“Soon.” The older woman gave her a significant look. “So what else is up?”
Ashe got down to business. “I was hoping you could offer some insights. There are a few things going on.”
Grandma fidgeted. She obviously wanted a cigarette but refused to smoke around Eden or Robin. “Okay, hit me. What’s up?”
“For starters, we need to find an artifact that was stolen from the Castle,” Ashe said.
“You’re looking for a spell to find lost objects?”
“Stolen by a demon,” said Reynard. “My guess is that the object would be shielded from ordinary location spells.”
Grandma blinked in surprise. “Have you talked to Lore? If there’s a black, gray, or even slightly dingy market in Fairview, the hellhounds seem to know about it.”
“You think talking to him would be better than using a spell?” Ashe asked.
“Cast a spell and the thief, if he’s any kind of a magic user himself, will know you’re looking for him. Sometimes simple is safest.”
“Good point.” Ashe looked at Reynard. “I know where Lore works. I’ll try to set something up first thing tomorrow morning.”
Grandma leaned back in her chair. “So what’s the object? What’s going on?”
Ashe and Reynard shared a look.
“Where do we start?” Ashe said.
Grandma huffed. “I don’t much care. Spill, or forget any more free advice.”
They explained who Reynard was, and then filled her in, starting with the rabbit, carrying on through the lawyer’s demon problem and the theft of the urn, and finishing with the death of Frederick Lloyd, the vampire in the library. The news that he was the King of the East’s emissary, and that the king wanted an heir, made her grandmother’s face pucker with anxiety.
“My Goddess.” Grandma refilled her coffee cup. The gesture looked automatic, like she needed something to do with her hands. “Just because Holly and Alessandro had Robin, are vampires suddenly going to want kids of their own?”
“Only some of them,” said Ashe dryly. “Lloyd let something slip about other vampires considering daddyhood to be an abomination. That’s the same term the sniper in the gardens used.”
Reynard looked grim. “You think the sniper, or whoever hired him, planned to prevent any future children by killing you?”
“Is Holly in danger as well?” Grandma snapped, although the answer was obvious.
Cold dread snaked around Ashe’s limbs. If Omara, the local vamp queen, heard about the King of the East’s messenger, she would freak. There’d be monster politics raining all over everyone. Fairview would become a kill zone. They had to take care of this before her fangship found out.
Ashe met Grandma’s eyes, and guessed by her expression that she was thinking along the same lines. “Holly’s our best magical weapon, but she said her mojo is still wonky. Any idea when she’ll be back to normal?”
“Soon. It usually takes a month or two after the baby is born before a witch’s powers recover. In the meantime, Alessandro will look after Holly. You take care of yourself and Eden. Protect your family. Stake half the damned vampires in town if you have to.”
Rambo Grandma. Great. “It’s not going to be that easy. I’m looking at a custody case. Hunting monsters isn’t an approved single- mom occupation. Even if I fly under that radar, the vamps like their revenge. I’m afraid that if I make a move, it’ll put Eden in danger.”
“Then let me be your sword,” Reynard offered, leaning forward across the table. The dim light of the dining room darkened his eyes and pared any trace of softness from his face. He was all sharp angles. Granite with an edge of steel. “There is no reason for you to risk yourself or your daughter. Not while I am here.”
But you won’t be here for long. “You’ve got your own problems.”
“It’s the least a gentleman can do.” He gave a sardonic smile. “Besides, I thought we agreed to help each other.”
Ashe sat back in her chair, feeling a sudden need for distance. This was too much, too soon. “I said I’d help you. I don’t hunt with a partner. Never have, never will.”
She looked him straight in the eyes, determined to make her point. She saw a flicker of what might have been hurt; then his gaze became hard and gray as the stones of the Castle walls. He’d taken her refusal as a personal rejection. Annoyance burned through her stomach. Great. Like I have time to soothe wounded male egos.
“Mo-o-o-om!” Eden bawled from the living room.
The air around the adults’ table suddenly felt brittle with tension. The interruption only cranked it up three notches.
