Real Vampires Don't Wear Size Six (20 page)

“That’s ridiculous.” Jerry smiled. “Anyone who knows you would never expect for a moment that you’d go over to the dark side.”

“Exactly!” I wanted to reach over and hug him. But I didn’t. Rafe was here and I wanted to keep the tone of this meeting as neutral as possible. “They even tried bribing me. Said if I did this, they’d make me a size six, permanently.” I laughed. “Like that would do it.”

“I remember when you went down to that size, in California.” Jerry reached over and rubbed my bare knee, exposed by my skirt. “You were too thin, lost your full curves. You weren’t the Glory I knew and loved.”

“Well, maybe not physically, Jer, but, no matter the size of my outside, I’m always the same inside you know.” I frowned, hearing myself. Hello? When I was right, I was right.

“I could have told you that, Blade.” Rafe just had to put his two cents in. He nodded at Jerry like get a clue.

“Don’t start, Rafe.” I sighed. “In that world, Hollywood, surrounded by so many glamorous stick-thin women? It was important to me. And, I admit it, ultracool. A dream come true.” I sighed again. Too bad it hadn’t lasted. I’d always consider Ian MacDonald a genius for creating a vampire diet drug that worked. But so temporary and so outrageously expensive. Ray had paid for it. Which reminded me. I could see that he’d shut my bedroom door. What was he up to in there? If he was hunting for my Blud-Lite . . .

“Regardless, she turned them down flat. Even though they gave her another incentive.” Rafe smiled at me. “She can see herself in a mirror. Actually gets a reflection.”

“I don’t believe it.” Jerry gripped my knee.

“Oh, believe it. I’ll show you later.” I sat up straight, effectively getting away from Jerry’s hold. I was afraid this next bit of news was going to make him crazy. “Then they called in the big guns.”

“How so?” Jerry looked from me to Rafe.

“Me. I owe hell a favor.” Rafe shot me a look that said it wasn’t too late for me to abandon him. I sent him a mental message that he could forget it. “For using my powers. So I’m charged with helping Glory work for Lucifer.”

“No, by God!” Jerry jumped up, gripping Rafe by his shirt front.

“You think I want her working for demons?” Rafe shoved at Jerry and the sofa moved.

I jerked the coffee table out of the way. I’d already lost one to a fight in here and I really liked this one.

“Calm down, both of you. There’s nothing we can do except work to fix this.”

“All of this comes down to this damned demon.” Jerry snarled at Rafe.

“You brought me here. Let me get to know Glory, love her. This is your damned fault, Scotsman.” Rafe was livid and he threw a punch that landed with a sickening crunch on Jerry’s nose. Blood spurted and I screamed.

“If you love Glory, then get these hellspawn away from her. Do something!” Jerry roared and charged, hitting Rafe solidly in the midsection and reducing my chair to kindling as they hit the floor.

“Stop it!” I kicked at both of them but they didn’t even notice, too busy pummeling each other as blood sprayed the wooden floor and pieces of chair crunched under their bodies.

“Nice.” Ray stood in the doorway, a bottle of Blud-Lite in his hand.

“Damn it!” If that didn’t just make this whole thing worse.

“Glory, your cell is ringing.” Penny came out of the bathroom, my cell phone in her hand. I guess I’d left it next to my makeup bag. The mirror in there was now my favorite place in the apartment.

Jerry and Rafe cursed and rolled toward me. I threw up my hands and stalked around the back of the couch. To hell with them. To hell with Ray too, who now leaned against the bathroom door, flirting with Penny. I grabbed my phone, shoved Penny toward her bedroom and Ray into the bathroom, then slammed the door. I finally answered the phone, though I could barely hear over the grunts, curses and crashes from the living room.

“Hello?”

“Glory? It’s Erin. We’ve got an emergency in the shop. You’d better get down here.”

“What kind of emergency? I’ve got a situation up here that’s pretty bad at the moment.” Damn it, there went my lamp. Jerry was paying for a new one. I was pretty sure he’d started this brawl with his attitude. Then Rafe’s red eyes started heating up and I was afraid he was going to owe hell even more favors. I had to stop this, right now.

“Paparazzi. Seems you and Israel Caine are back together again if the fact that his SUV is parked behind this building is any indication. Which is way cool. But you know what happens. We’re swamped. You went to that concert and someone got a picture of the two of you right after he did a header off the stage. Is he okay?” Erin sounded breathless. “Yes, ma’am, this is her shop. Oh, yes, I’ll ring you up.” I heard the rustle of fabric. A sale.

