Melina

Leo was nowhere to be seen as I made my way into the studio and headed straight to my office. While I knew it might be faster to hunt him down, this was my day off. If he wanted me, he could find me. Besides, it was less likely anyone else would notice I was here and bother me with problems this way.

My office was its usual cluttered mess, with papers stacked high on my desk. If it were up to me, my office would never look cluttered. I fucking hate clutter. I’d been worried about seeing Trevor’s place for the first time, knowing I’d have had to back out on our bet if his house was messy.

The usual reason for my office mess had to do with the age of some of the actors and staff working on the show. While I did everything electronically, some of the much older members of the preternatural community weren’t comfortable with computers. We had more than a few who had lived long before electricity, and they were still reluctant to embrace most modern technology. That meant paper memos and scripts still went out. Those could be an annoyance, but this stack didn’t even fall into that category. With an annoyed sigh, I lifted the stack of papers from my desk and walked them to the blue bin in the hallway. These were all memos from Leo regarding the complaints from the Council of Witches about our portrayal of witches on the show. Leo thought we should give in and make some changes to appease the council. I thought most of the council members needed to pull the sticks out of their asses and stop worrying about a television show whose target audience was humans. I’d written the witches as ditsy cheerleaders. After being berated in front of the council about six months ago, I’d agreed to make some changes and add more depth to the witches on the show. Now, they were slutty, ditsy cheerleaders. I’m not good at taking orders.

Overall, I loved my job, even if I worked more hours than I’d ever expected to when I’d filmed the pilot episode of Night High five years ago. It had taken me a year to get that pilot picked up, and I still had trouble believing I was getting paid to write. Since I was already here, I decided to log into my computer and check my emails. I figured Leo was probably pouting because it had taken me longer than ten minutes to get here. He always forgot I couldn’t teleport to Los Angeles. I had to drive to the closest transport tube, which was in Oakland. The transport tubes were one of the best contributions demons had made to the preternatural community. I had no idea how they worked, but they made it possible for me to get from Oakland to Los Angeles in an hour with good traffic.

“I will not work with her!” Malik St. James waved his hands in an overly dramatic manner as he glided into my office. He was graceful, with a delicate build that most would call pretty. That was common with vampires and why we used so many of them on the show. He had a boyish face, stunning blue eyes, and bronze skin, thanks to the modern miracle of spray tans. His naturally blonde hair was dyed black with purple streaks, and he sported several facial piercings—lip, eyebrow, and nose. Most would think he was dressed for the show, but Malik always dressed this way. He even dressed this way when attending the opera, of all things. Apparently, when you’re a big shot actor who’s also starred in several movies, you can get away with wearing whatever you want in your private opera box.

Close on his heels was the hottest new actress on television, Cat Devereaux. Cat was dramatic in a different and scarier way than Malik. I liked her. She was just over five feet tall with the lean muscular build of a runner, and she could kick just about anyone’s ass. Her reddish brown hair was a long mass of curls that hung past her waist. She had no piercings, no tattoos, and preferred jeans and a t-shirt. Her clean-cut, girl next door look was a startling contrast to Malik’s bad boy good looks.

“I will stake his skinny ass if he doesn’t stop calling me a bitch,” Cat growled—literally growled—meaning she was close to changing. Cat was a werewolf, and even though I’d never met her parents, I loved them for naming their werewolf daughter Cat.

Now, I knew why Leo had called me. Malik and Cat needed to learn to play nice, and they listened to me more than anyone else. They probably figured it was stupid to piss off the woman responsible for writing their rolls.

Taking a deep, calming breath, I did my best to resist the temptation to send one of them crashing through a wall. They might be scary preternatural creatures, but my father was a high-level demon. I was scarier. Still, I didn’t want to deal with a hole in my wall. That would make it easier for people to barge into my office, and there were still a few people who knocked before entering. “We have talked about this already,” I reminded them through clenched teeth.

