On cue, the swinging doors on the east end of the kitchen whooshed open and Jon walked in like the world's youngest gunslinger. Nor your tits, nor your scintillating personality-which, I gotta tell you, ain't so great right now. 'But one thing we're not going to do is talk about your ass. 'He might have asked me out because he knows you're taken-' 'And that's one thing not on the date agenda,' she said cheerfully. ' I stared down at the table, and Jess smoothed my crumpled bangs out of my eyes. Probably just back to his old room while he sorts things out. 'He's still here, though, right?' I asked, groping for a tissue, again out of habit. Just when I thought that the one thing I could count on was Sinclair by my side no matter what happened. Probably never hear that again, so get used to the mental playback, babe. you are sweet, you are like wine, you are. He probably gets off on it, in his heart of hearts. 'Are you sure this horrible thing you've done, it's not evil? What am I saying, it's Sinclair. But one thing I absolutely can't do is cancel it.

'I can't,' I said, appalled all over again. 'Honey, have you seen the man? Does he strike you as the type of fellow who's scared of anything, much less his own girlfriend? He's gonna need some serious time to get used to the idea. 'Okay, so you should apologize for keeping the secret and then you gotta wait for him to get over his bad self. I rubbed my eyes (pure force of habit I had no tears) and nodded. 'This thing-whatever it is-it's made him scared of you. He thought they were neat, and he thought it was great that I killed Nostro and what's-her-name, and he thinks it's great that the devil is my sister's mother, but he was never afraid of me.

But he was never, you know, scared of the things I could do. 'And let's not forget, he wasn't above using you to get what he wanted,' she pointed out, her cheeks still shiny from laugh-tears. In the past he thought it was cool that I could do things other vampires couldn't-' The thing I told him made him be scared of me. She laughed so hard she actually slapped the table with her palm. 'He's afraid of me now,' I practically whispered. I guess I can apologize for not telling him right away. 'Well, is it something you can say you're sorry for?' And then he slammed it shut and took it away, and took himself away, too. Betsy!' she nearly screamed at my feeble nod. you're not going around killing Girl Scouts or anything, right?' I've seen George the Fiend more than my own fiance. It's been two nights, and he hasn't been back I haven't even seen him in the house. 'Well, honey, is it something bad you did?'

Undead and unreturnable