That was a fact. She had changed outfits since the last time I saw her, probably to fit in more with the exotic garb favored by the party-loving vampires. She was wearing what I’ve heard referred to as a “tank top” which left her midsection and navel delightfully exposed, and the open-sided skirt (if you can call two flaps of cloth that) showed her legs up past her hips. If she had a weapon with her, she had swallowed it. Either that, or….
I dragged my thoughts back to the argument.
“The fact of the matter is that she isn’t going to talk in front of a crowd. Now, am I going to get a chance to hear another viewpoint about what’s going on, or are we going to keep groping around for information with Aahz’s life hanging in the balance?”
My staff fell silent and exchanged glances, each waiting for the other to risk the next blast.
“Well, okay,” Massha agreed at last. “But watch yourself, Hot Stuff. Remember, poison can come in pretty bottles.”
So, under the ever-watchful glares of my assistants, I retired a few steps down the road for my first words alone with….
“Say, what is your name, anyway?”
“Hmmm? Oh. I’m Luanna. Say, thanks for backing me up. That’s a pretty mean-looking crew you hang around with. I had heard you had a following, but I hadn’t realized how nasty they were.”
“Oh, they’re okay once you get to know them. If you worked with them on a day-to-day basis, you’d find out that they . . . heck, none of us are really as dangerous or effective as the publicity hype cuts us out to be.”