is when?”

“In about ten days.” She made a face. “My mom left me a message this morning asking me to come and spend next weekend with them to get my presents. She sounded like she was arranging a wake.”

“She’s probably worried about you.”

“I suppose so.” She sat back as the waiter put two glasses crammed full with ice and water on the table. “I’m not sure what she wants from me. Why buy me anything if she knows I’m not going to make it? What did she get me? Three wishes from a genie? A burial plot?”

“Maybe she still has hope?”

Ella stared into Vadim’s calm blue eyes and thought about how he looked when he was having sex. “You’ve met her. She’s not like that. She always thinks I’m going to fail.”

“I understand why your relationship is fraught with difficulties, but she is still your mother.”

“The mother who sent me away to school because she was scared of me.”

“You told your brother you were drawing Otherworld creatures to the house and that it was probably for the best you were sent away.”

“I said that to makehimfeel better. It doesn’t mean I actually meant it.” His unconvinced expression dared her to continue. “Okay, so I’ve done therapy. I know as an intelligent adult that me leaving was the best thing for everyone. I still hated it and I have a childish tendency to lash out at my mother.”

“At least you acknowledge it.”

“Yeah, I’m great like that.” Ella looked away and rearranged her silverware. “This is getting far too profound for a lunchtime chat.”

He shrugged. “We’re linked. We can be as intimate as we like. I won’t tell anyone.”

She fixed him with her most challenging stare. “How come you know so much about this empath mating thing?”

“Because I had nothing to do all weekend, so I did some research, called a few friends, infiltrated some Fae-Webs…”

“You didn’t tell anyone, did you?”

“About us bonding?” He shook his head. “I told you I wouldn’t do that yet.”

“Apparently, if I agree to the match, we’re supposed to get a ton of paperwork from OCOS telling us what to expect.”

“Shame we missed that.”

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