Greywalker - Kat Richardson [100]
I hesitated, then said, “I think I don’t know enough. And I think you need to be very careful, Will.”
We were silent a moment. He put his hands on my shoulders; then I felt his breath move my hair as he spoke. “Thank you, Harper. And I’m sorry. I was a real jerk last week. Could we try again?”
My answer was cut off by Michael yelling from the screened porch. “Will! Hey, Novak, get your buns out here!”
Will twitched and snapped a look at his wristwatch. “Damn it.” He turned his eyes back to me. “I am serious. I want to see you again and I am sorry about the way I acted. I know you didn’t have to come here and you didn’t have to say anything, so I’m hoping that means you’ll call me and give me another chance. I’ll do anything you ask to show you I mean it.”
Michael shouted from the hall. “Will!”
I thought about it and knew what I wanted. I groped for something to say and picked up the plate of sandwiches. “Here. You’d better take these to the boy wonder before he starves to death. And . . . umm . . . if you’re free late tonight, maybe we could . . . discuss some things.”
“No ‘maybe.’ Definitely.” He grinned and took the plate away with him. I stood in Ann Ingstrom’s kitchen a moment longer, sipping cold coffee and writing a note on a pad by the phone. I considered just leaving it and slipping out the back, but I couldn’t chicken out now. I headed for the front door. Passing the living room doorway, I looked in. Will was back up on the small raised platform, looking like a beat poet standing on a soapbox. He glanced up and smiled as I passed.
“Thanks, Michael,” I said, dropping the note on the table as I started past him.
He swallowed a mouthful of sandwich and called after me. “Hey, Ms. Blaine! Harper?”
I turned around. Clutching my note, Michael got up and closed the door between the house and the porch.
“What is it, Michael?” I asked.
“Well, I just . . . well, I’m trying to say, like, you’re not going to dump him again, are you? My brother, I mean. I mean, I know he’s kinda geeky and all, but he’s a good guy.”
“He’s a very good guy,” I agreed. “And actually,” I confessed, “I think he’s kind of sexy.”
Michael snorted a laugh. “Will?”
“Well . . . yeah.”
Michael stared at me. “Will can’t be sexy. He’s my brother. You’re sexy.”
The blush swept over me like prairie fire.“Oh, boy. I’ve got to go.” I could hear him sniggering as I retreated.
I sat in the front seat of the truck and stared back at the Ingstrom house for a few moments. The long-haired white cat ambled around the corner and sat on the front walk. It looked at me and yawned, showing its fangs, then raised a forepaw and began to wash as if dismissing me.
TWENTY-FOUR
It was hard to settle down, but I had a lot to do before I met Will again. Places to go, vampires to see. Once it got dark, I drove to the university district. Since classes it were still in session, there were plenty of residents out on the streets. I had to park in a pay lot and walk a ways to my destination.
The U-district has five movie theaters, several all-night restaurants, and a lot of bars. It’s not the easiest neighborhood to find somebody in, since most residents are college students who come and go with the term schedule. I started at the first place on the list: the Wizards of the Coast Game Center.
The street level, filled with a noisy video arcade, owed its theme to science fiction movies, but below lay fantasyland. I walked down the stairs to the lower level, beneath the guardian glower of a giant, ax-wielding minotaur.
Here the walls were painted to resemble ancient stone and the support pillars had been elaborately draped in wine velvet swags. The baronial castle theme was carried out with fake torches and Gothic decorations. Fantastic paintings of mythic heroes and creatures hung on the walls. The lighting was dramatic, but not very practical.
About thirty young men and teenage boys had been paired facing each other at long tables, where they spread cards between