Page 52 of Reapers Don’t Ride

“Everything exists. That’s what I mean. And there’s devil’s food cake too if you want to give him some temptation in the form of decadent chocolate.”

“Angel’s food cake. Not devils.”

“What kind of oven do you have?”

“There are different kinds of ovens? I don’t know. I don’t have one yet.”

She pulled me to a stop and stared at me. “You don’t have an oven?”

“I was going to find one. There is one in the bar’s back room, but I wanted to make it as a surprise.”

She furrowed her brow in thought. Finally, her face brightened, and she beamed at me. “In that case, you can use mine. I’m technically off work, but I saw you wandering around without anyone helping you. I’m afraid you might be slightly intimidating.”

“You can’t let a vampire into your house. It’s very unsafe.”

She patted my arm. “You telling me that makes me feel much better.”

“It shouldn’t. You should trust me to know that it’s unsafe and be on your guard.”

“Vampires don’t usually like fairy blood. Particularly if you’re used to angelic. And I’m not entirely defenseless.”

Her points were quite good, at least the first one. Compared to me, she was extremely defenseless. There were so many ways to kill her, I didn’t bother counting them. I let her drag me around the kitchen department, getting all the things: the fancy pan with a removable bottom, the special flour, the sugar crystals just the right sharpness, and other things that she explained but completely overwhelmed me.

By the time we were checking out, the clerk looked at me mostly civilly. If I was baking a cake, I wasn’t as threatening as a vampire would otherwise be.

I stopped before we reached the front doors. “I actually have a fairy girl living in my building. She doesn’t have clothes. I was going to pick up some things for her as a surprise. Could you help me with that too?”

She positively sparkled, and her smile was bewilderingly sweet. “I’d love to. That’ll be so much fun.”

It wasn’t fun. I told her what colors Chira was, and then the fairy shopping assistant had a wonderful time combining different things for the most outfits for the amount of clothing, plus a few dresses just because.

“Now,” she said, frowning at the clothing. “What’s your budget?”

I took the clothes out of her hands. “It’s good enough to get everything.”

“Are you sure? What about you?”

“I don’t like shopping for myself.”

“But there’s a section curated just for vampires.”

“You are a really good salesperson. I suppose it would be nice to wear something an angel might think was…pretty.” Did I use that word? For me? I must be mad. Of course, I was fixated on an angel. There wasn’t anything more insanely stupid than that.

She clapped her hands and then dragged me to another section. I had to try on the clothing. Fortunately, the fairy girl made things go quickly.

“I don’t know your name,” she said as I came out to model the dress that wasn’t too awkward. It was black. That helped.

“Oh. I guess you can call me Ruby Blood.”

“And you can call me Kesti Charles. Do you like this one, Miss Blood?”

“Ruby. Call me Ruby. I think it’s good.” I studied myself in the mirror. I looked normal enough. The only interesting thing about the dress was that the neckline was wide enough to show off my collarbones.

“Then let’s check out and make some cake.”

Her apartment wasn’t very far. It was probably the smallest apartment in the building, and the doorman gave me a very disapproving look before he gave that to my companion in equal measures.

In the elevator, she turned to look at me, both of us carrying bags that she’d insisted on helping carry. “I’m sorry about the doorman. He’s not used to anyone from Song.”