Read Online Fangtabulous by Lucienne Diver - Free Book Online

we have to get that laptop. Tomorrow, when everyone’s in the theater watching the Gothic Magic Show. Eric’s a genius hacker; he ought to be able to find a back door into the system. Gina, you think you can get Ulric to help with distraction so that no one notices when Eric goes for the computer?”
    Everybody looked at me. Again.
    “Piece of cake.”
    By the time we were certain the security guard had gone, dawn was too close for comfort. The Old Jail would have to wait until tomorrow night. We raced the sun back to Danvers, and made it with just moments to spare.

6

    T he Gothic Magic Show didn’t start until midnight, after the Haunts in History tours ended, so the first order of business the next night was keeping our cover. I was in the midst of getting costumed for my first tour when Ulric pulled aside the dressing room curtain and poked his head in.
    “Damn, I was hoping to catch you in some form of dishabille .”
    “Dish-what?”
    “Undressed.”
    I looked for something to throw at him, but I didn’t really think lobbing my panties would have the desired effect.
    “Sorry to disappoint,” I answered dryly.
    Luckily, I was more or less dressed, except for the oh-so-sexy bonnet.
    “Oh, you don’t,” he answered, a gleam in his eye that despite Bobby and taken gave me a little jolt of excitement.
    I stepped out of the dressing room, and Ulric moved—barely—to let me pass.
    “When I told Kari I wanted to talk to you, I didn’t mean BC,” I said.
    “BC?”
    “Before clothes.”
    He laughed and looked at me like he was wishing for a superpower of his own, like X-ray vision.
    I sighed. Ulric was a force of nature. Or nature’s evil twin, anyway. There was no point in trying to convince him he’d done anything wrong. He’d never buy it.
    “Tonight at the Gothic Magic Show, we need your help,” I told him.
    “Go on.”
    “Can you arrange it so everybody is distracted, focused on you?”
    “For how long?”
    I thought about it. “For as long as it takes.”
    “Why?”
    “That’s on a need-to-know basis.”
    Ulric didn’t roll his eyes. In fact, their intensity continued to bore into me. I licked my lips and nearly nicked my tongue on my fangs, which had extended and locked into place at his nearness. It had been days since I’d fed—not since we’d hit the road in our flight from the Feds. It didn’t help that I knew the taste of Ulric’s blood … a flavor like heat and spice, adrenaline and youth. Liquid life. I nearly moaned just at the thought of it.
    Bobby stepped out of his dressing room, swinging his cape around his shoulders and catching Ulric in the face with it. Ulric flinched back and the spell was broken.
    “Did I interrupt something?” Bobby asked, staring at Ulric for an answer. I somehow didn’t think the cape had been an accident.
    “Yes,” Ulric said, at the same time I answered, “No.”
    Exasperated, I huffed, hands on both my hips now. “No,” I repeated.
    Ulric looked from me to Bobby and back. “I’ll help on one condition.”
    “What?” I asked, dreading the answer.
    “A date.”
    Bobby answered for me. “Nevermind, we’ll handle it ourselves.”
    “Oh, I’m sure you will,” Ulric responded.
    “Okay, seriously ? Down boys. Ulric, I’m taken . Bobby, dial it back before you come down with testosterone poisoning.”
    They both stared at me, then Ulric’s lips quirked up in amusement. “It was worth a shot. Sure, I’ll help.”
    Bobby didn’t look so sure the help was worth letting Ulric off without a punch in the nose, but that wasn’t really his style. In the end, he smiled back.
    “Thanks,” he said.
    “I’m not doing it for you,” Ulric answered.
    “I never thought you were.”
    Men. Can’t live with them, can’t stake ’em.
    As the three of us walked together toward the front of the shop, I noted Kari talking with a stunning redhead. Exactly the kind of girl I’d always hated—model-tall, runway sleek, legs that probably went on