Lee watched in rapt attention, and I thought that though he wasn’t pretty like Kisten, he was far more likely to be on a magazine cover than Nick. Just an average guy, and a witch with a degree. My mother would love me to bring this one home. Something had to be wrong with him. Besides his demon mark? I thought dryly. God, save me from myself.

The watching people had various reactions to the eight I rolled. “Not good?” I asked Lee.

His shoulders rose and fell as he took the dice the craps man pushed to him. “It’s okay,” he said. “But you have to roll an eight again before a seven comes up to win.”

“Oh,” I said, pretending I understood. Mystified, I threw the dice. This time they came up nine. “Keep going?” I said, and he nodded.

“I’ll place some one-roll bets for you,” he said, then paused. “If that’s okay?”

Everyone was waiting, so I said, “Sure, that will be great.”

Lee nodded. His brow furrowed for a moment, then he set a pile of red chips on a square. Someone snickered, leaning to whisper “Innocent slaughter” in their neighbor’s ear.

The dice were warm in my hand, and I sent them rolling. They bounced off the wall, coming to halt. It was an eleven, and everyone at the table groaned. Lee, though, was smiling. “You won,” he said, putting a hand on my shoulder. “See?” He pointed. “Odds are fifteen-to-one of rolling an eleven. I figured you’d be a zebra.”

My eyes widened as the predominate color of my pile of chips went from red to blue as the craps man piled a stack on them. “Beg pardon?”

Lee set the dice in my hand. “When you hear hoofbeats, look for horses. That would be the common rolls in this case. I knew you’d roll something odd. A zebra.”

I grinned, rather liking the idea, and the dice flew from me almost before he moved my chips to another square. My pulse quickened, and as Lee explained the details of odds and betting, I rolled again, and again, and again, the table becoming louder and more excited. It wasn’t long before I caught on. The risk, the question of what would happen and the breathless wait until the dice settled, was akin to being on a run, only better because here it was little plastic chips on the line, not my life. Lee switched his tutorial to other ways to wager, and when I dared to make a suggestion, he beamed, gesturing that the table was mine.