Kiss a Vampire Box Set

Chapter 2

Chapter 2By seven o’clock, Devin was a nervous wreck. The delivery guy had arrived at twenty to seven, and Devin wondered what deal Murrie had made to get them to deliver that early. When he’d seen the amount of food, he’d asked the man to double-check. He’d laughed and said something about it being this much every week.

Now, he had eggs boiling, pancake batter in a bowl, and he’d put sliced vegetables, cheese, and cold cuts on a tray. He’d made a bowl of fruit salad too since there were some apples and bananas about to turn, and he’d assumed there would be fresh fruit in the delivery. There had been.

He was about halfway through putting everything away when Hanna stepped into the kitchen. She stilled and watched him for a second before speaking. “Need help?”

“No, I got it.” He looked away so fast he made himself dizzy. “The eggs are done in two minutes. There’s bread, cold cuts, and ah…does anyone want cereal?” He held up a pack of cornflakes he’d pulled from one of the bags.

“Not if you’ve made eggs.” She narrowed her eyes. “Why are you cooking? It’s Murrie’s day. Murrie’s days are the best.”

“He…eh…needed some sleep, and since he’s away tonight, I’ll take his day.” He hurried to add. “He’ll take Saturday.”

She nodded and edged toward the table where he’d lined everything up. “Wow, fruit salad. That’s so smart. I’ll do that on Wednesday. Not much can go wrong with fruit salad.”

Devin focused on unpacking the twenty bags of M&Ms Murrie had ordered. He hoped he wasn’t planning a party. Maybe they’d been at a reduced price or something. Patting one of the bags, he bit his lip. Maybe he could make M&M brownies for a snack. Everyone needed an afternoon pick-me-up, and few things were better than chocolate. He put one of the bags on the counter and the rest in the pantry. He wasn’t sure if it was where they went, but no one had shown him the candy cupboard, so he improvised.

Once everything was put away, he focused on the pancakes. After having poured some batter into the skillet, he grabbed the coffeepot and poured himself a cup.

“Oh, there’s coffee?”

Devin jumped. He’d forgotten Hanna was in the room. How could he have forgotten she was in the room? She grinned at him from where she sat by the table, a bowl of fruit salad in front of her.

“Ah, yes.” He hurried over to her with the pot in his hand, only to realize he hadn’t put any cups on the table and walked back again. He put the pot back and grabbed cups, six of them, since he didn’t have a clue if they all drank coffee or not. Maybe someone wanted tea?

He put the cups on the table, flipped the pancake, grabbed the coffeepot, and went over to Hanna to pour her a cup. “Does anyone want tea?”

“Not for breakfast. In the afternoon, some switch to tea. Murrie and Faelan, most often.”

Okay, tea in the afternoon.

“What are you cooking?” She nodded toward the stove, and he frowned at her.

“Pancakes.” Shifters had an excellent sense of smell. She should be able to tell it was pancakes.

“Oh, awesome!”

Devin hurried back to the stove while shaking his head.

When he had a stack of pancakes, he placed them on the table. He hadn’t more than let go of it when Rei walked into the kitchen. He grunted, grabbed a cup of coffee and took a swallow, and grimaced. Then his gaze settled on Devin and widened. “Devin? It smelled so good, I was sure it was Murrie cooking.”

“He…ah…needed some sleep, so I’ll be cooking today.”

Rei eyed the pancakes, then looked at Hanna, who was stuffing her face, and nodded. “Awesome.” He grabbed a plate and a few pancakes, then he spotted the eggs, and grabbed two. When he reached the tray with cheese, cold cuts, and vegetables, he looked at Devin again.

“There is fruit salad, too.” Hanna grinned. “Better than Murrie, right?”

Rei nodded and grabbed a second plate.

“What’s better than Murrie?” Kenia strolled in, looked at the food, and then at Devin. “What will it cost me to have you take my breakfast shift tomorrow?”

Devin’s heart beat fast. “Eh…what?”

“It’s my day tomorrow. Come on, what’s your weakness? M&Ms? You can bribe Murrie with M&Ms any day.”

“No. I…” He shook his head.

“Chocolate? Or gummy bears? Whiskey? Mars is a whiskey guy, but I was hoping a bag of gummy bears would do.” She took a step in his direction, and Devin quickly moved in behind the kitchen island while shaking his head. He didn’t have a weakness. He had a zillion weaknesses, but not like gummy bears. He preferred M&Ms to gummy bears. M&Ms were soothing, and Murrie often gave them to him.

