Always the Vampire

“You don’t think Triton will bolt out to Cosmil’s?”


“Not without his truck. Besides, he respects the wizard. He may not like waiting, but he’ll stay away from the cabin until Cosmil gives the all clear. You have an early ghost tour tonight, right?”

“At eight. I guess we’ll find out if training is on hold again.”

Saber grinned at me. “In which case, I’m sure we can find something to entertain us.”

“Like those energy exercises?”

“We did miss practice last night.”

I laughed. “You’re insatiable, you know that?”

He captured my hand. “Only with you.”

Okay, I admit my heart was still pitter-patting when I let myself in the cottage and set the alarm for my daytime sleep. I missed Saber being there with me, and Snowball did, too. She meowed at the door even after I set out fresh food and water.

I fell into bed at nine, hugging a pillow instead of Saber’s warm body.

Which might be why my dreams turned ugly.

The vision opened in Cosmil’s perfect circle, except where there should have been trees, rough stone walls stretched to the sky. Triton and Lynn writhed on the grass, black mucus running from their noses like blood from a severed vein. Cosmil and Lia were there, too, coughing and vomiting the same inky goo that smelled like hot asphalt and swamp.

I woke up gagging and found Snowball draped over my neck and chest.

Damn, when did she get so heavy?

These spooky dreams were getting old fast, but I refused to dwell on them. Instead, I showered, downed a Starbloods, and called Saber’s cell from my cordless house phone.

“Any report on Lynn?”

“She’s stable. Cosmil believes she had a mild case of the Void illness, but one that hit her hard. He’ll let Triton see her after he closes the store at five. Cosmil wants to resume our training, too.”

“So you’ll drive Triton to the compound and hang out there?”

“Yeah. Oh, and I used Triton’s computer to look up that networking site. You have to register, and it looks more like a gaming thing to me, but the address is www.shiftermagic.net.”

“Got it,” I said as I jotted the URL on my note pad. “I need to check in with Maggie to be sure there are no wedding snafus, but I’ll get on the computer before I leave for my tour.”

“You’ll come out here straight from town?”

“Probably. I should ask Lia if she wants some fresh clothes. If she does, I may drop by your place on the way, but I won’t stop at home. I can change into jeans and a tee at Cosmil’s.”

“Good deal. See you about ten tonight.”

We signed off, and I called Lia first. She asked for a cotton outfit I’d seen her do the magical ironing job on, and she asked me to bring her pouches.

I disconnected and immediately called Maggie’s cell. She answered on the third ring.

“Are you with a client?”

“The one who can’t pick a bathroom tile to save her snooty life.”

“Tell her to go with neutral glass tiles. It’s the rage.”

“Says HGTV?”

“Just tell her it’s the choice of celebrity designers.”

Maggie laughed. “So, what’s up?”

“I have a tour tonight and then another thing,” I said as I opened my laptop and powered it on.

“You’ve had a lot of other things lately. I’ve noticed all the late comings and goings. Should I know specifics?”

“We’ve been hanging out with Triton a lot,” I fudged, then hurried on. “But I called to be sure all things wedding are going smoothly at your end.”

“They are. I’ll be over to help with last-minute preparations for the bridal shower Saturday.”

“Okay, but Saber and I have Sunday’s party covered. You and Neil just need to show up, eat, and open gifts.”

“And then write thank-you notes. Oh, here comes my client. I’ll catch you later.”

I put the phone unit on the desk, entered the Shifter Magic web address, and waited. The registration screen flashed up with hokey depictions of vampires and shifters and fairies in the outer frame. I signed in using my secondary e-mail address, and borrowed my mother’s maiden name to set up enough of a profile to give me access.

A list of games appeared in a navigation bar at the top of the page. I clicked on shifters, and a long, five-column list popped up. Human-dolphin was in the first column, but so was human-butterfly.

Hmm. Did a butterfly shifter experience a cocoon stage first?

I entered the shifter “game,” went through the tutorial, and finally got into the forum. Sure enough, supposed shifter sightings were reported from St. Augustine to the Barbary Coast by people with screen names like ahab930, adam12, and flipper21, but I couldn’t tell if these were gaming comments or sightings people legitimately believed they’d seen.