By Julia

Disclaimer: Laurell K Hamilton owns all the characters. I'm not making any money.

A new set of murders. Of course there was always a new crime, and a week before Christmas
too. As my grandma Blake used to say, “If it ain’t one damn thing, its another.” I gave my appraisal
of the body. It was a vampire murder. The fang marks were a dead give away. Its cases like these
that make me wonder why they even bother calling me in. There was absolutely nothing special
about the body, just the fangs marks and the poor sod was drained dry. He would rise in three days.
That was that. Even Zebrowski could have figured that one out. Well, he could have if he weren’t
still in the hospital, with his stomach sewed up, keeping his intestines from spilling out again. A
shape-shifting witch had cut him up on our last case. He barely survived. He wouldn’t have, if I
hadn’t held in his intestines until the medics arrived.

So the body was a classic. I wasn’t needed. But since we were in the blood quarter, I had
something I could take care of, involving a certain blue eyed fang-face I knew. “Is this all you need,
Dolph?”

“Have you told all there is to tell?”

“Yep. This was just a clean cut case of ‘the body’s going to rise in three days so you can ask
it questions then.’”

Dolph nodded, and I turned on my heel, heading back towards my car. I was wearing my
black high heel pumps, so I did heel-turning very well. Tonight was actually an off night for me. I
only had office appointments in the day, but no zombie raisings on schedule for tonight. Things get
slow around Christmas time. So since I had just been required to veg out in the office, I was
wearing nicer clothes than what I would have raised zombies in. My skirt was shorter than normal,
by a few inches, and black. The suit jacket was black as well, I had just tried my best to piss off
Bert today. But my shirt was a nice scarlet red, so it added some aggressive color to the ensemble.

I walked to my car to get the small black jewelry box with a bow on top, then made my way
to Guilty Pleasures, Jean-Claude’s strip club. You would think that near Christmas a strip club
wouldn’t be quite so busy, but I guess there were a lot of college girls off from school, just wanting
to have a good time. I walked through the door, nodding at Buzz the bouncer vampire as I went.
“Do you have any holy items to declare?” asked the familiar holy item check girl.

“No,” I lied routinely, and made my way towards Jean-Claude’s office.

“Once again, Anita, you have lied to Tiffany,” said Robert, a particularly annoying vampire.

“Shut up, Robert.” This was routine as well. Before Robert the One Of Great Annoyances
could further bug me, I knocked on Jean-Claude’s door, cutting Robert off short in his sentence. He
glared at me, and I stuck my tongue out at him. Childish, but it made me feel better.

“Come in, ma petite,” said Jean-Claude. Somehow he always knows when it was me. I
entered the office, shutting the door quietly behind me. Jean-Claude had been writing in some
ledger, accounting expenses or something similar, but he pushed that aside to give me his full
attention. “Am I in trouble? For I did not think you would pay me a visit without my instigation.” He
smiled wryly, a sensuous curve of lips.

I fought the urge not to roll my eyes, or say something too terribly insulting. “I was in the
area, so I thought I would bring you your Christmas gift.”

Jean-Claude smiled even wider, the tips of his white fangs peeking out, obviously amused at
the thought of he, the damned, receiving a gift for a Christian holiday. “That is very generous of
you, ma petite.”

“It comes and goes.” I sat down in one of the chairs in front of his desk, and handed him the
small black box with the crimson bow on top. With a glance at me, he took the lid off to uncover
the gift. Jean-Claude drew the antique filigree cameo out of the box, inspecting it in the yellow lamp
light. He smiled, wide enough to flash the tips of his fangs once again. “It is lovely, ma petite, thank
you.” Reaching around behind his neck, he fastened it around his neck. It did look in place with the
white billowy shirt. He fingered the cameo, admiring it once more, before letting it rest against the
ivory skin of his chest “And I have a gift for you, ma petite.” Opening a drawer in his desk,
Jean-Claude pulled out a wrapped square box that fit in his hand perfectly. Instead of handing it to
me from across the desk, he rose from his chair, walking around to me. He perched on the arm of
my chair, and handed me the box. I looked up at Jean-Claude, encouraged to open the box with his
sensuous smile. I tore away the paper carefully, it was gold with the designs of angels on it. Was it
strange for your vampire boyfriend to give you something wrapped in religious designs? The folds
and creases of the wrapping paper was perfect, just like Jean-Claude. I couldn’t ever wrap gifts
that pretty, there was a reason I had only put just a bow on the top of his box.

