Free Honeymoon of the Dead by Tate Hallaway Page B

attraction.
    He laughed lowly. “I think this is our stop. Thank God.”
     
     
    Like newlyweds, we raced through the lobby holding hands and giggling. The mere idea of the possibility of public sex totally ramped up our whole experience. We talked through several scenarios. It was kind of like phone sex, but with benefits of . . . well, being actual instead of entirely imagined.
    The biggest perk of all, in my opinion, was that we had so much fun that I completely forgot about all our troubles, at least until Special Agent Dominguez called the hotel the next morning.
    “I need to speak to Sebastian,” he said when I picked up the phone and mumbled something vaguely like hello. “There’s a problem with your husband’s papers.”

3.
    Strength

    ASTROLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCE:
    Leo
     
     
     
     
     
    My heart pounded in my ears. Lilith stirred in antici pation of danger. I glanced over at Sebastian, who still slumbered peacefully—or, at least, as peacefully as he could given that when he slept his body always returned to the position he was in the moment he died.
    “Uh,” I said to Dominguez, wanting to stall this whole conversation. “He’s asleep.”
    “This is a courtesy call, Garnet. I want you to know that Immigration is on its way.”
    I clutched the sheet to my naked chest. “What? Why?”
    “Seems his birth certificate has been forged—at least once,” Dominguez said businesslike, and then he broke. “Christ, Garnet. How many vampires are in your life, anyway?”
    “Two . . . oh, three, really, if you count Teréza, and a half: Mátyás is a dhamypr.”
    Dominguez muttered some expletives and a string of Spanish I couldn’t quite catch. After his short rant, he added, “The people from Immigration are really serious. They may deport him.”
    “How can they? We’re married.” When Sebastian stirred, I struggled to keep the shrieking panic out of my tone, but my whisper was a little strained. “He’s an American citizen now.”
    “Not if he committed fraud. In fact, if it’s true, your marriage license isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.”
    “We’re on our honeymoon. You can’t do this to us.”
    “I’m not. Immigration is. And, honestly, I sympathize, Garnet, I really do. That’s why I called to warn you. I’ve got to go. Good luck.”
    He hung up before I could voice a response. Lilith’s strength pulverized the phone’s receiver. Sebastian groaned but didn’t wake. There was a time when Lilith’s show of power would have snapped him into alertness. But the blood bond he had with Her got diluted every time he drank someone else’s blood. Even though I let him bite me on a regular basis, he needed more than I could possibly provide. I’d be jealous, but I had bigger things to worry about, like the Immigration goons showing up to deport him.
    I shook his shoulder. “Wake up,” I shouted. “We have to go.”
    Jumping out of bed, I immediately started packing our suitcases. We could drive to Canada. It was relatively close. Plus, it had to be easy to cross the border; it’s not like they had a fence.
    As I packed, I consciously calmed my breathing. We could not afford to have Lilith rise up at a moment as delicate as this. When Lilith surfaced She had a tendency to, shall we say, overreact. She made no distinction between friend or foe, right or wrong. Her motto could be summed up as “Kill. Kill them all.”
    Sebastian sat up and blinked at me sleepily. “What are you doing?”
    “Packing,” I explained, tossing his shirts into his open suitcase. His jaw tightened as they formed a jumbled pile. “Immigration is going to be showing up any minute asking questions you can’t answer about your birth certificates. I guess you have more than one?”
    “Why were they looking into my birth certificate? My passport is valid.”
    I stopped my frantic tossing for a moment. “I don’t know.”
    “My country of origin isn’t going to dispute my birth certificate,” he