Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic (Dowser Series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

parentage or my reaction to his sudden … allure.  
    “Jade? What the hell?” Sienna called, the sound of her voice moving closer. “Which stall are you in?”
    The vampire almost reverently brushed his fingers along the rings of my necklace. “I grant you safe passage. For tonight. You are intriguing, half-witch, half-not-human.”
    Then the stall door was hanging open and I was alone. I slumped against the wall, relieved but more riled up than I’d like to be given that I’d just been practically mauled by a vampire.
    Sienna poked her head around the door. “Who the hell was that?”
    A few women behind her tittered at the vampire’s exit. It seemed he could choose to move slowly when he wished to make an impression. Sienna sent them scurrying with a glare.
    “The vampire,” I sighed, pitching my voice low to not be overheard. I crossed by her to the sink.
    “And you were … what? Giving him a blow job in the bathroom stall?”
    “Yes, Sienna. I was giving a vampire a blow job, because that’s all vamps really want from a girl.”
    “You let him bite you?” Sienna hissed, clamping her mouth shut as a couple of tipsy girls exited another stall together.
    “I didn’t let him bite me!” I thrust my wet hands under the dryer.
    “What did he want?” Sienna murmured into my ear. “Besides the obvious. Was he just drawn to your magic?”
    “No. I don’t think so. I don’t know. Someone has been murdered. He thinks … or thought … that I did it.”
    “Thought?”
    “Supposedly I’m too blond to murder anyone.”
    Sienna looked thoughtful, like she might agree with this assessment. I began to bristle. Not that I would murder anyone, but please — it wasn’t because I was weak, or sweet, or incapable. I just had morals and a heart.
    “Did he tell you anything else?”
    “Yeah. He thinks there’s no way I’m half-human.”
    “That is interesting.”
    “Are we going to dance, or what?” I was tired of conversations about nothing going nowhere I had any control over.
    “Oh, yes. I think you’ll like the crowd.” Sienna smiled and looped an arm through mine. “They’re just your type. More magic than mere mortals, more brawn than brain.”
    Well … that did sound promising.  

CHAPTER THREE

    The dance floor had filled out since I’d been in the bathroom. Strobe lights alternated with black light, creating a staccato effect with the dancers. The blown-out whites generated by the black lights left residual streaks across my retinas. I loved it. The tables surrounding the floor were firmly in the shadows as usual, but I had no interest in sitting and watching. The vampire, who might still be lurking, had scared me. I could feel the adrenaline — the high of escaping a predator — flooding my limbs.
    I needed to move, to dance. Rusty sidled up out of the shadows around the tables and laced his hand through my arm. Sienna still hung off the other one. He held up some sort of dark martini in front of me; with the lights flashing it was impossible to distinguish its color. I ignored the offering and stepped toward the dance floor. Sienna snatched the drink, downed it, and followed me. Rusty, left with the empty glass, lagged a little behind as he paused to drop it on a nearby table.
    I pushed through the crowd. It was still thin around the edges, but it wouldn’t be for long. Sienna joined me, Rusty by her side. They began to move to the beat — some Flo Rida song — but I waited. I stood as the crowd shifted around me. I closed my eyes. I breathed, opening my palms to the room and feeling them … first Sienna and Rusty, their magic familiar and light … fragrant, with a touch of sweet floral like sugared violets.
    I tilted my head back and pushed my senses past the humans currently occupying the floor. Then I found them on the outer edges. Sienna had been correct in her assessment that I would like this magic. They tasted like dark, fruity chocolate — more berry than