"Come on, Marie." Josh nodded at the door. "We need to get a move on if we're going to fix Lula's toilet for her. We have to be done by five."

"Why?" I was curious despite myself. "What happens at five?"

"We have to leave for our date."

"Date?" I sputtered. "Are we going on a date?"

"We're going on a double date," he told me with a grin. "A pair of newly turned vampires. I figured you'd want to ask them some questions."

Ellis gave me a speculative look. "What kind of questions?"

Excitement flared through me. "None of your business. Josh, do you mean it?"

He nodded at me, looking pleased with himself.

I sucked in a breath in excitement. "You're the best, you know that?"

"Yeah," he said with a grin. "I know."

My palms were sweaty with excitement. I slid them up and down the legs of my jeans to dry them and tried not to look overeager.

Josh, meanwhile, sat next to me in the booth, his legs sprawled under the table as if he'd had not a care in the world. His beer was coated with condensation, however, and the large plate of food in front of him sat untouched, a sure sign that Josh wasn't nearly as relaxed as his manner suggested.

The restaurant was crowded despite the late hour, but dimly lit. Josh and I occupied a booth near the back, close enough to the bathroom that I looked up every time someone came near our table.

Here I was, dying to date a vampire-no pun intended-and I couldn't get them to go out with me. Yet all Josh had to do was snap his fingers and they'd come running to do him a favor.

I'd have resented it if I hadn't been so utterly thankful that he'd set this up. "You're the best, Josh," I told him again.

"I know," he replied, not looking at me. His gaze was rooted to the door. "You can thank me later."

I lightly smacked his arm, just imagining what that thanking would involve. "So they know about . . . me?"

He shot me a look at that, and I nearly melted at the heat in his gaze. God, Josh was sexy when he was riled up, and he was definitely riled up at the moment. "They know what I told them."

"Which is . . . "

"That you're dating a vampire, so you want to know what vampire society is like from reliable, unbiased sources."

That sounded about right. What surprised me was Josh's reluctance about the meeting.

I nudged him with my elbow. "You okay?"

"Fine," he said in a flat voice.

"You don't sound fine. You sound grumpy."

He glanced over at me, his mouth pulled into an unhappy line, arms crossed over his chest. "You know I'm not a big fan of all this vampire business."

"I know you're not. I appreciate the effort, though."

His gaze softened and he leaned in closer to me, as if he was about to kiss me. I tilted my face up toward his.

Josh's nostrils flared and he sniffed the air, then slid back into his seat again, moving away from me. "They're here."

My heart leapt in my chest. I immediately craned my neck, trying to see around Josh to the restaurant floor. "I don't see anyone."

"You'll recognize them when you see them," Josh said, placing a hand on my shoulder as I leaned over his lap. "Sit down."

I did, forcing myself to be patient. I could have contacted a vampire or two myself through the agency, but they tended to be suspicious and, because I was human, reluctant to open up. The fact that two were willing to come and sit down with me and talk was flat-out amazing . . . and I owed it all to Josh.

I squeezed his arm happily at the sight of the couple approaching the table. I recognized the tall, lanky man with the wild tuft of hair and the short, curvy woman at his side. "Valjean! Ruby! Hi there!"

Valjean had been my client for about a half a minute before he'd shacked up with Ruby, and he'd been on my dating list for vampires. Ruby had only used the agency a few times herself, but I was familiar with her, since her sister, Jayde, was one of our more notorious clients.

I glanced over at Josh. "You didn't tell me it was going to be them."

"They're both fairly new to the vampire world," he said with an easy shrug of his shoulders, leaning forward. "Thought it might be good for you to get their perspective."

"Pleasure to see the two of you again," Valjean said in a courteous voice, smoothing a hand down the front of his coat. He gestured for Ruby to slide into the booth and she did, her glittering gaze focused on me in a look that wasn't exactly friendly.

Oh, dear. Was she feeling territorial? I knew from dealing with her sister that were-jaguars tended to be a bit . . . demanding. And given the fact that Ruby was the other vampire, I wondered how it affected her nature. My suspicions were confirmed when Valjean slid into the booth next to her and she immediately latched onto his arm, her lips tightly pursed, as if she wanted to bare her teeth at me.

As if sensing the mood at the table, Josh casually threw an arm over my shoulders and tugged me close, as if I'd been his date. Ruby immediately relaxed, her smile growing a bit more genuine. I realized in that moment that it wasn't territory that was freaking Ruby out-it was Valjean. She was worried I'd try to snag him from her or something, and she was staking her claim early.

I would have been amused by it, except that a picture flashed in my mind of Josh going out with another woman, and I felt a distinct flash of rage. My fingers curled into my jeans and I bit the inside of my cheek to blot the thought from my mind.

"Thank you both for coming," Josh said. "I appreciate you taking a bit of time out of your schedules to answer Marie's questions."

"We're visiting Ruby's family," Valjean said easily. "Then it's back off to Rome for us. I promised Ruby a sightseeing tour for her birthday."

A flash of a smile crossed Ruby's face, and I peered at her teeth. No sign of fangs. Of course not. Why did I think these new vampires would be different from any other vampire I'd seen or dated? The fangs were retractable. For feeding, they extended several inches, like snake fangs. Any other time, they remained hidden and looked like nothing more than sharp incisors.

"Rome sounds nice," I said conversationally, not sure if I should jump right in with the vampire questions or if that would be rude. "Have either of you been before?"

"I visited when I was first turned," Valjean said, steering the conversation to the subject I wanted to hear about the most. "I-"

"What was it like?" I blurted, wanting to keep the subject on vampires and turning. I felt desperate to get some answers. "Did it hurt?"

