Chapter 42 (1/2)

I WAS WORMING h a mass of parents and children with a tiny clown hat clutched in one hand In my navy blue skirt suit I looked like a dozen other ht from work to the dance recital My hair was a little curly and a little too black for all the blond race as I threaded rand-parents, and siblings was that I wasn't one of the parents I was just here as moral support and last-minute costume rescuer It was just Monica Vespucci's style to leave part of her son's costuency save Micah and I had been running late with client ot to ride to the rescue, and now since the vast majority of the perfore without scandalizing the irls who only had s like this? My dad would have been at a loss

A little girl and her et up past irl was knocked intoat e The child's eyes went big as shethe silent child up the stairs I let the ht She couldn't have been more than five I wondered if she'd even try to tell her e

I started pushingthe hand with the clown hat in it close to un by accident any to try to keepchildren and their frantic mothers They didn't need to know that I hunted bad little vampires and wereanimals for the preternatural branchof the US Marshals Service They certainly didn't need to know that I raised zoured out who I was

I got to the upper hallway and there was one loneherded by his mother She had an al for not having a girl I knew there were more men up here, because some of theen-rich rooirls

Monica's son was under five, so he didn't count as eneric child Now if I could only find the generic child, hand his mother the hat, and flee to our seats where everyone aiting forMonica she'd need so else I didn't like her at all But her husband had been one of Jean-Claude's vampires who died sort of in the line of duty, so Jean-Claude made sure that he and others stood in for her lost husband It was honorable, I even approved of it, but I avoided Monica when I could She'd betrayed ized, and she depended on Jean-Claude's people for eht She'd been bad because the old Master of the City had been bad; now that we had a good Master of the City, Jean-Claude, she was good Sure, and the Easter Bunny is a friend of mine

The fact that I had a key to her house in case of eht; soht needed to have the key He also knew that noHe was right, dairls barreled past ed the wall and let the teachers chase them down There were so many reasons I didn't have children yet

I heard eneric toddler voice, "'Nita, 'Nita!" I had no idea why, but just lately Matthew, Monica's son, had taken a liking to me

He caht multicolored clown outfit with the little balls on the front that matched the ones on the hat His hair was a deep auburn like hisabout his three-year-old face that made me think of his dead father Robert hadn't been my favorite vampire, but he'd been handso with his are but it was still startling I caught hi else would have either knocked me flat or been churlish

He put those little hands on my shoulders and leaned in for a kiss I offered a cheek, but he touchedboy now, 'Nita I kiss like a big boy now" Cheek kisses had been fine until about teeks ago, and now Mattheas very certain that cheek kisses were baby kisses Itoverly friendly with the new boyfriend in front of the kid It was Monica; there would be a boyfriend

I'd told Monica about it and she thought it was cute Matthew puckered up and planted one onotboy," I said, as I looked around for so to wipe hisfor his mother Where was Monica?

"It is big boy if it's your lipstick"

I frowned at that tiny face just inches fro boy if it's mine?"

"All the big boys kiss you, 'Nita"

I had a sinking feeling that maybe it wasn't just Monica and a boyfriend in front of Matthew that were giving hi the room for her a little desperately

She finally separated herself froes and ca It creeped rudge about her betraying e and I didn't trust her She seemed unaware of that

She had Matthew's curly auburn hair, cut shorter and le, as if she'd lost weight since I saw her last Once upon a tiht, but noomen dieted for no reason at all Monica was shorter than I was by a few inches, and I was five-three She was still in her skirt suit, too, but her blouse hite, and mine was blue