Exes and Exorcisms by Keira Blackwood (uplifting book club books .txt) 📗

deep shade of red she’d painted them.

She stared at me, a rosy blush tinting her cheeks, and the air pricked with intent.

I wanted to kiss her, to tell her that I loved her, and that I was sorry. I wanted to talk about cats, and her life, everything that I’d missed over the years.

Another bang came from upstairs.

“Funny foil!” Peter yelled. “Funny sunny foil. Fork-pricked, and full of burning sunshine.”

Kelly cleared her throat and brushed past me toward the door. She grabbed her coat, then looked back at me. “Let’s go for a walk.”

She headed out the door, not waiting to see if I was coming. Into the sunlight.

Of course I followed. Since she didn’t seem to be on fire, or in any other kind of discomfort. The sunlight bracelet I’d heard Peter mention must have completely negated the typical effects sunlight had on vampires.

Kelly was proving everything I thought I knew about vampires could be wrong. Sure they were generally ruthless bloodsuckers, and mostly terrible. Not all of them were like that. It was just like her to push back at me, even if she didn’t realize she was doing it.

Blustery winter air rustled the leaves in the trees. The cold didn’t bother me, but Kelly paled.

“How about a drive?” I asked, gesturing to my ’68 Chevy Nova. I’d painted it a brilliant, royal blue—the same shade as Kelly’s eyes.

She shook her head and started walking. “Nope.”

I followed with quick strides to catch up.

“There’s a doughnut truck not too far away,” she said. “Best you’ve ever had.”

She wasn’t looking at me.

“You eat doughnuts?” I asked.

“No.”

There was a silence, where I wanted to grab her shoulders and tilt her chin to me so she’d have to meet my gaze. But I wouldn’t. I didn’t want to destroy this tentative cease-fire between us.

We walked a few blocks. The town was quaint, nice even. But I didn’t pay much attention to anything except the woman beside me. Her scent had been different since we’d talked about the cats. She was stiff and on edge. I’d fucked up. No surprise there.

“The strawberry doughnuts are supposed to be good,” she said, as we reached a big parking lot. Then she took off at a run for a little food truck with a cartoon witch on the side of it.

I shoved my hands in my pockets and tried not to eavesdrop on Kelly and the woman in the service window. Kelly wrote something on a piece of paper and slipped it across the counter, before the cashier’s gaze settled on me. Her expression was sharp and cold, like she’d just found out I’d murdered her friend. She looked like she might poison my doughnut as payback.

The evil-eyed doughnut lady set a bag on the counter, and Kelly quickly paid.

“Hey, there,” I said, and put on what I hoped was a friendly smile. “You already ordered?”

Kelly shoved the bag into my chest.

“Thanks?” I said.

The woman at the counter barked in laughter.

I was definitely missing something.

Kelly started walking back the way we’d come. I followed her a bit before stopping.

“Kelly,” I said.

She stopped and turned. “What?”

“I’m sorry.”

She shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Eat your doughnut and keep your apologies.”

“What’s wrong with it?” I asked. “The doughnut, I mean. Is it some kind of prank flavor or something?”

She gave me a look that said I was being ridiculous. “Of course not. It’s a doughnut. Eat it or don’t. I don’t care.”

I pulled the pastry from the bag, and it smelled good. I watched Kelly’s expression as I took a bite. The doughnut was strawberry flavored, light, sweet, and delicious. She didn’t laugh or point at me, so maybe it wasn’t a prank after all.

“Stop looking at me like that,” she said.

“Like what?”

“Like you’re waiting for me to attack you.”

“I’m not,” I said. It was mostly true, though the words turned sour in my throat anyway.

“The doughnut woman laughed,” I said.

“Yeah,” Kelly said. “Well, I’m a riot.”

Her lie was worse than mine.

She said, “Cordelia assumed the doughnut was for His Lordship.”

“He eats doughnuts?”

“Of course,” she said. “Now can we get back to walking?”

“It makes sense,” I agreed. “He enjoys the finer things in life.”

“He does.”

Even with her back turned, I could hear the smile in her words. She didn’t want to get along with me, even when she did. I’d always loved her feistiness.

When we returned to the tattoo parlor, she positioned herself in the doorway with her arms crossed.

“I let you come in and say hello, and I fed you. Now it’s time to go.”

We were back on this again?

“No,” I said simply.

“I will lock you out and you will leave,” she insisted.

“I don’t think His Lordship will like anyone else sharing his alley, especially after I’ve eaten his doughnut. What will Snowball say?

Her eyes sparkled, and she hugged herself tighter. She didn’t say anything, but shook her head. “You have to go.”

“I can’t.”

“I told you your mission is dunzo,” she said. “The vampire you came to kill is already double dead. There’s nothing left for you to do.”

“It’s not that simple.” I took a seat on the ground beside the door.

Kelly huffed and groaned.

“You’re going to scare away the customers,” she said. “Why won’t you just go home already?”

Because I finally found you, and I can’t walk away.

“I’ll sleep in my car,” I said.

“Whatever,” she said. “But strays don’t come in the house.”

Right. So then what was the story with the scraggly black cat she fed doughnuts to?

I climbed into the passenger seat of my car, reclined, and turned on the radio. This would do fine for now. But I knew Kelly, and it wouldn’t be long before she took pity on me and let me in.

The last time I’d seen her before she was taken from me, we’d been fighting. We had always fought more than I cared to remember, and most of it was my fault. I’d let my protective shifter instincts dictate our relationship. I’d pushed her away.

One day, we made plans