Ashe took a shaking breath before she called out, “Hark, I hear the sweet tones of the Princess Eden!”
“May I have more dessert, please?”
Good grammar emerged only when Eden wanted something. “Come and get it.”
“But I’m reading!”
“Then leave your eyeballs there.”
“Mo-o-om!” This time disgust.
Ashe made a face. She was pulled in too many directions.
“I’ll take it to her.” Reynard stood up with a cool glance at Ashe, impatience in every line of his body. He shoved a slice of the chocolaty dessert onto a plate and stalked away from the table.
Grandma shot Ashe a caustic look. “You really know how to win friends and influence people.”
“Whatever,” Ashe muttered.
“He’d be a good partner. He looks like he’s broken a few rules in his time. You don’t end up an immortal in a dungeon by doing nothing but crossword puzzles.”
“I don’t want a partner. You have to be responsible for a partner. I don’t need that.”
“Why not?”
Ashe sat back and folded her arms. “When I’ve done such a good job with the other people in my life?” Like Mom and Dad and Roberto . . .
“Take his help, Ashe. He’s a big boy. He can handle himself.”
“How much can I rely on a guy who’s on a ticking clock?”
“It’s clear from one look that he thinks the world of you.”
“Is that enough?”
“You’re pushing him back into his stone cell.”
“Damned straight, I am. With his urn. He’ll live that way.”
Grandma toyed with her coffee cup. “If you don’t want my advice, then why are you here?”
“I do need help. I need a shoulder to cry on.”
Grandma raised her eyebrows. “Besides the obvious, what’s the matter?”
“Everything,” Ashe said in a low voice. “Like I said, it’s one thing to be flying solo when it’s pouring vamps and demons.”
Grandma took a swallow of coffee, taking her time. “But the stakes are higher with your family around.”
“I’m damn near paralyzed. I can’t afford to make a mistake. The last time the monster posse showed up I had to send Eden away.”
“So think like a slayer, not a soccer mom. You need to go on the offensive and get ahead of the game. Get them before they have time to make another move.”
Ashe set her coffee mug on the table with an audible thump. She was pulled in too many directions to think straight anymore. “But that’s the whole problem. I can’t kick every ass that needs kicking anymore. Yes, I hate that. I actually like hunting. But changing who I am gives me a life that includes my daughter, and I’m not sorry. There is nothing I won’t do for her.”
Grandma shoved her plate away, the corners of her mouth pulling down. “The world does not run on absolutes. Your role in our family is as a protector. That doesn’t mean you never get to be a Norman Rockwell mother. You just can’t be one right now. Slay now; make tuna casserole later. Do both. Be versatile. It’s the way of the modern woman.”
“That sounds pretty simplistic.”
“Because it is. If Fairview’s not safe, Eden’s not safe. The question’s not whether you’re going to clean up this mess, but when you’re going to get busy and do it. What are your options? Let the bad vampi
res run amok? Send the demon a housewarming basket? The list of people who can deal with this sort of thing is very short, and you’re at the top. If you’re worried about safety, stay with Holly. That house is a magical fortress.”
Ashe gave a single, reluctant nod. She hated sleeping in her childhood home. It held too many memories, but if things got bad, she could suck it up. “There’s still the whole custody thing. I have to do this entirely under the radar.”
“I understand. We’ll cover you.”
“We?”
“Me, Holly, Alessandro. Your family. We’ll figure out how.”
Ashe was shaking her head before Grandma finished talking. “I can’t put that burden on you.”
“Damn it, Ashe, if you want things to get easier, you have to change. Learn to accept a helping hand!”
Reynard was furious. She cannot refuse my assistance. It’s not reasonable. Clearly she could see he was more than capable. They’d killed two vampires together. But there was nothing reasonable about Ashe Carver. She was all will and steel.
There was no possibility that she was better off without his help, and her resistance brought his own will—and, to be honest, his pride—into focus.
