The sack of Godiva chocolate and the thimble-size jar of dogwood-blossom honey that had set me back ten bucks swung from a pinkie as I eased the door shut and, in the darkness of the foyer, kicked off my shoes. So I wasn’t above bribery. So sue me.

A thick silence gave me pause. It was eerie, and I padded in my sock feet through the sanctuary. Ivy had moved her stereo out, though the furniture was still clustered in the corner. I wondered if she was waiting for me to finish the living room together. The church felt different, the blasphemy seeming to grate heavily on my aura.

Head down, I hustled past her closed bedroom door, not wanting the scent of coffee to wake her until I was ready. I wasn’t a fool to believe that coffee, pastries, chocolate, and honey would be enough to soothe Ivy’s hurt emotions and Jenks’s worry, but it might buy me time to explain before the shit hit the fan. Kisten wanted me to tell her I’d bitten him to understand her hunger better, but it would be a lie. I’d bitten him because I had known he’d enjoy it. That it had felt good to me had been an unexpected surprise—which I was embarrassed about now.

Safe in the kitchen, I set the pastries by the sink, wincing at the nine-by-thirteen pan of unfrosted chocolate cake and tub of white frosting. She made me a cake while I was sleeping with Kisten? Great.

“The nice plate,” I said, quashing my guilt and rummaging for the plate Ivy had bought at a garage sale this spring after I’d said I liked the violets on the open-weave rim. Not finding it, I slid the top everyday black plate out, glancing at the empty hallway when the ceramic clinked. The sack crackled as I took out and arranged the pastries. The coffee was next, and my frown deepened when Ivy’s Vampiric Charms mug wasn’t in the cupboard. It wasn’t like her to put it in the dishwasher, but the door creaked, so I poured the brew into a set of smaller cups.

“Now for Jenks,” I muttered, getting a matching dessert plate and setting the single square of fudge on it, strategically placing the honey beside it. This was going to work. I’d talk to them both together, and it was going to be all right. It wasn’t as if I had let him bite me.

Ready, I spun to the table. My face went cold. Ivy’s computer was gone.

My thoughts flew to the sanctuary and her missing stereo. “Please, let us have been robbed,” I whispered. Scared out of my mind, I hustled into the hallway. Had she found out and left? Damn it! I wanted to be the one to tell her!