Cinn couldn’t let that pass. “Oh, for heaven’s sake, Carla just took some meatballs. If you hadn’t stolen the pork chop first, the chef never would’ve gone into the greenhouse.”

Ganymede chose to ignore that truth as he returned to his whining. “You can’t do the cooking, babe. You know what happened the last time you cooked a meal.”

Sparkle looked sulky. “So? We paid everyone’s hospital bills.”

“Why don’t you let the rest of the kitchen staffdo it? They have the routine down. You need to do other important stuff like…”

Cinn could see the desperate look in Ganymede’s eyes as he tried to think up some “important stuff” for Sparkle to do. Cinn wasn’t in a mood to help the cat, but if he was right, then she didn’t want to be eating Sparkle’s culinary efforts either.

She hooked her arm through Sparkle’s. “Let’s go up to your suite and discuss how your character-building campaign is coming along.”

Sparkle’s expression cleared. “Great idea. And while we’re there, we’ll talk about your pitiful outfits. Other than the ones I loaned you, of course.”

Cinn glared at her.

“Oops. I forgot that part of character building is learning to be charitable toward others. So we’ll chat about your unfortunate clothing choices. Is that better?” Sparkle started to drag her from the kitchen.

“Wait. I have to let Bain know I’m with you.” Cinn pulled out her cell and flipped it open. “Strange. It’s not working, and I just charged it.”

Sparkle shrugged. She glanced back to where Ganymede was eyeing a steak someone had put on the grill. “Let Bain know Cinn’s safe with me.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Ganymede sounded as though he didn’t care if Sparkle dumped Cinn in the first trash bin she came to, as long as his honey wasn’t cooking dinner.

They’d almost reached Sparkle’s suite when the lights went out. There was a moment of complete darkness before the emergency lights came on in the hallway.

And in their glow stood a man…or something. He was big, close to seven feet, with shoulders that seemed to fill the whole hallway. But that wasn’t what made Cinn stare at him with unblinking horror. He had the stitched-together look of a Frankenstein, without any of the charm.

“Holy hell,” Cinn breathed out on what felt like her last breath.

The man moved with a speed that pegged him as definitely not human. Cinn didn’t even have time to suck in enough air to scream before he’d reached them.

Sparkle seemed frozen in place, and it wasn’t until he grabbed her that she breathed a word. “Rabid.”

Then both of them disappeared.