Page 60 of Bite Marks & Broken Hearts

I grabbed my coat from the rack, shrugging it on as I strode towards the door. The brass buttons caught the light as I reached for the handle. Time to be the leader they needed, not the lovesick fool I was becoming.

Kit would be in the weapons room, methodically cleaning each piece of equipment.

First, though, I dialled Felix’s number.

“Magpie? I need a new phone screen.”

12

Flynn

Katie

Mum told me you rang her a few days ago. That’s good. Hope you’re okay. I’m here when you’re ready to talk to me.

My fingers hovered over the keyboard for a moment before I pocketed my phone. This was the first text Katie had sent me where she didn’t sound angry, which was good. But I needed to talk to her in person. Not that it was going to be possible anytime soon.

Forget about permission to go to Ireland—I was currently lurking outside room 210, Seb’s office, psyching myself up for permission to leave the hotel. I forced myself to knock, feeling like a prisoner begging an officer for their daily exercise hour in the yard.

“Enter.” Seb’s voice carried through the wood.

I pushed the door open to find him hunched over his laptop, his curls askew as if he’d been running his hands through them. The moment he registered my presence, he quickly hid something in the drawer of his desk as he scrambled to pause whatever was playing, jabbing at random keys until the sound cut off. His fingers slipped on the track pad three times before he managed to close the window.

“I didn’t hear you coming over the volume.” He tilted the screen down, not quite meeting my eyes.

His usually composed face was so flustered, I couldn’t resist asking, “Were you watchingporn?”

His head snapped up. “I most certainly was not!” A hint of his Spanish accent slipped through—I must have properly rattled him.

The chair opposite his desk looked inviting, and standing was starting to feel awkward, so I dropped into it. “Suuuure.” I couldn’t help grinning at the way his eyebrows drew together in indignation.

“It’s late. My work has finished for the day. I’m allowed to watch an episode of my television show if I choose to.”

I held up my hands. “Alright, alright. Of course you’re allowed to watch TV.” I was glad he was doing something other than working for once. But the urge to tease him was too strong to resist. “Though I’m not going to believe it’s not porn unless you show me what it was.”

Seb opened his laptop with an exaggerated sigh. The paused scene showed a blonde girl in dated clothing wielding a wooden stake.

I recognised the show immediately. Katie and I had often watched reruns of it when we were kids, sprawled on the sofa together.

I couldn’t help it. I burst into laughter, which only intensified when he scowled at me. “You’re sitting in here alone, watchingBuffy the Vampire Slayer? That’s fucking brilliant.”

He leaned back in his office chair, the leather creaking beneath him. “Is there something wrong with that?”

“No! I love Buffy. But if you’re Team Angel rather than Team Spike we can’t be friends anymore.”

“Please.” He rolled his eyes. “Angel is far too brooding. Though Spike’s accent is atrocious, at first.”

“It gets better and better.”

“Oh, I know. I’ve watched the whole thing”—he glanced guiltily at the laptop—“too many times to count. It was one of the first things I got Felix to set up for me, actually, when I hired him.”

Another laugh slipped out of me. “I bet teaching you how to stream Buffy on your laptop wasn’t in his original job description. Or is supernatural TV knowledge part of his pay grade?”

“You jest, but this is important stuff. I need to understand how the general public views vampires.” His lips twitched. “For research purposes, of course.”

“Of course.” I shifted in my seat, the real reason for my visit pressing on my mind. “But look, speaking of social lives, sort of, Emma’s invited me around this evening for a small dinner party. And I wondered if I could go. Because I could do with some fun.”

Seb’s eyes crinkled at the corners, and something in his expression shifted. Had he thought I’d come to his office just to see him?

---