She could tell him he wasn’t welcome. That did not mean he would accept her refusal. Ever. He hadn’t survived centuries in the Castle by giving in. He had learned how to bide his time. If he had to, he would simply outsmart her.
The idea curled through him like a plume of incense, part inspiration and part nostalgia for the Reynard who had stalked the drawing rooms of yore. How pleasurable those days had been. Their sweet nostalgia lingered like a perfume. He had been a master with the women of his time. Surely he could handle one of their descendants in much the same way. For Ashe’s own good, of course.
At least until he fell off his perch, he thought sardonically.
His inner conversation stopped dead when he saw Eden. The child was curled into a ball on the sofa, book clutched to her chest. Her brown eyes were wide. He set the plate on the small table beside her.
She just kept looking at him, as if she were expecting something more. Reynard’s inner rake vaporized like a wisp of smoke, vanishing into the wiser, harder man.
“Is there something else you desire?” he asked gently.
Her gaze shifted toward the dining room, where Ashe and her grandmother were arguing in low, tight tones. “I thought Mom would come,” she said in a small voice.
She hadn’t wanted the cake; she’d wanted her mother. Something is wrong.
Reynard listened for a moment, trying to hear what the girl would hear. The argument sounded different from a distance, without the gestures and faces to accompany words: the old woman’s low, husky voice; Ashe’s was lighter, clear, and aching with tension.
His ears told him things he hadn’t seen. Anguish.
He could tell Ashe was tearing herself to pieces, all her certainty a bluff for a terrible fear that she would fail her child. But all Eden would understand was that her mother was terrified, and a frightened mother made for a frightened daughter. Reynard was no expert with children, but he had seen soldiers’ families dragged along as camp followers during war. He recognized that panicked look. In those cases, he’d always had something practical to offer—food, water, protection. Now he was at a loss.
He sat down beside Eden. She let go of the book, and it slid to the floor. He read the title: Prince Caspian. Nothing he recognized.
“Easier when you’re a lone wolf,” the grandmother said from the next room.
“Lots,” Ashe replied, her voice quiet, but not quiet enough.
Eden gave Reynard a look filled with confusion. “Why does Mom want to be alone all the time?”
Bloody hell, she thinks Ashe doesn’t want her here. Yet, just the way Ashe looked at the child made that idea impossible. Ashe wanted her daughter above everything else.
Mother and daughter were on a collision course of misunderstanding. Just like he and his brother had been. Families hadn’t changed much over the years.
Reynard swore to himself for a moment. Seduction—he understood how to play those games. He knew how to fight, gamble, and make the witty chatter expected of a gentleman at dinner. Providing emotional comfort was something quite different, and nothing he had ever been good at. He had been raised to show no weakness, and the Castle crushed sympathy before it began. But the sinking feeling in his gut wouldn’t let him back away. He still didn’t know what to say to a child, so he went with the truth.
“You realize that your mother fights monsters from time to time,” he said, hoping he wasn’t insulting the girl’s intelligence.
“Yeah,” Eden said bleakly. “She’s done that for a while now.”
“That is why we were late. We had a problem to take care of.”
She looked down, thick, dark lashes hiding her eyes. She didn’t have the doll-like prettiness of some young girls, but she would grow into a striking woman.
“I heard you guys talking. There are bad vampires around.” Her fingers plucked nervously at the fringe of a throw cushion. “She should let me go back to Saint Flo’s so I wouldn’t be in her way. I should just go.”
She’s far too young to have to worry about demons and slayers. Reynard wished he were Mac, who would know how to give support with a touch and the right word. He took the girl’s hand in his. It was small and warm. She looked up at him, her eyes surprised and wary. He let her go, hoping she understood that he meant only kindness. “Your mother needs you here. She wishes the vampires would stay away, that’s all.”
“Then why is she afraid?”
Damnation. “If she’s a little bit afraid, then she won’t make mistakes. That’s part of why she’s good at what she does.”
“How dangerous is it? Tell me the truth,” Eden asked. Her eyes were starred with tears she seemed too stubborn to shed, but her mouth was firm and steady.
