![]() Huh, I said thoughtfully, chewing on the issue for a moment. This Neve must have amazing powers of persuasion. Changing things without talking to me first was not typical of Elaine. She wouldn't have accepted anything else. I juggled your schedule some and cut your lunch by half an hour so you could meet this morning. ![]() She sat back and shrugged a bit helplessly. I tried to tell her that you were booked well into next month, but she was very insistent. She phoned yesterday afternoon while you were on-air and demanded an appointment for today. Lainie leaned forward and edged the paper towards her, a little frown furrowing her flawless brow. I gave her a smile and pointed to the printout of my schedule. What's up? she asked, holding a stenographer's pad and a pen in one hand as she took a seat in one of the client chairs across the desk from me. Her large, expressive eyes and boneless grace gave away her true nature Elaine was a Leopard and my best friend, not to mention the main reason I was still sane and on time to all my appointments and meetings. With her looks and red hair, no one would have guessed Elaine Patterson was in her early forties. Could you come in here?Ī moment later, my office door opened and my personal assistant stepped inside. Coming up blank, I hit the intercom button, Lainie? I asked. I frowned, running my fingers over the smooth edge of my desk, trying to remember ever speaking to someone with that name. It was mostly as I'd remembered it from the previous day, with the exception of the eight o'clock appointment that Paula had mentioned it was noted only with the name Neve. I slipped gratefully into my chair and read over my schedule of appointments and appearances. Instead, the government had passed an actual amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, that gave Preternatural citizens the same rights as humans. After the chaos and world-wide panic caused by the Night of Revelations, I figured I'd be hunted down and killed in the streets like some sort of mindless animal. I would never have imagined that I'd be here, just four years after I'd turned the world on its ear, in this gorgeous office, prepping to tape a talk show that would be viewed by millions of people. It sat in front of floor-to-ceiling windows that commanded a stunning view of the city's skyline and the Tortolita Mountains to the west. My desk was a huge antique English banker's affair that I'd inherited from my grandfather's law office. Unlike the bright tones of the rest of the building, I'd chosen soothing colors for my inner sanctum: dark wood, and green and cream upholstery and carpets. Paula flashed me a smile before going back to the phones and I headed to my office in the rear of the building. ![]() There are a few, but you may want to take a look at your schedule for today first Lainie added an appointment while you were on-air last night. Once inside the building, I greeted my receptionist with a smile. My grandfather had given it to me on my sixteenth birthday, and it had made the trek across country when I moved from Pittsburgh to Tucson six years ago. It was a great car, but sometimes I missed the old Honda. I'd bought the SUV with a book-signing bonus to replace the ancient Honda that had been destroyed in the confrontation at Tucson Police headquarters. I eased my Mercedes SUV into my assigned spot and gathered up my briefcase and purse. The space inside felt cozy, but there was room for me, my receptionist and assistant a TV studio offices for the technical crew, writers and directors and a large conference room. Our offices were in a converted adobe house, which was tinted pink and had a terracotta-tiled roof, bright blue wooden doors and window frames, and a carefully tended desert wildflower garden surrounding it. One early February morning, four years after the Night of Revelations- the night when Onyx and I revealed the presence of the Preternatural during a live TV news conference-I pulled into the parking lot of the company I'd launched a year before, Black Cat Media. Chapter One In Which Snow Falls In The Desert
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