stinks?”
“Something no one should ever see.” Lili pulled off the wrapper and bit off a piece. “For something boasting chocolate and caramel contents, it tastes more like paper chocolate and fake caramel.” She finished off the bar then looked through the file folders in her desk until she found one labeled requisition forms. She quickly filled one out asking for a small refrigerator for her office.
“Why not just create something more edible?” Cleo curled back up on her pillow.
“I’m too lazy.” Lili flopped back in her chair and swung her legs up on her desk, crossing them at the ankles.
“Now that you’ve made yourself comfortable, do you think you can tell me why you smell like demon and wraith?” the cat asked.
“In case you forgot, I was hired to treat patients here.” Lili threw the discarded wrapper up into the air and snapped her fingers, turning the paper to ash. She soon discovered she wasn’t too lazy to conjure up a mug of coffee, the lifeblood of every member of the medical world. The rich aroma of hazelnut teased her nostrils.
“Ghosts don’t hang around hospitals. It’s much too depressing.” The feline opened her mouth wide in a yawn, displaying tiny needle-sharp teeth and a pink tongue. “Besides, that’s what Guides are for. A child, especially, wouldn’t be abandoned like that.”
“This isn’t your typical ghost. It seems she was kidnapped.” Her stomach tightened as she recalled Amy’s tale.
“Or ghostnapped.” Cleo chuckled.
“This is much worse. She wasn’t a spirit when she was taken.” Lili frowned in thought as she sipped her coffee. “It’s something else I’d like to investigate. She’s a mundane little girl born in the 1800s. She said she was brought here by a big black bird. My medical diagnosis is that she was frightened to death and now she’s trapped down there.”
“Are griffins black?” Cleo mentioned.
“It depends on the flock, but I don’t think that was what took her. Even after all these years, she’s still very frightened and can’t understand why she can’t return to her mother. I need to see if I can reunite them.”
“And the demon?”
“He’s not at all what he appears.” Lili chose not to tell Cleo that Jared was who they’d glimpsed in Inderman. Cleo would immediately switch her “You need a sex life,” to “Okay, let’s cross the homicidal maniac off the list.” “Dr. Mortimer said the Demon Council signed Jared’s care over to him instead of having him destroyed for heinous crimes. I think there’s more going on than the miniscule notations in his file. Plus, Dr. Mortimer never refers to him by name. Only by his intake number. Jared’s treated like a wild animal.”
“You look flushed.” Cleo peered at her closely with more than a hint of suspicion.
“There’s no elevator to take me below, and I hurried up the stairs.” Lili thought of the intense way Jared looked at her. She was positive that had something to do with it too.
At any other time, she would have been interested in seeing where it would go. He was obviously intelligent, seemed way too normal for someone with a grossly damaged brain, not to mention he was damn sexy for a homicidal maniac.
Not that she was considering any kind of interaction with him, even if he stood before her all cleaned up.
Nope. Not at all.
As she drank her coffee she automatically touched the tip of her nose with her fingertip.
Luckily, it hadn’t grown.
The cat stared at her, her mouth widened in a smile that would have done the Cheshire cat proud. “You’re thinking about the sexy guy we saw in Inderman, aren’t you?”
Lili was once again relieved the feline didn’t know that Jared had shown up at the house. She never would have heard the end of it. “There’s been too much going on,” she said, knowing she had to be careful with her words. Cleo had a built-in lie detector.
“I’d rather you drool over him than decide to set your sights on Dr.
“Something no one should ever see.” Lili pulled off the wrapper and bit off a piece. “For something boasting chocolate and caramel contents, it tastes more like paper chocolate and fake caramel.” She finished off the bar then looked through the file folders in her desk until she found one labeled requisition forms. She quickly filled one out asking for a small refrigerator for her office.
“Why not just create something more edible?” Cleo curled back up on her pillow.
“I’m too lazy.” Lili flopped back in her chair and swung her legs up on her desk, crossing them at the ankles.
“Now that you’ve made yourself comfortable, do you think you can tell me why you smell like demon and wraith?” the cat asked.
“In case you forgot, I was hired to treat patients here.” Lili threw the discarded wrapper up into the air and snapped her fingers, turning the paper to ash. She soon discovered she wasn’t too lazy to conjure up a mug of coffee, the lifeblood of every member of the medical world. The rich aroma of hazelnut teased her nostrils.
“Ghosts don’t hang around hospitals. It’s much too depressing.” The feline opened her mouth wide in a yawn, displaying tiny needle-sharp teeth and a pink tongue. “Besides, that’s what Guides are for. A child, especially, wouldn’t be abandoned like that.”
“This isn’t your typical ghost. It seems she was kidnapped.” Her stomach tightened as she recalled Amy’s tale.
“Or ghostnapped.” Cleo chuckled.
“This is much worse. She wasn’t a spirit when she was taken.” Lili frowned in thought as she sipped her coffee. “It’s something else I’d like to investigate. She’s a mundane little girl born in the 1800s. She said she was brought here by a big black bird. My medical diagnosis is that she was frightened to death and now she’s trapped down there.”
“Are griffins black?” Cleo mentioned.
“It depends on the flock, but I don’t think that was what took her. Even after all these years, she’s still very frightened and can’t understand why she can’t return to her mother. I need to see if I can reunite them.”
“And the demon?”
“He’s not at all what he appears.” Lili chose not to tell Cleo that Jared was who they’d glimpsed in Inderman. Cleo would immediately switch her “You need a sex life,” to “Okay, let’s cross the homicidal maniac off the list.” “Dr. Mortimer said the Demon Council signed Jared’s care over to him instead of having him destroyed for heinous crimes. I think there’s more going on than the miniscule notations in his file. Plus, Dr. Mortimer never refers to him by name. Only by his intake number. Jared’s treated like a wild animal.”
“You look flushed.” Cleo peered at her closely with more than a hint of suspicion.
“There’s no elevator to take me below, and I hurried up the stairs.” Lili thought of the intense way Jared looked at her. She was positive that had something to do with it too.
At any other time, she would have been interested in seeing where it would go. He was obviously intelligent, seemed way too normal for someone with a grossly damaged brain, not to mention he was damn sexy for a homicidal maniac.
Not that she was considering any kind of interaction with him, even if he stood before her all cleaned up.
Nope. Not at all.
As she drank her coffee she automatically touched the tip of her nose with her fingertip.
Luckily, it hadn’t grown.
The cat stared at her, her mouth widened in a smile that would have done the Cheshire cat proud. “You’re thinking about the sexy guy we saw in Inderman, aren’t you?”
Lili was once again relieved the feline didn’t know that Jared had shown up at the house. She never would have heard the end of it. “There’s been too much going on,” she said, knowing she had to be careful with her words. Cleo had a built-in lie detector.
“I’d rather you drool over him than decide to set your sights on Dr.
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