Legally Undead by Margo Bond Collins Read Free Book Online Page A

distance from them.
    I closed my eyes. Oh, God , I thought. I can’t face this thing alone .
    I opened my eyes again, struck by a sudden thought. There was one person who had already been seen by Vampire-Greg, who had offered his help when I needed it.
    Malcolm Owens.
    I knew it wasn’t fair to drag him into this. He didn’t have any connection to me. He didn’t have any reason to be willing to help. For all I knew, he was in league with the vampires.
    But if he wasn’t connected to the vampires, he might already be in danger—especially if Vampire-Greg had any way of finding out who he was.
    Okay. So I knew I was rationalizing.
    But I really, really didn’t want to be alone with this stuff any longer.
    And I if I was going to try to get information about what Greg had been working on when he was attacked, I needed help—I’d met several of the younger lawyers in Greg’s firm when he worked there, so I couldn’t just walk in; someone would almost certainly recognize me. I needed someone else to go undercover for me.
    I dug Malcolm’s number out of the inner pocket of my purse without giving myself any more time to think about it.
    I was trying to figure out what I’d say when his voicemail picked up, so I left a simple message: “Hi, Malcolm. This is Elle Dupree. I decided to go ahead and take you up on that offer for lunch. Give me a call when you get a chance.” I left my number and hung up.
    * * *
    I finally made it back to classes on Monday.
    “Hey,” said Jenna as I slipped into the seat next to her. “Where were you last week?”
    I looked at her for a long moment. “Greg and I broke up,” I said.
    “Oh, honey,” she said, putting her hand out and touching my arm. “I am so sorry.”
    “It’s okay,” I said.
    “Let’s grab coffee after class,” Jenna whispered as Dr. Sanchez walked into the room.
    Coffee turned into lunch as I told Jenna as much of the story as I felt like I could. Minus the vampire bit, of course.
    “I walked in on him with someone else,” I said, leaving her to draw her own conclusions.
    “Who was she?” Jenna asked. “Did you know her?”
    “It was a man,” I said. I stared down at the ground. I probably looked miserable, but I was also trying to hide the pleasure I took from giving her that little detail.
    “Oh, no,” Jenna said. “Oh, honey. I’m so sorry. Well,” she said, settling back into her seat and taking a sip of her coffee. “I know this is hard to hear right now, but if that’s what he wants, it’s better to know it now than after you’re married.”
    I nodded in agreement. “I know you’re right. It’s hard, though. But listen,” I leaned forward and held out my scraped palms. “If you see Greg, get away from him. He hit me after I caught him. Pushed me down.”
    “Elle!” Jenna said. “You have to make a police report.”
    I shook my head. “No. I don’t think he’ll be back. But just in case I’m wrong, don’t let him get close to you. Promise me.”
    Jenna looked dubious, but she nodded. “I promise. I still think you should go to the police, though.”
    “And will you cover for me if I have to miss class again?” I asked. “I’m having a hard time with this.”
    “Of course I will,” she said. She rubbed my arm. “And so will everyone else. I’ll tell them, if you want me to. So that you don’t have to. I know how hard this is for you.”
    Oh, if only you did , I thought. But what I said was “Yes. Please. And thank you.”
    * * *
    The address Nick had given me turned out to be some martial arts training facility in Manhattan. It was in what looked like a regular office building, with a Fed-Ex and a Starbucks on the bottom floor.
    Nick was already there, stretching and warming up on the wooden floor. He was awfully flexible for such a muscled man; when I walked through the door, his right leg was forward in split pose, and he was touching the ground with his inner thighs. I don’t know that I had ever before met a