Definitely Dead

to burst her bubble.
    Amelia burst it all by herself.
    “Or maybe,” she said blithely, “someone paid Waldo to get Hadley out of the picture, by one means or another.”
    I had to shut down my shields immediately, because all the witches began broadcasting such strong panic signals that being around them was unbearable. They knew that what Amelia had said would upset the queen, and when the Queen of Louisiana was agitated, those around her tended to be even more agitated.
    The queen shot out of her chair, so we all scrambled to our feet, hastily and clumsily. Amelia had just gotten her legs tucked underneath her, so she was especially awkward, which served her right. Jade Flower took a couple steps away from the rest of the vampires, but maybe she wanted more room in case she had to swing her sword. Andre was the only one who noticed that, besides me. He kept his gaze fixed on the king’s bodyguard.
    I don’t know what would have happened next if Quinn hadn’t driven through the gate.
    He got out of the big black car, ignored the tense tableau as if it didn’t even exist, and strode across the gravel to me. He casually draped an arm over my shoulders and bent to give me a light kiss. I don’t know how to compare one kiss to another. Men all kiss differently, don’t they? And it says something about their character. Quinn kissed me as if we were carrying on a conversation.
    “Babe,” he said, when I’d had the last word. “Did I get here at a good time? What happened to your arm?”
    The atmosphere relaxed a bit. I introduced him to the people standing in the courtyard. He knew all the vampires, but he hadn’t met the witches. He moved away from me to meet and greet. Patsy and Amelia had obviously heard of him and tried hard not to act too impressed at meeting him.
    I had to get the rest of the evening’s news off my chest. “My arm got bitten, Quinn,” I began. Quinn waited, his eyes intent on my face. “I got bitten by a . . . I’m afraid we know what happened to your employee. His name was Jake Purifoy, wasn’t it?” I said.
    “What?” In the bright lights of the courtyard, I saw that his expression was guarded. He knew something bad was coming; of course, seeing the assembled company, anyone would guess that.
    “He was drained and left here in the courtyard. To save his life, Hadley turned him. He’s become a vampire.”
    Quinn didn’t comprehend, for a few seconds. I watched as realization dawned as he grasped the enormity of what had happened to Jake Purifoy. Quinn’s face became stony. I found myself hoping he never looked at me like that.
    “The change was without the Were’s consent,” the queen said. “Of course, a Were would never agree to become one of us.” If she sounded a little snarky, I wasn’t too surprised. Weres and vamps regarded each other with scarcely concealed disgust, and only the fact that they were united against the normal world kept that disgust from flaring into open warfare.
    “I went by your house,” Quinn said to me, unexpectedly. “I wanted to see if you’d gotten back from New Orleans before I drove down here to look for Jake. Who burned a demon in your driveway?”
    “Someone killed Gladiola, the queen’s messenger, when she came to deliver a message to me,” I said. There was a stir among the vampires around me. The queen had known about Gladiola’s death, of course; Mr. Cataliades would have been sure to tell her. But no one else had heard about it.
    “Lots of people dying in your yard, babe,” Quinn said to me, though his tone was absent, and I didn’t blame him for that being on his back burner.
    “Just two,” I said defensively, after a quick mental rundown. “I would hardly call that a lot.” Of course, if you threw in the people who’d died in the house . . . I quickly shut off that train of thought.
    “You know what?” Amelia said in a high, artificially social voice. “I think we witches will just mosey on down the street to that pizza place on the corner of Chloe and Justine. So if you need us, there we’ll be. Right, guys?” Bob, Patsy, and Terry moved faster than I’d thought they were able to the gate opening, and when the vampires didn’t get any signal from their queen, they stood aside and let them by. Since Amelia didn’t bother retrieving her purse, I hoped she had money in one pocket and her keys in another. Oh well.
    I almost wished I were trailing along behind them. Wait a minute! Why couldn’t I? I