Free Undead and Unworthy by MaryJanice Davidson

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    "Hey, it's been a long night."
    "Indeed it has, my darling alien intruder." Sinclair yanked the remaining sheets and
    blankets off the bed and threw them to the floor with a theatrical flourish. Then he
    pounced on me while sheets billowed all over the place.
    He kissed me for a wonderfully long time, then pulled back and cocked an eyebrow.
    "Want to see my probe?"

Chapter 22
    The next evening started off nice and quiet. Marc wasn't around, of course, Garrett was
    probably still cowering in the basement, and I didn't look too hard for Jessica.
    Almost as soon as I'd gotten up, Tina and Sinclair had left for the library. This made sense,
    as the former librarian, Marjorie, had kept extensive files on every vampire she knew of,
    heard of, or could track down.
    Information, as far as the late, unmourned Marjorie believed, had been power.
    They had politely asked if I wanted to come, pretending I'd actually be of use to a couple
    of near geniuses trapped in a warehouse disguised as a library. They probably thought
    hours of research on computers and – and whatever you did research on would be a good
    time, poor morons. Of course I'd said no.
    But even if I'd lost all my cool points and was a hopeless, helpless virgin weirdo geek who
    wanted to spend half the night in a vampire library, I couldn't.
    I, after all, had serious work to do for the Minneapolis Police Department. Make that
    Homicide Department. Yeah, that's right, we vampire queens are in constant demand all
    over the place for –
    "Are you actually going to get in my car?" Nick Berry demanded, shaking his keys at me.
    "Or just keep staring off into space like that? Because it is fuckin' creepy, Betsy, you look like the Exlax is about to kick in."
    "Huh? Oh. That was mean. And I'm coming, don't nag. "
    "I'm a grown man," he forced out through gritted teeth, "and we don't nag."
    "You were! You were nagging!"
    "Betsy, I swear to God, if you don't shut your fucking yap and get in the car, I'm going to
    pull out my gun and blow your – "
    "Ha! You said 'blow.' "
    The gun had cleared the holster. Hmm, Nick was a short-tempered fellow these days. "I'm
    gonna count to ten. One. Seven. Nine. T – "
    "Hold it right there!"
    We both jumped like we'd been caught doing something nasty, and looked. Jessica the
    Terrible was stomping down the porch and across the driveway toward us.
    Quick as thought, Mr. Gun was back in his house, Mr. Holster.
    "Hi, babe, I thought you were sleeping."
    "Oh, Jess. I didn't know you were up."
    "Well?" She stopped, slightly out of breath. She must have sprinted when she figured out Nick was here. "Which is it? I'm in bed asleep because I have a human boyfriend, or I'm
    wide awake because my best friend is a vampire?"

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    "Uh – "
    "You're so great," Nick said warmly. "It's both."
    Man, I could never pull that off.
    "You sneaky lying sack of shit."
    Apparently Nick couldn't, either.
    "You're sneaking off with him to – well, I don't know what, but I don't like it. And you!"
    She rounded on Nick, jabbing with the dreaded index finger (which was now painted
    eggplant). "I know damn well you don't like being alone with Betsy anymore. So what are
    you up to?"
    He didn't tell her?
    "You didn't tell her?" I tried to hide my delight at Nick's look of consternation... and the fact that it bummed me out, hearing Nick was scared to be alone with me. At least I wasn't
    the only one who was scared to death of Pissed Off Jessica – hell, he was armed, and he
    looked ready to sidle around the corner and hide. "That's awful. Why wouldn't you tell
    her?"
    "Because she'll jump to the conclusion that I'm trying to get you killed," he snapped.
    "Yeah, she's funny that way."
    "What? Get killed? Why might you get killed? Betsy, you can't go off doing something
    dangerous with Nick, when those disgusting Fiends could be back any minute and try to
    finish what – " Then