Free How Nina Got Her Fang Back: Accidental Quickie (Accidentally Paranormal Series Book 13) by Dakota Cassidy

someone’s life, fuck off.”
    January noted that was for the benefit of the hidden camera. “It can’t be taken back anyway. All we can do is move forward from this point on.”
    Nina yawned and stretched. “Right. One foot in front of the other, yadda, yadda, yadda.”
    “How do you plan to do that? Put one foot in front of the other?”
    Nina made a face. “You want a demonstration? Fucking pictures?”
    “No. I want to know if you have an active plan in place. How you’ll tell Charlie someday that you’re different than her. Carl, too. I want to know how you’ll mentally prepare for an ending you haven’t had to prepare for in several years.”
    “Like a will?”
    January shook her finger at Nina. She was toying with her. Playing dumb because she didn’t want to acknowledge anything beyond the next grilled cheese sandwich she ate. It was all part and parcel of coming to terms with this new journey she was on, and Nina was ignoring it, shoving it away, stalling.
    And January knew she had to get to the heart of the matter before time ran out. If nothing came of this, if she ended up blowing this whole thing with Galen and Artem, she wasn’t going to do that before she helped Nina. She absolutely had to properly grieve the loss of her vampirism in order to accept and come to complete terms with her humanity.
    “Don’t play dumb with me, Nina. I asked a question. Do you have a plan in place for the time when your life will cease, but everyone around you will carry on?”
    Nina narrowed her eyes at January, straightening the ties on her hoodie, the knuckles of her fingers white, but still she didn’t bite. “I got plans for dinner. That’s about as much fucking planning as I’ve done today.”
    “Then here’s what I want you to do before our next appointment tomorrow. Think of one, Nina. Think of a plan. Tell me how you’ll talk to Charlie and Carl and explain that you’re different. What you hope to do with your time when your friends are still youthful and fit and you’re part of a knitting club at a retirement home.”
    Nina’s eyebrow rose, but then she eyeballed January and grinned—wide. “Fuck knitting. It’s Ping-Pong or bust.”
    But January chose to ignore Nina’s blatant refusal to acknowledge her words. “Just a loose outline will do for now, but give it some thought tonight and I’ll see you tomorrow, same time.”
    “We done here? Am I excused, Dr. Malone?”
    January didn’t miss the sarcasm in Nina’s tone, but she gave her a sunny smile and pushed away from her desk. “Free bird, baby.”
    There was a sudden commotion, making both Nina and January look up and toward her office door. Voices were raised, heated and animated.
    Nina was the first to rise from her chair. She pushed off, using her hands on the arms as leverage and strode toward the door. “Fuck all. If Marty’s out there grousing about validating her parking, I’ll fix her ass. Don’t you worry, Doc. I won’t let her screw with you. We’re fucking rich, for Christ’s sake. I don’t know why she has to make such a big stinkin’ deal about shit.”
    But as she threw the door open, it wasn’t Marty making a scene at all.
    No, in fact, it was Galen, just outside the thin glass that separated her reception area from the hallway and elevators.
    Marty and Wanda both looked to January, their eyes rimmed with concern, their bodies frozen to the spot.
    January cocked them a glance in question as she watched Galen’s strong hands fly about in the air, clearly agitated. “What’s going on?”
    Elsa, her receptionist, short and elderly and also a fellow witch, smoothed the ruffles on the front of her polka-dot blouse. “That hunky doctor next door is arguing with someone.” She shivered, her round cheeks vibrating. “He’s so manly when he’s all worked up, eh, ladies?”
    Nina—being Nina—strode to the door and flung it open, pushing her way out and cornering Galen and the other man. A man January