Lee put his hand up in acknowledgment, turned, and vanished down the open hall. A door creaked shut, and I jerked as Candice grabbed my briefcase. Adrenaline pulled me straight, and I clutched it to me.

“Relax, Grace,” David said patronizingly as he took it from me and handed it to Candice. “This isn’t unusual.”

The two vamps in the background came forward, and I forced myself to not move. “You’ll have to forgive my assistant,” David said while he put our cases on the table by the door and opened first his and spun it around, then mine. “Breaking in a new assistant is hell.”

Candice’s expression went mocking. “Were you the one to give her the black eye?”

I flushed, my hand going to touch my cheekbone and my gaze falling to my ugly shoes. Apparently the darker makeup didn’t work as well as I thought.

“You have to keep your bitches in line,” David said lightly. “But if you hit them right, you only have to hit them once.”

My jaw clenched, and I warmed as Candice laughed. I watched from under my lowered brow while a vamp pawed through my briefcase. It was full of stuff only an insurance adjuster would have: a calculator with more tiny buttons than a leprechaun’s dress boots, notepads, coffee-stained folders, useless little calendars to stick on your fridge, and pens with smiley faces on them. There were receipts from places like sub shops and Office Depot. God, it was awful. She glanced at my fake business cards with an absent-minded interest.

While David’s briefcase got the same scrutiny, Candice sauntered into a back room. She came back with a pair of wire-rimmed glasses, with which she made a show of scrutinizing us through. My heart pounded as she then brought out an amulet. It was glowing a warning red.

“Chad, honey,” she murmured. “Back up. Your spell is interfering.”

One of the vamps flushed and retreated. I wondered what Chad-honey had a spell for that would turn his ears that particular color. My breath slipped from me when the amulet shifted green, making me grateful that I’d gone in under a mundane disguise. Beside me, David’s fingers twitched. “Can we move this faster?” he said. “I have other people to see.”

Candice smiled and twirled the amulet on her finger. “Right this way.”

With a quickness seemingly born from irritation, David snapped his briefcase closed and dragged it from the small table. I did the same, relieved when the two vamps vanished into a back room following the smell of coffee. Candice headed up the stairs with a slow pace, her hips going as if they were going to gyrate off her. Trying to ignore her, I followed.