Delilah Devlin - My Immortal Knight 03 by All Knight Long Page B

wasn’t. She quickly wound her hair into a knot and secured it with
pins, but she glazed her lips with a deep rose.
    Hurrying to the kitchen counter, she found her planner
and flipped to the address section. She punched the numbers into her cordless
handset and tucked it between her shoulder and ear while she gathered her
planner and keys and dropped them in her purse. She was quickly running out of
daylight.
    “Madame Leveque’s.”
    “Cissy? This is Lily Carlson.”
    “Professor, you manage to slip past that weirdo last
night?” Cissy asked, wry humor in her tone.
    Lily felt a blush rise all the way from her toes. “Not
exactly.”
    “He give you any trouble?”
    “Ah no.” She quickly steered the conversation back. “Look,
I’m calling because I need to see your grandmother tonight.”
    “Oooh, I don’t know. Grandmere’s been here since early
this mornin’.. She may be too tired. Can you come this afternoon?”
    “No. That wouldn’t be possible.” Lily hated imposing
on her friendship, but this might be her only shot at finding an answer to Joe’s
dilemma. “Would you ask her? It’s very important I see her tonight.”
    “Sure.” Cissy’s voice reflected curiosity, but she
didn’t press for a reason. “I be right back.”
    Lily didn’t have long to wait. “Professor, Grandmere
says she’s been expectin’ your call. Come after dark, she said.”
    “Tell Madame, I’ll be bringing a friend.”
    Relieved she’d accomplished one thing on her list, she
let herself out of her apartment. At the front steps she met Mimi Comeaux, the
superintendent’s wife. She wielded a deck brush, applying it vigorously to the
concrete steps—and she was humming, an unusual occurrence for the normally
pinch-faced woman.
    “Good afternoon, Mimi,” Lily said as she passed her.
    “Mornin’,” the woman trilled.
    Lily gave her a second glance. “You seem chipper this
morning.”
    The woman actually blushed. “It’s a pretty day.”
    Lily eyed the overcast sky and raised an eyebrow. “Do
you mind my asking what you are doing?”
    “Some poor dog left bloody paw prints all over the
front steps. I’m tryin’ to bleach them out.”
    Lily looked at the smeared prints the woman hadn’t yet
reached with her brush. They were enormous. “You’re sure those belong to a dog?”
    “Sure. A very big dog. He must have cut a foot.”
    Lily remembered Joe’s account of the werewolf and
wondered if the woman was washing away paw prints from a primordial creature.
Despite the heat, she felt a shiver creep up her spine. Joe would have my
ass if he found out I left the house. But werewolves were said to be
nocturnal creatures, she repeated to herself. Lily shrugged, bid Madame Comeaux adieu , and headed for her car.
    As she unlocked the door, she heard an engine fire and
glanced down the street. Nothing out the usual. She was just jumpy.
Nevertheless, she locked the doors as soon as she slipped inside.
    The local grocer was only a block away. She parked
next to the door and quickly made her way inside the store. Heading straight
for the meat section, she wondered how she’d word her request. Bluntly: Do you
carry pig’s blood? What else could a vampire consume? All she knew was what she’d
gleaned from TV and movies—human blood and flesh as the main entrée, rats and
pig blood in a pinch.
    The butcher smiled as she approached.
    “How are you, professor? Would you like shrimp fresh
from the Gulf this morning?”
    “Um, by chance do you carry pig’s blood? I’m thinking
of making…an old family recipe…for uh…gravy.”
    The portly butcher eyed her quizzically. “I’m sorry.
If you would like to special order—”
    Never comfortable telling a lie, Lily demurred. “No
that’s okay. Do you have something especially…juicy?” She knew her cheeks burned
a fiery red.
    Both eyebrows rose, like black beetles perched on his
brow. “I have inch and half steaks—plenty fresh and dripping with blood,