Paige shoved the covers back and sighed. She slept in her underwear and a tank. Men didn’t get to see that. Men she worked with didn’t get to see the more womanly side of her. She felt uncomfortable just thinking about her partner and an FBI agent seeing her without a bra.
Screw it. She wasn’t sexually interested in Jack or Tony, and they both knew Dexx had shared her bed. Though that didn’t mean anything, really.
Wait. Why was she so concerned about what anyone else thought of her nonexistent sex life? She was a grown woman and could sex or not sex any man she chose.
She wasn’t going to sweat the underwear. The men in her apartment were her partners, and they were all trying to discover their “new normal.” If Jack and Dexx could share the bathroom—the sound of piss hitting water entered the protection of her bedroom—then they could all see her in her yoga pants.
She slipped them on as she hobbled to the door. She needed a good cup of coffee before the bra went on. No way of getting around that.
Jack exited the bathroom in front of her with a grin, his blue eyes sharp against his thick, black lashes. “Coffee?”
Morning people. They were all evil. “Kitchen.”
Dexx flushed the toilet, the door wide open.
Paige shook her head, her lips flat, and walked through the living room.
Tony met her in the dining room holding a steaming green mug as an offering. “Coffee. Untainted.”
She took it from him and clasped it to her, the aroma of widening her eyes into half-awakedom. For as awkward as this really should be, it felt comfortable. So, she had to reason with herself. Make it uncomfortable by allowing the standards of society inside the comforts of her home, or just go with it? “Thank you.”
“Bacon, hash browns, and eggs are cooking as we speak. Just scrambled. You didn’t have much else in your fridge.”
“Nope. Not really. I can make breakfast without too much trouble.”
“She is a terror in the kitchen.” Dexx dropped his comment off on his way to the kitchen like a toddler dropped a fart and ran.
She followed him and hopped onto the edge of the counter beside the fridge, hooking her toes on the opposite counter so she didn’t fall off. Closet-sized kitchen. “I can make breakfast without setting off the smoke detector.”
Dexx put the orange juice back in the fridge. “That would be because it’s in the hallway next to the bedrooms.” He closed the refrigerator door and left.
Bacon sizzled in one pan. Tony whisked eggs in pan number two, scrambling them with the few bits of vegetables she’d had dying in her fridge. Hash browns cooked up in a third pan. That was probably more pans than that stove had seen at once since she’d moved in. “A vamp who eats breakfast.”
He shrugged.
She brought her coffee to her face and let the steam waft up her nose. “What about evil vamps?”
“What about evil humans?”
“But you eat humans.”
“No. We drink blood. Doesn’t have to be human blood. We don’t have to drain anyone. But, just like humans have killers, we do, too.”
Paige sipped her coffee. Her brain made half-assed attempts at waking, but, for the most part, simply lounged.
Tony gave her a are-you-serious look. “Do you realize how much blood is in a person’s body?”
She scrambled. First, why was he overreacting, and, second, what was he responding to?
Then, she remembered. Draining bodies of blood. Right.
“Um, no.” She vaguely recalled from biology class that there was a lot.
“One and a half gallons.”
Yeah. That was a lot.
“Can you imagine drinking one and half gallons of milk in one sitting?”
She had a hard time finishing a tall glass of it in one sitting.
“Exactly.”
He had to be answering to something registering on her face. It was still too early for words.
“Our stomachs are the same size as yours.”
“Okay. Got it. You don’t drain people.”
Most myths she knew of showed vampires as bloodthirsty animals. Unless they glittered, then they were moody and blood thirsty. There were even romance novels that made vampires seem sexy.
Blood drinking. Yeah. Sexy. Oooh baby.
However, when she’d read the books, she’d completely agreed. It was all about the penetration. Purr.
“Witch,” he offered with a flip of his mostly empty wooden spoon. A piece of egg went flying and stuck to the wall next to the toaster. “You’re not all evil, either.”
He really needed to stop with the sharp conversation changes before coffee. “Oddly, no.”
