Nardo thought for a minute, sighed in exasperation and thunked his forehead against hers. “You have some problems that need to be solved. We’ve wasted time talking about them, worrying about them instead of doing something about them. The more detailed the plan, the fewer questions will be asked.” His hands caressed her cheeks.
“The time I spend with you could never be wasted and I don’t care who knows we share a bed. They all know how I feel about you. They knew it before I did.”
He reached behind her to open the War Room door and backed her into the room. “Feeling better?”
“No, I’m feeling foolish,” JJ admitted.
“Good. You should feel foolish for doubting me.” He spun her around and gave her a playful push. “Now, let’s get to work.”
Chapter 28
“Give me five more minutes.”
That’s what he said fifteen minutes ago and fifteen minutes before that. Nardo sat at a computer terminal, his fingers flying over the keys faster than she’d ever seen anyone type. He paused, read something as it flashed across the screen and typed some more. JJ wasn’t sure why he’d dragged her out of bed. He didn’t need her to watch him type. In fact, once he contacted whoever it was, Nardo seemed to forget she was even there. JJ was bored.
She idly fiddled with the mouse on the pad in front of her and the screen came to life. It was a log of some sort, set up in columns and written in code. Curiosity overcame boredom. Elbows on the table, she propped her chin on her fists and stared at the screen.
The first column was dates. That was easy enough. The last date was the night she and Nardo met the vampire. The second column was a series of letter/number combinations; F8, B2, D5 and so on. She had no clue, so she moved on to the third. This one she figured out fairly quickly. WF 20-25; white female, twenty to twenty five years old. Some had more definite ages. HM 47; Hispanic male, age 47. Some of the spaces were blank, particularly at the bottom of the page. The next column was another mystery; DD, DS or SD; enough of both so she knew the letter reversal wasn’t a typo. Beyond that, who knew? It took her a few minutes to catch on to the next column, but once she did, she felt pretty lame for taking so long. She chalked it up to not being familiar with everyone’s last name. BaT; Nardo was Bernardo, Bernardo ad Tormeo; CaS, Canaan ad Simeon. Manon had explained the ad was similar to the German von. There were usually two sets of initials, sometimes only one. The last column clicked right away. She’d seen too many of them not to recognize a case file number when she saw one.
Suddenly, it all fell into place. This was a record of demon activity. Some of the case numbers were without Guardian initials and all of those were marked SD, Suspected Demon. DD had to be Demon Destroyed. JJ smiled at that. She wondered if Nardo’s game, Demon Destroyer, got its name from the log or the other way around. The letter/number combinations were map locations.
She was quite proud of herself when she found the file with the corresponding maps, each section marked with tiny colored dots. Her eyes slid back to the log. Red-DD, Blue-SD, Green-DS.
On the last date logged, Broadbent and Col had killed a demon, no victim noted, but there was the red dot. It was blocks away from where she and Nardo were. The two must have left their patrol to come to their aid. She looked at the map pinned to the wall to get a better picture of how far away they were. It was the same map, pieced together from printouts of the sections on her screen, but without the dots.
She stared at the push pins in the map on the wall. Her vampire was missing. Was that because there was no victim or had someone simply forgotten in all the excitement? It wasn’t a date she was likely to forget.
She turned from the map with the push pins to the one with the dots and then to the log. Push pins, dots, log. Push pins dots, log. Push pins, dot’s…
“Dates!” she shouted.
“Fuck!” Nardo spun around so fast in his chair, it tipped. The wheels took it out from under him and he landed on the floor. “What?” he yelled at her, hands in the air.
JJ’s hands flew to her mouth to stifle her laughter. The maneuver didn’t work. He looked so silly sitting on the floor with his legs splayed and his hands in the air. “Your five minutes are up,” she spluttered just as the door opened.
Canaan and Grace stood in the doorway. Dov was behind them peering over Grace’s shoulder.
“What the hell’s going on in here?” Canaan looked from JJ to Nardo.
“She must have found his stash of porno sites.” Dov shook his head and turned back to the kitchen.
Grace snickered. “Either that or he said, ‘Just five more minutes’ once too often.” She shook her head and followed Dov.
“Nardo was concentrating on the computer and I must have startled him,” JJ explained lamely.
“That’s a first. Breakfast in fifteen minutes.” Canaan shook his head and closed the door.
“Sorry,” JJ apologized with only a little snort. She bit her bottom lip and held out her hand to help him up.
He pulled her down on top of him instead. “We’ve got fifteen minutes.” He nuzzled her neck. “Thanks to you I have several places that need kissing to make them better.” He ran his hands up under her sweatshirt.
“You’re asking me to kiss your ass.”