“Please.” She put her hands together while giving him a pleading look.

“Yes, please, Devin.” Rei spoke with his mouth filled with pancakes. “She burns the oatmeal.”

Devin jumped, the kitchen shrinking. “I…” He looked at Rei. He trusted Rei. Rei was calm and controlled. He was safe. As if Rei could sense the turmoil in Devin, he met his gaze and gave him a slight nod.

“Okay.” Devin’s voice was no louder than a whisper, but Kenia whooped. “I need to…” He gestured at the doorway. He needed some space. When he rushed through the door, he almost collided with Faelan but turned at the last second.

* * * *

Mars entered the kitchen and stilled. Something wasn’t right. It wasn’t necessarily wrong, but different. Everyone looked happy—not a usual sight in the morning. It was Murrie’s day, though. Everyone loved Murrie’s day, Mars included. Vampires ate solid food like any other species. They needed blood, but they needed solid food too. Having lived through good times and bad, he had to admit the food in this house was horrendous. It beat starving, but not by much. And the strange thing was Murrie bought the good stuff, high-quality foods, organic, locally produced, and all that s**t, and yet they messed it up. He did too. Cooking was witchery, and he didn’t possess an ounce of magic.

“Try the pancakes.” Kenia grinned at him.

Oh, pancakes. Murrie didn’t normally make pancakes. Too much work, he said.

He looked around, but Murrie wasn’t in there. “Where’s Murrie?”

“Apparently—” Hanna rolled her eyes. “—he needs his beauty sleep.”

Had he ordered a breakfast buffet? Looking at the tray of cheese, cold cuts, and sliced veggies, it made sense. Maybe he’d asked one of the hotels in the city to put something together. There were eggs and…was that fruit salad? Yeah, had to be a hotel. “For the gala thing?” He hadn’t paid much attention when Murrie had talked about it. He often had to go to events and s**t he hated. They were a fund-based organization. Yes, they solved crimes, but most of their funding came from donations, and this house wasn’t cheap, and neither was the equipment they needed. Mars was in charge when Murrie was away, but other than keeping track of when he was, he didn’t pay attention.

“Oh yeah, I’d forgotten about it.” Hanna grimaced. “I could use some help today. I have a hysterical woman over on Phoenix Row who claims a werewolf ate one of her cats.”

Mars widened his eyes. Shifters changing shape when they shouldn’t happened now and then, especially with the young ones, but eating cats? “Is she hysterical for real or…” He let it hang in the air.

“I’m not sure, but I’d love for you to come with me. If her story checks out, you can mojo her.”

The joy. Mars had a case of a missing wolf, a young female, but he guessed he could go with Hanna for a bit. “What’s everyone else up to today?” He piled food on his plate and sat.

“I have a missing bear to look into.” Rei got up and placed his plate in the dishwasher but poured a second cup of coffee and sat down again.

“A missing bear? When did the case come in?” Missing people cases weren’t common, and to have two at the same time had unease wrapping around Mars. They hadn’t had two active cases at once since they’d busted the underground mansion where they’d found Devin.

Rei frowned. “Yesterday, but he’s been missing for two weeks, so it’s not a search party thing, more of a backtracking and trying to find clues.”

“I have a missing wolf, went missing thirteen days ago, and it’s the same.”

Rei frowned. “That’s not good, not good at all.”

A sense of doom spread in the kitchen, and Mars looked at the others. “Anyone else has a missing person case?” They shook their heads, and some of the tension melted away from him. “We’ll compare notes, Rei. See if there are any similarities.”

Rei nodded. “I’m heading over to the family after breakfast. I planned to bring Hanna unless you’re heading to the cat lady right away.” They always tried to go in pairs when they were interviewing people.

“No, you go. I need to make a few phone calls so Hanna and I can go after. If that’s okay?” He directed the last question to Hanna.

Murrie walked into the kitchen, his hair on end, and his yawn ended with a growl. Then he grinned. “Oh, he did good.” He hovered by the pancakes before grabbing a plate.

“He did.” Hanna snatched a cucumber slice off the tray.

“Who?” Mars looked around, trying to find the one who had done well.

“Devin.” Hanna grinned at him, and he wanted to swat her. She always had a knowing grin when she mentioned Devin to him, and he didn’t know why. He had hardly talked to him during the three years he’d been living in the house. If he walked into a room when Devin was in it, he panicked, and Mars tried to avoid causing panic. The stupid thing was, whenever he saw Devin, he wanted to hug him, hold him, and help him fight off his horrors. But Mars was his horrors.

