Summoning Sebastian Read Free Page A

businessmen from Wyoming. Anyway, I overheard them talking about it on the way back from Salt Lake City yesterday.”
    â€œIt seems weird I haven’t heard anything about it. Usually I’m right on top of that kind of stuff. I mean, I make it my business to be right on top of that kind of stuff.” Also, why the hell were vampires going to Salt Lake City? But I left that question for later. Or never. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.
    Gwen was silent a moment, looking at her fork. Then she looked up at me, studying my expression. The directness and the earnestness of her gaze took me aback. It was like she was really trying to accomplish sisterly bonding. “Nim… I know you do. And doesn’t it seem weird to you that you haven’t heard about it?”
    â€œIt does. But it’s not all that unusual for the vamps to keep things under wraps. If it doesn’t affect humans, they’d just as soon deal with it themselves. Internal affairs kind of thing, you know?” Which was true, but Colin had told me things in the past that weren’t cleared for human consumption. I wondered why he’d kept this particular tidbit away from me. Maybe to keep me from worrying. Or maybe he hadn’t heard about it either. The latter seemed unlikely.
    Gwen leaned forward again. I could tell she didn’t want any of our fellow diners to overhear our conversation. “Anyway, since you’re dating a vampire now, I thought you’d want to know. You know, tell him to be careful or whatever.”
    I blinked. Being concerned about Colin was out of character for Gwen. She didn’t like him and didn’t approve of our relationship. Or maybe didn’t approve was too strong a term. I think she just didn’t get it.
    â€œWell,” I said, “we’re not so much dating as living in the same house and having ridiculous amounts of sex, but thanks for your concern.”
    Gwen looked hurt. “I’m trying to be nice about your boyfriend ,” she hissed at me.
    â€œI know.” I reached across the table and patted her hand affectionately, which was out of character for me. “And it’s really sweet, and I appreciate it. I’ll ask him about it when I get back to the office.”
    Gwen appeared to have been placated. “Good. I mean, you already lost one of your boyfriends. Losing another one would kind of suck.”
    Succinct, but true. “Yes,” I said, too sobered by the thought to prickle at her wording. “It really, really would.”
    I went back to the office with my stomach doing gymnastics under my diaphragm. The activity didn’t mix well with the food I’d just eaten. I wasn’t sure why I was so upset. I’d just seen Colin a few minutes ago. I knew he was all right. Whatever was going on in the news that I hadn’t heard about, he was safe from it, at least for the moment. But I’d seen Sebastian disintegrate right in front of my eyes. Sure, I’d talked to him earlier in the evening, but he wasn’t himself. Shit, he wasn’t even solid. I couldn’t bear the thought of something similar—or worse—happening to Colin.
    Of course, when I got back and slid into his office, he was sitting on his desk watching the TV that hung on the wall. He looked away from the screen briefly as I came in.
    â€œYou okay?” he asked.
    â€œYeah. I just…” I swallowed. He was fine. He was big and wide, and his shoulders took up half the room. “Gwen said there’s shit going down. Vampires being killed. Do you know anything about this?”
    He held my gaze a moment, and I thought he was going to dodge the question. I opened my mouth to give him clear insight into my opinion, but then he looked back at the TV and waved his hand loosely toward it.
    There was a reporter on the screen—unsurprising since it was a news channel—doing a reporter-on-the-scene type thing, microphone in