by Julie Kenner
“I thought you could stay home today,” I said, feeling magnanimous.
“I totally can’t,” she said, which really wasn’t the reaction I was expecting.
“Why on earth not?”
“Duh, Mom. I’ve got cheerleader practice.”
Nadia rummaged through my cabinets for a coffee cup. “You’d rather do that than stay home and help us? Benny’s trying to nail down the ritual location. If he finds it ...”
“I’m not allowed to fight,” she said, giving me a sour look even though we’d already come to peace with that decision.
“Doesn’t mean you can’t help out,” Nadia said. “The best Hunters have the best backup.” She helped herself to a cup of coffee. “But if it’s not your thing ...”
Allie looked at me, and I nodded. “And we can train this morning, too,” I added, just to sweeten the deal.
“How are you with a knife?” Nadia asked.
“Passable,” Allie said, lifting her chin.
Nadia laughed. “That means you’re pathetic. What do you say? Want to go get in a little practice this morning?”
Allie’s eyes went wide. “Are you kidding? I’d totally love that. Can I, Mom?”
“What about cheerleading?”
“Come on, Mom. This is, like, so much more important.”
That it was. I nodded and told her to go get dressed.
“She’s a good kid,” Nadia said. “And you probably have housewife-type things to do, right? I’ll take her into the backyard and keep her out of your hair.”
“Gee, thanks, Nadia. That’ll give me time to scrub the floors and alphabetize the canned goods.”
Her brows lifted. “Zing,” she said. “Two points to Crowe.” She took a step toward the living room. “Although it sounds to me like maybe there’s a little chip on your suburban shoulder?”
She left before I could defend the state of my shoulders. As soon as she was out of earshot, Eddie closed the refrigerator door, which had been open so long that the milk had probably soured.
His face was red with unreleased laughter, and he pointed a bony finger at me. “She’s got your number,” he said. “That girl is one you gotta watch.”
“Thanks for the tip,” I said. I’d pretty much gotten to that assessment on my own. Even so, I wasn’t prepared for the dominatrix vision that soon rumbled down the stairs.
“Alison Elizabeth Crowe,” I said, taking in the tight black leggings that would have been acceptable for staying around the house, but she’d paired them with a teeny-tiny black vest. The kind that’s meant to be worn over a blouse and never buttoned. She had no blouse, and it was buttoned tight, giving my daughter a great deal more cleavage than I gave her credit for. “What the devil are you wearing?”
“Just something to work out in, Mom,” she said, but I could tell by the color on her cheeks that she knew damn well that this outfit would not earn the Mom Seal of Approval. Not by a long shot.
“Up,” I said, pointing to the stairs. “Right now.”
“But Mom!”
“Allie, I swear, if I have to repeat myself ...”
“Fine. Whatever.”
She left, pounding so hard on the stairs that the house shook. Seconds later, she was back. Still wearing the leggings, but this time her top was covered with an oversized pink T-shirt identifying her as a Princess in Training. That, I thought, was true.
“Will this do?”
“Yes,” I said. “The attitude won’t, though.”
She stared me down for a second, then shrugged. “Sorry. Nadia’s going to think I’m a complete dork.”
“I’m sure you’ll survive the deep trauma.”
“Whatever,” she said again, then went outside to engage in a little teenage idol worship.
“That one’s a case,” Eddie said from his seat at the breakfast table. I’d thought he’d tuned us out in favor of his crossword puzzle. Apparently not.
“My daughter? Or the other one.”
“Which do you think?”
I pulled out a chair and joined him. “She saved Allie last night, Eddie. I owe that woman more than you can imagine.”
He snorted. “Fair enough. But do you trust her?”
“No,” I said. “And neither did Eric. But I think we need her.” Or, at least, we needed her notes about the ceremony to free Andramelech.
“So what exactly do you do?” Stuart asked as he buttered one of the dinner rolls I’d defrosted and baked.
