A Perfect Blood

humming phone into my lap and snatched up an amulet, not believing it when the green held steady. “It’s my scatter-detection amulet,” I said, pulse racing as I pulled it out, thrilled. “Holy crap, it’s working! Wayde, it’s working! Here, hold it!”
    “What, me?” he exclaimed as I shoved the amulet at him, almost knocking over his coffee. “I don’t know how to work this thing.”
    “Just hold it,” I said as I fumbled for the phone and flipped it open. “If you have an aura, it works. Damn! I can’t believe it’s working! Somewhere within a mile or two is something linked to that poor man they strung up in Washington Park.”
    From behind the counter, Mark slammed something shut, clearly having heard me.
    Wayde was looking at the amulet as if it were a chunk of rotting flesh, gingerly cradling it in two hands as I flipped the phone open. “You said you weren’t going to go out to any sites unless they were secure.”
    “The I.S. and the FIB will be there,” I said, excited. “Besides, HAPA is long gone. We’re going to find an empty room unless we’re really lucky.” The receiver clicked open. “Ivy?”
    “No, it’s me,” Jenks said, his tone sounding tinny over the phone lines. “What the hell do you think you’re doing going out without Wayde? He’s more ticked than a shaved cat.”
    “I know,” I said, looking at the uncomfortable Were sitting across from me. “He’s with me. We’re cool. Ivy knew where I was, so what’s the big deal?”
    “You ditched me!” he accused, and I winced.
    “You didn’t have your winter clothes on, and I had to catch the bus!” I said, then lowered my voice. “Wake up Ivy, will you? And get your working blacks on. The scatter-detection charms went active. I’m at Junior’s with Wayde.”
    “Tink’s little red panties, Rache! You ditching us?”
    No more than everyone seems to be ditching me, I thought, then shoved my mini pity party away. “Did I not just say put your working clothes on? Get Ivy and get out here. I’m calling Glenn next, and then Nina.” I glanced at Wayde. “Could you bring out a pair of jeans and a shirt for Wayde while you’re at it?”
    Jenks’s snort told me we were okay. “Yeah, I got it,” he said, his kids shrieking in the background. “I’ll ask Belle to watch my kids.”
    “I’ll wait for you here as long as I can, but if the FIB or the I.S. gets here first, I’ll be with them,” I said, wondering if I should try Glenn at home. He might be off shift, but he’d come in for this, long night or not.
    “Gotcha, Rache!” he said cheerfully, and hung up.
    I cleared the phone and started scrolling for Glenn’s home number. I’d try there first. I looked up when Wayde chuckled. “What?” I said, blinking at him.
    “You’re funny,” he said, draping the amulet over my neck and tweaking my nose. “I’m going to see if they have a disposable shaver in the bathroom. Think about what I said, okay?”
    He stood, and I stared at him.
    “About having casual friends?” he added, looking back at me. “They don’t make the pain any less when you move on, but they help cover it up.” He hesitated, but I didn’t know what to say.
    “Don’t run off, okay?” he finally added, looking good as he made his confident, casual, and scruffy way to the men’s room, exchanging a masculine greeting with the barista as he went. And what did he mean by think “about having casual friends”? That hadn’t been an invitation . . .
    Had it?

Chapter Nine

    E ven at a slow thirty mph on the back of Ivy’s bike, the wind was frigid, and I pressed my head into Wayde’s shoulder, shivering. He was still in his boxers and T-shirt, and if he could take it, I could, too. The feelings of dread and anticipation had tightened my gut until I felt ill. The sweet coffee wasn’t sitting right, and the rumble of Ivy’s bike under me, usually soothing, only wound my tension tighter.
    We were down by the waterfront, the Cincy side of things, and when our momentum shifted, I looked up through the cloudy goggles that Ivy kept in her side bag for unexpected riders. We were at a stop sign, and whereas I knew Wayde would probably not have stopped under most circumstances, he did now.
    I put down a foot to help keep us balanced. The smell of soap and Were drifted back, and I breathed it in as I pushed my goggles up and looked at the amulet in my hand. This was why he’d stopped, not the sleek black new-model Lexus