“You can’t do that.” Aisling sounded pragmatic. “I’ll die because it’s too late in the season and I’ll sweat to death. Also, stop being such a baby. You really are starting to sound like Braden.”
“You really are,” Angelina agreed, picking herself up off the ground. She dusted off the seat of her pants. “I want to institute a rule about messing with people’s jobs, Aisling. You work for your father and can’t get in trouble. I don’t have that luxury.”
“Oh, whatever.” Aisling’s earlier glee had fled. “This has been a total bummer of a fight. I can’t believe you ruined this for me.”
Her eyes were on me. “We’re supposed to be hunting for monsters,” I reminded her. Angelina was in on the family secret, so there was nothing stopping me from stating the truth. “There are more important things than ... whatever this was.”
Aisling threw her hands in the air. “You clearly don’t get me.”
I clearly didn’t, because I felt like shaking her until she shut up. I didn’t get the chance, because Angelina was suddenly pointing at something at the end of the street.
“Monsters like that?” Her voice was squeaky.
Confused, I turned to stare in that direction. Sure enough, four rubbery monsters had appeared from ... somewhere ... and they were stalking directly toward us with promises of mayhem illuminated in their red eyes. “Oh, well, crap.”
Aisling and I turned to each other.
“This is your fault,” we blurted out.
It didn’t matter who was to blame. A fight was upon us and it was going to take all of us to come out of it alive. I should’ve thought better about my plan.
Nineteen
Where had they come from?
That’s all I could think as my heart pounded and the blood rushed through my ears.
“Oh, what are they?” Angelina made a face that would’ve been hilarious under different circumstances. “They look like trolls or something. Why can’t your family be normal?” Her furious gaze landed on Aisling.
“They’re not trolls,” Aisling shot back. She was calmer than I expected, even though now seemed like a good time to panic. “Don’t be stupid. Trolls live under bridges and can be distracted by billy goats. These are something else entirely.”
“Oh, well ... if you say so.” Angelina rolled her eyes. “I’m not sticking around for this. I’m going inside with my clients to keep them from looking out the windows. If you kill these things, move the bodies right away. I’m not kidding. If you cost me this sale, Aisling, I’ll make you pay in ways you can’t even fathom.”
“Oh, suck a lemon.” Aisling shifted so her back was to Angelina and she faced the revenants. “Do you think that’s four of the people who returned or did they make more?”
That was the question. “I think they made more,” I answered without hesitation. “I think that’s the Dunning family. I’m not sure which is Doug — or if he’s even amongst them — but I’m pretty sure those are the people he left behind.”
The more I thought about it, the more the idea made me sick to my stomach. “We should’ve protected them.” I meant to keep the last bit to myself, but it escaped.
“We should’ve done a lot of things differently,” Aisling noted as she strode to the center of the yard and grabbed the “for sale” sign planted there. “The longer we dwell on what could’ve been, the longer we’ll falter at ensuring what should be. That’s not the way to get ahead.”
“That’s very pragmatic,” Paris noted, her hands clenched into fists at her sides. “What are you going to do with that?”
Aisling was studying the sharp edges of the sign, the ones that had been buried in the ground until a few moments before. “I’m going to stab one of them.”
“With a sign?” Paris’s eyebrows flew up her forehead. “I don’t think that’s going to work.”
“Yes, well, I forgot to bring my sword. Sometimes you simply have to make do with what you have at your disposal.”
“You have a sword?” Paris was stunned. “Why would you possibly need a sword?”
“You’d be surprised how many times I’ve needed a sword.” Aisling didn’t hesitate as she headed toward the sidewalk. She was going after the revenants rather than allowing them to come to us.
“Wait.” Something horrible had occurred to me. “I think you should sit in the car and let me handle this fight.”
Aisling snorted. She was almost directly in front of the first revenant. “That’s not going to happen.”
“If you’re hurt ... or if something worse happens ... .” I left the sentence hanging. I couldn’t even think about how the Grimlocks would react if something were to go wrong.
“I won’t get hurt.” Aisling seemed sure of herself as she stopped in the middle of the street. “Hello, jerkfaces.” She beamed at the creatures as they growled and continued to advance. “This is going to hurt.”
There was no hesitation when she slammed the bottom of the sign into the first revenant. She’d obviously been in a fight — or ten — over the course of her life. She’d come to fight and that’s exactly what she did.
The revenant’s shrieking — the noise weak and brittle as well as shrill — shook me out of my reverie. Obviously there was no turning back now. We had to fight.
My fingertips glowed green as I ignited my magic. I sent a bolt directly at the shortest revenant, which saw the barrage coming but didn’t have time to duck. The powerful ball hit it square in the face, causing it to grunt, and then the magic exploded. The revenant fell backward, a stunned look on its face. It stared sightlessly at the sky as I fervently hoped that the creature’s small stature was due to the fact that it was previously a grown woman and not a child. For some reason, that bothered me more than anything else.
Paris had pulled a glowing knife from her pocket at some point — I couldn’t wait to press her on that — and was engaged in battle with the revenant on the far right of the group. Her technique wasn’t great, but she was the tenacious sort and didn’t give up a single inch as she battled the creature.
