Page 96 of Fang Fatale

Birdie stands in the doorway.

She isn't hiding.

She isn't crying.

She's simply watching.

Leland's whole face changes.

Hope.

"Birdie."

He says her name like she's finally come to her senses.

"There you are."

He tries to smile.

"I've been looking everywhere for you. Come home."

Birdie doesn't move.

She crosses her arms and looks at me instead.

"Need a minute to finish him off?"

I blink.

Leland blinks.

Then Birdie gives one small shrug.

"You do you."

I really am going to marry that woman.

So I reach into Leland's mouth and pull the words free.

They're metallic and bitter, tasting of entitlement and old lies, like promises made only to trap someone into keeping them. He gags, his body folding inward as the magic tears through him, an apology gone horribly wrong.

I let him collapse.

I drag him through the back door and dump him into the alley, where broken bottles glitter beneath the security light and old kegs leak sour beer into the gutters. By the time I step back inside, Birdie is gone. Sensible woman. Dandy has probably hauled her back into the woods while muttering inventive curses about stubborn vampires.

The bar empties around me, chairs scraping across old floorboards as the last patrons stagger home. Outside, dawn begins bleaching the horizon a dull gray.

I find them halfway down the docks.

Birdie.

Dandy.

One looking worried.

The other looking murderous.

I wisely choose not to guess which is which.