“Mel’s okay?” The change in his tone was immediate enough to make me feel bad for wanting to avoid him. Raysel wasn’t that big a deal. I mean, if I can hang around with the Luidaeg, I can handle Rayseline Torquill.
“Mel’s is fine.” Mel’s Diner in downtown San Francisco is a purveyor of classic Americana, from the ever popular fried egg sandwich to the fat-saturated roast beef platter. There are no surprises at Mel’s. I like it that way.
“Meet you in an hour?”
“Better make it two.” I stood, grabbing my robe off the floor. “I need a shower, and the sun isn’t up yet. I can’t go outside safely until it is.”
“Oh, right. You’re a wimp.”
“And you’re a skinshifting bastard.”
“I love you, too. See you at Mel’s!” The line went dead. Connor and I have been competing for the last word for a long time, and he’s finally starting to catch up. I need to work on my phone-slamming skills.
I tied my robe and started for the hall, rubbing at my eyes. There was no way I was getting back to sleep. Spike and the cats followed me to the kitchen, where the astronomical calendar on the fridge informed me that dawn was scheduled for 6:13 A.M. I’d had to go to the Science Museum bookstore to find a calendar that listed times for sunrise and sunset, and it was worth the effort. Knowing exactly when the sun would rise meant I could have a cup of coffee without worrying about timing things wrong and scalding myself. I’d get through sunrise, take a shower, and meet Connor for a plate of something bad for me. It was starting to look like it might be a decent morning.
There was a knock at the door.
I turned, frowning. No one knocks on my door before dawn. Most of my clients are fae and wouldn’t risk being caught out so close to sunrise, and I don’t take human clients who seem likely to show up after midnight. “The hell?”
I started for the door, stopping as I caught a flicker of motion out of the corner of my eye. The cats were huddled under the coffee table, tails bushed out and ears slicked flat. Spike had vanished completely. “Okay. That’s weird.”
There are certain basic rules of survival in my world. One of them is that you don’t live to a ripe old age by ignoring the warnings you get from your pets. Cats who live with the fae tend to get a little touched by strangeness, and the things that get that kind of reaction from them are usually looking for worse reactions from me. Reactions such as screaming, running, or going for a weapon. Whoever or whatever was out there probably didn’t intend anything good.
Feeling increasingly paranoid, I looked back toward the door as my visitor knocked again. I didn’t want to deal with a potential threat before my morning coffee, but whatever it was wasn’t going away. Just swell. I reached into the umbrella stand and pulled out my baseball bat as I approached the door. A girl can’t be too careful if she’s addicted to breathing, and I’ve found that being hit in the head with a stick of aluminum is enough to daunt most monsters, at least for a moment.
“Who is it?” I called. My mother’s blood taught me about monsters, but both sides of the family taught me that I’d get smacked if I forgot my manners.
“Candygram.”
I eyed the door. Whoever it was didn’t just scare my cats, they also quoted bad comedy routines: truly the stuff of terror. Something about the voice made the back of my neck itch. I ran through a quick catalog of options in my head but couldn’t connect it to anyone I knew. Shifting the bat behind my back in case it was one of my neighbors, I opened the door. And froze.
An Artificial Night
Seanan McGuire's books
- A Man for Amanda
- Dance Upon the Air
- Moon Island(Vampire Destiny Book 7)
- A game of chance(MacKenzie Family Saga series #5)
- Death Angel
- Loving Evangeline(Patterson-Cannon Family series #1)
- A Changing Land
- A Clandestine Corporate Affair
- A Gentleman Never Tells
- An Inheritance of Shame
- And Then She Fell
- Anything but Vanilla
- Anything for Her
- Anything You Can Do
- A Rancher's Pride
- A Stranger at Castonbury
- An Act of Persuasion
- An Unsinkable Love
- Angel's Rest
- Be Good A New Adult Romance (RE12)
- Beauty and the Blacksmith
- Beauty and the Sheikh
- Blood and Kisses
- Captain Durant's Countess
- Cardwell Ranch Trespasser
- Cavanaugh on Duty
- Chances Are
- Cinderella and the Sheikh
- Currant Creek Valley
- Cowboy Enchantment
- Dance With Me
- Dangerous Refuge
- Dicing with the Dangerous Lord
- Down and Dirty (Dare Me)
- Ein Mann fur alle Lagen
- Emancipating Andie
- Entanglement (YA Dystopian Romance)
- Forever and a Day
- Grace Anne
- Guardian Wolf
- Her Hesitant Heart
- Her Man in Manhattan
- Highland Defiance
- Meant-To-Be Mother
- Highland Heiress
- Highland Master
- Highlander Most Wanted
- Hotter than Texas (Pecan Creek)
- Kiss and Spell (Enchanted, Inc.)
- Lady Vivian Defies a Duke
- Lanterns and Lace
- Leather and Lace
- Lightning and Lace
- Lost and Found
- Meant to Be (Heaven Hill Series)
- More Flirts! 5 Romantic Short Stories
- More Than One Night
- Need A Want Companion Novel
- Night Maneuvers
- No Stranger to Scandal
- Norma Jean
- NYC Angels Flirting with Danger
- Once and Again
- Operation Endurance
- Radiant
- Real Romance
- Rock and a Hard Place
- Roman Holiday
- Sand Angel
- Scandal at the Cahill Saloon
- Scene of the Crime Deadman's Bluff
- Second Chance
- Seductive Company
- Sins and Scarlet Lace
- Stranded with a Billionaire
- Strangely Normal
- Tap Dance (Dance Series)
- The American Bride
- The Banshee's Desire
- The Banshee's Revenge
- The Devil's Heart The Chattan Curse
- The Englishman
- The Game Changer The Final Score
- The Rancher and the Event Planner
- The Reluctant Wag
- The Texan's Contract Marriage
- Translation of Love
- Urban Venus
- Want (Stephanie Lawton)
- Wanted (Amanda Lance)
- The Raider_A Highland Guard Novel
- The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress
- India Black and the Gentleman Thief
- Take This Man
- The Wiccan Diaries
- The Swan Book
- How To Be A Woman
- It Takes a Scandal
- An Heir to Bind Them
- Passion and the Prince