Dead Beat (The Dresden Files 7)

He nodded.

"I'm just here for a minute. After that I'll go."

"Right," he said.

I walked down the aisles back to Shiela, and nodded to her. "I got your message."

Shiela was wearing the same clothes as the night before, only more rumpled. She'd pulled her hair back and held it in place with a pair of ballpoint pens thrust through a knot at right angles. With her hair like that, it showed the pale, clean lines of her jaw and throat, and I was again struck by the impulse to run my fingers over her skin and see if it was as soft as it looked.

She glanced at Bock, then smiled up at me and touched my arm with her hand. "I'm sorry he did that. It isn't fair of him."

"No. It's fair enough. He has the right to protect himself and his business," I said. "I don't blame him."

She tilted her head to one side, studying my face. "But it hurts anyway?"

I shrugged. "Some. I'll survive." The chimes rung at the front of the store as another customer came in. I glanced back at Bock, and sighed. "Look, I don't want to be here very long. What did you need?"

She brushed back a few strands of hair that had escaped the knot. "I... well, I had a strange experience last night."

I lifted my eyebrows. "Go on."

She picked up a small stack of books and started shelving them as she spoke. "After all the excitement, I went back to the inventory in the back room, and Mr. Bock had gone to get the plywood for the windows. I thought I heard the chimes ring, but when I looked no one was there."

"Uh- huh," I said.

"But..." She frowned. "You know how when you go into an empty house, you know it's empty? How it just feels empty?"

"Sure," I said. I watched her stretch up onto the tips of her toes to put a book away on the top shelf. It drew her sweater up a little, and I could see muscles move under a swath of the pale skin of her lower back.

"The store didn't feel empty," she said, and I saw her shiver. "I never saw anyone, never heard anyone. But I was sure someone was here." She glanced back at me and flushed. "I was so nervous I could hardly think straight until the sun came up."

"Then what?" I asked.

"It went away. I felt a little silly. Like I was a scared little kid. Or one of those dogs that's staring at something growling when nothing is there."

I shook my head. "Dogs don't just stare and growl for no reason. Sometimes they can perceive things people can't."

She frowned. "Do you think something was here?"

I didn't want to tell her that I thought a Black Court vampire had been lurking unseen in the shop. Hell, for that matter I didn't particularly want to think about it. If Mavra had been here, there wouldn't have been anything Shiela or Bock could do to defend themselves against her.

"I think you wouldn't be foolish to trust your instincts," I said. "You've got a little talent. It's possible you were sensing something too vague for you to understand in any other way."

She put the last book away and turned to face me. She looked tired. Fear made her expression one of sickness, an ugly contortion. "Something was here," she whispered.

"Maybe," I said, nodding.

"Oh, God." She tightened her arms across her stomach. "I... I might be sick."

I leaned my staff against the shelf and put a hand on her shoulder, steadying her. "Shiela. Take a few deep breaths. It's not here now."

She looked up at me, her expression miserable, her eyes wet and shining. "I'm sorry. I mean, you don't need this." She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, and more tears fell. "I'm sorry."

Oh, hell. Tears. Way to go, Dresden -terrify the local maiden you showed up to comfort. I drew Shiela a little toward me, and she leaned against me gratefully. I put my arm around her shoulders and let her lean against me for a minute. She shivered with silent tears for a little bit and then pulled herself together.

"Does this happen to you a lot?" she asked in a quiet voice, sniffling.

"People get scared," I murmured. "There's nothing wrong with that. There are scary things out there."

"I feel like a coward."

"Don't," I told her. "All it means is that you aren't an idiot."

She straightened and took a step back. Her face looked a little blotchy. Some women can cry and look beautiful, but Shiela wasn't one of them. She took off her glasses and wiped at her eyes. "What do I do if it happens again?"

"Tell Bock. Get somewhere public," I said. "Call the cops. Or better yet, call Billy and Georgia. If what you felt really was some kind of predator, they won't want to stick around if they know they've been spotted."

"You sound as if you've dealt with them before," she said.

I smiled a little. "Maybe a time or two."

She smiled up at me, and it was a grateful expression. "It must be very lonely, doing what you do."

"Sometimes," I said.

"Always being so strong when others can't. That's... well, it's sort of heroic."

"It's sort of idiotic," I replied, my voice dry. "Heroism doesn't pay very well. I try to be cold-blooded and money-oriented, but I keep screwing it up."

She let out a little laugh. "You fail to live up to your ideals, eh?"

"Nobody's perfect."

She tilted her head again, eyes bright. "Are you with someone?"

"Just you."

"Not with them. With them."

"Oh," I said. "No. Not really."

"If I asked you to come have dinner out with me, would it seem too forward and aggressive?"

I blinked. "You mean... like a date?"

Her smile widened. "You do... you know... like women? Right?"

"What?" I said. "Oh, yes. Yes. I'm down with the women."

"By coincidence I happen to be a woman," she said. She touched my arm again. "And since it seems like I might not get a chance to flirt with you a little more while I'm at work, I thought I had better ask you now. So is that a yes?"

The prospect of a date seemed to me like a case of bad timing in several ways. But it also seemed like a good idea. I mean, it had been a while since a girl had been interested in me in a nonprofessional sense.

Well. A human girl, anyway. The only one who even came close was in Hawaii with someone else, giggling and thinking about pants. It might be really nice just to be out talking and interacting with an attractive girl. God knows it would beat hanging around my crowded apartment.