Read Online 2 Witch and Famous by Eve Paludan, Stuart Sharp - Free Book Online Page A

you’ve been careful about feeding.”
    That caught me by surprise. Both because of the idea of Niall’s personal assistant talking to Fergie about that, and because of the flash of affection that came with her name.
    “You and Marie have a thing? Is there something I should know?” I asked.
    Fergie shook his head. “Not so far. Maybe. And you’re changing the subject.”
    “I’ll be fine,” I assured him. “Unless you’re volunteering to be my lunch?”
    “Unless you’re planning on turning furry with the full moon and howling on all fours, we couldn’t do the open wound thing to get you fed. That leaves kissing, so, I don’t think it would be me who would have the issue with it, would it?”
    He had a point. As good looking as Fergie was, I’d already written off that possibility, and I wasn’t going to kiss him just to feed. Let alone anything else.
    “I think I’d better stick to less furry food.”
    Fergie laughed. “I’ve never felt so safe.”
     
    I went home early. Obviously, this was going to be a nighttime job, so there was no point in exhausting myself in the office while I waited. I tried to do research on vampires, on Jessica, on anything that would distract me, but mostly, I ended up thinking about Niall. Oh, and sleeping. Somehow, I ended up sleeping through most of the day. Maybe it was the lack of energy.
    I was still running on an empty stomach, emotionally speaking, when I finally grabbed a few things and headed out to try to find answers. I was dressed in a black party dress, a leather jacket, and heels. The kind of outfit that would normally have gotten me attention, but seemed right for the places I was heading. The hunger wasn’t so bad once I got out into the street. In fact, it was part of why I walked. There were enough performers around that I could at least let the emotion of the watching crowds run through me. It didn’t do anything to solve the underlying problem, but it was something. The same taste, until…
    Until what? The problem of needing to feed wasn’t going to go away. The problem of what I needed to do to feed wasn’t going to go away. Maybe I could rely on Niall’s staff for a little while longer, and maybe I would be able to persuade him to give me more energy, but that only postponed the issue. Besides, did I really want to think about where Niall might have gotten his energy from? Who he might have gotten it from? The things Rebecca had said were still in the background. Had Jessica Hammersmith had some minor magical talent? Was there any way to check? If she did, did it prove anything?
    I shook my head. For now, I needed to focus on the clubs. The first one seemed to be a general venue, currently advertising a comedy revue and a one-woman show. There wasn’t a line outside, but that was typical. For every bestselling show at the Fringe, there were three more that only attracted maybe enough people to fill one table. I walked inside, paying the cover charge and then looking for the manager.
    She turned out to be a woman maybe a decade older than me, heavily built, with the kind of harassed look that probably only came from trying to run a venue in the middle of the Fringe.
    “I’m afraid we’re busy at the moment,” she said as I tried to talk to her.
    I looked around pointedly at the nearly empty venue, and then held up a picture of Jessica taken from her website. “I’m here about this woman.”
    “I don’t know her.”
    I sighed. I’d been hoping to do this without using my talents, but now I sent a tendril of persuasive power into her. “Could you maybe look at the picture before you say that?”
    She took the photo. “I’m sorry, I really don’t recognize her. I mean, with the crowds that come through the city…”
     I nodded. “But this is a club where a lot of single people come?”
    She frowned slightly. “Not really. Although we did have a speed dating thing maybe a month ago.”
    Speed dating. That was something, and it turned