“Reagan.” His dark-eyed gaze flitted to Red and then away. “Been a minute. Who’re ya looking for now?”
“No one, actually. I’m the one people are looking for this time. What an amazing new age we live in, huh?”
Jimmy smirked and stepped to the side to admit me. “I hadn’t heard you were on the watch list. Must not be Roger looking for you.”
“No, he found me. It’s the vampires.”
He grunted. “Steve will be happy to hear it.”
“Nah. Wrong vampire. I’m still banging that one. Speaking of, when you go on your merman retreats, and you’re in the water…what happens then?” I looked at his package again.
“You need to find something new to wonder about.” He gestured us in as two giggly girls stopped behind us.
“If you’d just explain the dynamics of merpeople banging to me, I would be glad to find something new to wonder about.” I dragged Red inside with me.
“They don’t like to talk about what happens at sea,” he said, yelling to be heard over the frenzied notes of the piano and short blasts of the trumpet.
“Yeah. That’s why I’m obsessed. For a guy who gathers intel, you sure miss the obvious.”
I didn’t let go of him until we reached a few empty chairs on the far side of the bar. When I settled onto a barstool and rested my elbows on the counter, he grudgingly took a seat beside me. I knew he didn’t try to run because he wanted to hear about my drama. Which was exactly why I’d searched him out. I wanted word to spread, and he was the best one to make sure it happened.
“Hey, Reagan, long time no see.” The bartender, Trixie, stopped in front of me and braced her hands on the edge of the bar. Tattoos crawled across her breastplate and down her arms. A ring on her left nostril caught the light.
“Hey Trix. Gimme a hurricane, please. Make it a strong one. I can’t have that many.”
“Oh no?” She turned, reached down, and pulled open a fridge door before extracting a chilled pint glass. “What’s the occasion?”
“I’m expecting an attack and don’t want to be too drunk to thwart it.”
Red perked up, as I’d expected he would.
“You guys seen any demons around this place?” I asked as she started pouring ingredients into a metal shaker.
Red’s expression closed down. “I thought you said Roger found you…”
“Yes, Red, I know there have been demons. All kinds. I’m wondering about lately. As in the last couple of days.” I put up my hands. “I’ll be helping this time. I’m not bounty hunting right now.”
“They took out a few yesterday,” Trixie said before pausing to shake the mixture over her shoulder. “Marcus’s pack took them out, no problem.”
“So they weren’t that strong, then?” I asked.
Trixie loaded the pint glass with ice before pouring in the contents of the shaker. “No. Not like the ones a week ago, right, Red? They couldn’t kill those.”
“Where were those located?”
Trixie pushed the drink across the bar before knocking on the wood, indicating she’d buy me that one. I pulled out a five for a tip. It was Darius’s money—might as well spread the wealth.
“Outside of town a ways,” Red said, watching me. “There’ve been a few high-powered ones. Garden District, a couple of cemeteries, out by your house once. We don’t have the resources to really take them down, now that Steve and Cole joined that pack in Santa Cruz. Those demons don’t do much, though. Not like the lesser-powered ones. Those cause trouble. Try to kill people.”
I nodded and captured the straw between my lips. The alcohol made me grimace. “Good one, Trixie. Strong.”
“Drink like a shifter.” She winked at me but didn’t move away. “What do you want with the demons?”
I sucked down more of my drink. “Nothing much. Kill a few and then send a message back with the rest.” Trixie’s and Red’s faces both creased in confusion. “Only the really powerful ones, though. I mean, I’ll help kill the lesser ones, no problem. I need something to do. But I have business with the stronger variety.”
“Trixie, I’m dying over here,” yelled some guy with a Boston accent.
She pushed away from the bar and then turned and headed to the waiting patrons on the other side.
“What kind of message?” Red asked, as I’d known he would.
I fished the parchment Roger had given me out of my pouch, my stomach swirling. I was about to conversationally out myself. My whole life I’d been taught to keep this one secret, no matter what. I knew what these words would set in motion. I knew what a big deal this was.
What a big deal I was, in the grand scheme of things.
These people all knew me as the poor girl with weird magic who didn’t have any friends and had made the terrible mistake of shacking up with a vampire. I’d been an outcast since they’d met me. A troublemaker. A recluse, in some senses. A nut case.