Melissa was sitting on Sadie's sofa on the verge of hyperventilating. She wasn't sick, and she wasn't in her general state of anticipation of learning some new sexual trick from her vampire mentor. No, she was on her last nerve awaiting . . . dinner. More specifically, Sadie's dinner guest. More specifically, a wraith.

She had accepted that Sadie was not like most vampires, or like most law enforcers, or . . . or like anyone, but this was pushing even Melissa's credulity. No one had a wraith over for dinner, much less ask one to bring a salad. It wasn't that wraiths were evil or hideous, it's that they...