Michele Bardsley - Because Your Vampire Said So (Broken Heart, Oklahoma, Book 3)

Chapter 1
I aint a groomin service, I said, wishing I could still smoke Marlboros. Becoming a vampire cured me of most vices. If I couldnt breathe, I sure as hell couldnt inhale and exhale cigarette smoke. I wanted a donor who smoked, so Id get a nice fix every time I had a pint. Unfortunately, the Consortiumwhich was in charge of our little piece of Oklahomadidnt hire donors who abused their bodies. Yet I hoped for the day Id find me some nicotine blood.
You give such good shampoo massages, Patsy, said Darrius, who was a fine-looking male. He could shape-shift into a big, black wolf, too. In either form, Darrius was hard to resist. Hed talked me more than once into a full-body shampoo.
I own a salon service for people, not mutts.
If you added animal grooming to your offerings, he said, youd make more money.
You think so? I liked money almost as much as I liked cigarettes. I couldnt smoke anymore, but I could spend money. I hadnt been jewelry shopping in a dogs age. I looked at Darrius and cackled. Dogs age. Wasnt I a hoot?
His green eyes filled with calculation. He sidled closer to me and draped a muscled arm around my shoulders. Oo-wee, I loved it when handsome men flirted with me. Gave me a thrill, it sure enough did. I was forty years old (and would be forever, by God) and not above enjoying the titillation offered by Darrius. Look at him, all cute and wily.
Oh, all right. But this is the last time. Of course, thats what I said every time Darrius and his ornery brother Drake talked me into a wolfie shampoo. Too cute for their own good, both of em. You know how I feel about watching that shifting bullshit. Go into the back room.
Darrius took two steps before his cell phone rang. Cursing, he plucked it from the holster on his hip. Ja?
After listening a moment, he sighed deeply. He shut the phone and reinserted it into the case. I must take a rain check, Liebling. Damian says there is an emergency, but with him, everything is an emergency.
Damian was the third brother; the oldest, by eleven minutes, of triplets. He was head of the Consortiums security, and he protected the borders of Broken Heart fiercely. He never asked for a shampoo.
Darrius kissed my cheek, then tapped my nose with his forefinger. I will be back, Patsy. Then you can rub me all over.
Promises, promises, stud.
He grinned widely and turned around. I slapped that tight butt so hard my palm stung. He laughed and sauntered out of the salon. Looking at that fine posterior almost made it worth digging out the wolf hair from my tub.
As Darrius exited, cold air gusted through the door and brought with it the promise of snow. Well, what can you do? It was the first week of November, after all. Then again, Oklahoma weather was as fickle as my sister at a half-price shoe sale. Yesterday, the temperature had been a balmy sixty-six degrees.
I turned the sign on the front door to CLOSED. Then I grabbed the broom and started sweeping the clean floor. Id been feeling off-kilter lately. You know that prickly feeling you get when a storms coming, but the sky is clear? Whatever it was teased the horizon just enough to keep me clutching my umbrella.
My thoughts drifted to Darrius suggestion. Grooming services, huh? We had enough lycanthropes around these parts that I could make some extra money as an animal groomer. Business wasnt exactly brisk thanks to the ousting of most of the original residents. Anyone who wasnt a paranormal being or a human donor found themselves elsewhere in a hurry.
I used to have two employees, but they were given new jobs in Tulsa as part of the Broken Heart Citizen Resettlement Program. My nail girl, Linda, got reassigned as an assistant to scientist Dr. Stan Michaels. She was mightily in love with that man, but wouldnt admit it.
Anyway, Broken Heart wasnt exactly a hopping town before the undead took over. Less than a year ago, the only thing that had saved my salon from closing had been the strippers from the Barley and Boob Barn, which had been shut down and razed in June. Aw, hell. I missed those girls. They were fun and raunchy and tipped real good.
I was life-challenged because of Lorcan OHalloran. Diseased by the Tainta nasty illness that affects only vampireshed attempted a radical cure. The cure turned him into a two-legged, hairy, stinky beast. He romped around ol Broken Heart and killed eleven of us single parents.
Oh, now, dont worry. Hes back to being a vampire. He married my friend Eva, Broken Hearts only teacher. She was obviously the forgiving sort, but I still felt uneasy around Lorcan.
The night he attacked me, Id been outside my shop, smoking a cigarette. If Id known that was the last smoke I was ever gonna have, I wouldve enjoyed it a lot more. Anyway, I died. Wham! Knocked down, knocked out, and snacked on. Next night, I woke up on a steel table in a white room, feeling more alive than everonly to be told I wasnt. And I figured out real quick that I had gained a few new tricks.
It wasnt all bad. My crows-feet, cellulite, age spots, and the ol saggies went bye-bye. I had clear, wrinkle-free skin, but no amount of vampifying could rid me of my height, a couple inches shy of six feet, or what my son called fluffiness. Eva said I reminded her of a Valkyrie, which was some sort of Viking chick who kicked ass. I liked that description, Ill tell you.
The Consortium bought my place and gave it to me lock, stock, and barrel, and they paid all bills associated with it and my double-wide, which was twenty feet behind the salon. I didnt have much to do with the money I made, except abuse my credit card on the Home Shopping Network.
Good evening, Patricia.
The mans voice startled me, but I kept my cool. One thing Id learned from my ex-husband was that offense was the best defense. Do you ignore all the signs you read, or just the ones on doors?
I turned around and leaned on the broom. A man Id never seen stood inside the doorway, staring at me. And he was built, honey. Mm-hmm. I saw the muscles bulging underneath the crisp white shirt opened at the collar. He also wore a pair of tight black jeans and... Ill be damned. He had himself a pair of black Prada Croc Sneakers. I liked boots and didnt wear much else. Wilson had shown me a magazine ad with those crocs and said he wanted them. Even though our existence was no longer hand-to-mouth, I couldnt justify buying a pair of shoes that cost twice as much as my mortgage payment.
What was a guy wearing a thousand-dollar pair of kicks doing in my shop? Shoot. What did it matter? Most of the paranormal beings running around our fair town were richer than God.
He didnt seem to mind I was looking him over. As I took his measure, he took mine. His long hair was so white it looked like captured moonbeams. It was drawn into a queue at the back of his neck. If that hair wasnt enough to make the hairstylist in me slobber, then his golden eyes made the woman in me go mreow. Those mesmerizing amber orbs reminded me of the sunsets I would never see again.
Damn. He was temptation itself. I was as celibate as a nun because vampires had a hitched-for-a-hundred-years sex clause. My last marriage lasted eighteen years and that was seventeen years, three-hundred-and-sixty-four days longer than it should have. I swore I wouldnt walk down the aisle ever again, much less fall in love. No, thank you.
Who are you? I asked.
My names Gabriel. He smiled, but it wasnt a nice smile. It was more like an Ill-eat-you -up grin. I shivered all the way to my toes. Damian sent me. His orders are to secure your beauty shop and to walk you home.
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