“Erin, I’ll be down in a few. Ray’s fine. But we’re not—” I almost fell in when the bathroom door opened behind me. Ray came out wearing nothing but a towel around his waist after what had to be his quickest shower ever.

“Damn, that water’s cold.” He snagged me around the waist. “Let me call Nate and get some clothes up here.”

I heard more glass breaking in the living room. “Erin, hang in there. Give me five minutes to kill a few men and I’ll be down.” I shut the phone and handed it to Ray. “Knock yourself out.”

“Thanks, sweet thing.” He gave me a smile and a squeeze. “Better do something about your guy in there before he kills your dog.”

“You are such a jerk.” I took his hand off my waist and charged into the wreckage of my living room. “Stop!”

Jerry rolled off Rafe and lay panting on the floor. His shirt was ripped and bloody and both eyes were swollen to slits. Obviously he’d been ready to call a halt or he’d never have obeyed me. Rafe lay on the floor where Jerry had left him. He had long gashes in his skin where obviously Jerry had used his fangs to good effect, and he was bleeding all over the floor and what was left of his ripped shirt. His lips were cut and swollen to double their normal size.

“Aren’t you a pretty pair?” I put my hands on my hips. “And look at the mess you made.” I figured the only piece of furniture still worth keeping was the couch. Both chairs had been destroyed, along with my lamp and various decorations I had used to make the living room homey. My coffee table hadn’t survived either. Damn it. “Did this solve anything?”

“Sorry, Glory.” Rafe winced as he sat up. “Guess we should have taken this outside.”

“Ya think?” I kicked the broken lampshade aside to make a path. “You will pay for every bit of damage. Both of you.” I glared at Jerry, who was getting to his feet. I saw him bite his lip against the pain but didn’t have much sympathy for him. His temper had started this.

“Of course. Send me half the bill.” Jerry held on to the wall as he staggered. “The shifter can pay the other half.”

“It should all be on you.” Rafe was on his feet now and grabbed a kitchen towel to wipe the blood off his arms. “You put your hands on me first. I don’t take that shit from anybody.”

Jerry smiled. “You just took it from me. How’d you like the beat-down?”

Rafe growled, obviously about to launch himself at Jerry again.

“No!” I jumped between them. “I’ve got to get to the shop. Apparently Ray and I are an item again, according to the tabloids, and all hell has broken loose down there.”

“Seems hell has broken loose up here too.” Penny stared around the room in dismay. “You didn’t bump into my computer, did you?” She picked her way to the kitchen table and anxiously checked the new setup there.

“See? See what you’ve done? Is this an example to set for a fledgling, Jerry?” I thumped him on his bruised chest and had the pleasure of seeing him wince. “And, Rafe, get that smile off your face. You threw the first punch and owe me for half. Make no mistake about that.” I grabbed my purse, which, luckily, had been in a chair safely near Penny’s computer. I stomped back to the bathroom door and held out my hand. Ray, having just ended a call, slapped the phone into it.

“Nate coming?”

“No. He’s pissed at me. Says for me to stay here and dry out.” Ray shook his head. “What the hell is the matter with him? Where’s the loyalty?”

“I think you drank it, Ray. Right out of his veins.” I clomped into my bedroom, picked up the bag of Blud-Lite that Ray had obviously unearthed from my hamper, and hefted it. “This is coming with me. Take Nate’s advice and dry out. I’ll check in on you later. You and I are a couple again.” I brushed my hand on his cheek. “Sorry, sweetie. I know this is going to be rough. Please try to stick with it.”

His answer was a lunge for the bag that made him stagger. “Glory, I need to leave and work on my research at the lab at school. My computer is okay now, but . . .” Penny glanced at Jerry and Rafe.

“Oh, they are both leaving. Immediately. Don’t touch this mess. One or both of them will come back later and help me clean it up.” I grabbed the doorknob and opened the door. “Am I right?”

Jerry nodded. “Of course I’ll be back. Don’t expect the shifter though.”

“We still need to talk. I don’t want her involved with these demons any more than you do, Blade. I told her that.” Rafe glanced at Jerry, then me.

“Yes, well, I can’t let them torture you when I . . .” I shook my head. Jerry didn’t need to know the details of why Rafe had lost his cool and used his powers. “You’re my friend. I don’t abandon friends who need me. Get it, Jerry? Ray, you hear that?”

“Glory the good witch,” Ray muttered as he staggered over to fall on the couch. “I hear you. Thanks, I guess.”

