“Wait! I need to talk to you! Where are your folks?”

All three of us ran after her because—shit!—she had run out the lobby door, out of the (relative) safety of the crowded lobby. Her white blond hair streamed after her like a bridal veil and I thought that I had never seen such a beautiful child. Real tempting pickings for the asshole bloodsucker who liked to munch kids.

We came out in time to see her disappear around the block, laughing. I cupped my hands around my mouth and yelled, “We’re not playing tag, kid! We gotta talk to you!”

No response. I glanced at my human friends. “Later, gators,” I said, because I was going to do my Bionic Woman thing in a sec and they had no chance of keeping up.

But even running as fast as I could, by the time I rounded the block, the kid was nowhere to be seen.

I trudged dejectedly back to them. “That’s great. Now we get to wait for another Goddamned crime scene.”

“If she lives in the hotel, she probably knows a hundred ways to get back in. Like Eloise,” Jessica suggested. “I think she’ll be okay. She certainly gave us the slip easily enough.”

“Good point,” I said, cheering up.

“All the same, I think I’ll hang out here for a while,” Nick said. “Honey, you go up to the room and get some sleep.”

“And leave you out here in the dark by yourself?”

“Uh . . . hon, I’m a cop.”

“A human cop looking for a kid-killing vampire! Besides, the Advil worked fine. I’m not even tired.”

“Well, shit. That means I have to stay out here, too.”

Jessica and Nick both looked surprised. “What are you talking about?” she asked.

“Oh, like I’m really going back inside to have nasty sex with Sinclair while you two are walking around trying to prevent vamp-on-kid crime. That’d only make me the biggest jerk in the world.”

“Well—” Jessica began sweetly, but Nick cut her off.

“Seriously, Betsy. Go inside. We’ll just walk around out here for a little while and if we don’t see anything, we’ll come in. And if we do see something, we’ll call your cell.” He put a (gentle!) hand on my arm. “Really, go. It’s your honeymoon, right?”

I was completely torn. Do the right thing, and stick with my human, fragile, easily shreddable friends? Or take the olive branch Nick was so plainly offering? The pleading look on Jessica’s face made up my mind for me.

“Okay, but call me if you see or hear anything. We can jump out the window and be on the street in about three seconds.”

“Just get dressed first!” Jessica hollered at me as I went up the stairs. Jerk.