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Not this time

But given everything I’d just heard, I kneas Or rather, as responsible

A vampire

And a clu to be pissed Especially if the vamp was a new arrival who hadn’t bothered to pay the blood tax Either way, once Slade found out, there’d be a reckoning I almost wished I could be there with a bowl of popcorn when he found the guilty party

But he definitely wasn’t going to hear about the botched kill from me Vampire politics weren’t my business

Not anymore

That re and jealousya spectator to so about secondhand adrenaline leavingabout… loneliness

A siren deer eyes tracking the arrival of the medical examiner’s van As I backed away, the phone in lanced at the screen

Shit

“Hi, Adam”

“Where are you?” he asked

Ogling a crime scene “Across the street”

“You better hurry Giguhl is already pacing”

“Tell him to chill The concert doesn’t start for an hour”

In the background, I heard Giguhl’s deep voice asking if it was me on the phone Adahter of Lilith to get her scrawny ass ho number!”

Guilt e I should already have been up in that apart in a crowd ofa crime scene like a voyeur “I’ll be up in a sec”

“Okay,” Adam said “Love you”

My sto how those three little words could still pack such a punch “You too” I clicked the END button and shoved the phone back in my pocket

The coroner watched his assistant load the body into a black bag I couldn’t get past the feeling that the bag looked a lot like one used to collect trash For soht made ood life

I shook hts I had a date with a hot et to With a sigh, I turned er bystanders, and the scent of blood

A block or so ahead and across the street, the spires and turrets of Prytania Place loooylessullenly between a froe faces waiting inside called me home

As I walked, bright night eyes peeked from between the leaves and branches of Central Park’s tree line, beckoning ers towardhu procedure and my motto was “kill first, avoid questions later”

But that was then Now, I shook off the cold fingers of those shadow memories That old life was over I was happy now Settled Safe I’d left the cold, blood-soaked world behind in favor of one filled aric

I finally reached the gates set into the base of the building Entered ate popped open and I slipped inside But I couldn’t resist turning for one last glimpse of the commotion