Under Wraps Read Online Free PDF

end? I imagined us head to head in his office working on the case, the Styrofoamed remains of our on-the-go dinner spread before us … huddled together in his squad car, rushing off to crime scenes … showering together, first thing in the morning…. My mouth went dry, and I found that I was twirling a long strand of red hair around my index finger—my number-one nervous tic. I shoved my hands into my jacket pockets.
    “The detective isn’t that hot close up. And he’s certainly not all that hot about having me tag along, so I doubt we’ll be spending all that much time together anyway.”
    So much for our morning shower.
    “Still”—Nina’s cold eyes skimmed over me skeptically—“if you’re going to run into him again, you really should change your outfit.”
    “I’m not going to change for him!” I said, indignant. “Besides, he’s already seen me once today. And,” I said, standing, “I look fine.”
    Nine crossed her arms in front of her own midnight blue vintage Valentino wrap dress—vampires are total fashion whores—and shrugged.
    “You do look fine,” she mused, “just so secretarial.”
    I stood up and hauled my shoulder bag over one arm. “I’m an administrative assistant,” I spat.
    “Fine,” Nina said, stretching out one long, lean leg and examining her newest pair of Jimmy Choos. “At least—” She dropped her foot and leaned into me, her dark lips ice cold as they skimmed my neck. She unbuttoned the top two buttons on my white blouse. “Show some skin.”
    Nina cocked her head and smiled at me, then batted her eyelashes sweetly. I narrowed my eyes. “Now what?”
    “Since I helped you, you want to help me?”
    “Helped me?” I raised my eyebrows, then blew out a resigned sigh. “What do you need?”
    Nina held up her thumb and forefinger. “Eensy weensy favor.”
    I set my shoulder bag back on my desk, certain that Nina’s “eensy” was never anywhere near “weensy.”
    “Oh, no. Every time you need a favor I end up trapped in a demonic vortex or on a blind date with a Minotaur.”
    “The Nordstrom half-yearly sale is not a demonic vortex, and besides, you said you liked Keith!”
    “He ate my purse!”
    Nina held up her hands. “Okay, okay, it’s not a shopping excursion or a date, I swear.”
    I narrowed my eyes. “On your undead soul?”
    Nina raised a single brow.
    “Damn it. Okay.” I sighed. “What do I have to do?”
    “My nephew is going to be coming into town—”
    “Nina! You have a nephew?” In all the years that Nina and I had been roommates and best friends, she had never spoken of her family. “You never mentioned a nephew!” I furrowed my brow and frowned. “Wait. How do you have a nephew?”
    She crossed her arms in front of her chest. “The same way anyone else has a nephew.”
    I blinked at her.
    “I have—had—a younger sister, Agnes. Her son is Louis, my nephew.”
    “But wouldn’t he be like …”
    “One hundred and twelve. But perennially sixteen.”
    “He’s a vampire then?”
    Nina nodded, a flicker of sadness marring her perfect marble features. “Thanks to me.”
    I waited for her to continue. She looked away, avoiding my gaze, and slumped against her desk.
    “Agnes knew what had happened to me—what I had become. Right after I was changed, I left home, left my family. I had to. But almost twenty years later Agnes tracked me down. It was weird seeing her. She was my baby sister, but her hair was gray and her skin loose and here I was.” Nina shrugged her small shoulders, gestured to her eternally young facade. “She begged me to come home with her—her son, Louis, was sick. At that time, there was no cure for polio, no vaccines. It was a death sentence, or in the very best of situations, crippling. She begged me to change him.”
    “She wanted you to kill her son?”
    Nina’s eyes were fierce. “At that time, it was the only way to save him. I didn’t want to, but she was my sister. I had already caused