The Sorceress Screams Read Free Page A

to swallow
it down so I could speak. “What do you want?”
    “Dinner.”
    A spike of
fear shot through me. I remembered his girlfriend’s idea of dinner.
    Maximo’s
nostrils flared as if he’d scented my reaction. “To start,” he said in his
neutral tone. “Mexican perhaps?”
    Hades’s hair! The dead guy wanted me to eat Mexican food
with him less than twenty-four hours after he’d murdered his long-time
girlfriend? That seemed in spectacularly poor taste.
    I struggled
not to grimace. But there was really no way around telling the truth. I’d just
have to break it to him gently. “I wouldn’t feel right. Not so soon after what
happened.”
    Though his
lips formed his indulgent smile, Maximo’s eyes darkened to an angry sable that
matched his hair. “It’s perfectly understandable.” His voice went
authoritative. “Saturday evening would work better.”
    My heartbeat
quickened. He wouldn’t like a second refusal. I needed that ring back.
    But how
horrible would it look to be seen in public with him within days of Ascencion’s death? The assumption would be I’d killed her
to make room for myself. Or that he had.
    Hera help me. Had he?
    “Margaritas
and tacos,” Maximo said in his amiable way. “And we’ll dance. I haven’t danced
in decades.”
    A nauseous
feeling sloshed within my stomach. But I needed the ring, and dinner was the
persuasion he’d said he needed to give it up.
    I forced
myself to answer. “Okay.”
    The vampire’s
shoulders lifted as if he’d been rigid until then. “Excellent. I’ll pick you up
here at nine.”
    I nodded my
agreement, silently praying Trip would scare him off before then.
    Maximo paused
at the shop’s door. He sent his soft smile over his shoulder. “I like what you
did with your hair.”
    I gaped after
his retreating figure. A murderous vampire liked my new rocker hairdo while the
Water witch who had nearly kissed me could barely look at me without revulsion.
    Didn’t it just
figure?
    ****
    The knock at
ten after eleven made me terribly uneasy. Desmond had yet to call as he’d said
he would. It could very well be him standing on my porch. Then again, someone
worse could be out there.
    Maximo could
appear and make me tell him the invocation word for the ring on his finger … provided
he’d enthralled me with a vampire’s nasty blood bond while I’d been unconscious
at his house. Come to think of it, he could have already asked for the
invocation word. And he could have made me forget all about it. For all I knew
he was gleefully shooting fireballs at targets and had merely asked me to
dinner so he could taunt me. Considering my track record with nemeses, that
wouldn’t be surprising in the least.
    The view
through the peephole showed me shoulder-length brown hair and a tan face. One
of three people matched that description. Since one of the three wouldn’t
bother with the door, I suspected the figure out front was Ryan Steele, my shapeshifter neighbor.
    I tugged open
the door.
    “ Lemme in.” Ryan shoved past my shoulder into the apartment. “I’ve got news.”
    I closed the
front door, frowning when I noted he’d plunked himself down on the beanbag
chair in my living room. That item of furniture happened to be my mother’s
preferred chair. Would she be miffed if someone else sat there? Especially
someone who could transform into a wild animal?
    I didn’t
entertain often, so I had few furniture options.
    Okay, I never
entertained.
    “Want that
beer?” I headed to the fridge.
    “Yeah,” he
said with a grin, clearly recalling why I’d offered.
    I shuffled
toward the living room with a bottle of Dos Equis and
a bag of Fritos in hand.
    “Since you’ve
kept my secret so well, I’m keeping
my part of the deal.” He took hold of the frosty bottle, popping the cap with
little fanfare. “The Centralized Coven Coalition is having an emergency meeting
as we speak.”
    That might
explain why Desmond hadn’t called me. As the head of the Water