Aisling was still grappling with her revenant. The sign did its intended job and injured the creature, but it was still putting up a fight. Aisling looked to have the situation in hand, so I focused on the last revenant. He — and I honestly had no idea if it was truly a he or a she, I just had a feeling — was huge. He was twice the size of the first revenant I’d put down.
“Back up,” I warned, my fingers igniting for a second time. I wished I’d thought this out before we started attacking. The goal was to question a revenant. The little one would’ve been the easiest to take into custody. Now I was stuck with the big one, and he looked less likely to cooperate. “You don’t have to die if you simply turn yourself in.”
I wasn’t sure the revenant could understand me — it didn’t look like the sort of creature who understood things — but when it started laughing like a deranged clown on steroids I realized that I’d been underestimating them from the start because of their looks.
“Fine. Be a pain. I can’t stop you.” Paris and Aisling hadn’t yet killed their revenants, but I figured I could take out this one and then help one of them subdue their creature. “You’re going to regret not listening to me.”
I conjured the same ball of green magic — it had worked so well the first time — and didn’t hesitate as I sent it toward the revenant. He was expecting it, and dodged to the right. I didn’t realize until the last second that he was coming directly for me in a rush after evading my attack and I had to put up my hands in defense.
The revenant and I collided with enough force that the oxygen was momentarily knocked from my lungs. I managed to keep on my feet and extended my hands in front of me. The glowing magic turned to an orange flame, and I poured as much energy as I could into the effort as I planted my hands against the creature’s chest. His eyes went wide — there was still something human lurking there and it hurt me to see — and then his entire body went up in flames.
“Well, I guess we know fire also works,” I muttered. I stared blankly for a full thirty seconds and then remembered Aisling and Paris weren’t done fighting. When I turned to help, it was already too late to warn them to take one alive.
“Die, foul hell beast!” Aisling almost looked as if she was having fun as she shoved the sign into her creature’s neck. It was a true blow, and the monster gurgled before its eyes rolled back into its head. Aisling looked satisfied as it rolled to its back and stared at the darkening sky.
I swiveled to check on Paris and found her sitting on the ground, a smudge of dirt on her cheek. She was still holding the dagger, which no longer glowed. She looked dazed.
“Oh, no.” I stalked in her direction and stared at the body on the ground. “Is it dead?”
“Better it than me,” Paris groused, shooting me a dirty look.
“I didn’t mean that. It’s just ... we were supposed to catch one, not kill them all.”
“Oh.” She pursed her lips. “Well ... I kind of forgot.”
Aisling’s face was dirty thanks to the revenant’s blood splattering during their fight. “I guess we need to find more of them.”
That sounded like an absolutely horrible idea. “I think we need to get back to Grimlock Manor before your father realizes you’re gone.”
“We can’t do that.”
“Why?”
“We can’t leave these bodies here. We need to call my father and tell him what happened. He’ll send a cleanup crew.”
Well, crap. I hadn’t even considered that. “Or maybe we could burn them.” That sounded like a promising idea. “I burned the one and it turned to ash. No muss, no fuss.”
“Normally I would agree. These things are ... different, though. They need to run tests on them. I don’t like it either, but we have to call my father.”
My stomach gave a pronounced heave. “He’s going to yell at us, isn’t he?”
“Oh, you have no idea.”
CORMACK WASN’T THE ONLY ONE WHO YELLED when we returned to Grimlock Manor.
“You’re both grounded!”
He started out the extravaganza with a bang.
“I hate to state the obvious, but you can’t ground me,” I pointed out, sinking into one of the chairs in the parlor and accepting the drink Aidan poured me. He looked more amused than concerned. Of course, he didn’t have a lot of skin in the game. All the Grimlock males enjoyed watching their sister get in trouble. Their first concern was her safety. When it was obvious she was fine, they turned to torturing her as means of entertainment.
It was the Grimlock way.
“Oh, you’re definitely grounded.” Cormack’s eyes flashed with annoyance. He’d made sure to hand Lily off to Jerry so she couldn’t bear witness to him yelling at her mother. Jerry refused to leave entirely, though, and swayed back and forth as he patted Lily’s back and watched the show.
“Listen ... .” I was about to go off, explain that I didn’t need a father figure, when Aisling shot me a pointed look before stepping directly in front of her father.
“You can’t ground Izzy and you know it,” Aisling argued. “I know you like her and think of her as the well-behaved daughter you never had, but you have to suck up the disappointment. She’s just like us. That’s the reason Braden fell for her in the first place.”
“Oh, don’t bring me into this,” Braden complained, his gaze furious as it landed on me. “I think she should definitely be grounded. In fact, I think it’s time to dust off the cell in the basement and lock her in there until she repents.”
He’d offered me an intense hug when he saw me and then he’d held me at arm’s length since. He was obviously angry. Like ... really, really angry. Part of me wanted to apologize until he gave in and forgave me. The other part wanted to knock his head against the wall until he admitted he had no jurisdiction over me. I wasn’t a child who needed to be scolded.
