“Showtime,” I murmured.
“Get your hand off me,” she replied without losing her sweet smile.
I squeezed instead. “If you try anything, I’ll kill you. And that’s only if Bones doesn’t beat me to it first.”
Belinda’s eyes flashed green for a second, but then she shrugged. “Ten more years, then I don’t have to deal with you anymore.”
I let her go. “That’s right. So don’t fuck up a better deal than you deserve.”
“Don’t you need to get away from me, Reaper?” she hissed, so low even I could barely hear her. “You don’t want to scare the fish away, do you?”
I gave Belinda a cool, evaluating stare before I turned my back and walked away. I’d meant what I said. If Belinda pulled any tricks during this job and endangered one of the many kids here, I’d kill her. But, as the saying went, we were giving her enough rope to hang herself. Now we had to wait and see if she swung from it.
On my way over to Ethan, my cell vibrated again. I glanced at it and mentally groaned. Another 911. That meant there were two vampires. Not good.
I reached Ethan, wanting to keep a sharp eye on him as well as the door. It wasn’t long before I saw two men walk in with the distinctive skin and purposeful movements that marked the difference between a regular person and a vampire.
I gave the interior of Chuck E. Cheese’s another frustrated glance. With all the children here, this was the worst kind of place to have a showdown with the undead. If I were playing bait, I’d try to maneuver the vamps into the parking lot to minimize the danger to bystanders. But Belinda probably wouldn’t care enough to do that. Well, I’d just have to try and help her out.
I grasped Ethan’s hand. “It’s time,” I told him.
His blue-green eyes widened. “The bad people are here?” he whispered.
I doubted Don had explained to Ethan—or his parents, whoever those crazy folks were to let their son do this—what sort of “bad people” we were after. I wasn’t about to elaborate, either.
“You don’t leave my sight, remember?” I said, soft but stern. “It’ll be okay.”
He nodded, visibly mustering up his courage. “Okay.”
What a good boy.
My cell phone vibrated again, with another series of numbers flashing across the screen.
911–911
“Oh, f—crap,” I caught myself just in time.
Ethan blinked up at me. “What’s wrong?”
I got a tighter grip on his hand. “Nothing.”
That was a lie, of course. I looked up in time to see a third vampire walking in the door. Then a fourth. I saw Belinda pause in her next Skee-Ball toss, look at them, and smile. Widely.
This was going to be a hell of an afternoon.
THREE
T HE VAMPIRES DIDN’T TAKE LONG TO NOTICE Belinda. Maybe they even smelled her before they saw her, because they weren’t inside the place for a minute before they sidled over to her. I kept a good grip on Ethan’s hand as I heard Belinda exchange hellos, straining my hearing to make sure she wasn’t saying anything else. Like, trap or Reaper. So far, so good. Belinda was just being flirty—with a homicidal edge to it, inquiring if they were up for eating anyone here.
“Why do you think we’re here?” one of them said with a smirk. “It ain’t for the big fake mouse.”
The others laughed. My jaw clenched. Bastards.
“You here with anyone?” another asked, giving Belinda an up-and-down leer.
“Some chick I met and her son,” Belinda said dismissively. “One of you can eat her, but I call dibs on the kid.”
“Point them out,” the dark-haired vampire said.
I glanced away right as Belinda’s hand arced up, putting a false smile on my face as I looked at Ethan. Don’t worry. Nothing’s going to happen to you.
“The blonde wearing the black turtleneck sweater and jeans, holding the little boy’s hand. That’s them.”
“Pretty,” the brunette drawled, then added quickly, “but not as pretty as you, of course.”
“Thanks.” Belinda’s voice said his backpedaling wasn’t sufficient, but she’d let it go. “So, how do you all normally do this? Just snatch a kid and run?”
“See that guy over there?” The tall, scrawny vampire pointed to someone wearing an employee badge. “After a few flashes of my eyes, I’m going to steal his outfit from him.”
“Why would you want to take some guy’s clothes?” Belinda asked in disbelief. I glanced back over to them casually. I’d just been wondering that myself.