“Nope,” Jenks said. His face was creased in irritation, and then seeing both of us looking at him, he forced himself to relax. “How about putting some of that sake I smell on my plate, Marsh-man,” he said suddenly. It was a change of mood I didn’t trust, but I’d go along with it.

Looking chagrined, Marshal pulled a worn thermos from his jacket pocket. “It was supposed to be a surprise,” he said dryly as he set it between us.

“I’m surprised,” I said as I got up to get the tiny, see-through ceramic teacups that Ceri preferred to my thick-walled mugs. They weren’t traditional sake cups, but they looked better than shot glasses.

“That will work,” Marshal said as I set them down, and he filled them halfway up before carefully tipping his cup over Jenks’s tea bag caddy to fill it right to the top.

This isn’t like Kisten, I thought, finding a hint of peace as I held my cup up in a toast. Jenks had never hung around when Kisten and I were together. And though Marshal was fun to look at, I was still too raw to be serious. Not having that will-he-won’t-he stress to deal with was an unexpected pleasure.

“To new jobs,” he said, and we all took a sip, me holding my breath so I wouldn’t cough.

“Good stuff,” I said, eyes watering and feeling the nasty stuff burn all the way down.

Marshal set his cup down with a careful slowness, the subtle easing of his posture telling me that just that little bit of alcohol had an effect on him. But hell, sake was potent stuff.

Jenks’s wings sped up, and the soft slipping of dust ceased.

“Thanks for letting me come over,” Marshal said as he took up his fork and arranged his dinner. “My hotel room is…empty. And I could use a little normalcy after today.”

Smirking, Jenks fanned his wings, sending the scent of rice to me. “She fought off a demon with the help of Rynn Cormel. We ain’t normal, Marsh-man.”

It almost sounded like a warning, and Marshal’s laughter stopped short when he saw my mood go pensive. “Rynn Cormel?” he said, as if trying to figure out if Jenks was kidding him. “The vampire, right?”

I leaned over my plate and took a bite. Good rice sticks together, but I wasn’t going to use chopsticks if Marshal wasn’t. “Yup,” I said when it became obvious that he was waiting for an answer. “He took in Piscary’s camarilla, which means he’s my roommate’s new master vamp, and he came over to find out what my intentions toward Ivy were.”

Sort of the truth, but the entire truth was way too embarrassing.

“Oh.”