Page 69 of Midnight Kiss

“Don’t be so hard on her, Mike. She didn’t know.”

But Mike grumbled under his breath and walked to his bedroom. Reginald Tailwag came trotting down the hallway.

“Where have you been?” I asked, holding out a hand. The dog licked my fingers and whined, giving me a quick wag of his tail in greeting.

“I had him in his room. He’s got everything he needs in there,” Mike said. “I wanted him safe, in case something went down. He’s not good with vamps. Makes him go crazy and straight for the throat.”

As if on cue, Reginald walked to the door and barked, growling, his hackles rising.

“They can’t hurt him, can they?” I asked, and the question sounded dumb, even to my ears.

“They could if they wanted to, but they tend to avoid dogs unless provoked. It’s the reason I keep him locked away when there’s many of them around. To keep him safe.”

“Oh.”

“Vampires,” Morgan said, a burst of hysterical laughter coming from her. “Vampires. Is this some kind of a sick joke? I?—”

“You saw what we saw,” Mike said. “You felt what we felt.”

“Is this a prank?”

Mike grunted under his breath and started explaining, and I tuned him out. I brought the phone out from under the cushion and checked my message thread with Alex. The gray ticks were blue now.

But there was no reply.

24

ALEXANDER

Ihad considered typing out a reply to her, but I couldn’t trust that my phone wasn’t being monitored. I had already bought a burner phone on my way over to Emily’s apartment building, and I sat in the car outside, typing in Julius’ phone number.

It rang once before he picked up.

“Hey, big boss man,” Julius said. “How goes it?”

“I need answers, Julius. Have you found anything else regarding the book?” I asked.

A hesitation. There was music playing in the background, and I pictured my contact in his little underground hiding hole, with purple lights and computer screens. Julius was always hiding out because he wasn’t part of either the U.C. or Sanguine Nox. A life that involved being as invisible as possible. A life of constant fear and anxiety. Of hiding.

Was it so much worse than this?

“Julius?” I asked.

“I’m here, boss man, but I don’t know what to tell you. It doesn’t look good. I can’t find anything on the dark web that indicates anything other than what we’ve discussed.”

“I’m not going to turn her.” I wanted to ask about the bond, if that could perhaps break the curse, but that would mean giving her to the U.C. I couldn’t give her to Elder Finnian. And I couldn’t bond her myself. I couldn’t risk weakening either of us.

“Then I don’t know what to tell you, boss,” Julius said. “I can’t find anything else.”

“There has to be something. There has to be.”

“Not that I know of,” he said.

“Julius.”

“I’m sorry, boss man. But I did discover something else. And you’re not going to like it.”

“Wonderful,” I said drily.