Page 29 of Crave

“Um, that’s a—”

“Cat?”

“Was gonna say health code violation. But, you know, whatever. And you have her in here because?”

Health Code Violation mewed, revealing tiny kitten fangs. Which, okay, was fucking adorable. Reaching into the box, I petted her pointy kitten ears with a single fingertip.

“She was hiding in the alleyway. Someone probably dumped her. There’s stigma against adopting black cats. People believe the superstition that they’re bad luck. I’ve already called the county shelter and put up notices online. Naomi’s coming over in half an hour to take her to the clinic, make sure she doesn’t need medical care.”

“So, I’m all onboard with the cat thing, #TeamFancyFeast and all that—”

“We are not calling her that.”

“—but is she going to freak out when she realizes we don’t exactly play for her team?” I raised a meaningful eyebrow.

The phone rang. Glaring, Lacey shoved the eagle-nest-slash-cat-box at me and hurried to answer it. Switching out the cat-pool for a normal sized measuring cup, I settled Fancy at my feet where I could watch her and grabbed a cupcake.

“Blair’s. Yes, we’re all set for Thursday at the shelter. We’ll be providing dessert and my mother and I will be there to serve dinner and help out in any way you need—”

Five minutes, four cupcakes, and one Justin Bieber song Fancy and I were never telling anyone about later, and I realized, damn, I’d joined the cult of cat people. I was just texting West after making Fancy a little nest in her towels and tucking her in, deciding between Peanut Brittle and Blackberry Crème Brulee for cupcakes number five and six when the offending desserts were plucked from my hand.

“Wow, really?” I groused. “Professional cat sitter slash cupcake tester at work here.”

“We’ve been over this. These are your catnip. Forgive the expression. And I really don’t have time tonight for two hundred pounds of arctic wolf on my floor in a sugar coma.”

“Once. That happened once.”

“Shall we pull up the video?”

“He has a very sensitive system when it comes to confectioner’s sugar.”

Smirking, she took my cat away and returned from the storeroom with an empty cupcake wrapper. “So, if you can remember anything from the start of the cupcake apocalypse?”

“You know I’m not partial to pumpkin anything, but with the cream cheese frosting, it totally works.” I poked at the discarded wrapper for the chocolate one. “What’s with the icicles?”

“They’re called Vlad’s Dark Delights and they’re supposed to be fangs. You really didn’t get that from the cherry liqueur filling?”

“Call it my natural aversion to the undead. These for Thursday?”

“I may bring a few dozen to get a reaction from a larger group.” She began transferring racks of cupcakes to the refrigerator. “But the shelter put in a request for pie. I’m hoping to blast out the word over social media, make sure everyone planning a Christmas party is thinking cupcakes as we head into December. I’ve got about a thousand ideas—Peppermint Pixie Kiss, Ghostly Gingerbread Delights—”

“Sounds like a killer marketing strategy.”

“Which is why nothing better happen to get it shot down.”

“You worried about Brody because of the vamp attack two days ago?”

“This is Blood Moon, paranormal central. Our mascot is the Howlers. No one in town freaks out when Bella’s sells mushroom ravioli and if you think I believe he’s going to tell Ethan to stop making pumpkin spice lattes and those ghost mochas—”

“Yeah right. Any time rules get handed down, count on Emo to be the exception.”

And wow, that had come out way sharper than I’d intended. For a beat, there was only the sound of the rain thundering down onto the awning. I started to say something, but then I caught sight of Lacey frowning.

“I think we should talk about the night of Brody’s promotion.”

I gripped the edge of the counter, vision graying out. Blood roared in my ears, the lights from Dark spilling out onto the street, the smell of espresso enough to turn my stomach even a year later—

“You gonna tell me why you slept with my brother? Cause I’m not sure there are words that can make that better, sweetheart.”