Nadia paused, her meat loaf-tipped fork just inches from her mouth. “I’m a bounty hunter,” she said, her eyes never leaving my husband.
“That is so cool,” Mindy said. I’d called Laura a few hours before and given her the scoop on our new houseguest. She’d immediately relaxed the parameters of the Mindy-and-Laura bonding time rule and decided that it would be unneighborly not to join us at the dinner table. Which explains how I ended up serving my plain, boring meat loaf with canned green beans at our formal dining room table.
Not that anyone noticed the setting. They were all too intent on studying Nadia, who had actually dressed for dinner. And now her skintight red leather dress, held together by gold-cord lacing, was making quite the splash at our evening meal. My husband, at least, seemed to wholeheartedly approve. How nice.
As dinners went, I supposed this one could have been worse. Nadia played the role of belle of the ball, although she lacked a certain Southern innocence. Mindy and Allie were the enthusiastic groupies, sucking in the stories Nadia told about her efforts to track down and apprehend San Francisco’s most diabolical Failure to Appears. Stuart listened with intent fascination. Eddie rolled his eyes and snorted so many times I was afraid someone would suggest calling EMS just to make sure he wasn’t having an epileptic seizure. And Laura spent the entire meal hanging on Nadia’s every word, turning to me at various moments to send me significant looks that, thankfully, my husband didn’t notice.
The only one who seemed oblivious to Nadia’s charms was Timmy, and even that ended after the meal when she gave him a large silver bell tied on to a strip of leather. He giggled and clapped and rang the bell over and over and over. So much so that I had to evict him from the kitchen as I worked on the dishes.
Since Nadia didn’t offer to help with the dishes (not that I was keeping score), it was just Laura and me in the kitchen after we ran Timmy off, the girls having been relieved of duty once they finished clearing the table.
“Wow,” Laura said, a comment she’d clearly been holding in since arriving at the dinner hour. “A bit overwhelming, huh?”
“Allie and Mindy are certainly entranced,” I said dryly.
“That dress,” Laura said.
I nodded. “But I have to admit, she can pull it off.”
Laura peeked into the living room and nodded. “I’m guessing she’s pulled it off one or two times in her life.”
I grimaced. I’d thought the same thing myself.
“And have you seen the way she’s sitting? More important, have you noticed that your husband is in the living room? When was the last time he didn’t retreat to his study after dinner?”
“I have the utmost faith in Stuart,” I said, which was true. I couldn’t say the same for Nadia. But while my Hunter instincts might be telling me to take her out, my suburban mom training was telling me to be the polite hostess. “Besides, he’s not allowed to hide in the study when we have company. That’s a house rule.”
“Doesn’t appear to be too difficult to enforce today.”
I wiped my hand on a dish towel as I walked to where she was standing. Sure enough, there was my husband on one side of the couch. Nadia was talking animatedly to him and the girls, but managing to lean mostly toward Stuart. A full-body lean, too.
I took a step toward the drawer with the ice picks, then caught myself and said through gritted teeth, “She lacks a few social graces, but she does kick some serious butt in the field.”
“So do you think she’s the one?”
; “What one?”
“The one who visited Eric. The one Betty mentioned.”
“Oh.” I’d refused to think about it, but now I was forced to acknowledge the point.
“Not that Eric would have an affair,” she quickly stated. “But if that’s what pranced into the library, I can totally see Betty suspecting it.”
“And Mr. Hyde having a heart attack,” I said, referring to the prim little man who’d been Eric’s boss.
Allie bounded into the kitchen then to get a refill on her iced tea, and Laura and I ceased with the gossip, choosing instead to join the rest of the gang in the living room. That was, after all, the polite thing to do. And so what if I sat a little too close to my husband and kept my hand pressed gently against his thigh?
On the whole, though, the evening was pleasant enough. Nadia had clearly spent some time with people who had no clue about her Demon Hunter identity, because her cover story never once faltered. And by the time Allie had gone up to bed and Laura had left with Mindy, I could tell that Stuart and Eddie were fading.
