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mumbo jumbo bullshit. Stop pressuring me to meet your freaky friend.” Her voice increased in volume until I had to hold the phone away from my ear.
    “Stop yelling at me! Geez, I’m only trying to help.”
    “I don’t want that kind of help. I don’t need that kind of help,” she shouted.
    “OK, I’m sorry. I’ll see you tomorrow, OK? I need to replenish my stash.”
    “Yeah. Fine. OK. Bye.”
    “Bye.” I said the word to myself; she’d all ready hung up. I hated fighting with Anna. She was my only friend. We’d had the argument about her meeting Lane more than once, but this was the first time she’d ever yelled at me. There was a deeper reason she didn’t want to meet the witch, but I had no idea what it could be.
    I plugged my phone in to charge and picked up the note Daniel had left me once more, tracing the letters with my fingertip. Bone-deep fatigue settled over me, and I wandered to my bedroom, tucking the sheet of paper into my robe pocket. A pair of jeans tangled around my foot as I stumbled to the bed and moved the comforter down to climb in.
    No matter how I lay, I couldn’t get comfortable. Comforter on, comforter off. Sheet, no sheet. The alarm clock ticked over so slowly I wondered if I’d wandered into an alternate universe.
    Finally, around 3:00 a.m., I fell asleep. Plagued by dreams where a man hidden in shadow called to me over and over, I woke several times. No matter where I went, he called to me. The voice seemed familiar, but something was wrong with it. The shouts sounded garbled, gurgling almost. They terrified me.
    I ran down unfamiliar cobblestone streets, the stones slick and rough beneath my feet, calling for Daniel. He never came.
     

Chapter Four
     
     
    After lunch at my desk and a dessert of five Chewy Sprees, I stood and headed to the restroom. I passed Pencil Neck—the guy who liked to look down my shirt anytime he came to my cubicle—and he averted his gaze. I’d accidentally rolled my elbow into his balls this morning. Oops. I grinned in satisfaction at the memory. Now if someone could develop a spray or amulet to keep the horny vamps going in a new direction, life would be close to perfect.
    One pervert down, hundreds to go…
    I reached the corridor to the bathrooms and was about to turn the corner when a wave of heat hit me. It hurt, like being wrapped in a spider web of supercharged static electricity.
    Oh no. Not here!
    I rushed into the women’s room, slammed into a stall, and locked the door. It wouldn’t keep him out, but it made me feel better.
    The outer door opened and closed. Sensation sizzled across my skin. I had to bite my lip to hold in an involuntary whimper. A pair of men’s brown dress shoes appeared on the floor in front of my stall, the tips peeking beneath. I swallowed past a knot in my throat and blinked. The terrible electricity became something else. It still hurt, but where it danced along my breasts and thighs it turned into a delicious heat I found incredibly arousing.
    A light tap-tap sounded on the door of the cubicle, and I unlocked it without thinking, my body moving to obey the unspoken command. The vampire on the other side had dark hair, an olive complexion, and chocolate-brown eyes topped with straight, black brows and beautifully thick, sooty lashes. He was short for a man, perhaps only five eight or so, but the muscles of his biceps and chest strained his shirt. The perfect V shape of his torso tapered into a slim waist, and while his thighs weren’t as big as Daniel’s, they took up enough space in his pant legs to be evident. He cocked an eyebrow at me when I finished my perusal and returned my attention to his face. This was a man who expected attention and deference and received them.
    He held a hand out to me—palm up. I placed mine in it and stepped forward as he kissed my knuckles. His beautiful mouth was full and yet still seemed cruel. After he lifted his lips away, he licked a lazy line between my middle and fore