Conrad said, “If I knew this was going to be that kind of show, I might have thought twice about participating.”
“The whole thing seems one-sided to me,” Jerome said. “When’s your turn, Kitty?”
“I keep offering, and you all keep saying no,” I said. “You can’t change your mind now. With you guys letting it all hang out, I can be a little discreet.”
In what had become routine, right around the time we finished eating dinner at the long dining room table, the basement door opened and the trio of the night emerged.
“Have we missed anything interesting?” Anastasia said, striding up to take one of the extra chairs. Gemma settled in beside her. Dorian remained standing, close to the wall, looking over them in a bodyguard stance that probably wasn’t just for show.
“You missed a great sunny day by the lake,” Jeffrey said.
“You can’t miss what you don’t want,” Anastasia said.
“Lee shape-shifted and scared the bejeezus out of everyone,” Tina said.
“I am sorry I missed that.”
“It seemed like the thing to do,” Lee said. He’d rejoined the group after putting on clothes and seemed to be beaming, like he was proud of the escapade.
“And is our resident skeptic convinced yet?” Anastasia said.
“He walked away for five minutes and missed it.”
She chuckled. “How perfect. We’ll be able to draw this out for days.”
From the kitchen, where he was opening another bottle of wine and pouring drinks, Conrad said, “I haven’t seen anything yet that can’t be explained by perfectly normal means.”
“Hey Conrad,” I called. “You know the principle that in a given situation, the simplest explanation is usually the correct one?”
“Occam’s razor. Yes.”
“What’s simpler: that we imported a live seal, brought it a thousand miles inland, and set it loose in an environment that might kill it, for the purpose of playing a joke on you; or that Lee’s a lycanthrope?”
He said, “If one of your options is impossible, it doesn’t matter how outlandish the only probable one sounds. It has to be the correct one.”
“I won’t argue with your logic,” I said. “Only your assumptions.”
“I don’t think you imported a seal. I think you’re making it all up,” he said.
Almost angrily, Tina said, “Is someone paying you to be this stubborn?”
Now, there was an idea. I hadn’t considered that Conrad might also be part of some conspiracy. Hell, maybe we had more than one conspiracy afoot. Wouldn’t that be exciting?
But Conrad denied it. “I’m getting paid the same stipend the rest of you are. At least, I assume I am. I’m just a lowly author and not a TV celebrity, so I may be getting peanuts compared to you.”
The door to the study/production room opened, and I jumped. Just a little. Not freaked-out jumped. Just startled. Ghost fur prickled along my back. Looking around, I saw at least a couple of the others had also flinched, startled: Tina, Gemma. All of us stared at Joey Provost, who came into the living room wearing his showbiz smile. He was carrying a shoe box–sized wooden case.
“How’s everyone doing?” he said. I clamped shut my jaw so I wouldn’t be able to say, Fine, until you got here.
“We’re all just fine, I think,” Anastasia said, eyes half-lidded, purring in perfect vampire allure. It must have been one of the powers they got, along with immortality.
“That’s great. You all up for some more fun and games?”
“Another activity rigged for maximum entertainment value,” I said. “Excellent.”
I couldn’t pull off allure like Anastasia could. All I had was snark. Glaring at me, Provost set the box on the coffee table. We gathered around.
“Your instructions are in here. Wait ’til I leave, then take a look and have at it.” He smiled like a guy who was having a lot of fun keeping a secret. Very smarmy. I didn’t like it.