It was the right idea to ditch the Dracos children for some fun.
I stopped moving when I was pointed north—towards downtown—and looked back at Jade. “However. I expect, Slayer, that you’ll be returning to your regular patrols now?”
“Yes,” Jade said.
“Good.” I nodded in satisfaction, then sauntered off. “I’ll see you around!”
I walked a block down the center of the road before peeling off and stepping into the shadows, pleased with the experience.
Based on the actions of the blonde vampire, the task force was wary of me but not to the point where I needed to be concerned.
It seemed that the greatest risk to blowing my cover was if those who had met me as Considine Maledictus happened to catch sight of me at night.
That was why I’d stayed in the shadows when the Slayer and her team had postured at the dragon shifter. I’d met Gisila as Considine in September, and I wasn’t interested in testing just how keen a dragon shifter’s senses really were.
But for now, I am safe. I can bait Jade at night and simper at her during the day, and she’ll never know.
It was going to be fun—and a welcome escape from all the irritation the Dracos children represented.
Hopefully, they’d leave soon, and I would be free to entertain myself in obscurity for a few months, maybe even a year or two, before I’d have to leave and drag Ambrose’s sorry offspring from their impending doom.
My good mood soured at the reminder that time was relentless and, eventually, I’d have to go back to my droll existence.
For now—at least—things are different.
CHAPTER
FIVE
Jade
Would you like a cookie? They’re chocolate chunks, and they taste amazing—wait, I need to say first thing that I bought them from the grocery store bakery so it doesn’t seem like I’m trying to pass it off as my work. Not that any of my neighbors could make that mistake…
I clutched the white, wax, paper bag that contained half a dozen cookies as I rounded a turn in the staircase.
While I hadn’t given up on the idea of using baked goods to soften up my human neighbors in my apartment building, I’d changed tactics by purchasing them since my own attempts at baking had been coming out inedible.
Would you like a cookie? I bought them from the grocery store bakery—they’re still warm!
There—that sounded more sincere…didn’t it?
I groaned and my head sagged forward with my exhaustion.
The run in with Ruin/Considine Maledictus had put me on high alert for the rest of the night, and I still hadn’t found a way to tell Sarge about it.
Maybe I should wait to approach my neighbors until after I get some sleep. Then I’d be thinking more clearly, and I wouldn’t be any more tongue-tied than usual. But the cookies wouldn’t be warm…
I staggered onto my floor, teetering, until I realized one of the neighbors I’d been targeting—Shelby, she was a young mom who lived across the hallway—was standing in front of her door, locking it.
“Shelby!” I said a little louder than was socially acceptable in my surprise.
Shelby turned in my direction and smiled. “Hello, Jade. How are you?”
“Great. I’m great,” I said, hoping I didn’t sound robotic as my heart thumped painfully in my chest.
I desperately thrust my white paper bag out in front of me. “Cookies—from a grocery store bakery. Would you like some?” I didn’t realize until the words were out of my mouth that I’d been clutching the wax bag so hard I’d crumpled the top, and the words came out way more jumbled than I meant for them to.
But Shelby still hadn’t refused me as she slipped her purse strap over her shoulder, so I rushed to add, “They’re fresh—still warm!”
“That’s very sweet of you, but no thank you.” Shelby smiled and rested a hand on her massive purse.
“W-would Mia like one?” I could hardly hear my own voice over the pounding of my heart in my ears.
“She’s actually at my parents’ place for the next few nights but thank you for thinking of her.” Shelby glanced from the bag to my face. “You said you bought them from a bakery?”
“Yes. They’re delicious.” I lowered the bag—this time taking pains so I didn’t clutch it and accidentally rip it apart.
“I hope that doesn’t mean that you’re giving up baking?” Shelby asked.
Even my general fear of coming off as awkward wasn’t enough to stop my grimace. “I don’t know that I ever succeeded enough to call what I did baking. But yes.”