Page 23 of Blood Magic

“Oh,” Lucy said, and then sighed. She dropped Joe’s arm. “Be careful out there, you guys. I’m going to tend to Ash and then find myself a date. Or maybe I’ll just bake half a dozen cakes.”

“I like that idea,” I said. “Kiss Ash for me. Let me know what you find out, Max,” I called. He got into his car without saying goodbye, then sat there lost in his phone.

I grinned at Joe. “You didn’t have to come. Max is a little paranoid.”

He shrugged. “I wasn’t doing anything else, and someone needs to keep you safe.”

“Fuck you,” I said mildly. “I can take care of myself.”

He laughed, then opened his car door. “I’m driving.”

I glanced at my car, then shrugged. “I’ll get my bag.” I jogged to my car, grabbed my kill kit, then went to retrieve the vial of blood. Finally, I walked back to stand at the passenger side of Joe’s car. “Do you have a shovel in your trunk?”

“Of course,” he said, making me laugh. Like everyone carried a shovel in their trunk.

I’d call Detective Moreno while Joe drove and give him a heads up about Sara Simon. He wouldn’t waste time getting out to Huntersville to find her body. I’d wait until he was there before I informed Remy.

“Why not just skip the detective and call Simon?” Joe asked. “Take him there. I’m sure he’d want to bring her out of the ground himself.”

“Because I don’t want him to know who I am,” I said. “I don’t want to meet Remy Simon in the woods and tell him his dead sister led me there.”

“You’re afraid he’ll hurt you?”

I was a wolf. Remy Simon hunted wolves. “I’m afraid he’ll try,” I said, finally. And I was afraid he’d somehow see inside me, would know that I was a wolf. That was one secret I didn’t want to get out. “Also, the detective won’t get me involved. He won’t tell the world that I found Sara. That I talk to the dead. The police would want to see me as a suspect if I took them to a buried woman.” I sighed and rubbed my temples. “It’s just too complicated, Joe.”

He nodded. “That would put you in a bad position.”

“Yeah.” It was one thing telling the world I was a human who did PI work investigating the supernatural. Most of the public would see my office and think I was a swindler, preying on desperate folk. But if a guy like Remy Simon got people interested in me, I was in for a bad time.

No. I promised Sara I’d make sure her brother found her grave. I didn’t promise I’d be the one to take his hand and lead him there.

“Someday,” Joe said, “the world is going to find out what’s living in it with them.”

Joe didn’t realize he was about to discover that very thing himself.

Detective Moreno picked up on the third ring.

“How’d you sleep after I left?” I asked the detective, causing Joe to cock an eyebrow at me.

“Like a baby,” he said. “I might need you to get me to sleep every night.”

Then we both fell into an awkward silence until he cleared his throat and asked me what I needed.

“It’s about a missing woman named Sara Simon.”

“Sara. Yeah, I know the case.”

“I know where she is. Where she’s buried.”

“Son of a…” He pushed out a breath. “Do you know how she died?”

I didn’t know I was going to tell him until suddenly, I was. “Vampires. They’re fucking with humans. They shaded a woman and caused her to rip out Sara’s throat.”

“Bullshit.” His reflexive denial was immediate. “Come on, Kait.”

I wasn’t going to try to convince him. “Look, Detective. Dig her up. She has a brother—”

“Remington Simon. Yeah. I know him.” He didn’t sound too happy about that, either. “He’s a hard case.”