“I don’t work with dogs,” Malik muttered.

“I don’t work with mosquitoes,” Cat snapped.

That was a good comeback, and I might have laughed if I weren’t ready to lose it with both of them.

“Well, apparently, I work with children!” I snapped back at them. “Sit down.” They must have finally figured out I wasn’t in the mood to deal with them because both sat in chairs at opposite ends of my office. “We’ve gotten countless letters and even done focus groups. There is no denying that the fans want to see Dante and Maxi as the next super couple on the show. Either I can write that story or I can kill off both characters. Which should I do?”

I couldn’t really kill off either of their characters, but I was hoping they didn’t know that.

“Sorry, Mel,” they both mumbled in unison.

“It’s hard working with her,” Malik grumbled. “She is such a drama queen.”

“I’m a drama queen?” Cat gasped.

“Deal with it,” I snapped. “I’m not here to help smooth things over. You don’t like each other, and I don’t give a flying fuck. You’re actors, so act like you’re best friends while you’re here and then bitch about each other when you leave.”

“Isn’t this your day off?” Cat asked.

“Yes, it is,” I told her with a strained smile.

“Then why are you here?” Malik asked.

“I assume Leo called me in to deal with your spat,” I explained.

Cat shook her head. “We didn’t talk to Leo about any of this.”

“You’re the first person we’ve complained to,” Malik added. “Everyone’s been running around stressed out about something.”

“They canceled rehearsal for two scenes, but I’m not sure why,” Cat explained. “None of the actors have been told what’s going on. Leo must have called you about that stuff. We haven’t even seen him tonight.”

“There was a human hanging around the set, and we were told to pretend to be human until he leaves,” Malik added thoughtfully.

I let out a frustrated sigh. “Leo said it was an emergency, and I needed to get here right away. He made it sound like the studio was on fire.”

“Charlie stocked all the restrooms today,” Malik assured me. Malik’s mention of the bathrooms meant no one had forgotten my reaction to being called in to deal with a toilet paper emergency.

Charlie was one of the maintenance people, but he also took care of most of the custodial work, so we could avoid having too many outsiders around. He was one of the few humans working on the show, and he was also Malik’s boyfriend, which boggled my mind every time I saw them together. Charlie was most comfortable in his well-worn jeans and old country music concert t-shirts. I had a feeling, when he wasn’t at work, he wore cowboy boots rather than work boots. His dishwater blond hair was usually messy and on the long side. Charlie was also quiet and preferred to stay in the background. Yet, it was no secret to the public he was involved with Malik. I figured he must truly love the annoying vampire to put up with all of that.

“If you see Leo, tell him I’m leaving in ten minutes and turning my phone off,” I told them before waving to the door so they’d know I wanted to be alone. We were not discussing their argument anymore. I wondered how long their characters had to date before I could write in a dramatic break up.

“Sure thing, Mel,” Cat agreed as they both headed out of my office.

I scanned my emails for anything important. Emails were something I also checked from home, but I’d been too busy to do that today, so I figured this was a good time. Glancing at the clock on my computer, I saw it had been nine minutes since my warning had been issued. I began logging off my computer and getting ready to make a break for it.

“Mellie Mel!” Leo chirped in an overly cheerful voice as he waddled into my office. “The kids aren’t having issues, are they? They told me they’d stopped by your office.”

“They’re fine,” I assured him, figuring he wouldn’t listen to a word I said about the issues with Malik and Cat, so why bother? Honestly, there was nothing he could do. Those two needed to learn to work together like adults.

To say Leo was disturbing to look at would be an understatement. I’d heard humans say he looked like a portly older man with thinning white hair and rosy cheeks. Humans rarely saw a demon’s true form, which was often a good thing. In Leo’s case, he was just shy of four feet tall, with legs that were unnaturally short for his round frame. His feet were always bare, probably because it was hard to find shoes when you had three long toes that curled upward. His face was a strange mix of human and pig, with a snout and beady red eyes that never blinked. His mouth was wide and looked relatively normal, unless he stuck out his short back tongue, which he did often to lick his blood-red lips. On top of his head was a tuft of white hair mostly covering his short horns. As always, he had a cigar sticking out of the corner of his mouth.

