Depressed, I scooped up my shoulder bag and Ivy’s canvas sack. “If you jump me again, I’ll freaking break your damn arm,” I muttered as I trailed behind her, knowing she could hear me. I didn’t know where we stood, but ice cream now sounded as appealing as eating a hot dog in the snow. Perhaps the encounter had been inevitable. It could have been worse. Ivy could have heard us.

“You okay?” I asked when I caught up to Skimmer on the church steps, the lights in the sanctuary making yellow swaths on the wet concrete.

Giving me a sideways glance, she felt her middle, her expression a mix of sullen mistrust and anger. “I love Ivy, and I’ll do anything to protect her. You understand me?”

My eyes narrowed at the implication that I was a threat to Ivy. “I’m not endangering her.”

“Yes you are.” The woman’s narrow chin lifted as she stood a step above me. “If she kills you by mistake because you goad her into something, she will never forgive herself. I know her. She’ll end it all to escape the pain. I love Ivy, and I’m not going to let her kill herself.”

“Neither am I,” I said hotly.

Skimmer’s face emptied of emotion, chilling me. A quiet vampire was a plotting vampire. Yanking the door open, she slipped in ahead of me. Great. I think I had just put myself on Skimmer’s hit list.

While I leaned against the wall and wedged off my sandals, Skimmer muttered something about the bathroom. Wiping her boots, she clattered into Ivy’s bathroom, making an obvious amount of noise, and slammed the door. I followed the scent of warm bread into the kitchen, my steps silent from being barefoot. I found Ivy at her computer buying music. “What flavor did you get?” she asked.

“Ah, it started to rain,” I ad-libbed, “and we decided it wasn’t worth the effort.” It wasn’t really a lie, just looking at it from an expanded point of view.

Ivy nodded, eyes on the screen. I had expected some sort of reaction, but then I noticed that her boots were wet, and I slumped. Crap, she’d seen the entire thing.

I took a breath to explain, but her brown eyes flicked to mine, halting me. Skimmer came in, her cell phone in hand. “Hey, the office called,” she said, the lie coming from her as easily as breathing. “They want me back early, so I’m going to cut out on you. You two go ahead and have lunch. I’ll take a rain check.”

Ivy sat straighter. “You’re headed into Cincy?” Skimmer nodded, and Ivy rose, stretching. “Mind if I get a ride from you?” she asked. “That’s where my run is.” Ivy glanced at me. “You don’t mind, do you, Rachel?”