It was lunch time when I got back. I didn't go looking for Gladrielle and the Count. I assumed they were still at Titus's club, O Positive. Mostly because neither of them had anywhere else to go.
Instead, I drove to the campus where my boyfriend worked. I do love using that word. Boyfriend. Perhaps some day using it will become commonplace. But that day wasn't today. Being able to say that I had a boyfriend was still fun and exciting. It almost made me feel normal. Well, as normal as a mermaid is likely to feel.
John gave me his schedule, so I knew which building he was in. It was almost one o'clock, so whatever class he was teaching, something on marine biology, would be getting out in a few minutes.
Personally, I don't find fish nearly as interesting as John does, but then I guess that's why I'm a private detective and he's a marine biologist.
A bell rang and students started piling out of the classrooms. Most of the students coming out of John's classroom were girls. I'm not sure if that was because girls liked fish more than guys did, or if they just liked handsome blond professors. I figured it was probably the latter.
Not only was I still learning how to be somebody's girlfriend, something most human women have mastered well before their thirtieth birthday, I was still learning how to balance my private life with my professional life. Probably because I never had a private life.
I had a lot of friends with benefits, but they were pretty low maintenance. You'd call them up, ask them if they wanted to get together. They either said yes or no. If they said yes, you hooked up for an hour or two, then went your separate ways. If they said no, you called somebody else.
Except for Savanna, I've never really had girlfriends that I could hang out with. Probably because I was home schooled. While other girls were going to the prom, I was learning how to control water, learning how to be a mermaid.
Not that I have a lot in common with human women. Most of them can't relate to someone that can swim as fast as a speedboat, hold her breath for hours on end, rip the door off a steel safe, and eat seven thousand calories a day without gaining weight.
John was the last one out of his classroom, not counting the three coeds circling around him like sharks circling around a bleeding swimmer. He was wearing what he always wore, deck shoes, board shorts, and a Hawaiian shirt. Today's was green and blue. One of the advantages of teaching on a campus that was just minutes from the ocean was that no one expected you to wear a suit and tie.
“This is a pleasant surprise,” John said when he saw me.
He grabbed me by the waist, pulled me to him, and kissed me. He was strong for a human, but not stronger than me. Truth be told, I could tuck him under my arm and run a marathon without getting tired. Although why I'd ever want to do that, I have no idea.
“I read somewhere that you keep a relationship fresh by surprising your partner,” I said when he released me.
“You had lunch?”
“I haven't.”
“Student Union cafeteria okay?”
“As long as you're buying.”
We turned and headed off, exiting the building and heading across campus. It was a warm sunny day, a gentle breeze was blowing, rustling the leaves on the palm trees.
“How'd your meeting with Titus go?”
“He hired me to protect him, but I sort of failed.”
“How can you sort of fail?”
“He's sort of dead. That's how I sort of failed.”
“How can one be sort of dead? You're either dead or you aren't.”
“He was a vampire, so he was sort of dead to begin with. Now, he's just really dead. I'm talking a pile of ash on the floor dead.”
“I'm sorry.” John looked at me. “You okay?”
“Titus wasn't a friend, just a business associate. He never gave me anything without expecting something in return.”
“Can I ask who killed him?”
“An elf.”
“Is that who he hired you to protect him from?”
“He hired me to protect him from another vampire. A really old vampire. I brought the elf in to help us, but she sort of turned on us.” I grabbed John's hand and began to swing our hands as we walked. Mostly to let the drooling coeds know that we were a couple. “But I don't want to talk about work. It's the same old crap. Supernaturals killing other supernaturals. I want to hear about your day.”
I read that to have a successful relationship, you had to listen to your partner, you had to take an interest in his or her life. I'm not sure how accurate all those books were, but they were written by humans, and John was human. Even if they weren't one hundred percent accurate, I figured they still knew more about human relationships than I did.
Besides, listening to John gave me a chance to forget about Gladrielle and the Count. Forget that I still had to get rid of the Count, still had to find a way to bring Gladrielle back from the dark side.