“Gloriana, you need to think about this.” Jerry glared at Rafe. “Valdez is letting you off the hook.”

“I know. Not accepting that. Now I’ve got to get down to the shop.” I shoved them both out to the hall. “I suggest you each go upstairs, shift and disappear that way. I have a feeling the paparazzi will be camped on my doorstep waiting for a Glory sighting. I really don’t want to be seen with either one of you looking like you’ve been mugged. They’ll assume Ray took you on and won.”

“Hey, I like that.” Ray grinned, but the effect was ruined when he lurched to his feet and ran into the bathroom. We could all hear him heaving into the toilet. Uh-oh.

I hurried to look in on him. “You okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. Get out of here. Clear everyone out. Guess it’s what I deserve.” He looked up at me, a towel in his hand, his face pale. “The fewer who see me like this, the better. You dig?”

I ran cool water on a washcloth and wiped his face. “I really will come up and check on you in a while. There’s plenty of regular synthetic if you feel like it.”

He grabbed my hand. “Thanks, babe. I know you and Nate mean well.”

“Yeah, we both love you.” I brushed his hair back from his face. “Need help getting back to bed?”

“No, think I’d better camp out here next to the john for a while. Go. I mean it.” He leaned back against the bathtub, managing to flash me. Ray as usual noticed me looking and winked. “Or stay if you can get rid of the brawlers out there.”

“Gloriana?” Jerry was suddenly behind me in the hallway.

“I’m coming. And you’re leaving.” I shook my head at Ray and pushed Jerry toward the door. When Jer leaned toward me as if he thought to kiss me good-bye, I held up my hand.

“No, not going to happen.” I whipped out my compact, checked my lipstick and dabbed some translucent powder on my nose. “You’re bloody and I’m mad at you. Penny, will there be mortals at the lab?”

“Uh, no. Too late for that. I’ll be alone. I’ve got a key card and the security code. This won’t be the first time I’ve gone in late to work.” She picked up her laptop and stuffed it and some papers into a canvas bag. “And I drank two bottles of synthetic in case I run into anybody.”

I stared at her, pretty sure she was up to something, but just didn’t have the time to deal with her right now. “Okay, take off and make it soon. Ray would like some privacy. Just don’t mess with any mortals. Remember the council’s termination policy.”

That got her attention. “Yeah, sure. Just need to do something in the lab. Not thirsty at all.” Penny glanced at the bathroom. “Will he be all right?”

“Hopefully. Try to ignore him and just go.” I wasn’t sure I trusted Ray not to try to talk her out of her cell phone to get some alcoholic brew delivered. I didn’t say it, just got both men out the door, slammed it, then waved my hand at a frowning Rafe and Jerry. “See you both later. Don’t call me, I’ll call you.”

I strutted down the stairs, the effect ruined when I had to drag my bag of Blud-Lite behind me. Did you think I was going to toss it down the garbage chute? Are you kidding? That stuff costs the earth. I’d just stash it in the fridge in the back room of my shop. I braced myself, then opened the door to the outside. Sure enough, there was a gaggle of cameramen lying in wait for me.

“Glory! Is it true you and Israel Caine are back together again?”

“Glory! Where’s Caine? How is he? What hospital did you take him to?”

“Glory! Look this way! Tell us about Caine!”

I held up my hand. “When Ray was hurt, I couldn’t just stand by, not knowing how he was, whether he was seriously hurt. Naturally, I rushed to his side.” I put on a stricken face and it was funny how silent these creeps got, the only sound the clicks of their cameras.

“Imagine how horrified I was to see the blood under his head as he lay on that hard concrete, so still, looking almost”—I took a shuddering breath—“dead.” I dabbed at my eyes, careful of those temporary lashes and trying not to drop my sack or my purse. “But head wounds do bleed profusely, even when they’re not serious.” I sighed. “Thank God Ray’s injury wasn’t.” I smiled. “He’s fine now. Just resting after a concert and, admittedly, a rough fall.” I waved and stepped toward the door of the shop.

“Glory! Are you two back together? Did this tragedy spark a new romance?”

I stopped in my tracks. “I will always love Israel Caine. Who doesn’t? His music speaks to me. And”—I looked down at my feet and that damned heavy bag of booze I’d finally had to set down—“he’s so very charming.” I looked up again. “But we’ll just have to see how things work out. Ray and I agreed to go our separate ways a while back. It was for the best then and it’s probably still for the best. I’m just a simple shopkeeper. The life of a rock star is pretty intense. I’m afraid his lifestyle isn’t for me.”