For a Few Demons More by Kim Harrison Page B

a chance.”
    The scuffing of my sandals slowed, and I looked askance at him, bothered at the amusement in his dark eyes. “Crap, how did you find out about that?”
    He opened the passenger-side door for me. “Duh, I work for the FIB? Our street force has been running interference for you every time you go out for groceries. If you get caught driving with a suspended license, the I.S. is going to jail your ass, and we like your ass on the street where it can do some good, Ms. Morgan.”
    I got into the front seat and set my bag on my lap. I hadn’t known the FIB had even heard about that, much less had been distracting the I.S. “Thanks,” I said softly, and he shut the door with a grunt of acknowledgment.
    Glenn crossed in front while I buckled myself in. It was stuffy, and I fiddled with the window control to put it down. The car wasn’t on yet, but I was irritated. I jammed my coffee in the cup holder and kept messing with the window until Glenn folded his height into the front seat and gave me a look. My brow furrowed in frustration. “It’s not fair,Glenn,” I complained. “They had no right to take my license. They’re picking on me.”
    â€œJust take the driver’s-ed class and get it over with.”
    â€œBut it’s not fair! They’re intentionally making my life difficult.”
    â€œGolly, imagine that?” The key slid into the ignition, and Glenn paused to tug a pair of sunglasses out of his pocket and put them on to up his cool factor by about ten. Face easing in relief, he looked down the quiet street shaded with trees almost eighty years old. “What do you expect?” he said. “You gave them an excuse. They took it.”
    I drew a frustrated breath, holding it. So I ran a red light. It was yellow most of the way. And I went a little fast on the interstate once. But I suppose letting my ex-boyfriend run into me with a Mack truck to help a vampire start his undead existence might be cause for a few points. No one had died but the vampire, though—and he wanted to.
    I fiddled with the button again, and Glenn took the hint. Warm air sifted in as the window whined down, replacing the scent of my perfume with the aroma of cut grass. “Jenks!” I called as he started the car. “Let’s go !”
    The rumble of the big car hid the clatter of Jenks’s wings as he zipped in. “Sorry about the message, Rache,” he muttered as he landed on the rearview mirror.
    â€œDon’t sweat it.” I stretched my arm along the length of the open window, not wanting to ream him out over it. I’d taken enough flak from my brother for doing the same thing, and I knew it hadn’t been intentional.
    I settled into the leather seats as Glenn pulled onto the empty street. It would stay empty until about noon, when most of the Hollows started to wake up. My pulse was slow from the early hour, and the heat of the day made me sleepy. Glenn kept his car as tidy as himself; not an old coffee-stained cup or clutter of paperwork marred the floor or backseat. “So-o-o-o,” I drawled around a yawn, “what’s at the morgue besides the obvious?”
    Glenn glanced at me as he yielded to a stop sign. “Suicide, but it’s murder.”
    Of course it is. Nodding, I waved at the I.S. cruiser behind an overgrown bush, then made a bunny-eared “kiss-kiss” to the small Were in fatigues dozing on a bench in the sun watching them. It was Brett. Themilitant Were had been kicked out of his pack for having failed at kidnapping me a few months ago, so of course I was the one he wanted to pack up with next. It made sense in a warped sort of way. I had bested his alpha; therefore I was stronger.
    David, my alpha, wasn’t having anything to do with it, seeing as he hadn’t wanted a pack in the first place. It was why he’d bucked the system and started one with a witch in order to keep his