Jack leaned against the wall beside the fridge, crossing his arms over his chest, his expression open.
“We grew up with horror stories of witches,” Tony explained. He turned off the heat to the eggs with a loud click and continued to turn them. “Witches controlling us—”
“I can control you?” Paige bit her lip and bounced on the counter, careful not to spill her coffee.
He gave her a dirty look. “Witches using the elements against us.”
“I am getting cooler by the minute.”
“Only if evil is cool.” Tony grew serious. “Your kind hunted us, Paige. Your kind enslaved us.”
Dexx lifted Paige’s legs to get in, then skirted around Tony to get to the cupboard. “Come on, guys. Such dark talk and some of us haven’t even had coffee yet.” He held out his hand to Paige. “Coffee me!”
She chuckled and set down her mug next to the sink still filled with wine glasses from the previous night. She opened the cabinet behind her head, ducking and contorting to do so, and blindly reached up to grab a k-cup. “And the winner is…” She closed the door and cringed, her eyebrows raised. “Chocolate chip cookie.”
He pulled his lips back in disgust. “Ew. Put that back and get me something real.”
She stuck her tongue out at him and tried again. “Downtown Motown. How about that?”
Taking it, he plugged it into the coffee maker. “One day, you’re going to get just regular old coffee.”
“I do! I just couldn’t reach it from here.”
“You could have hopped down,” Jack offered.
She hugged her cup to her.
Jack glanced at Tony and Dexx. “Is anyone else feeling…weird? We’re all standing around like this is normal, but this isn’t normal. We’re not normal.”
“You’re not normal,” Tony said, flipping bacon. “I am.”
“Also,” Jack said, “you told us last night to find a new normal. This is it. I like it.”
She did, too.
“Yeah.” The coffee maker stopped spurting water. Dexx took his cup. “But I’m normal anyway.”
“You dig up dead bodies.”
“And salt and burn their bones. I know. That’s what makes me cool.”
Jack snorted.
“Okay.” Paige sipped her coffee. “Just checking.”
“A vampire, a hunter, and a summoner walk into a bar,” Dexx said. “No punchline needed.”
“I thought after last night you were cool with this?” Jack gestured to everyone standing in the kitchen.
“I—” She interrupted herself, unsure of what she wanted to say. “Last night, I was. This morning, I’m wondering if I’m sane.”
Tony pulled the bacon out of the pan and stacked it onto a paper towel-laden plate, turning off the burner with a pop of the dial. “How are we supposed to act? Are we supposed to be flipping out? Are we supposed to be tearing apart Paige’s place?”
“Let the answer be, ‘no,’” Paige said.
Jack lifted one corner of his mouth.
“This is our life.” Dexx shrugged, his expression apologetic.
Jack tipped his head to the side and assessed Dexx. “How did you get into this?”
“Brother. Possessed by a demon. Killed himself after everyone thought he was crazy.”
Jack hmm’ed.
Paige tapped her fingers in a stiff staccato against her mug. “I’m okay with this because I have to be. We don’t fit into society, so society’s rules don’t apply here.”
“Yeah, but…”
“You’re looking at a woman who’s sitting in her kitchen in her yoga pants, without a bra, who hasn’t even brushed her hair, with three grown men.” Growing up in a house full of women, this made her very uncomfortable. “The vampire might be weird, but I didn’t bring my gun. That’s weird.”
Jack shrugged. “You look like one of the guys, if that helps.”
It did. Tremendously. She wasn’t the type of woman who could juggle multiple men’s attention. She didn’t like it when they noticed her breasts. She didn’t appreciate their appreciation. She was a woman in a man’s world. If they noticed her womanliness, she’d lost ground. “How are we going to figure out what you are?”
He shrugged and shook his head. “The only thing I know is that these gifts came to me after my dad died. I couldn’t find any journals, notes, a letter.”
“That happens sometimes.”
“With what?” Tony asked. He shoved Dexx out of his way to get to the cupboard, which housed the plates. “I’ve never heard of that.”
