Undead and Unpopular by Davidson Maryjanice

Author:Davidson, Maryjanice [Davidson, Maryjanice]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, Paranormal, Fiction
ISBN: 9781101158838
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2006-06-06T07:00:00+00:00

We’d put our coats on; he had put back on the slightly muddy but still meticulously crafted black wingtips he had left in the hallway upon his entrance. For myself, I’d slipped into a somewhat fashionable pair of bright red rubber boots—it was wet out. Spring in Minnesota meant thaw, and thaw meant mud.

“At last,” he teased when we had walked a block without saying anything to each other. “I have spirited you away from the king.”

“Yeah. I don’t even know why we’re talking. I sort of thought when I first met you, that we’d end up at each other’s throats. You know, after Sophie had her turn.”

“Have you decided what to do with me?”

I nearly walked into a melting snowbank. “Seriously? You’re asking me?”

“I am but a loyal subject. Your will is my will.”

“I appreciate the thought.” And, weirdly, I did. “Is it real? I mean, is it genuine? If I said, ‘Okay, Alonzo, I’m going to cut off your head because you were a bad vampire a hundred years ago,’ you’d just go along with it?”

“Well,” he admitted, neatly avoiding a sample of thawing dog poo that had likely been there since January, “I wouldn’t calmly kneel before you and wait for the sword to swing, but I respect the power of the monarchy.”

“In other words, you don’t think I’d be so cruel.”

“No,” he replied. “I don’t think you would be so cruel. In fact, I am counting on it.”

“You really don’t think I’d do anything to you?”

His words came out with careful measure. “That would be an overstatement. I do not think you would kill me in cold blood.”

Well, nuts.

“It would be easier,” I said with a sigh, “if you and your friends were the bloodthirsty monsters I thought you were at first. Maybe the six of you could leave town in a trail of blood. Then killing would be easy.”

“This should not concern the others,” he said emphatically. “This is a matter between me and Dr. Trudeau. And your Majesty, of course.”

“Is that why you came over tonight by yourself?”

“You only sent for me.”

“You’re the only one whose name I can remember,” I admitted, and he laughed.

In the distance, I could hear barking and yowling and toenails clicking on sidewalk. I figured we had about two more minutes before all the neighborhood dogs descended. There was a reason I didn’t like taking walks.

“Let’s head back.”

“We only just—”

“Dude, trust me. You do not want to be here five minutes from now. We can talk more in the garden behind the mansion. Behind the fence.”

He obediently turned with me as I did a one-eighty and started heading back up the sidewalk to the house. He was right; it was a little silly. We were barely out of the shadow of the mansion. I had barely talked to him about anything. Wait—had it been my idea to go for a walk? I tried to remember. No. He’d asked me.

“I have another question for you, Majesty.”

“Oh, great. My turn again. Except we’re not playing a game.

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