I blinked.
“Shopping!” Nina informed me.
I slapped my palm against my forehead. “Neens, I’m so sorry.”
“Who’s this Eliza bird?” Will wanted to know.
“Who is Eliza Draconie?” Nina’s coal black eyes were as wide as saucers, and her little heart-shaped mouth was held in an astonished O. “She is only the most fashion-forward and fabulous vampire ever to live!”
I cupped my mouth with my hand and leaned toward Will. “To not live. She’s—”
“I know,” Will said, waving his hand at me, “undead. A vampire.”
“And completely fictional,” I finished.
“Maybe,” Nina said, “but Edie knows what she’s talking about.” Nina tapped her index finger against her ruby red lips. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say Edie was one of us, or is seriously entrenched.”
Vlad spit out an exasperated sigh. “She is not one of us, nor does she have any kind of connection to the demon Underworld. She is yet another ‘pop culture artist’”—he made air quotes with his pale fingers—“who is propagating this myth of the fashion-whoring vampire woman, catting around modern society and falling in love with breathers. You should be ashamed, Aunt Nina. Edie Havenhurst is setting back the female gender thousands of years.”
“Back to when that ascot was in style,” Nina said without looking up from her book.
Vlad glared at her and then looked back at us, his black-painted fingernails raking over his ascot. “We are simply doing a small-scale demonstration at Ms. Havenhurst’s book signing tonight.”
Nina was up and standing nose to nose with Vlad in half a heartbeat, and I gripped my chest. I don’t care how long I’ve lived with a vampire—that creepy, silent, superspeed thing was going to kill me eventually.
“Edie Havenhurst is here? In San Francisco? Now? Ohmigod, I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.”
Vlad grinned triumphantly and held out his protest sign to Nina. “So you’re coming down?”
Nina’s eyes were glassy as she tapped her fingers against her pale forearm. “I don’t think I have anything to wear.”
“What you have on is fine. We’re not trying to stand out. Our message is.” Vlad shook the sign at her and Nina glared at it as though the flimsy cardboard was doused in holy water or polyester. “Get rid of that. I’m not going on your dork march. I’m going to meet Edie Havenhurst.”
Vlad let out a low growl and stomped out of the house, slamming the door behind him so hard that my requisite San Francisco dweller photo of the Golden Gate Bridge rattled in its frame. Nina, unfazed, kicked open her bedroom door, opening the gaping portal into the velvety, vampire world of vintage couture. Will and I exchanged a glance.
“Feel like watching a vampire drool?” I asked him.
“Sadly enough, I haven’t anything better to do.”
Chapter Three
I was white-knuckling the dashboard of Nina’s little black Lexus coupe while she sped through intersections, dodging terrified-looking tourists as they clutched Nordstrom bags and hunks of sourdough bread to their chests.
“Slow down, Neens. You’re the only one who’s immortal here.”
“Ahem,” Vlad growled from the backseat.
“You know what I mean,” I said without turning around.
Vlad and Will were tucked into the cramped backseat, and I could see Will’s long legs trying to negotiate Vlad’s collection of protest signs and VERM leaflets while he tried desperately to avoid Nina’s collection of discarded drunk-on-the-go blood bags and unacceptable fashion choices.
“Did you have to bring all of this?” Will asked as he pulled a FEAR THE FANGS sign out from under one butt cheek. “I mean, aren’t you VERM guys supposed to be kind of secretive?”
I watched Vlad’s perfectly sculpted eyebrows come together. “The Vampire Empowerment and Restoration Movement. We don’t shorten it.”
Will’s expression said he was waiting for more, and Vlad rolled his eyes.
“Yes, we are a rather secretive organization.”
I cleared my throat. “But isn’t VER—sorry, the Empowerment Movement—isn’t it basically running the UDA now? I mean, you’ve got Eldridge and Dixon and now you.”
Vlad looked positively disgusted and ignored me completely. “As I was saying, the Vampire Empowerment and Restoration Movement is a rather secretive organization. To you people. But there are instances—like the egregious and degrading portrayal of our kind, especially just to make a few bucks—that demand we not stay silent. As I mentioned, this will be a peaceful protest.”
Will blanched. “I suppose that’s good to know.”
Vlad looked toward the window wistfully. “Originally we were going to have a parade.”