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then.” To distract myself, I flopped down behind the desk to go through messages and the mail.
    The top five messages were all from the same man. Alan Tuttle, Security Chief of MagnaChem, a local pharmaceutical manufacturer. God, but the man wouldn’t give up! He wanted an escort for the new owner and some of his staff to his plant in Mexico where the drug gangs had all but taken over the town.
    The most recent message was marked URGENT and had a note attached to it because the message had been too long for the slip.
    Fifth call – I did what you asked and told him that you weren’t feeling well, and wouldn’t be taking any out-of-town jobs for the next few weeks. I suggested Miller & Creede to him. He said the owner of the company has a “personal issue” with Creede and won’t use them. He said that they were willing to double your usual fee if you would clear your calendar and leave for their offices in Mexico immediately.
    Well, hell. Double? I charge a fairly high fee to begin with. It was a real shame that I was too sick to go anywhere. But, no. I couldn’t work. Not like this. Too bad about Creede, though.
    The only other interesting message was from Bruno. He was back from the East Coast! For the moment he was staying in the Graduate Student Apartments, but they were kind of a dump. He said he’d be moving out as soon as he found a house he liked.
    I grinned. He was back. Bruno and I have our issues. I trust him with my life, just not with my heart. He’s broken it twice. I’m not sure I’ll ever get past that. But he’s more than my former fiancé. He’s my friend. He’s also a world-class mage and a great guy to have around when things get hairy. Which, sadly, happens a lot in my life. Too, he makes me laugh and that means a lot.
    The first two letters in the stack of mail wiped my smile right off my face. All of the doctors I’d been visiting insisted on getting insurance information to file claims even though I was willing to pay cash.
    I have my insurance through the university—part of a special alumni package that gives full benefits provided I pay and pass at least one class per semester. Letter one was from the health insurance division. It ever-so-politely denied any and all of my health insurance claims incurred since the vampire bite that turned me because, as an Abomination, I was part vampire, and therefore dead and the policy clearly states they do not pay claims postdeath. They offered their sincerest condolences and indicated that the appropriate paperwork had been forwarded to the life insurance division to pay out my death benefits to my beneficiary.
    The second letter, from the life insurance division, regretfully denied said benefits on the basis that as I was an Abomination; I was part human and therefore not dead.
    Typical. Throwing the letters onto the desk in disgust, I returned to the stack of phone messages. After all, I’d made a lot of calls the past couple of weeks. Surely Alex, or the principal from the school, or Harris …
    I flipped through the little pink slips of paper a second time to be sure.
    Nada.
    Now that was just weird. Almost as weird as how fast the incident had disappeared from the news cycle. Just a couple of days reporting on a “failed attack” on a local school, with the culprits apprehended on scene. Congrats to the police and fire departments on a job well done, yadda da yadda da. But no word about repairs or moving students to different schools or anything I’d expected to see.
    Still, it might not be any sort of cover-up. After all, news moves on. And the hottest Hollywood power couple’s filing for divorce and the assassination of the British prime minister had taken over the headlines.
    The last specialist I’d spoken to had very specifically asked me to find out if anyone else at the scene of the “incident” was having similar symptoms. But how could I find out if no one would answer my calls and the news wasn’t covering it