“Well.” Paige pulled open the drawer under her legs and rummaged for forks.
“You really could get down,” Jack said.
“You’re missing the good points of having a closet for a kitchen.” She set the forks on the counter at her toes. “There are gifts that really only need one person to carry them. Um, I’m trying to think of them, but I’m really struggling. Demon summoners, I guess. Grandma didn’t get her gift until after her aunt died. Um, shoot. I don’t know. Other sort of policing gifts.”
“Vampire slayers!” Dexx clucked his tongue and cocked his finger gun at her with a wink.
“’In every generation,’” Jack said, his voice deepening, “’there is one who is born—‘”
“I think your wording’s a little off.”
Her generation would always and forever have Buffy the Vampire Slayer to relate to.
Tony handed Dexx a plate with hash browns, bacon, and eggs.
Paige slid a fork under the potatoes.
He perched on the counters similarly to Paige on the other side of the sink so the two of them had Tony surrounded.
Jack shooed Paige’s legs out of the way with a frown, taking a fork on his way through. He found a place to perch. “Coffee me,” he muttered around a mouthful of eggs.
Paige chuckled and grabbed a k-cup from the cupboard, tossing it to Dexx. “Save those. I’m going to plant seeds inside them in a couple of days.”
“And plant them where?”
She shrugged. “There’s a whole creek bed in my back yard.”
“You don’t have a back yard,” Tony said, handing her a plate before propping himself on the sink. “Whew!” He wiggled his toes that were hooked on the stove. “Hot. Hot, hot.”
The four flew through their food with a little banter for spice.
“When are you supposed to be at work?” Paige leaned forward to see Jack around Tony.
“In fifteen minutes, but my boss knows I’m assisting you.”
“I didn’t realize the FBI was that flexible.”
He raised his eyebrows. “I’m thinking my boss is something…” He narrowed one eye and finished off his bacon, setting his plate in the sink. “…different. He said something about my track record with cases, but he seemed okay with it. I told him I was assisting you and he just agreed. Weird. Very weird.”
She frowned at Tony. “I thought you said there weren’t a lot of paranormals high on the food chain like that.”
“There aren’t.”
“So, do you know Jack’s boss?”
Tony shook his head.
Paige put her plate in the crowded sink. “What would happen if the government found out about us?” Us. Oy.
Tony’s eyes tightened at the edges. “I don’t even want to think about it.”
Dexx handed his plate to Jack. “Thanks, man. Well, they could find me all they like. They got nothin’ to find. My DNA is pure as a baby’s butt.”
Paige winced. “Really?”
He grinned.
“But if they did happen to find you,” Tony smirked, “you wouldn’t be long for the free world.”
Jack snorted a laugh and pointed a finger at the hunter. “This is true. Your jacket is impressive.”
Dexx sighed theatrically. “Fine. Fine, fine. Well, what are we doing today?”
Hopping down, Paige added her cup to the sink. “Someone has dish duty. The dishwasher is available. Use it. I don’t care how you get the dishes in there. I’m going to get dressed. Then, I believe Dexx has a transmission to work on.”
“Can’t today.” Dexx pushed Jack off his perch. “Dude’s taking the car to work, but maybe this weekend. And by ‘weekend,’ I mean Thursday and Friday because that’s his weekend.”
Paige shrugged. “Okay. Tony and I have some notes to go over.” She pointed at Jack. “We don’t even have anything to run through your databases.”
He scratched his head, making his black hair stand up oddly. Sometimes, the man was adorable. “Well, maybe I can go to the scene and do that thing where I see if someone’s going to die soon.”
“Couldn’t hurt. Tony, we roll in twenty.”
After getting a whiff of herself on the way past the front bathroom, she decided she needed a shower. Just a quick one. After her shower, she pulled her long, wet hair into a high ponytail and shucked on a pair of jeans, a pale blue button-up shirt, and a jacket. She clipped her badge, her phone, and her service weapon to her belt and she was done.
