Vampire - When Darkness Falls Part 22

"Hey, I'm available," Gavin said.

"And you're a gem!" Shanna a.s.sured him quickly.

"But you're busy Friday nights," Gavin said, laughing.

"Gavin, you are a doll and a gem and-"

"And you're gorgeous and twenty-four and I'm ... I'm not," he said after a moment, grinning. "Oh, well, if you ever get desperate ..."

"A girl would not need to be desperate," Shanna a.s.sured him quickly and sweetly.

Jade felt a deep surge of affection for her sister. For all of her cynicism, Shanna was almost always compa.s.sionate and kind.

"To tell you the truth, I'd have grabbed you for a movie tonight-if we'd had this conversation just yesterday."

Jade looked at her sister curiously. "What happened since yesterday?" she asked her sister.

Shanna's eyes widened teasingly and she grinned. "I met someone."

"This morning?"

"Yep. At a coffee shop, on my way over to your place."

"You didn't tell me!"

"Well, I didn't get married or anything. I agreed to go on a date.

Well, actually, I didn't even really agree to go on a date. I suggested that I'd be at a movie. Although, you know, this flu thing is going around. He was sick, too. He could be a no-show."

"Still, you didn't tell me you had met someone."

"Well, I was anxious to hear about your life at the moment." She grinned at Gavin and Al, who were watching the conversation between the sisters with interest.

"Her life is just far more interesting than mine. At the moment."

"We need to leave," Jade said firmly, "and let these gentlemen get back to work. Gavin, thanks again. Al, thank you, too."

"My pleasure," Gavin a.s.sured her. "I'm delighted to help in any way. And listen. Although I have to say Sean is one good cop-" He broke off, shrugging. "You're sure there's nothing else I can do for you at the moment, other than contacting New York law enforcement?"

"Nothing, thanks."

"Good," Al interrupted quickly, drawing a puzzled glance from Gavin. "I saw the girls here and nearly forgot-we're needed at the morgue."

"What's up?" Gavin queried.

"The M.E. has made a curious discovery regarding the college kid in the accident the other night. You ready?"

"Yeah, sure, let me grab my jacket. Hey, great October, isn't it, ladies?"

"Beautiful, brisk, pleasant, great," Shanna agreed. "In fact, let's pick up a few pumpkins to carve, Jade, eh?"

"Sure. Well, thanks, guys, thanks very much," Jade said.

Twenty minutes later they were at one of the street markets, looking at pumpkins. Jade wanted to know about the guy Shanna had met.

Shanna said he was just a guy.

"But you're going on a date with him."

"Not really. I'm meeting him for a movie. And that's a maybe."

"That's a date."

"I'm not having him pick me up or bring me home. We 're just meeting for a movie."

"Tell me more."

"That's all," Shanna said, irritatingly evasive.

"Does he have a name?"

"Dave."

"Great. He has a name."

"He's cultured, cute, and charming. That's all I know right now. I'll tell you more later."

"I should go with you."

"No, you should stay home and sleep with your cop." She sighed, shaking her head with disgust. "The price on these is outrageous. You'd think these stinking pumpkins were made out of gold."

"We could drive out of the Quarter and buy a few along the roadside. They'd be much cheaper."

Shanna made a face. "No, thanks. I don't feel like driving anywhere." "I'm going to take that one."

"Fine-I'll do that fellow over there." They bought the pumpkins and went back to Jade's place. Coming up the stairs to enter by the living room on the second level, rather than through the courtyard and casual area below, they pa.s.sed Renate's door. Shanna grinned. "Boy, I sure would like to know just how things did go for good old Matt last night."

"He's not Renate's type-and Renate never minds telling him that.''

"Ah . . . but if she had enough champagne and caviar . .."

"Well, she didn't."

"She should have. The poor boy was trying to celebrate.''

"Go tell her that she should have given him a celebration one-night stand."

"All right," Shanna said, staring down the hall.

"Don't you dare!" Jade said, dragging her sister back.

