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“You will.”

But she would also see me when her shift was through when I escorted her home again.

Humans.

So blithely unaware of the dangers all around them. Even the women, who grew from infancy to know to always be aware, to be prepared to run for their lives or fight back, could take unnecessary chances.

Like walking alone at night.

With veins full of hot, sweet blood.

My fangs pricked my lips, shocking me out of my thoughts.

It had been a long time since I lost control of the shift like that. Decades, in fact.

Not that I was going to feed off Maggie.

I didn’t feed off of humans, period.

Yes, I did occasionally indulge in donated blood. But I never opened up a vein and sucked like my instincts sometimes begged me to do. I liked to think I evolved past those baser urges.

Then there was Maggie in all her cinnamon sugar.

And I suddenly wanted to do precisely what her demon friend had suggested: pop her up on my desk, scrunch up her skirt, spread her thighs wide, and feed from her femoral artery as she moaned and writhed against me.

I watched her slide off my desk, gather her things, and make her way to the door.

But she left behind that sweet scent of her.

And it was giving me all sorts of ideas I hadn’t entertained in a long time.

CHAPTER TEN

[ “YOU NEVER KNOW what a predator might be thinking… until it’s too late.”

— Dead Air - Episode 23]

Maggie

It wasn’t technically a lie that I’d given him. But it wasn’t quite the truth either.

I was his boss.

I was going to try to make his show a success.

It was just the whole making it sound like the idea came from above my head part that wasn’t exactly true.

Luckily, he hadn’t really questioned it.

So they were on.

Because while I knew I had to keep calling in as “Madison” temporarily, my goal was to get his show to be as engaging as possible without me having to call in.

To do that, I had to try to work on Silas and his tendency to cut off most callers who weren’t trying to engage in some deeply philosophical discussion about the state of the modern world.

And, sure, there was an audience for that. But, let’s face it, it was small. The silly relationship callers he always cut off were where his audience was going to be.

Had I figured out how I was going to convince him to give those callers the time of day? Nope. Not at all. But I had the weekend to figure it out.