Tony waved his phone at her. “We got something.”
Her stomach churned. She hoped it wasn’t another body. Granted, as a homicide detective, dead bodies were a way of life, but still.
“No,” Tony said as if reading her mind. “We got a live one.”
Dexx sat on the loveseat to lace up his boots.
“One of the shifters came back. Kevin, oddly enough.”
Was he possessed? What was the point of releasing living shifters? “And he’s alive?”
Tony nodded.
Jack pulled his black suit jacket on. “Okay. Well, I’m going to go back to the scene where Ms. Harwood was found. I’ll see if I can trace her steps. I don’t know. Anyway, I’ll try and let you know if I discover anything.”
“Thanks.” Paige unclipped her phone and handed it to him. “Program your number. If we find anything and have cell service, we’ll let you know.”
He saluted with two fingers then punched his number into her phone.
Dexx grabbed his keys. “In the meantime, we’re taking my car this time.”
Tony lowered his eyelids.
Paige raised her eyebrows. “Free gas with us. It’s paid for. On the job expense.”
“More room with me.” Dexx tipped his head to the side and offered a cheesy grin.
Shrugging and hooking her thumb in his direction, she nodded. “Point.”
Tony shoved his keys in his pocket. “Taken. Okay. Your car.”
“But I need you running down the lead on the demon since I can’t.”
“So, I’m going where?”
Paige grabbed a rain jacket, but didn’t put it on. Yes. It’d snowed yesterday, but it was supposed to be warmer and raining all day. Colorado weather. “See if your lab tech can run the DNA so we can get a name, but then that evidence needs to be taken care of. In the meantime, you have a description and you’re good at getting more.”
“That I do and yes I am. I’ll talk to Chastity about the DNA.”
“Chastity is your person in the lab?” Good to have a name. One day, if she was sticking around, she needed to meet this person.
“Yeah.”
“Alright. However you can get the information. Just be careful.”
“And if I do find him?” He gestured to Dexx.
“What do I do?”
“You’re not getting the demon knife. Treat him like a person, but don’t be afraid to ask him questions. Even if the demon moved on, the host might have information you can use.”
“Got it.”
She hadn’t even managed to get everyone shuffled out of her apartment when her phone rang.
Gummy Bear. She swiped the call button and put the phone to her ear. She locked the door behind her as the boys shuffled down the suddenly tight stairwell. “Is everything okay?”
“Huh?” Leslie sounded a bit distracted. “Oh. That. Yeah. I mean, no. No one was willing to help. The bank was a complete ass. Wouldn’t help at all. Just a, ‘Well, don’t be such an idiot the next time, and as penance for your stupidity, you get to pay your scammer, and you get to pay us overdraft fees. Congratulations, dumbass.’”
Paige winced. “And the police?”
“Ass-fuck used a burner phone which is no longer working. The email address gave them no information, and the address I mailed the cashier’s check to belongs to a really sweet old lady who has a mailbox on the side of the road and can’t get out to check her mail every day. So, yeah. I now know how to make a lot of money and never get caught.”
Paige made it outside. The air was a bit humid. Clouds covered the sky, but nothing serious. Cool rain drizzled. It didn’t soak through her shirt, and it wouldn’t if she hurried. “Sorry. You got the money I sent?”
“Yes. Thank you. You really didn’t have to.”
“Well, you know, it’s a loan.” It really wasn’t.
“Yeah. Whatever. Thanks. Anyway, I called because I do have some information.”
“Really? On paranormals?” She felt safe saying that out loud because if anyone overheard her, they’d probably think she was joking, or talking about a book, or a movie, or a game. That was just the world they lived in. She paused at the sidewalk, then crossed the street behind the school bus.
Dexx and Tony stood beside Jackie, talking. Jack was nowhere to be seen.
“We don’t have a lot, mind you.” A page flipped on the other side of the line. “And most of it is in a different language. I’ll have to see if I can get it translated.”
“Google translator, here we come?”
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