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hidden pocket of my skirt, ready to block the door with my foot to keep the cat out. As soon as I began wedging through the entrance, the cat rose and trotted across the street to the plaza. The deeper into the fog it went, the bigger it seemed to grow. A high-pitched, teeth-jarring rrryyyow rolled back through the mist just before its tail flicked out of sight. The essence of magical energy lightened on my skin as the cat disappeared, but I had to be seeing things. Right? The cat hadn’t grown to panther size. My imagination was in overdrive. Stress. That’s all it was.

    When you’ve been buried 204 years, the smallest space you want to be in is a car. That ’s why I usually don’t take the elevator unless I’m hauling something awkward like my bicycle or surfboard.
    Tonight, though, I punched in the elevator code and spent the ride up thinking that a hot shower in Maggie’s fabulous guest bath would soon calm me. Heck, just being in her condo was a tranquilizer. With fifteen-foot ceilings, exposed ductwork, huge old windows, and an open floor plan, I never feel claustrophobic at Maggie’s. The living, dining, and kitchen areas flowed into each other with only an area rug here, a sofa there to define the rooms.
    Neil was still with Maggie when I let myself in. They were cuddled on the marine blue sectional sofa (one of the few non antiques in the place) watching an old M*A*S*H episode on the Hallmark Channel. Maggie muted the sound.
    “Hey, Cesca, before I forget, Tom called from the auto paint shop. Your truck is ready, and he ’ll be in by seven thirty tomorrow morning. I don’t have to be at the office until nine, if you want a ride over there.”
    “Great, Maggie, thanks.”
    I sank into a wing chair she’d found at an estate sale and recovered in blue and tan plaid.
    “You look funny,” she said, cocking her head at me. “What’s up?”
    I wasn’t sure I wanted to go into my misadventures with Neil there, so I sidestepped her. “Nothing. Just tired, I guess.”
    “Bull. I just told you your truck, the previously owned baby you paid a small fortune for, is ready to come home tomorrow with a new paint job, and you didn’t so much as smile. What happened on the tour to upset you?”
    That Maggie, she knows me too well. And she’d find out what happened through the friends of her friends who ran the tour company if I didn’t tell her. Might as well spill it.
    I launched into the recap of Stony and the newlyweds, making light of it. As I spoke, Maggie sat ramrod straight on the edge of the cushions. More surprising, Neil’s expression grew grim.
    “Damn it, Cesca,” he said when I finished. “Those Covenant guys are no joke. They’re the KKK without the robes and hoods.”
    Maggie raised a brow. “How do you know about the Covenant?”
    Neil pushed off the sofa and paced. “I didn’t tell you this because I didn’t want to make you mad, but I went to one of their meetings. It was last August, a week after you found Cesca.”
    Maggie shot to her bare feet. “You considered joining up with those creeps?”
    “I was worried about protecting you. I wasn’t in the meeting fifteen minutes before I realized I didn’t belong.” He turned to me. “These guys, and the few women I saw, have a hit squad mentality. You may need to quit your job.”
    “Why should she?” Maggie demanded.
    “To protect the innocent,” I answered. Neil did a double take. “Yes, Neil, I’m not an idiot. I thought about other people getting hurt when Stony came after me tonight. But Mick, the guide I work with? He says that’s not the Covenant MO. They don’t want outsider witnesses.”
    “They may make an exception for you. You’re not exactly a typical vampire.”
    Maggie held up a hand. “Wait just a damn minute. Before you quit a job you worked your butt off to get, shouldn’t you see what the tour company has to say? You said a supervisor has already been informed, and they ’ll have the incident report