The Undead Pool by Kim Harrison Read Free Book Online Page A

impound. Okay?”
    â€œThanks,” I whispered as I took a swig of water. It was too cold, and my teeth hurt. Jenks noticed my grimace and the hum of his wings dropped in pitch. Sitting tight sounded fine to me. I wasn’t up to dealing with vampires yet, especially if everything was hitting me twice as hard.
    Ivy seemed to gain two inches as she scanned for someone wearing an I.S. badge and a tie. Across the cleared pavement, the last of the charmed people were finding their feet. The only one still on a stretcher was the kid. “Mind if I go with you?” she asked Edden. “I don’t recognize anyone, but someone out here probably owes me a favor.” She looked at me as if for approval, and I nodded. I was fine, and if anyone could get my car back, it would be Ivy.
    â€œGreat,” Edden said. “Jenks, stay with Rachel. I don’t want anyone from the press bothering her.” He hitched his pants up and tightened his tie. “We’ll be right back. Someone needs a refresher on this sharing information thing we’re supposed to be doing.”
    I rolled my eyes, wishing him luck as Ivy looped her arm in his and they started across the bridge to the Hollows end of everything. “They’re just afraid, Edden,” I heard Ivy say as they left, a sultry sway to her hips. “FIB forensics can put them in the ground, and they’re tired of looking bad.”
    I couldn’t help my smile as I watched them, her svelte sleekness next to his round solid form, both very different but alike where it counted.
    â€œAh, ’scuse me, Rache,” Jenks said, a pained look on his face. “I gotta pee. Don’t move.”
    I looked around, finding a car I could lean up against. “Okay.”
    His wing hum increased as he hovered right before my nose. “I mean it. Don’t move.”
    â€œOkay!” I said, resting my rump against the car, and he darted over the edge of the bridge.
    Sighing, I turned to the insistent beeping of the last car being towed off. Most of the news crews had left with the recovering spell victims, and it was beginning to thin out. A man in a trendy black suit drew my attention, up to now hidden behind the Toyota being carted out, and I frowned as he looked at his phone, fingers tapping. It wasn’t his dress, and it wasn’t his haircut—both trendy and unique—it was his grace. Living vampire?
    A distant pop across the bridge sounded, and the man started, his eyes scanning until they fastened on mine.
    A chill dropped through me as I took in his blond hair shifting in the wind, the grace with which he tucked it behind an ear, the knowing, sly smile he wore as he looked me up and down. Suddenly I felt alone. “Jenks!” I hissed, knowing he was probably within earshot. This guy wasn’t FIB, and he definitely wasn’t I.S., even if he was a living vampire. The suit said he had clout, and confidence almost oozed from him. “Jenks!”
    Putting his attention back on his phone, the man hit a few more keys, slipped the phone in a pocket, turned, and walked away. In three seconds, he was gone.
    â€œJenks!” I shouted, and the pixy darted up, his dust an irate green.
    â€œGood God, Rache, give me a chance to shake it, huh?”
    My hands on the warm car burned, and I curled my fingers as I scanned the crowd. Slowly my pulse eased. “Are you sure my aura is okay?” I asked out of the blue.
    Hands on his hips in his best Peter Pan pose, he said, “You called me back about that?”
    â€œI think it might be linked to the misfires,” I said truthfully, and he looked askance at me.
    â€œYeah, but you were nowhere near any of the other ones. It wasn’t you, Rache.”
    â€œI suppose.” Heart pounding, I leaned back against the car, arms wrapped around my middle. I couldn’t tell Jenks I had been spooked by a vampire, not under the noon sun, and not by a living one.