Chapter 46

Rook’s POV

At eight o’clock on a raw spring night I met the donor in a small eatery near the Old River Street bridge, just around the corner from the vampress' apartment. The weather that night was so perfectly suited to my mission that it almost seemed a joke, wet, dim, and misty, with fog climbing up from the river in the cool air and blurring all the hard edges of that grimy mill town. From a block away the diner was no more than a soft pink neon glow in the silent and obscuring fog.

As he had promised, the donor was seated at the counter wearing a green jacket and a red scarf. There were very few people out on a night like this, so the diner was empty, and I saw him as soon as I stepped inside. He didn’t turn around, but I suspect he must have seen me in the mirror behind the counter.

“J?” I asked.

“Yes.” he said. He wore dark glasses through which