She’s already lost her father. He swallowed hard, feeling the complexity of the child’s world unrolling around him like a giant map. Every horizon held storms and dragons.
“I won’t tell you it’s not dangerous, because that would not be true,” he said, inwardly wincing at his honesty. “But I’m going to be with her. That tips things in our favor.”
Eden’s scrutiny made him think of Anubis weighing the souls of the dead. He was being judged down to his brand-new bootlaces. “So you’ve got her back, then?”
Fortunately, that was one of Mac’s expressions. He understood what she was asking of him. “Yes. Absolutely.” Even if Ashe doesn’t accept that yet.
Eden put her hand over his. “Good.”
Her hand was half the size of his, the nails chewed and stained with blue ink. Beneath it, his own looked large and rough from long years of handling the tools of war.
Reynard realized he’d made a huge promise. He’d damned well better live long enough to keep it. His jaw set. His stomach felt as if he were betting his inheritance on a last hand of cards. He’d never been a praying man, but this seemed like a good occasion for it.
Just then, Ashe strode into the room, wearing the look of a woman at the edge of her reserves. “Time to go, kiddo.”
She looked at the two of them, her bright green gaze darting from one face to the other, finally settling on Eden’s. Reynard saw the look of dawning horror on Ashe’s face.
“It was quite easy to hear your conversation from here,” he said, a reproachful edge creeping into his voice. He couldn’t help it, but then regretted the look of shame in her eyes.
Ashe blinked rapidly. “Eden, don’t be scared by what we were talking about. . . .”
Eden jumped off the couch. “I’m glad Captain Reynard’s helping you.”
Ashe shot him a glare that withered as fast as it bloomed. She hugged the girl to her, hiding her face in the brown curls. “We’re discussing that.”
Reynard frowned. No one was going to berate Ashe for her mistakes harder than Ashe herself. The problem was that punishin
g herself wasn’t the answer.
He rose, following Ashe as she herded Eden toward the door, gathering up the girl’s backpack and coat as she went. The grandmother waited to see them off, leaning on her canes.
“Be sensible,” she said.
“I’ll do what I think is right,” Ashe grumbled, but she sounded weary.
Reynard gave the old lady a respectful bow. “And I will work your granddaughter around to my way of thinking.”
Grandma Carver smiled sweetly. “And I’ll knock your heads together if you screw it up. And, Ashe,” she said, handing her a paper bag, “these charms will keep out nightmares, whether they’re your own or sent by someone else. Sleep well.”
“Thanks, G-ma.” Ashe hugged and kissed her grandmother.
They left. Outside the air was cold and clean. It had rained while they were indoors. Reynard filled his lungs, gulping down the tang of the spring night. He’d forgotten that sharp, sweet scent until that chase in the gardens. He couldn’t get enough of it.
“Don’t hyperventilate,” said Ashe, unlocking her vehicle so Eden could climb inside. “Do you have someplace to stay? I’ve got a couch.”
“I’ve made arrangements,” Reynard said, wishing he could accept her offer. He didn’t want to leave her side, but that would lead to the inevitable question of beds and pleasure and the decision of behaving like a gentleman or a desperate man with the life span of a flea. One was dull and the other lacked dignity. “What time shall we meet to go see Lore?”
“I’ll call him tomorrow morning. Eden goes to the rec center for piano and swimming. I’m going to drop her off and catch a quick workout. Meet me at nine thirty at Morgan’s Gym. The people we need will be up by then. We’ll make plans from there.” Ashe shut the passenger door with a sigh. “Of course, you don’t know where the gym is.”
“I will find you,” he said. “That’s not a problem.”
“Be careful saying stuff like that. That sounds a bit stalkerish.”
Reynard chuckled softly. “Your world is confusing.” He looked up. “Even the constellations are hard to make out.”
“Light pollution.”
“Unfortunate.” There were no stars in the Castle. That blankness had cut his spirit down like scythed wheat. Without even the sky above, he’d truly been shut off from everything he’d known. That loss still chilled him.
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