Kick The Candle (Knight Games) by Genevieve Jack Page B

Gary.
    “Of course they’re real! Do you think Julius would pull one over on you? Contrary to your apparent assumption, he enjoys having his head attached to his body.”
    “You only stole $40,000. That’s some pretty crazy interest.”
    Gary squatted down next to me in the driveway. “So young, so naïve.”
    All of my negative feelings toward him channeled into a look that could cut glass. He actually waddled back a step. “If you’ve got something to say, just say it.”
    “You’re Hecate, acting goddess of the dead in this district. Julius is sucking up to you on behalf of the coven. We’d all like to stay on this side of the gate.”
    “Yeah.” I wasn’t buying for a minute that Julius was scared of me. I suspected he was behind the increase in supernaturals in the area and the money was his attempt to grease the scales of justice in his favor. I fully intended to keep the money, but refused to promise anything in return. But then, Gary hadn’t asked for anything.
    “Thanks for paying me back,” I said. “I better go inside. My fingers are getting numb.” I stood, lifted the heavy bag to my shoulder, and side stepped to the front door so that I could keep one eye on him.
    “There’s something else, Grateful. We need to talk.”
    Here it was. He was going to tell me what this bribe was for. I needed to hear it, to know what I was getting myself into by taking the money, but first, I needed to get warm. And there was no way in hell I was inviting him inside.
    “Can you wait out here for fifteen minutes? I just got off work. I need to get out of these scrubs and take a bio break.”
    He glanced at the door, seeming to resign himself to not being invited in and nodded. It wasn’t a big deal for him. Undead bodies didn’t get cold. As for me, I was inside before I could take my next breath.
     
    * * * * *
    F ifteen minutes later, I returned to my porch dressed for an Antarctic expedition, complete with snowpants, poofy jacket, hat, gloves and boots. I turned on the porch light, so I could see Gary better, and plopped down on a dining room chair I’d dragged out because I didn’t have any patio furniture. Poe came out with me, circling Gary’s head before taking off to do some hunting.
    “Damned, winged rat!” he said, swiping at the air Poe had just vacated.
    “Hey! Don’t badmouth my familiar. You’re on borrowed time, so say what you came to say and get out of here.”
    “Got one for me?” he said, gesturing toward the chair.
    I glanced at the door and the five other dining room chairs behind it. “No.” I made myself comfortable.
    He leaned against the railing, dressed only in a dress shirt and slacks. If he’d been human, he’d have frostbite by now. “I need to tell you something about the night I became this.” He circled a hand through the air in front of his body.
    All of the feelings around his abandonment of me came back like a reoccurring sore. I was over Gary but I wasn’t over ‘it’. Why had he left? What was wrong with me? I needed answers. “Okay. I’ll listen. But first, answer me this question. Did you leave me because you became a vampire or did you become a vampire after you left me?”
    Turning toward the road, he scanned my snow-covered yard with the interest of a nocturnal predator. I could picture him leaping over the banister in one lithe movement to capture a rabbit between his teeth.
    “I wanted to open our bookstore. I really did. But then I met this woman,” Gary began.
    “Uh huh.” There was venom in my voice. So, he left me before becoming a vamp. For another woman. My ego curled up at the pit of my stomach.
    “No, it wasn’t like that. She’d heard my poetry and said she was a big fan. When I told her I was thinking about opening a bookstore, she insisted it was suicide. ‘People don’t buy paper books anymore,’ she said. ‘Everything’s going electronic.’ Instead, she convinced me to partner with her to open a coffeehouse designed