Page 90 of Blade

Of some sort.

His cheerful grin and shrug didn’t tell me if he’d been trying to kill me or not and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. “Most of us are glad you’re back to your old self.”

Most?

“And that’s kind of the reason I’m here.” His frown didn’t make him look any older, but he was trying. “Um, from what we can tell, you guys were the ones who called in the drunk driver, right?”

Taking a page from my mate, I cocked my head and tried to look confused. It just made the officer excited again. “Oh, you’re good at that. I need to practice that expression.”

He was odd.

He was still happy, though.

“Um, I can tell when people are lying. It’s kind of an aura thing but not quite, so I don’t actually need you to use the words. You were thinking about lying.” Shrugging, he charged right back in without my having to respond. “So yeah. Okay. Um, well the guy who was following you was one of the locals who’s made a serious crack at finding you.”

Something about the way he said that made me picture being a rug in front of some idiot’s fireplace.

“I hope you informed him that finding me was no longer necessary?” The officer’s nod didn’t make me feel a lot of confidence. “I appreciate that.”

“I explained the situation just in case he hadn’t heard.” I couldn’t tell if the officer realized how insane that sounded or not. If I was in a truck with a human-looking body, he couldn’t hunt me. “He just got excited.”

Really?

That was how he was going to explain it?

“But he was actually drunk as a skunk, so he won’t be driving anywhere for a while.” Perking up again, the officer looked excited to tell me that. “I just wanted to let you know he won’t be a problem and he actually had been following you.”

It was nice to know he hadn’t wanted us to think we were paranoid?

“Thank you. I appreciate that.” When he stood there just smiling at me, I couldn’t decide what to do next. “We won’t be staying around much longer, so you won’t have to worry about us.”

At the very least Henley was going to make us move campgrounds.

We’d been working our way through an exhaustive to-do list to make sure we were ready to leave and were done with most of the necessities. There were a few items he said would be nice to get done but weren’t essential.

The last important item we were waiting on was my new ID and banking cards, but those were supposed to be ready any day. Evidently the coven had interesting friends who could help in situations like mine, which made me wonder what was going on in the world where that was necessary.

Henley decided not to ask too many questions but offered the person who was recreating my life a generous tip. My mate enjoyed meeting fascinating new people and making sure they remembered him fondly seemed to be his goal.

Part of me couldn’t imagine what we’d be doing where we’d need them again but then I remembered Henley’s family.

Yes…I could see why we might need someone like that in the future.

Eventually his family was going to find us and they’d start asking questions about where I’d come from. We were both hoping I’d pass for a human he’d met on his trip, but his family was so suspicious I wasn’t sure how long that would be believable.

I knew Henley would protect me above all else. He’d already shown that he understood how insane his family was, but I really didn’t want to put him in the position where he had to pick my safety or theirs.

I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear his mental debate about how to kill them or where to hide their bodies.

“You’ll come back, though, right?” Still looking younger than he probably was, his wide eyes and eager smile had me wanting to deduct years off his likely age as he nearly bounced in excitement. “We have a festival for you every year. The humans started it but it’s fun.”

Good grief.

I didn’t know what to say to that but knowing he could read my intent had me considering my answer carefully. “Part of me thinks that would be a lot of fun, so I’m not discounting the idea, but we have plans that can’t be moved around. I’ll see how it works into the schedule.”

I wasn’t going to miss the best comic conventions just to come back and see humans celebrating a strange tragedy.

One that’d worked out for the best considering I had my mate, but still, I wasn’t sure I was ready for that kind of fun yet.