She locked her gaze on me. “You survived.”
“You sound disappointed,” I said.
“It means more paperwork for me.” She glanced at Heidi. “Especially when there’s a human involved.”
“You, stay here,” she said, pointing to me. “Elias, I need the rundown of what went on here. Inside. Now.”
I bit back a snarky comment. Elias had no idea what happened inside as he was out here, but what did I care? As long as I was off the hook, I was happy. Well, as happy as I could be considering the whole cluster fuck ahead of me.
There was still the matter of the stone, and a demon with a pair of hellhounds hunting me. And possibly vampire royalty. I was in such a mess.
I looked toward the starry sky and imagined that Lola was up there somewhere, in some kind of shifter afterlife. I missed her so much, but it helped to think that maybe she was still with me. Even if it was just in my head.
I love you, Lola, but you sure left me a mess to clean up.
I smiled at the thought. Lola would have gotten a kick out of listening to me bitch about this. But she’s also entrusted me with the stone. As long as I was standing, I wasn’t going to let her down.
“So, is this what you do when you turn me down for bar hopping on Friday nights?” Heidi asked. “I mean, with a dish like Elias, I get why the men at Kelley’s Pub don’t do it for you.”
I turned my attention back to my friend. “I have a lot of explaining to do.”
“Yeah, you do,” she said. “Start with this: are you a vampire?”
I laughed. “No, vampires can’t go out in the sun.”
“What are you, then?” she asked.
I paused. Until last night, I’d never doubted that I was half human. Which meant, I could say I was human without feeling guilty. After all, I couldn’t shift into a wolf so why bother with that part? Now, I wasn’t so sure. If David was telling the truth, which I hated to admit, I suspected he was, I was half demon.
Did that change anything? Did it change who I was or what I was about? I had made hellfire. Did that mean something else was possible? Was I changing?
I looked into Heidi’s blue eyes. “Honestly, I’m not sure. I thought I was one thing, but I might be something else.”
She shrugged. “Fair enough. Growing up, my parents always said we were Irish. When I took that DNA test I found out I was pretty much all Norwegian. Doesn’t matter. I’m still me. You still you?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I suppose I am.”
“Okay, so vampires are real. What about the rest of the creatures? Werewolves? Gremlins? Trolls?” She threw her arm around my shoulder and pulled me closer to her.
“You know, most of those are real, but not in the way that humans think they are,” I said.
“Fascinating.” She dropped her arm. “So the ghosts that live in the mortuary… I’m not insane. They’re really there, right?”
“Yeah, they’re there.”
“Wow,” she said. “So, what is your boyfriend, then? He’s not a vampire. I saw what those darts did to a vampire.”
I swallowed, surprised by the rush of panic the reminder of almost losing Elias brought me. “First, not my boyfriend. Magic cop. It’s a really long story that will involve a pizza and lots of booze.”
“I’m in. You tell me when, and I’m there.”
I frowned. “Not at my place, it was ransacked when they came for Lola.” My heart ached, but not for the loss of the stuff. I could get a new place to live. But it wouldn’t be the same without Lola there.
“I’m going to miss her too,” Heidi said. She wiped the tears from her eyes and her expression hardened. “I’m glad he’s dead.”
I was glad he was dead, too. But who had killed him? The whole thing was unsettling. I felt like I was left with less answers than I was before I found Lola’s killer.
Elias walked out through the sliding glass doors. “They confirmed finding fang marks on Lola so they’ve determined it wasn’t you.”