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Still, duty beckoned, so I made the call I was braced for the worst, but Aot to take aCan you be here in half an hour?"

"Sure" Ending the call, I quickly called Jen, only to get her voiceif she was free to meet for lunch, which left irl talk I thought about calling reat relationship, and I’, but this was a bit too far outside the hter comfort zone

Unfortunately, the only other person I could think of calling was Lurine, who I figured was still engaged in a -fest with a horny satyr On the other hand, I really did need to talk to her, since she was probably the best person to ask about preventing another satyr-funk incident

Maybe they took breaks I gave her a try, but no such luck So I left aher to calltwenty-fourlittle shingle-sided building on the riverfront near the main entrance into the town, is adorned with sleek, hty-faced presence behind the desk since her ave her a receptionist’s job there She was usually ya into the fancy Bluetooth earpiece of the office phone--why the hands-free option was so i but answer calls--but not today

"Daisy" She greeteda little late Have a seat"

"Thanks" Deteray orgy out at Rainbow’s End last night" Stacey arched her perfectly plucked ash-brown eyebrows at me "I hear you were there"

"I was" I fishedand showed it to her "On official business"

"Oh, please!" She sniffed "Everyone knows you’re just a file clerk"

I shrugged

Stacey let the silence stretch for a moment, but she wasn’t the type to handle silence well "So as it?" she asked "Kevin McTeague heard it was a bad batch of ecstasy, but Jane Druave ay succubus thing? Is that why you were there, Daisy?"

Oh, for crying out loud Despite my resolve, my temper stirred "I’ay thing?"

Yeah, I know In this day and age, that shouldn’t be a viable taunt Especially in a town that prides itself on welco receptionist of the tourist bureau of said town But there you have it High school bully tactics never change I shouldn’t have let Stacey know she’d gotten to ay, gay until I couldn’t stand it and issued a denial I kneas (a) perfectly unnecessary, (b) beneath o with a classic change of tactics "You know, I really can’t discuss the incident before I’ve had a chance to talk with youranyone these days?"

Bingo! Of course I knew she wasn’t It’s a s that bus driver?"

Nice try I smiled I’d actually met Sinclair for the first tiht he was cute, too "Yeah, I aies and all"

Her expression turned ominous "Wait until he finds out what you--"

I interrupted her "He knows"

At that moment, the door to Amanda Brooks’s office was opened by a led with the telltale sign of eldritch presence and all thoughts of exchanging barbs with Stacey went clean out of my head The man strode into the lobby, then stopped in his tracks and looked in my direction

My tail twitched with alarlance, he looked norht, early thirties, a decent build Good-looking in a GQ sort of ith a suht brown hair in a hundred-dollar haircut

But his eyes were black, as black as mine Ordinary mortals don’t have truly black eyes A brown so dark it looks black, yes Not the kind of black where the only way you can differentiate between the iris and the pupil is that the iris doesn’t adht

And there was a smell, like a whiff of sulfuronly not really a s inrancid Only that wasn’t right either It wasn’t a sense I could put a name to

Anyway, he was definitely a hell-spawn And I suspected that, unlike ht

Now that was a scary thought

I heldto feel the Inviolate Wall tremble and threaten the architecture of existence