I waited for him to tell me what he needed, and then waited some more, until I finally lost my patience. “Why am I here, Leo?”

“This is your office, Mellie Mel,” he replied, before puffing on his smelly cigar and letting out a hacking cough that filled the room with the brimstone scent of his breath.

My glare must have gotten through to him because he finally decided to stop being an ass and tell me why he’d insisted I come down here. Apparently, he’d figured out I was getting ready to leave if he didn’t get to the point soon.

“One of the actresses was murdered,” he said as if it was nothing to worry about, and it probably wasn’t to him. “Police already cleaned up and got statements from the people who were working at the studio this morning, but some detective wants to talk to someone high up on the show. I’ve had one of the interns keeping him away from rehearsals while he looks around. I need you to talk to him.”

“Why couldn’t the shade come to me?” I demanded. Detectives weren’t always shades, but they usually were, so I felt safe with my assumption.

“He’s a human,” Leo explained. With that, he disappeared in a puff of smoke. He couldn’t actually vanish into thin air, but Leo had been puffing on the cigar enough to create a smoke screen, and the man moved like a cheetah when he wanted to. His great speed was the only thing that had prevented me from causing him serious physical harm over the years. Especially on days when he dropped shit like this in my lap.

“What the fuck, Leo?” I shouted, storming into the hall with every intention of tracking down the bastard. There was no sign of smoke in the hallway, so I wasn’t sure which way Leo had gone, and I knew he wasn’t going to answer my calls.

“Ms. Blackwood?”

Turning, I found the man I assumed was the human police detective. He was probably a couple of inches taller than six feet, with brown eyes and soft brown hair that was sprinkled with grey. He looked as annoyed to be there as I was, and that actually improved my mood some. Misery loves company.

“That’s me,” I replied with a forced smile.

He either didn’t notice my annoyance, or chose to ignore it.

“I’m Detective Giovanni. I was told you would be the person to speak to.”

“About?” I asked before quickly adding. “Let me rephrase that. I know you’re here about a murder related to the show, one of our actors. Not to sound like an idiot, but I’m not sure what I can do for you. I just got here. When my producer called me in, I thought he needed me to deal with a toilet paper emergency.”

The detective’s annoyance morphed to confusion. “Toilet paper?”

“Yeah. Long story,” I told him. “Who was killed?” I was sure it looked bad that I wasn’t freaking out about a murder, but I’m one of those people who doesn’t react right away to bad news. It takes time to sink in with me. Also, it was hard to react when I didn’t even know who’d died. Things still felt unreal.

“Amber Tate,” he said curtly, and I got the feeling he was pissed about having to explain this to me.

I racked my brain, trying to place the name, until it finally came to me. Amber was a human who’d joined the cast earlier in the season. We didn’t have many humans on the show, because none of us wanted to pretend to be human at work. There were a few humans who knew about the preternatural world, like Amber. She’d been a goth girl, playing a vampire, and I had to admit that I’d barely spoken to her in the time she’d worked on the show. She’d been a good actress, and I’d given her more lines in the next few episodes. “What the hell happened?” I demanded. There were a couple of reasons I was suddenly pissed off. First, I’d just realized I was going to be forced to rewrite big chunks of the next few episodes. Second, I felt bad that I wasn’t having a stronger reaction to this poor woman’s death.

“You seriously don’t know anything about what happened?”

I was beginning to wonder how many times I would have to say that before he believed me.

“Yes, I know exactly what happened,” I replied, my voice dripping with sarcasm. “That’s why I told you I didn’t know in the beginning of our conversation. I like asking questions that I already know the answer to.”