Not that it mattered. I was pretty sure it hurt less than dying. But now that it felt within my grasp, I was . . . curious.

"I don't remember." Valjean grimaced apologetically. "I was drunk and passed out when I was turned."

"And I was dying from being shot in the back, so I'm no better with that answer," Ruby offered. "All I remembered was that Michael put his mouth on my neck and the world was getting foggy."

"Michael?" I asked curiously.

To my surprise, Valjean blushed bright red. Ruby gave him an amused, affectionate glance. "His vampire name is Valjean. Real name is Michael. Now that we're together, we're trying to switch to new names, but we keep forgetting to use them from time to time."

"New names?" I asked politely. "Is that a thing with vampires?"

"It is. It's best, since you're essentially making a break from your old life. Most vampires change names every twenty years or so, in order to not arouse suspicion from the locals." Valjean's mouth gave a wry twist. "Vampire society has a lot of rules."

"So you were dying, Ruby? Did you not want to be turned?"

"I hadn't asked her," Valjean said. "I thought maybe, after a few years together, I'd broach the question before she started to get all middle-aged and saggy-"

Ruby gave a mock gasp and curled her fingers into menacing claws. At least, they would have been menacing if her eyes hadn't been gleaming with amusement. "Don't make me come over there," she purred.

My face flushed. This sounded less like teasing and more like foreplay. "So you didn't have a chance to ask her?" I repeated, steering the conversation back on track. Josh's hand rubbed between my shoulders, a comforting, subtle presence.

"There was no time," Valjean said. "I took a risk and hoped that she wouldn't be too mad at me."

"Furious," Ruby said in that soft, rumbling purr that was anything but angry.

Valjean flushed red again and Ruby looked pleased.

"There are lots of rules with vampires, you say?" I encouraged. These two were cute and all, but they weren't giving me much that I didn't already know.

They exchanged a look, then Ruby shook her head. "Can't talk about it to non-vampires. We'll get in trouble."

"Trouble with who?"

After a moment, Valjean said, "Other vampires."

"Let me guess. Another vampire rule?"

"Bingo." Ruby grinned again, and I noticed that her canines were a bit elongated. "It's kind of like the first rule of Fight Club and all that."

"Gotcha. But what about family?" I asked, thinking of my father. I couldn't exactly leave him behind. I was all the family he had left in the world.

"If your family is Alliance, it's not a big deal," Ruby said. "Since the secret is more or less out. Non-Alliance, however, are expected to remain out of the loop."

I swallowed hard. So either way, my father was going to lose his daughter. "I see."

Josh pulled me closer to him, as if sensing my distress. "What else should Marie know about dating a vampire?"

"Or turning," I added quickly, ignoring Josh's frown.

"Lots of things change when you turn," Ruby began, pausing when the waiter arrived with glasses of water for her and Valjean. When he left, she delicately pushed the glass to one side, rejecting it. "I don't know about Valjean, but my appetites have changed slightly. Shifters like a heavy meat diet, but I find that I can't stomach any of that now. As a vampire, you don't need food or drink, just blood. And you have to drink often."

"Exactly how often?"

"Two to three times a day, just like human meals," Valjean said easily. He picked up his glass and took a sip of the water, as if determined to prove a point. "And eventually your stomach resettles and you can tolerate most drinks. Ruby is new, so it still turns her stomach."

Valjean offered Ruby his glass of water. She wrinkled her nose at him and pressed fingers to her lips, as if holding back bile.

"What about sunlight?"

"Killer," Ruby said flatly. "You sleep through it most of the time, but if you get stuck out in it, you're hosed."

This was sounding more and more depressing. I felt a flare of anxiety but forced it aside. This was my best option, and I was going to run with it. "So what are the perks of being a vampire, then? You've mentioned some of the unpleasant things, but there has to be a plus side, right?"

Josh gave me another suspicious frown.

Valjean and Ruby exchanged a look. He grasped her hand and pulled it to his lips, kissing the back of it in an achingly tender motion. "You get to spend eternity with the one you love. That's worth everything, don't you think?"

Except I wasn't in this for love, just survival. I couldn't picture any of the vampires I'd met so far affectionately kissing my hand like Valjean had Ruby's, or tenderly pulling me to his side and teasing me like Josh did.

Did I want eternity with a cold man I didn't love? I looked over at Josh, whose normally laughing eyes were somber, his mouth drawn into that thin line again. Or did I want what little time I had left with a man I was beginning to like a lot but couldn't have?

A few weeks ago, my answer would have been instantaneous: I wanted eternity.

But now I wasn't so sure. All I could think about was some stranger kissing my hand, like Valjean had kissed Ruby's . . . and how much it would hurt Josh.

My stomach flipped a little. "Eternity sounds great to me," I said in a fake enthusiastic voice.

"It beats dying," Ruby said dryly.

That it did. Time to change the subject. "So, vampire dating pointers . . . ?"

Chapter Eight.

No more callouts," Bath told me the next day as I came in to work. "We're putting a temporary hiatus on the inactive-client roundup."

"Why's that?" I asked, glancing at the stack of folders on my desk. I'd barely made it through a third of them. "Is something wrong?"

"Everyone's all riled up over the situation with the tiger clan," she said, crossing her arms under her breasts and leaning on the side of my desk. "Beau has another meeting with the heads of the clans tonight to try and smooth things over. They're trying to shut our agency down."

"Shut us . . . down? Why would they do that?"

She chewed on her lip for a moment before answering. "I don't know if shutting us down is the right word, as much as . . . installing new management."

"Because we're human?" I guessed.

"Bingo," she said with a sigh. "Many feel that it's better if a supernatural service actually has supernatural staff."

"What about Sara?" I pointed out.