“Answer it, dummy.”
Eva made a face at Skye but answered the call. “Hello?”
“Eva?”
“Who is this?”
“Ash. We met at the club last week.”
She froze, dropping the spoon she hadn’t realized she was holding. It clattered as it hit the countertop, and her heart pounded. What should she do? Should she hang up? Change her phone number? Flee the country?
She remembered her mom’s plan: go out with him, drill him with questions, see if he seemed suspicious. A week had gone by, and she still hadn’t decided whether she’d hallucinated or not, nor had she stopped obsessing about it. As the days passed, that night felt more and more surreal, until even her DJ set felt like a dream. Until this moment, she’d started to doubt Ash was even real.
“Are you still there?”
“Uh, hey, yeah, sorry.” The palm gripping the phone was suddenly clammy with sweat. Skye was frowning at her from the sofa.
“I wanted to make sure you were okay. I meant to call earlier, but I’ve been... held up.”
“Oh, um, I’m fine.”
“I’m sorry I had to leave you outside the club like that.”
“It’s okay. Did you...” What, was she going to ask him if he’d turned red, sprouted horns, and decapitated a monster? “Did anything happen?”
“Nothing I haven’t dealt with before.”
Okay, that was cryptic. But if he really had done those things, he wasn’t likely to tell her about it, was he? “Oh, good. Cool.”
“I didn’t call sooner because I had some shit I needed to sort out. Like I said, I’m new here. We were looking for a safe place to hi— live. But we found one.”
“Oh, I’m glad.”
“Yeah. Listen, do you still want to show me that jazz club? Now that I’m more settled, I’ve been thinking I’d like to get out to see some music.”
Bat Wings wanted to meet at Bootleg. Slits Throats of Gargoyles wanted to get out to see some music. “Um...”
“If you don’t want to, it’s fine. Maybe you could tell me the name of the bar so I can go by myself.”
“You’d just go by yourself?”
“Sure. Or is that abnormal behavior?”
“Uh...” Damn, she’d forgotten how weird he was.
She remembered her mom’s advice yet again. Bootleg was always packed and everyone there knew her by name from working at the bar and jamming on stage. She would be safe, surrounded by people she trusted. What better place to take Ash for questioning to figure out if she’d lost her mind?
“Let’s do it,” she decided. “The bar’s called Bootleg. The jam is Thursday night. Meet me there at ten.”
She hung up a moment later and met Skye’s stare. “Um, who was that?”
Eva winced. She wasn’t ready to tell Skye about Ash until she figured out whether he was a wet dream come to life or a winged, horned beast man.
“I... met a guy last week.”
Predictably, Skye’s eyes lit up. “Who is he? Where did you—”
“It’s still new,” she said quickly. “If the date goes well, then I’ll tell you all about him. How’s that?”
