Page 16 of Blood Taken (Blood Mafia 2)
"I'll make the tea if it'll make you work faster."
Lacey opens her mouth to say something snarky, but I cut her off.
"Thank you, Lace. It means a lot, we'll leave you to it."
She snaps her mouth closed, glaring at Mateo's back. Colt follows after him while I linger behind.
"Did you have to bring him? He's always such a downer."
I give her a look. "He's the boss, Lacey. Of course I brought him." She huffs. "Don't worry about him, he's trying to be nice."
"He's not very good at it," she mumbles softly, not soft enough for Mateo to miss the comment though.
I grimace at her words. Under normal circumstances he'd stomp in here and give her a piece of his mind. He won't hurt Lacey out of respect for me, unless she did something abhorrent. When Mateo doesn't come to berate her, I let the tension drain from my shoulders. Lacey is watching me with keen interest.
"She must be something," she says offhandedly, more as a comment than a question.
"I'll be in the kitchen with the guys," I say, squeezing her arm gently before leaving her to work. The less she knows about Demi, the better.
Lacey's always been loyal, but I'd rather not let her know Demi is a tool someone can use to hurt us. Not that I think she'd do that, Lacey's a good kid.
Well, she's actually seventy-nine, but she doesn't look a day over twenty-one. Witch bodies age much slower than the average humans. While she should appear about twenty-five given her true age, she created her own fountain of youth. The vanity of being young didn't escape her. Plus it gives her an advantage, most assume she's truly a young witch. They end up learning the hard way when they try to mess with her.
I hear Mateo and Colt grumbling in the kitchen as I walk through the old house. The gas stove clicks as the flame whooshes to life and begins to heat the water in the tea kettle.
"Did you get your little witch in line?" Mateo asks in a detached voice, pretending not to care one way or another.
Colt's arms are crossed as he leans against the counter by the sink. A ghost of a smile passes his lips at Mateo's words, but it's gone in a matter of seconds.
"Things would be a lot easier if you didn't insult her."
The look Mateo shoots my way would make most people back down, but I've had it with his temper.
"Lacey is helping us. Would it kill you to at least pretend to be grateful?"
Colt studies the black cat clock on the wall, his eyes moving back and forth as he tracks the cat's eyes swaying from side to side in time with the ticking.
Mateo opens a cabinet, pulling out four mugs for the tea. He drops in the tea bags, a calming kava root blend, and drums his fingers on the counter.
Since neither of them are talking to me, I pull out my phone and check my messages. There's a missed call from Alissa and a text from Evelyn.
Evelyn: Do you need me to shake down the friend?
I start typing: What? No. Jesus, leave the friend alone, Evelyn. We're handling it.
The typing bubble appears almost as soon as the text goes through.
Evelyn: You should have let me handle it, this sort of thing needs a woman's intuition.
Evelyn's intuition would likely lead to the slaughter of a handful of innocent humans. She's Mateo's sister, but that woman has a few screws loose, even more so than Demi.
I send back: We've got it under control, Evelyn. Thanks for the offer.
The typing bubble appears again, then disappears, then reappears.
Evelyn: Fine. It's not my fault if she winds up dead in a ditch because you were too stubborn to let me help.
I scrub my hand over my face and lock my phone. I'll call Alissa later. She's worried about Demi as much as we are, but there's nothing she can do to help that we haven't already tried.