“Devin made breakfast?” He looked at everything lined up and nodded. Good thing they kept him.

Murrie sat. “He did. He came down for a snack at four in the morning, and I said we all had a day when we cooked, and he wondered who cooked on the seventh day. I think he felt guilty for not contributing, but since he offered, I wasn’t going to say no.”

“So it’s not only today. He’ll have Mondays?”

Murrie nodded. “He’ll take Mondays, and I’ll take Saturdays.”

“He’ll make breakfast tomorrow too.” Kenia grinned. “He loves me, so he offered to take my shift.”

Rei sighed. “He panicked, so he said yes when she tried to bribe him, then he fled the room.”

Kenia shrugged, and Mars narrowed his eyes. Of all the annoying people in this house, Kenia was the one he tolerated the least. “You’re not to pressure him.”

“I wasn’t pressuring him.” Kenia glared, but Mars was watching Rei. Rei was protective of Devin. He didn’t know what kind of bond they had, he didn’t think they hung out or spoke, but whenever Devin entered a room, he gravitated toward Rei. And right now, Rei looked annoyed with Kenia, so she most likely had been pushing Devin. It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Had there not been blind panic in Devin’s eyes every time he glimpsed Mars, he might have pushed a little too. He needed to come out of his room more. Three years had gone by, and as far as he knew, the only one Devin talked to was Murrie and maybe Rei, but it could go days without Mars seeing him. What did he do all day? Had it been Mars, he’d go out of his mind with boredom.

They’d gotten him a phone, so he assumed maybe he played with it, but three years? How did anyone spend three years staring at a screen?

“Erm…Murrie?”

The sound of Devin’s voice from the doorway had Mars turning his head. He was fidgeting, the circles under his eyes dark enough for Mars to wince. He heard him scream in his sleep every night, and it was another reason for Mars keeping his distance.

“Yes?” Murrie’s voice was soft, almost as if he was talking to a child.

“I’ve canceled your hair appointment, and instead there will be a hairdresser coming at eleven. She’ll cut your hair here in the house, so you don’t have to go into town before lunch. I managed to get the detective to agree to see you half-past two instead of three, and the…eh…interview or whatever with Mrs. Lewis is at a quarter past three, so you can’t take more than forty-five minutes with the detective, but I got the feeling he wasn’t willing to give you more than forty-five minutes anyway.” He sucked in a breath. “I called Velika Poe, and she informed me you haven’t confirmed a plus one for the charity event.” He looked at Murrie with raised eyebrows, and Murrie huffed.

“I’m not taking a plus one. I’d have informed her if I planned to.”

Devin grinned, and Mars almost groaned. He’d never seen Devin grin, and it looked damn good on him.

“Yes, you are. I confirmed, and the plus one is Ms. Jenkins since you were having dinner with her anyway. She agreed, and I promised her the dress came out of your pay.”

“The dress?” Murrie looked confused.

“It’s a black-tie event. Not every woman has an evening gown lying around, and I promised you’d pay for it if she could get hold of one today. And I’ve canceled your restaurant reservations since you won’t be going there.” He walked closer and handed Murrie a paper. “If you give me access to your schedule on your phone, I can update it.”

Murrie stared open-mouthed. “It’s a quarter past eight in the morning.”

Devin shifted his weight on his feet. “Ah…yeah.”

“How the hell did you get hold of everyone at eight in the morning?”

Devin shrugged. “I said it was an emergency.”

“But…” Murrie looked down at the schedule. “I’m not double booked.”

“You don’t want to be double booked, remember? You were moaning at four in the morning because you were double booked, now you’re not. It’ll be tight in the afternoon, but it’s the best I can do.” He straightened his back. “In the future, check your schedule before you agree to things, and don’t ask women to dinner when you already have an event planned.”

Mars laughed. Devin had been holding out on them.

Devin left the kitchen, Mars’s laugh still ringing in the air, and the rest of them looking stunned.

“What just happened?” Kenia turned to Murrie.

“I…eh…complained about my schedule. He said he’d have a look at it.”

She nodded. “You got told off. By a human. A human who cowers in the corners and screams in terror if someone breathes too hard. You must be losing your touch, oh mighty leader.”

Mars looked toward the doorway, praying Devin hadn’t heard her.