Nadia stood up, her expression businesslike. “Stuart, it’s been real. But I’m going to borrow your wife now.”
“Excuse me?”
“Come on, Stu. The woman’s got to live a little, right? We’re going to take the Lotus, tear up the Coast Highway a little bit.” She winked at him. “Don’t worry. I’ll bring her back in one piece.”
“You do that,” he said, sounding a little befuddled. “Kate? Do you want — ”
“Don’t wait up,” I said, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. He’d had his fun; now I was going to have a little of my own.
“I drive,” I said as soon as we reached the garage.
“Good for you, Crowe,” she said, tossing me her keys. “I’d hate to think suburbia broke your spirit.”
“Not on your life,” I said, then strapped myself in. The car really was magnificent, although after having lived the last few years of my life from the altitude of a van, I felt certain I was going to end up with asphalt burns on my rear. Either that or embarrass myself in front of Nadia with my poor attempt to maneuver a stick after so long.
In the end, though, I did myself proud. I kept to a decent speed in the neighborhood, but by the time we hit Rialto, I opened her up. Since the street is straight as an arrow, I got a nice feel for the machine’s speed, but it wasn’t until we reached the Pacific Coast Highway that I got to really test out her moves.
“Sweet,” I said.
“That she is.”
With the engine thrumming beneath me, all of my earlier post-dinner fatigue had drained away, and I was ready to kick a little demon ass. The speed gave me a rush, a bubbling excitement tinged with danger that, scarily, resembled the emotions that coursed through me when I thought of Eric. Or David. Or whoever he was now.
I took a breath, then glanced at Nadia. “So where are we going? Do you have a lead? Someplace where there might be some activity tonight?”
“Not a clue,” she said. “I thought we could circle the town a few times, see if anything looks out of the ordinary. Mostly I figured we should talk. You know. Hunter to Hunter. ”
“Fair enough,” I said. “Shoot.”
She slipped her shoes off and put one bare foot on the dash. “Oh, hell,” she said. “I don’t even really know what to say. I guess I should say thanks.”
“For what? You’re the one who saved my kid. You’re the one who brought us the information on the ring ritual. And now you’re the one letting me drive this sweet, sweet car.”
“All true,” she said. “But I’m sleeping in your house, and under the circumstances ...”
She trailed off, looking out the window at the beach and the Pacific Ocean beyond.
“Circumstances?” I asked. If I’d had antennae, they’d be perking up right about now.
“Nothing,” she said. “Just, you know.”
Actually, I didn’t. But since I also didn’t know her that well, I decided not to press. We drove another five minutes in silence, then she leaned over and turned on the stereo, cranking up some band I’d never heard despite the fact that driving Allie’s carpool keeps me on the cutting edge of the latest music. Or, if not the cutting edge, then at least the dull butter knife blade.
“Sorry about Eric,” she shouted, before the first track had finished.
“What?” I shouted back, since I wasn’t sure I’d heard her. She turned the stereo off. “Eric,” she said. “Sorry about what happened. He was ...” She paused as if looking for the words. “He was a really nice guy.” A tiny smile touched her lips. “Yeah. A really nice guy.”
A ball of something resembling lead settled in my stomach. “So, how well did you know him?”
“Oh, you know. Well enough.”
Right.
“So what’s your usual routine? You patrol every night? Go it alone?”
“There’s another Hunter in town,” I said, my mind still on Eric and the implications, both in her tone and her words.
“David Long, right?” I turned to her, my brows lifted.
She shrugged. “I asked around, and from what I hear, he’s rogue.”
“I’m aware of that,” I said.
“Can’t trust a rogue Hunter, can you? Where was he in the alley? You got a partner, he should be watching your back.”
“Something came up,” I said.
“So he hung you out to dry,” she said. “I’ve got half a mind to go have a little chat with your Mr. Long. I mean, you coulda got killed. You or Allie.”
