Apparently, it now belonged to Stefan. I hadn’t noticed that the other night at Rainbow’s End.

He lowered the kickstand and cut the engine. He wasn’t wearing a helmet, just a pair of wraparound sunglasses that should have looked tacky, yet somehow didn’t. In the daylight, the pallor of his skin was vivid. Not undead pallor like a vampire, just sort of otherworldly. His slightly too long black hair brushed the collar of the leather vest he wore over a plain, skintight black T-shirt. I couldn’t figure out how the hell Stefan made that look elegant, but he did.

“Holy shit,” Jen breathed fervently beside me. “That’s the hot ghoul you told me about, isn’t it?”

“Outcast,” I whispered. “That’s what they call themselves.”

Stefan took off his sunglasses, revealing those pale eyes, a shade of blue seldom seen outside the interior of a glacier. His pupils were contracted and steady as he met my gaze. “Hel’s liaison.”

“You know,” I said to him, “you don’t have to come running or send Cooper to check on me every time I have a little emotional blip.”

“A . . . blip.” The word sounded funny in his mouth. He looked down at the contents of my bag and Emmy’s charm strewn across the sidewalk, then back at me, arching one evocative eyebrow.

“It’s okay,” I said. “I handled it. By the way, this is my friend Jen. Jennifer Cassopolis, Stefan Ludovic. And . . .” I looked around for Jojo, but she’d made herself scarce. “Um, never mind.”

Stefan dismounted from his bike in one fluid motion, took Jen’s hand before she could react, and bowed slightly. “It is a pleasure, Miss Cassopolis.”

Jen gave me an uncertain look. With a sister in thrall to a vampire, she tended to be wary of predatory eldritch species, although a bit less so since learning that Cody was a werewolf. It makes a difference when you’ve known someone since high school.

“It’s okay,” I said to her. “Stefan’s got centuries of self-discipline under his belt.”

She relaxed. “Nice to meet you.”

Releasing her hand, Stefan nodded at the items on the sidewalk. “This is the work of the sorceress Cooper encountered last night, I take it?”

“Yep.”

He met my gaze again and this time his pupils did the wax-and-wane thing. “This is a grave breach of protocol, Daisy Johanssen. For an outsider to enter a community such as ours and give insult to a vested agent of the resident deity is tantamount to a challenge.”

“Yeah, I figured.” I prodded the pile of dirt with my toe. “Don’t worry. I plan on confronting her.”

Stefan inclined his head. “I remain in your debt. My services and my forces are at your disposal.”

“Thanks,” I said. “But I’d like to try to handle this discreetly.”