Vampires, dealt with. Well, I found something on the police blotter about the incident, but the description of me was suitably vague. Oddly, they hadn’t found the body.

Maybe they rotted away that quickly. Or maybe a hunter had stepped in for me. I should have gone back for it, but no.

I’d have been seen dragging it away. Either way, Seb was impossibly, puppy dog grateful for me for helping him and for not telling anyone it had only been two vampires.

Of course, that meant I had to deal with Kanesha’s reaction. “You fought vampires without me?”

I rolled my eyes. “Do you really want to be invited next time? You know they smell, right?”

She made a face. “Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe I just don’t want to be left out.

She had a point on that. “Okay. We’ll plan some kind of hunting expedition soon.”

Kanesha flickered me a grin. “In the mean time, you…” She was interrupted by the lesson bell, though, and I had to rush to get to first period. So I never found out what she meant to ask me.

It can’t have been that important, I thought later, as I headed back to the house. Or she’d have tracked me down. Maybe she just wanted more cayenne brownies. Actually, I wanted more cayenne brownies. There was only one answer to that and I stopped to get brownie mix.

As if attracted by the thought, Loki fell in next to me as I emerged from the store. I knew it was him even though he was wearing the form of a young black man.

“People will think we’re dating.”

“You know better. Kanesha knows better.”

I shrugged. “If you show up looking this hot, people will get jealous.”

He laughed. “Interested?”

“Not particularly, but…” I would have been if it hadn’t been him and if I hadn’t known it was him. But…yeah.

“Good.” He flickers a grin.

“I’m off limits. I know.” And in that moment I wanted to ask him why and I was sure I knew why, and I shied away from that knowledge. “Also, the brownies aren’t made yet.”

He laughed. “Maybe I should help.”

“No hitting on Kanesha.”

“Awww….oh, wait, you want her for yourself.” He fell in next to me as I walked.

“Not exactly. I might, but I’m worried that one of the other people who wants me will do something to her to get her out of the way. And she’s not…”

“Eh. Not one of us, but does that matter? Her lifespan would be a fling.” He sounded serious.

“It’s too risky. It’s…her choice to be involved, and I respect that, and she wants to go hunting vampires.”

“Don’t hunt vampires. I know something you can hunt that smells less.”

I laughed. “Brownies.”

He even kept his word on helping to make them.