I shivered, her words reminding me of Eddie’s theory, his belief that David had a dark plan.
“Anyway,” she continued. “Sounds to me like he’s excess baggage. I mean, for the most part I’d say you’re doing fine on your own.”
We’d reached a turnaround, and I veered off the road, downshifting as I spun the steering wheel so that we whipped around until the Lotus was facing north. Then I pulled back into traffic and looked over at Nadia. “What do you mean?”
I noticed that she’d reached up to grab the door frame as we turned, and I took a bit of secret satisfaction in knocking her even slightly off-kilter.
“You’re newly back in the game after one hell of a retirement, but I’d say you’ve done a damn fine job keeping this town in order.”
“How do you know that?” I asked.
She did an elaborate neck roll, and I could hear the bones popping as she sighed. “I told you. I asked around.”
“With who? You’ve been underground for years. Forza doesn’t even know you exist.”
“I’ve got friends,” she said cryptically. “And as for my life, I like it this way. There’s freedom.” She turned toward me, hooking one leg under her as she readjusted herself in the black leather seat. “Come on, Crowe. Don’t you miss that? Not being tied down. Seeing the world. Experiencing life.”
Her words washed over me, bringing with them a flood of memories of my youth. Days when I could wake up on one continent but go to sleep on another.
I thought of that, and then I thought of my kids.
“Trust me,” I said. “I’m experiencing life.”
“So you wouldn’t trade it? Wouldn’t go back?”
“Not in a million,” I said. “Although ...”
I leaned forward and gave the dashboard of the Lotus a familiar pat. “If I could figure out a way to get a car seat in a Lotus, then I’d get me one of these in a heartbeat.”
Eighteen
“So where’s Nadia?” Allie asked Saturday morning, as she tugged open the refrigerator and inspected the contents. “I was hoping she’d let me practice with her knife again this morning.”
“Honestly,” I said, “I don’t have a clue.” I remembered what she’d said about chewing David out, but quickly dismissed that. The girl was ballsy, but that much? Surely not.
Still ...
I looked at the phone. Maybe I should call him. Just to check. A quick phone call would hardly break my own rul
e, and—
“Mo-ther. Hello?”
“Sorry,” I said, abandoning my fantasy of calling David. “What?”
“I was talking to you and you were totally zoning out.”
“Not enough sleep,” I said, which was true enough. Nadia and I had gotten home about two. She’d dropped me off, then turned around and left again, promising to let herself in with the key I left under the aloe vera plant on the front porch. Apparently, though, she’d never showed.
“So?”
I shook my head, once again baffled by my daughter.
She did the major eye roll thing. “So, if Nadia isn’t here, will you train with me? We can practice knife-throwing in the backyard.”
At the moment, the backyard was the only training field we had, since David still hadn’t had time to find a loft to lease. I pushed off a wash of sadness as I realized now that maybe he never would.
“Stuart’s home,” I said. “He took advantage of the fact that Nadia isn’t here to work in his study.”
“Oh. Wow. That’s weird.”
I agreed with her that it was weird for Stuart to be home on a Saturday morning. Ever since his campaigning had kicked into high gear, he’d been spending most of his weekends at the office. To myself, I thought about what a sad state of affairs that was. Clearly, the life I loved so much had a few rough edges.
“How about Cutter’s? We can’t practice with weapons, but ...”
“Sure!” she said eagerly, and I bit back a smile, pleased to see that she could be just as enthusiastic about training with me as she had been with Nadia. Even if I had no intention of wearing leather.
“Go get dressed, then,” I said, hurrying to finish my coffee so that I could, too. I was just putting the mug in the sink when the phone rang. I snatched it up, hoping it was Nadia. She was more than capable of taking care of herself, of course, but my mom instincts kept me worrying.
“Kate,” Father Ben said, the second I answered the phone.
“It’s today. The ritual with the ring will take place at noon today. Someplace called the mensa of life.”
I glanced at the clock. That was hardly any time at all. “Any idea where that is?”
