My tension flowed back. Piscary looked relaxed, sitting at one of the table’s two wireweave chairs in a lightweight, midnight-blue silk robe. The morning paper sat folded by his hand. The deep color of his robe went nicely with his amber skin. His bare feet were visible through the table. They were long and skinny, the same honey hue as his bare scalp. My anxiety strengthened at his bedroom-casual appearance. Great. This is just what I needed.

“Nice window,” I said, thinking it was better than Trent’s, the toad. He could have taken care of all of this had he acted when I told him Piscary was the murderer. Men were all alike: take what they can get without paying for it, lie about the rest.

Piscary shifted in his chair, and his robe parted to show his knee. I quickly looked away. “Thank you,” he said. “I hated sunrises when I was alive. Now it’s my favorite part of the day.” I sneered, and he gestured to the table. “Would you like a cup of coffee?”

“Coffee?” I said. “I would have thought it was against the gangster code to have coffee with someone before killing them.”

His thin black eyebrows rose. I realized he must want something from me, otherwise he would have just sent Algaliarept to kill me on the bus.

“Black,” I said. “No sugar.”

Piscary gave Kisten a directive nod, and he slipped soundlessly away. I pulled out the second chair across from Piscary, flopping down with my bag on my lap. I glanced out the fake window in the silence. “I like your lair,” I said sarcastically.

Piscary raised one eyebrow. I wished I could do that. Too late to learn how now. “It was originally part of the underground railroad,” he said. “A foul hole in the ground under someone’s shipping dock. Ironic, isn’t it?” I said nothing, and he added, “This used to be the gateway to the free world. It still is, occasionally. There’s nothing like death to free a person.”

A small sigh slipped from me, and I turned to the window, wondering how much wise-old-man-crap he was going to make me listen to before killing me. Piscary cleared his throat, and I looked back. A wisp of black hair showed behind the V of his robe, and his calves visible through the wire mesh of the table were hard with muscle. I recalled my lust rising hot and fast in the elevator with Kisten, knowing it had mostly been vamp pheromones. Liar. That Piscary could to that to me and more with nothing more than a sound turned my stomach.