Dead If I Do by Tate Hallaway Page A

they tended toward fierce loyalty. Not only that, but I was sure any sort of bullying of another vamp ’s ghouls would get Sebastian in trouble with whatever weird, shadowy organization controlled the Suppliers’ Guild. He wasn’t going to get very far, but he’d be able to let off some steam on a wildgoose chase. As I watched Sebastian drive away without even a wave, I thought he might need it.

    I strolled the half a block up to my store. State Street is a pedestrian mall, so Sebastian had let me off at the nearest cross street. The sky was a brilliant blue. I could see the white marble dome of the Capitol building a few blocks farther up. My breath crystallized into white puffs in the air. The tip of my nose was red by the time I saw my reflection in the door of my store. Flipping on the lights, I went through the routines of getting the store ready for opening. I had the till counted and in place by the time William came in with two large cups of coffee from Holy Grounds.
    “Froufrou drink?” he offered.
    “Thanks,” I said, and we clinked the tops of our plastic lids in a faux toast to our girly lattes.
    “Izzy’s in a bad mood,” William said, sipping his drink. “I think she and Matt had a fight.”
    “Matt?”
    “So much easier to say than Mátyás. Anyway, I heard her call him that once as a pet name.”
    Somehow I couldn’t quite imagine Mátyás as a Matt. That sounded like someone who was the captain of the football team in high school, not some Eurotrash son of a vampire. “Did he like it?”
    “He did when she said it. I haven’t quite had the nerve to try it to his face for myself.”
    “Wise move,” I said. William followed me as I went to unlock the front door and flip on the neon Open sign in the window.
    “What do you think their fight was about?”
    “You’re kidding, right? What do you think?”
    “His mom.”
    William nodded. We walked back to the register and the little circular alcove that surrounded it. “Plus, I don’t think Izzy likes being on the business end of you and Sebastian.”
    “Did she say that?” I was shocked. I never thought of myself as having a “business end,” though Sebastian could be scary when he was intent on something. Still, if she spent any time at all with Mátyás she must be aware that what he and his father shared didn’t exactly qualify as a functional relationship.
    “She didn’t say anything. She was really grouchy.”
    That wasn’t much like Izzy. I resolved to go talk to her during my break to see what was going on. Maybe she knew something about the possibility of Parrish’s involvement in the whole Teréza thing . . . or maybe I could convince her to help me try to find out.
    A customer came in looking for a good book on magical journaling, and soon I was knee-deep in the usual Saturday business. In no time, it was noon, and I’d missed my break.
    I thought I might have lunch over at Holy Grounds and see about chatting with Izzy now. But when I went into the back office to file a few of the bills that had come in with the post, I saw the note I ’d left myself on the calendar. Today was the day I was supposed to go down to the courthouse to pick up the application for our marriage license. I was also supposed to check in with the Unitarian minister who would be officiating our ceremony to arrange getting the programs printed up. Izzy would have to wait.
    Changing out of the Converses I kept in my bottom desk drawer, I stomped into my heavy winter boots. I wrapped a fluffy pink and metallic yarn scarf around my neck and shrugged into my down-filled ski jacket. A matching pink hat snuggled in tight over my ears. Pulling my bright orange Tigger gloves on, I was set.
    I let William know that I might be a little long at lunch and then braved the outside. The temperature had warmed up to a comfortable thirty degrees, but the sky had gone gray and overcast. I could smell the promise of snow in the air, and the breeze that touched my