“Alongside Nellie.”
“How did that happen?”
“Brennan,” Sunny said, once again shifting her attention from work to him. “You know how Nellie’s always saying ‘You can ask me about anything’ and ‘I want you to be able to talk to me’ and mom stuff like that?”
Brennan nodded.
“Notice how I don’t say things like that.”
“Yeah?” Then, “Oh.”
“I’m very busy. I have two unaccounted kills to deal with and a minor ongoing surveillance campaign. If you need a history lesson, talk to Nellie.”
“Fine. I’ll ask Travis.”
Sunny paused, eyes narrowed, going stiff enough to send alarm bells ringing in Brennan’s head. “I’m sure he’d bemorethan happy to relive his golden days with you, but I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Why not?”
“They say never meet your heroes? Well, you shouldn’t meet your maker. Not when it’s Travis.”
Interesting. Even with whatever surveillance she had going on, she didn’t know he had already met Travis.
“What does that mean?” Brennan pressed.
“He’s unstable, alright? He’s weird, and gross, and you only get that powerful from killing alotof people overthousandsof years. He’s not a good influence. So don’t, okay?” She huffed, shaking her head at her laptop screen. “But unless you need me to kill someone, shut someone up, or boost something on Instagram, I need to work.”
“One more question,” Brennan tried, “and I promise I’ll shut up.”
Sunny raised an impatient eyebrow and nodded for him to spit it out.
“Why do you care?” Brennan asked. Sunny’s frown deepened, so he fumbled on, “I mean, you’ve killed people, so I’m guessing it’s not forthe moral high ground. You don’t seem to likepeoplein general. Why are you running an urban clan?”
Sunny cocked her head, less inquisitive and more calculating, like Brennan had surprised her.
“I do it for Nellie,” she said. “Before her, I didn’t have a purpose. Now I do.”
With that, Sunny returned to her work.
Brennan looked over his shoulder, where Nellie and Dom were playing a racing game and chatting, then turned back to the table.
He reached for his journal and bided his time. He still wasn’t sure about the clan, but there was no chance he was going to miss out on vampire group bonding. Whatever that meant.
“You’re serious?” Brennan asked.
He’d seen Nellie slip money to one of the employees for this. Sunny had even put down her laptop, tied her hair into a high ponytail, and walked with extremely serious purpose.
Nellie turned away from the racks of plastic guns and vests, whirling toward Brennan with her hands on her hips. One of the vests was already draped over her shoulders.
“Oh, I’mdeadserious, Brennan Brooks,” she said. “You better armor up.”
“You guys can team up, since you’re new. Nellie and I each go solo,” Sunny said. Brennan wrinkled his nose and sized up Dom, who seemed as unenthused about teaming up as Brennan was.
Nellie added, “We give Sunny a limit on shots as a disadvantage.”
“I’m very good at laser tag,” Sunny said solemnly.
“Battle royale, three hits to down, sound good?”
