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spend a little quality time in close proximity to Adriana, well, then…
    okay, but it was all business. It was about the cure.
    What a crock
. Even to her it sounded stupid. She wasn’t fooling herself and it was a stretch to believe she could fool Adriana either.
    For the first time in a very long time, Riah had the hots for a woman. And she had it bad. If she believed in love, she could almost convince herself she was falling in love with Adriana. Except her chance at love had died many, many centuries ago. This was simply lust. She took a deep breath and swung the car door open. Riah would just go on in, ask Adriana what she’d found, and then go home. Yes,

    that’s what she’d do. This
thing
she was feeling would pass once she took a few minutes to chat with Adriana about business.
    At the front door, Riah pushed the doorbell. It would take Adriana a minute to get to the door if she was downstairs in the lab, and that was fine since it would give her another minute to compose herself. When the door swung open immediately, Riah wasn’t sure what surprised her most: that Adriana was already at the door—or that she was naked.
----
    By the time Ivy got the body tucked back into the cooler, the door locked, and the report notes uploaded, it was past midnight.
    Everything was in place for a properly signed death certificate listing the official cause of death as homicide by knife attack. Sure, the entire team at the lake this morning noticed the puncture wounds on the man’s neck. They’d even taken a dozen or so pictures to document the marks. That didn’t mean she had to write it up as a vampire attack. Like folks would accept it as the truth anyway.
    People didn’t believe preternatural creatures roamed somewhere between shadow and light. Even if they did, deep in their hearts they didn’t want to. Ignorance was bliss.
    The majority of cultures throughout the world had some version of a vampire. They were, for the most part, relegated to fiction and folklore. Ivy would be more than happy to leave them all there, except she couldn’t. She wasn’t particularly fond of the lessons she’d had to learn the last decade or so. It wasn’t fair. She was going through her life ignorant and happy until the night Riah came to her with an incredible story. Sometimes having friends really sucked. Especially if one of those friends turned out to be a bona-fide bloody-fanged vampire, albeit a very pretty one with an IQ guaranteed to ensure an invitation to Mensa.
    Ivy sank into the chair at her desk and ran a hand through her hair. Talk about tired. If it was up to her, she’d lay her head on the stack of file folders and sleep for a day or two. Alas, too much work to do and too many details to cover. Sleep would have to wait.

    When her phone rang, she jumped. Her hand to her heart, she picked up the handset.
    “Ivy Hernandez.”
    “Ivy, this is Phil from over at K-5 News.”
    “Hey, Phil.” She kept her voice friendly even though, at this time of the night, chances were this wasn’t a social call.
    “So what’s up with your floater? I’ve been trying to catch you all afternoon.”
    “Sorry, I’ve been out most of the day. I called in a little help from Spokane.”
    “Yeah, so I heard. Why?”
    “Why what?” She was good at playing dumb when the situation called for it.
    “Why did you call in help?”
    “Look, Phil, there’ll be an official release in the morning and you can read it all for yourself.”
    “Ah, come on, Ivy. It’s your pal here. We started first grade together, remember? I carried your lunch. I was the big strong friend who pushed Joey Stevens when he tried to kiss you. So, here’s the deal. I got the five a.m. news coming up with nothing to lead, and you could help me out.”
    The minute she heard his voice, she knew he’d try to play the old-pal card. Phil was actually pretty good at his job, and Ivy had wondered more than once what kept him here in Moses Lake. Even when they were