“Now there’s a good idea,” Cormack enthused. “There’s only one cell, but we can fit two cots in there. Aisling and Izzy will have each other to talk to. It’s the perfect solution.”
“Oh, stop blowing smoke.” Aisling dragged a hand through her hair. She was filthy and bedraggled from the fight, but her spunk was on full display. She had no intention of letting her father wear her down. “You’re not going to lock me in that cell and you’re not even all that angry.”
“Oh, I’m angry.” Cormack’s gaze was dark. “You have no idea how angry I am. I’m so angry that ... no, I can’t even think of another word that conveys how angry I am. Do you have any idea how I felt when I went to your room — with the tea set your mother insisted I buy when you were eight — and found you missing?”
“I left a note.”
“That’s not the point!” His voice boomed so deeply it echoed throughout the room. “I thought you were taking a nap and relaxing. Instead I find you were fighting monsters. What happened?”
When no one immediately responded, I glanced up and found him staring directly at me. “Oh, you’re going to blame this on me, aren’t you?”
He nodded without hesitation. “You knew I had her under house arrest. When she showed up at the scene — I still don’t know how you ended up there, Aisling, and managed to find Izzy on top of that — you should’ve called me. I would’ve immediately come down and handled her.”
“That’s not exactly how it happened,” I hedged, darting a quick look in Braden’s direction as I searched for support. The look he shot me said I wouldn’t find it there. I let out a sigh, resigned. “We had lunch in Mexican Town first.”
“Lunch?” Cormack was incensed. “I can’t even ... you ... both of you.” He mimed tugging at his hair. “I don’t even know what to say to you two. I can’t believe you did this. I really can’t.
“You’re a mother now, Aisling,” he continued, his voice laced with disappointment. “You left your child with me so you could have Mexican food and fight monsters. What if something had happened to you?”
“Nothing happened to me.” Aisling made an exaggerated face. “I wasn’t in any danger. I had everything under control from the start. Tell him, Izzy. I was totally fine.”
“She was totally fine,” I echoed perfunctorily. “Of course, we wouldn’t have been out in the open the way we were in the first place if she hadn’t picked a fight with Angelina and told her clients the house was haunted and Angelina was moonlighting as a real estate agent on orders from her pimp.”
Cormack’s expression remained stony. Redmond, Cillian, Aidan and Jerry all snorted in amusement thanks to the visual I’d painted. Hope welling, I glanced at Braden ... but he was still a morose monster. Apparently we wouldn’t be making up any time soon.
“What was Angelina doing there?” Cormack asked, his tone weary. “I mean ... how did she get wrangled into this?”
“It was a coincidence,” I volunteered. “She was showing the house across the road. Aisling went after her. The revenants arrived a few minutes later. I’m not sure where they were. They just came out of nowhere and attacked.”
“Well, that’s disconcerting,” Cormack growled. “It’s too bad you killed them all. We really could’ve used one for questioning.”
I shot Aisling a pointed look. “I told you.”
“Hey, I had a real estate sign as a weapon. I only cared about saving myself, not questioning those things. Excuse me for worrying about self-preservation. I have a daughter, after all.” As if to prove it, she strode across the room, ignoring her father’s glare, and collected Lily from Jerry. The second the baby was in her arms, she looked up at Aisling’s dirty face and immediately grinned before cooing. It wasn’t exactly a laugh, but it was close.
“Did you see that?” Aisling was in awe. �
�She smiled at me.”
I couldn’t help but be relieved. That was exactly what Aisling needed. And, frankly, it couldn’t have happened at a better time.
“No way.” Braden slid out of his chair, gave me a wide berth, and crossed to the baby. “She’s supposed to smile at me first.”
“No, she’s supposed to smile at me first,” Redmond countered. “I’m the best-looking Grimlock.”
“In your dreams,” Aidan scoffed as he stroked Lily’s soft head. “That’s so cool that she finally smiled, though. Now she’ll do it all the time.”
As if to prove him right, Lily smiled again, this time at her mother’s twin brother.
“She smiled at me!” Aidan pumped his fist in the air. “That means I win the bet.”
“It does not,” Cillian shot back. “Aisling won the bet ... but she didn’t bet because she didn’t believe she would win. I guess that goes to prove you should have more faith in yourself.”
Aisling’s eyes were glassy as she held Cillian’s gaze for a moment. Then she turned to her father. “I’m not sorry I went out. Everything turned out fine. You can’t control me forever. I’m not a child.”
“You’re my child,” he shot back, although the anger he’d been hoarding appeared to have evaporated. “You’re in big trouble, Aisling. You’re not getting any dessert ... and I have homemade ice cream and fresh cookies, so you’re really going to miss out.”
My stomach heaved at the notion. I loved ice cream. “Oh, man.”
For a split second, I was certain I saw amusement reflected on Cormack’s features. He shuttered it quickly, though, and all I caught a glimpse of when I looked a second time was annoyance. “No ice cream for you either, Izzy,” he ordered.
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