Kitty's Mix-Tape
Kitty’s husband.” He stepped forward,offered his hand and, a slave to social conventions, Jesse shook it.Ben appeared to squeeze extra hard.“Husband?”Jesse said. “Oh. And you’re a werewolf too. I guess that makes sense.”
Sadiestared at Ben. “You are?”
“Wedon’t make a thing of it,” Ben said.
Ipointed at Jesse and Trevor. “I need you two to answer my questions.”
“Youfirst,” Trevor said.
“No,”Jesse stated. So I glared back at Trevor.
Trevorsaid, “It isn’t personal. Jesse crossed some bad people. I took thecontract on the off chance he might be here. And I was right.”
“Youcan’t murder people at the class reunion!” I yelled.
“Isit murder ifit isn’t human?” Trevor said, leering.
“Ohmy God, are we really going to have that conversation?”
Jessebacked away. “Kitty, this is between the two of us, you should probablyget out of here—”
“Youhave silver bullets in that gun?” I asked Trevor.
“Ohmy God, you havea gun?” Sadie demanded.
Benwas at Sadie’s side. “Sadie, you’d probably better get back inside—”
“No!These are my friends. At least I thought they were.”
Anddidn’t that break my heart just a little. Meanwhile, Ben had his phoneout and was talking to someone, walking just far enough off that Icouldn’t hear.
“Well,Trev?” I asked.
“Um.”
“Sothat’s yes, you do have silver bullets.” Along with the visceral joltof panic, I was offended and furious. “Were you planning on killingme too?”
“Onlyif you try to stop me.”
“HereI was thinking how this isn’t at all like class reunions in the moviesand you have to go pull some Grosse Pointe Blank shit!”
“Iwasn’t trying to pull some GrossePointe Blank shit, it just happened,” Trevor said.
“Shitlike this doesn’t just happen,” I muttered.
Sadiesaid, “Maybe if we all went back inside and had a drink—”
“Idon’tthink you want that,” Jesse said, grinning.
Icovered my face with my hands. This was too much.
“So.Um,” Jesse said, sticking his hands in his pockets and losing all hisvampire suave. “It’s good to see you guys. Really.”
“Ididn’t think you’d actually be here,” Trevor said.
“So,if you hadn’t been trying to kill Jesse, you wouldn’t be here?” I asked.
“No,”he admitted.
Iturned to Jesse. “Then why did you come?”
Helooked at each of us. Not with the vampire hypnotism. Just a nervousglance, which dropped to his feet.
“I’mhere because it’s my last chance,” Jesse said. “My last chance to hangout with people my own age and look like I belong. Twenty years, theytell me. Twenty years after being turned is when it hits that you won’tget older and you stop fitting in. I . . . I wanted to feel like I fitin, one more time.”
Hedidn’t seem so much sad as resigned. This was his life now. His unlife.He was saying goodbye to the old.
Thiswas getting too maudlin even for me. I sighed and glared at him.“Jesse, you never fit in. I mean, did any of us? We certainly don’tnow.”
“Kitty,this is exactly like one of your shows but in real life!” Sadie said.
“Idon’t listen to your show,” Trevor said. “Sorry.”
“Neitherdo I.” Jessewinced.
“Well,maybe you should, you might learn something! Thank you, Sadie, forlistening to my show, I don’t think I said that yet but thank you.”
“You’rewelcome.”
“Christ,Kitty, couldn’t you have at least changed your name if youwere going to become a werewolf?” Trevor said, exasperated.
“Seriously,”Jesse agreed, and they glanced at each other. “I mean, ifwe’d voted for who was least likely to become a werewolf it would havebeen you. What happened?”
“Idon’t like to talk about it. I was attacked, it was bad, let’s leave itthere. It changed every single thing about my life, I wasn’t going tolet it take my name, too.”
Thatkilled the conversation.
“Iwanted the power,” Jesse said finally. “I know that’s a cliché. But Ididn’t have the money or the social connections or anything else to getanywhere. But this?” He shrugged. “You don’t like the game, you breakthe rules.”
“Youjust traded out for a different set of rules,” I said.
“ButI get tolive forever.”
“Unlesssome ex-military bounty hunter yahoo sets his sights on you!” I glaredat Trevor. His turn now. “Would you really have done it? Come back hereand killed your old friend for a few bucks?”
“Afew? Try a quarter mil.”
EvenI whistled low at that. Jesse had the gall to look pleased. “Wow, Ididn’t know I was that dangerous.”
“Youjust really know how to piss people off,” Trevor countered.
“Ican’tbelieve you people,” Sadie muttered.
Benrejoined us, slipping his phone back in his pocket. He pointed atTrevor. “This guy works for the Master of Boston.” Then he pointed atJesse. “And I’m guessing you were part of a recent attempt to overthrowthat Master.”
“Youcalled Cormac,” I said, smiling. Cormac, Ben’s cousin, and asupernatural bounty hunter himself. He had contacts. He knew the gossip.
“CormacBennett?” Trevor said. “How do you know Cormac Bennett?”
“He’sfamily. Oh, I also put a call in to Rick. Master of Denver. He wants toknow if he needs to come over and help sort things out.”
Jessestared. “You can just call the Master of Denver and have him come over?”
Imade a play of casually studying my fingernails. “We’re pretty tight.”
“Iwon’t go back to Boston,” Jesse stated. “I’ll keep out of sight. Justdrop the contract.”
“Aquarter million dollars, Jesse,” Trevor pleaded, as if Jesse was justsupposed to sacrifice himself.
Sadie’seyes were bugging out of her head. “It would make me really happy ifmy friends didn’t kill each other!”
Trevorlooked at her. “You’re not, like, a secret witch or magician orsomething supernatural that we should know about?”
“No,I’m a lawyer.”
“Ithought you were going to go live in Antarctica and rescue penguins,”Trevor said.
“Yeah,well, sometimes dreams die hard. Turns out I like takeout and hotrunning water too much.”
“So,nobody’s killing anybody,” Ben said. “That’s from Rick.”
“Fine.Contract’s off,” Trevor said.
“Youwon’t get in trouble for dropping the contract?” Jesse asked.
“Niceofyou to care, but no. I may even be able to throw the client off.Convince them you were never part of the conspiracy and weretoo stupid to realize what was happening.”
“Gee,thanks.”
“Andstay out of Boston.”
“You’llnever see me again,” Jesse said.
Isank to the concrete and sighed. “And that’s what reunions are for,realizing you have so little in common anymore with your high schoolfriends that you’ll probably never see each other again.”
Thatwas when the police cars pulled up, three of them, red and blue lightsflashing. No sirens, at least. So probably no one was dying.
“Didyou call