Once the wrapping paper had been peeled away, it revealed a shiny black cardboard box,
which still gave no clues to its contents. I opened the box, and had trouble sliding out the white
Styrofoam padding, not being able to pull at the padding and hold the box at the same time.
Jean-Claude chuckled at my struggles, and placed a finger on the box good humouredly, allowing
me to pull out the packaging. When that was extricated the two halves of the Styrofoam peeled
away to reveal a beautiful glass sculpture of penguins on an ice floe. My jaw dropped in awe. It
was lovely, and had to have been expensive. Not that Jean-Claude would worry about that. “Do
you like it, ma petite?”

“Yes,” I answered, holding it up in the lamplight. “Its absolutely beautiful, Jean-Claude.
Thank you.”

“You are quite welcome, ma petite.” I allowed him to kiss me on the cheek. I had been
dating him for a month now along with Richard, so the kissing was still a little strange, but not as out
of place as it may have been once upon a time. I carefully repackaged the glass piece, gently
placing it back in its box. “And what did Monsieur Zeeman get you?” Jean-Claude asked,
seemingly in good nature, but I knew better.

“Don’t start this, Jean-Claude.”

He appeared to look puzzled. “Start what, ma petite?”

“You’re trying to figure out who got me the better gift, whose I like better.”

Jean-Claude raised an amused eyebrow. “Would I do such a thing?”

I nodded my head in affirmation. “You are such a pain in the ass, Jean-Claude.”

He smiled sweetly. It was a surprise. I had seen mysterious, coy, amused, sensuous, naughty,
and ironic smiles on Jean-Claude, but never sweet. “And merry Christmas to you too, ma petite.”

I sighed. “So much for that happy moment,” I replied, not able to miss the possible smart ass
remark. I stood from my chair, and Jean-Claude followed suit, standing close in front of me.

“Ah, but ma petite, we can create new moments.” Jean-Claude leaned down, kissing my lips.
His tongue slid between my lips, running against the hard line of my teeth. I was caught so
surprised and so aroused that I dropped the little black box. I broke away, looking down with an
statement of dread, expecting to see the box hit the floor and its contents break into a million
pieces. Instead, I looked down to see Jean-Claude had caught the box, cradling it in the palm of his
hand. He smiled, flashing fangs. “Well, I suppose that proves whose gift you like the most,” he said
in a smooth amused tone.

I took the box back from him gingerly in my hands. “I didn’t mean to drop it, I swear.”

Jean-Claude gave that infuriating gallic shrug. “It is padded well enough that I doubt it would
have been harmed to hit the carpet.”

It was my turn to shrug. “You never know.”

Jean-Claude reached out to touch the fabric of my silky red shirt tentatively, near my
stomach. “Red is a wonderful color on you, Anita. I like this very much.” I looked up into his eyes
to see a dark statement of desire. Sometimes when I am with Jean-Claude, I wonder why I don’t
just choose him, and be done with Richard. But when I’m with Richard, I have much the same
thoughts about discarding Jean-Claude. Ah, my confusing life. I glanced at the floor, then back up
to Jean-Claude’s intent midnight blue eyes. “I should go. I actually have a chance at getting a
decent night’s sleep with no zombie appointments tonight.”

“Ah, was Monsieur Vaughn feeling generous today?”

“Of course not. There just weren’t any appointments to be had.”

With a nod, Jean-Claude said, “That is more believable. If you are so unoccupied tonight, I
could think of something to do, that would involve the both of us.” There was a dark light to
Jean-Claude’s eyes that suddenly made my chest and other places clench tight.

“Nice try, slick.”

“Slick?” He sounded genuinely amused.

“Something like that. I really need to go, Jean-Claude.”

Jean-Claude nodded. “I understand, ma petite.”

But still I lingered. I wanted to kiss him again, but just couldn’t quite get myself up to
instigating it, because that would be admitting I wanted Jean-Claude. Once again, I began to turn on
my heel to leave, when Jean-Claude gripped my upper arm, pulling me back to him. He met my lips
with his in a gentle kiss, as if he had sensed what I wanted, and knew I was too proud and too
chicken shit to do it. He broke away, whispering, “Good night, Anita. Be careful.”

I smiled grimly. “I always am.”