Rather than looking pissed at my bitchy attitude, he flashed a sheepish smile. “I apologize for being so rude, Ms. Blackwood. I was told you were my contact during this investigation, so I assumed you at least knew what had happened.”

“Fucking Leo,” I muttered under my breath.

The detective let out a startled bark of laughter. “That is who told me you’d be my contact. Let’s start from the beginning. Amber Tate’s body was found with a stake through the heart,” he explained. “According to security, they don’t have any record of her being here, and her car was not here. It was a security guard doing his rounds who called to report the murder. Can you think of any reason she might have been here late last night or early this morning?”

That explained how the human police had gotten involved. Lot security must have found the body, and they were all humans who knew nothing about the preternatural cast and crew on Night High. When we were filming or had rehearsals, our own security worked, but no one should have been here last night or this morning. “I’m not sure why she would have been here. I suppose it’s possible she forgot something, but her car would have been here if that was the case, right?”

He shrugged. “One would assume she’d driven herself here. Had she received any threats?”

“I don’t know,” I replied. “To be honest, I’m not sure I ever spoke to her. I know who she played on the show, and that’s about it.”

“So, you can’t think of anyone who might have wanted to put a stake through her heart?” he pushed.

“I can’t figure out why someone would put a stake through her heart like she was a vampire,” I replied before remembering who I was talking to. “You don’t think there’s some crazy person out there who believes in vampires, do you?” Any member of the preternatural community would have known she was human, making it more likely another human had killed her.

“It’s possible one of your fans has started to believe the actors are actual vampires, werewolves, witches, and whatever other nonsense you have on this show.” He shook his head. “Sorry. That was another asshole statement.”

I waved off his apology. “It’s fine. You aren’t a fan of my show. Was there anything else you need from me, now that you know I can’t help you find the killer?”

“I was also told you could help me contact Amber Tate’s family.”

“I don’t work in personnel.” I had no idea who to even direct him to in the personnel office. Actually, I didn’t even know if that’s who would have the information, even if we did have a personnel department. “Listen, I don’t know who keeps track of that, and I wasn’t close to Amber Tate.”

“I might be able to help,” Cassie, one of the witch makeup artists, said from the door to my office. I didn’t know her well and was surprised to see her at my office. “Amber lived with her grandma. I don’t know the number, but I’m sure it’s listed as the emergency contact in her files.”

“Thank you, Cassie,” I told her. “You heard what happened?”

“Not really,” Cassie replied with a shrug. “We’ve all been guessing. I just heard Amber’s name when I was walking by.” She hurried off without waiting for a response.

“There you have it,” I told the detective.

Detective Giovanni let out an exasperated sigh. “It would really help if someone could tell me how to reach her next of kin.”

When I said nothing, he nodded and set a card on my desk. “I’ll track down the show’s producer again. Call me if you can think of anything that might help with the case.”

I pulled out one of my own cards and handed it to him. “I’m not sure what I can do to help, but call me if you think of anything.”

He nodded. “Thank you again.”

I nodded and watched him walk out the door, torn on what to do next. Much as I wanted to head back to Trevor, I needed to deal with the script issues Amber’s murder had created. Mentally going over the schedule for the week, I realized she had a lot of lines.

This was supposed to be Amber’s big break, and I wiped my tears, annoyed that my delayed reaction to her death had decided to rear its ugly head while I was still at work.

“Ms. Blackwood,” the detective said, popping his head into my office again. His face softened when he saw my tears, which I was trying hard to cover. “Sorry for barging in on you,” he continued, pretending he hadn’t noticed me crying. “Do you have a business card for your producer?”

I nodded, handing it to him. After taking the card, he hurried out of my office, this time closing the door behind him.

I wondered if Amber’s death had been because some human believed there really were vampires after watching the show. That had me hoping the killer would go after one of the real vampire actors. Wouldn’t the killer be surprised when they realized vampires were much more capable of protecting themselves than poor Amber had been?