“So, Temple is the Murder Fluff. Do you have a cute nickname for me?” Sally asked as I was swallowing the last bite of my food.

I coughed as I choked on the morsel a little bit. “Why would you ask me a thing like that?”

“Simple, I hear Temple liked the name when he heard it. I figured we could use it like a secret signal. Besides, Murder Fluff was a brilliant one.”

I considered for a bit. I gave a resigned sigh, “Gothic Murder Muffin. GMM for short.” I looked at the floor as I said it. I couldn’t keep the embarrassment completely out of my voice as I blushed a bit.

I heard her inhale deeply. I was sure she would be yelling her rage at me, and it would take hours for her to stop sulking after. She let out a huge belly laugh that dissolved into giggles. She even fell to the floor and rolled around laughing. Her platinum blond hair flew around as she thrashed her head around in amusement. After a few minutes, Sally tapered into light giggles as she sprawled out on the soft carpeting. Eventually, she stilled and lay flat with her eyes closed.

“I get ‘Gothic’ and ‘Murder’ is a given for what I am. But, ‘Muffin’? That one is a bit of a stretch.” She looked over at me with knitted brows as she asked this last.

I figured I had best bite the bullet. “Have you SEEN this place?” I replied with eyebrows raised. “The couch alone is enough for the ‘Muffin’ tag. Add the unicorn plushie, and it’s nailed.”

Sally goggled a little at that. “Fair enough. Don’t let the pet name thing get too creepy young man!” she teased back.

Looking down at her smirk, I responded, “Perish the thought! Can we talk about our mission now? Do we know what this ‘key’ looks like? Who do we talk to in the Lycan organization to get ahold of it?”

“So, it’s a stone cluster of crystals that glows in shifting colored light. It’s hard to miss. We have an appointment to meet the Lycan at a spot just outside of town. We will be brought to the ‘key’ from that location. From there, we will figure out next steps to get back to Iris.”

“When do we leave for the spot we meet them at?” I asked.

“Two AM should work. Let’s get ready to go.”

We both went back to our rooms. Somewhere along the way, Sally had slipped into my room and laid out a set of clothes. She had given me a pair of jeans that fit almost too perfectly, paired with a black T-shirt and a black leather jacket. The jacket was cut in a biker style, but had metal spikes at the wrist and collar. There was a leather bracelet for each wrist that also had matching spikes. The heavy, black leather boots finished the look.

When I got to the couch, Sally had a fresh outfit that looked like biker chick meets streetfighter. Her leather jacket had the same metal spikes and styling. She had the same spiked leather bracelets and heavy boots as well. Her T-shirt was vibrant red, and her pants were black leather as well.

Leaning on a spiked baseball bat like it was a cane, Sally looked me up and down. “Good to see I haven’t lost my touch. We have to maintain some standards when we talk to the Lycans. We wouldn’t want to let them think we are weak.”

“Is that what this is about? What’s with the spikes anyway?” I asked.

Bringing up her left fist, Sally gingerly pressed her index finger against the metal spike. There was an audible sizzle and some smoke from the point of contact. “Silver spikes. It’s the only way you could survive a fistfight with a Lycan, if things went poorly. It works pretty well on a vampire too, of course.”

“Are we expecting trouble from those quarters? Should I know about other weaknesses?”

“Let’s just say, things are tense these days. Plus, ‘Hippy’ is... not a fan of Iris or me…”

“Who is ‘Hippy’?”

With a bit of a sneer, Sally spoke again. “I call her that because she hates it. Her full name is Hipolita and she is in charge of protecting the Key. We have a little bit of bad blood between us. You might want to keep my name for her to yourself.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Let’s get moving.”

We exited the apartment, and Sally led the way to the red sports car. It was unlocked when I got to the passenger door. The cream colored leather was soft and supple to the touch. I have never been a big sports car guy, but I think there seemed to be Italian styling to the sleek machine. The driver’s seat was on the right side of the car and seemed to adapt itself to her form. She revved the engine as the doors began to open and we darted out into the night with barely an inch to spare on either side. We were almost out of sight of the doors as they slid closed silently behind us. Sally pressed a button on the steering wheel as we took a curve at 50mph.

I heard the tones as the phone connected to the car stereo made a call. A melodious female voice came on the line, “This is Hope. Do we have an appointment?”

“You know damned well we have an appointment, Hipolita. We’ll be there in twenty minutes. I have the candidate with me now.” Sally was all business as she spoke, even as we swerved around another curve with the tires screeching and the engine screaming.

“Even you know not to take that curve so fast, Sal. Are you trying to kill your candidate? You haven’t even given me a chance to seduce him yet.” Hope said teasingly.

“As far as I’m concerned, you can have him, but Iris might get cranky…” my companion said as she did a great impression of a stunt driver.