Later, as they were carving out their pumpkins, Jade asked her, "Would you really have been that rude and brazen-to tell her she should have slept with Matt."

"Rude and brazen? How can you be more rude and brazen than Renate?" she said; then she laughed. "I don't know. Thank G.o.d you stopped me."

They talked about their Halloween plans, since the holiday was coming up quickly. "We need to have a party," Shanna said.

"New Orleans is a party. Every restaurant and every jazz club will have a party. And we have little half brothers, remember? We have to head out to the Garden District and see Dad and Liz and the boys.

They'll be so cute- Liz always does such a great job with costumes."

"We could have a party at their house," Shanna said. "I mean, it was our house for years and years. When Mom was alive. Remember?"

Jade was quiet for a minute. "It's not our house anymore."

"Of course it is."

"No, something is different. But did you have a bad time with Liz this morning?"

"No. In fact, I felt pretty close to her."

"Then ... ?" Jade said, puzzled.

"I don't know. Something just didn't seem right about the house."

"Well, still ... let's think about it, huh?" Jade said. "It might be more fun just to ride out, see the kids, and come back and club hop."

"Yeah, maybe-ugh! I just cut the stupidest pumpkin teeth you've ever seen."

Jade looked at her sister's pumpkin. "They're pointed."

"I was trying to cut squares ... oh, well. Thank G.o.d I never wanted to grow up to be a pumpkin artist. I've had it; I'm done. I've got to get going. I want to wash my hair ... bathe in exquisite body salts, powder and perfume, and try on half a dozen outfits. Some of us know how to do this s.e.x thing properly."

"You're going to have s.e.x with a total stranger?" Jade asked, appalled.

Shanna grinned. "No-I'm going on a first date. You have to be beautiful, charming, devastating, and smell divine for just such an occasion. That way he'll probably ask you back out, and it will be your choice if you see him again or not. Understand?"

"I thought you said it wasn't really a date."

"It's not-it's still a 'first' kind of a thing. And you are so, so far from a first date with that cop! Do the bubble-bath thing tonight-"

"I did it last night."

"And you think it will last forever?"

"No, I just-"

"You asked him last night. You know he'll make it tonight."

"Probably," Jade agreed.

Shanna pushed her pumpkin back, stood, headed for the sink, and washed her hands. "I'm outta here."

She started straight for the door.

"Your pumpkin!" Jade said.

"Keep it. I think I have to start over. I messed up the teeth."

Shanna exited. The door closed, then opened again. "Don't mess it up with that cop!"

"I won't," Jade said. "And don't go accepting any more dates with this guy until we know more about him, until you let me check him out for you."

"Yes'm, big sister. Sure. And you lock this door when I'm out!"

"All right!"

Shanna had barely departed when the phone started to ring. It was Rick, and Jade knew immediately from the sound of his voice that something was wrong. "I'm not going to be able to do anything tonight,"

he old her regretfully. "We should be going somewhere great for dinner."

"Hey, I eat all the time," she said lightly.

"I've been sick as a dog all day."

"I'm sorry."

"I sure don't know what I picked up, but it's awful. I've been burning up, having chills, delusions, even. Slept all morning, and now I've got to head back to work. The kid who was killed in the awful accident-"

"What?"

"I have to go back to the morgue again. Terry Broom was the M.E.

on the case, and he's a stickler. Seems he thinks there was some foul play."

She suddenly remembered Al asking Sean Canady if he had been a.s.signed to the kid. There was going to be a task force on it, Canady had said.

"It is the kid from the accident, then," she murmured.

"Wait a minute-what do you know about this?"

She hesitated. "Shanna and I went down to talk with Gavin today."

"Jade," he said, sounding worried. "I told you I'd go with you."

"I'm all right with all this, really," she said. "I'm not going to lose my mind or go off the deep end or anything." She hesitated and added jokingly, "I even met a cop who told me there might be people who believed they were vampires, and if they believed it, well-"

"Sean," he said flatly, interrupting her. "Lieutenant Canady."