He eyed her from head to foot and then turned to Kristin. “Get her number and set up a date.”

I saw a spark of something in Kristin’s eyes, and it took me a moment to identify it. Jealousy. Reflecting back on the way she doted on his affairs, I shouldn’t have been surprised that she had a crush on him. She flipped through a few pages in her clipboard, her lips tight and disapproving.

“You’ve got a lot of appointments this week. You hate it when you’ve got back-to-back events.” She spoke levelly, but I could tell that while part of her warning came from true concern, another part of her welcomed the chance to throw a kink into his dating life. Cedric didn’t appear to notice.

He waved a dismissive hand. “Cancel something unimportant. You’ll know what to do.”

He wandered off while Kristin took down Tawny’s number. “We’ll be in touch,” Kristin said flatly.

“Huh,” said Tawny, once Kristin was gone. “He’s kind of cute. Maybe this body isn’t so bad after all.”

I exchanged glances with Hugh and Peter. They looked a lot like I felt: weary and frustrated, with the secret suspicion that this was all almost funny.

“Well,” I said, watching Tawny smile with delight. “At least someone’s happy with all this.”

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Hearing Cedric assure me I couldn’t die lifted a huge weight off my shoulders. I left the Cellar with much less anxiety, though I still had no intention of doing anything that might test how exactly we’d heal from decapitation. So, while I still operated with caution, I no longer felt suffocated or threatened by every aspect of the world.

Rather than go home, I drove down to Dante’s shop. His store/apartment was in Rainier Valley, on the southeast side of Seattle. He had no regularly posted hours for his assorted “psychic” services, but he would usually hang around there at night if he had nothing else to do. It tended to be the time drunk people or couples out on dates (or high teens) would wander in looking for fun and novelty. Daytime business hours didn’t generally bring out that many who were seeking help from the divine unless, perhaps, it was someone seeking advice on stock trading.

Dante had no customers tonight, however. The shop and its flickering neon sign seemed sad and lonely. I pushed through the unlocked door and found him leaning against the checkout counter, leafing through a copy of Maxim.

“What gives?” I asked. “Your subscription to Frauds and Scams Weekly run out?”

He glanced up at me with a smile, flipping black hair out of his face. “Just needed something pretty to look at since I didn’t know when I’d be seeing you again.”

I planted a kiss on his cheek. “Holy shit. That’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever said to me.”