“Yeah, but it sounded better the way I said it.” He started to lift her shirt, but she pushed it back down.
“No,” she said, slapping at the hand trying to sneak back under her shirt. “You brought me down here to work, so that’s what I’ve been doing.” She laughed when Nardo raised his eyebrows. “You were glued to that stupid screen for ‘another five minutes,” she mocked, “And I was bored, so I snooped, okay? But I think I may have found something.”
“I found something, too.” His hand snaked into her waistband as she tried to move away.
“You were the one who said we’ve wasted enough time,” she laughed.
“So I did, but I also said time spent with you wasn’t wasted. Let’s make Dov’s nightmare come true. Come on, just five more minutes.”
*****
Breakfast was a casual affair, most times eaten in the kitchen with the first arrivals getting to sit at the island and late comers leaning back against the counters holding their plates in their hands. JJ was amazed at how much food Grace could cook up in half an hour and how quickly it all disappeared.
She liked it this way. You filled your plate, grabbed a fork and got down to it. The first few days, she’d eaten light, not wanting to impose her appetite on the House’s budget or hear the comments about how much she consumed, but after suffering the relentless teasing of the twins over her growling stomach a few hours later, she saw it as a no win situation and decided to eat her fill. No one noticed. The Guardians ate copious amounts of food. In comparison to the men, her plateful looked modest.
JJ and Nardo were the last to enter the kitchen, JJ still flushed from their ‘five more minutes’ and Nardo grinning like a boy.
“Good waking,” Grace chirped, using the Paenitentia greeting and watched happily while they filled their plates.
“Must have been,” Col whispered a little too loudly.
“We’ve been busy…” Nardo began.
“Sounded like heavy work,” Dov cut in.
“It’s best if you just ignore them,” Grace advised JJ.
“Anyway,” Nardo drew their attention back to him. “While I was trying to get some information on Joy, she was working on our vampire problem. She found something interesting.” He nodded at JJ and she took over.
“Every vampire incident coincides with a demon incident. Now that might be a coincidence, but you guys tell me activity in winter is slow and this winter seems to be an exception. I also have to ask myself why these demons are showing up regularly in the sectors you just happen to be patrolling that night, particularly when they’re not showing up elsewhere. Everywhere else, the log is dotted with suspected demon or demon sighting designations. Not lately. They’re all demon kills with no vic. It’s almost as if someon
e is sending them into your patrol sector to keep you busy and away from the vampire. There are too many coincidences to make me believe it’s random.”
“It doesn’t fit the night at the rave,” Dov said, frowning. “Nardo and I weren’t supposed to be there, but the demon was.”
“Good thing you were. That bastard was a big mother.” Col toasted his brother with his coffee mug.
“Which may only prove to be the exception to the rule,” the professor commented thoughtfully. “It was a ‘big mother’ as Col so succinctly put it. We’ve all commented on our most recent run-ins being young, small and quick. I can’t help but wonder if Nardo and Dov had stayed in their assigned sector, would they have run into a small one as well?”
“You mean the small ones are part of a plan, but the big one was just a regular, ordinary invader.”
“Well done, Dov. That’s exactly what I mean. If JJ is correct and you’ll forgive the analogy, someone appears to be hiring teenagers to do their dirty work, probably because they consider them expendable.” Broadbent looked around the room gauging the reception his theory had garnered.
“Or cheap labor,” Hope added.
“Says the book keeper,” Grace laughed.
“Well, think about it. I assume they have some kind of payment system and we know they’re capable of rational thought. What young demon wouldn’t jump at the chance to visit our world? Offer a small salary and they’d be lining up at the door.” She shrugged. “If they don’t come back, you don’t have to pay. From a business standpoint, it’s a win-win.”
“My mate is turning into a shark.” Nico, who’d been standing behind Hope with his hand on her shoulder, gave it a squeeze.
Canaan nodded at JJ. “I’m not a fan of coincidence either. Good work.” His eyes went to Nardo. “Someone is either spying on us or has hacked – Is that the right word? – into our computers to find our patrol schedule.”
“It’s not a hacker, my lord. My security is tight.”
“Yeah,” Dov laughed. “Old Geekman isn’t going to let anything past him.”
Nardo cocked his head and raised his hands. “Hey, not my fault I was blessed with brawn and brains.”
“Me, too.”
“Sure, bro,” Col agreed, patting his brother on the back. “And as soon as you remember where you hid those brains, we’ll find someone to teach you how to use them.”
“Ever since he bought that New Word a Day calendar, he thinks he’s some kind of brainiac,” Dov explained to JJ. “What’s the word for today, bright boy?”
“Flabbergasted.”
“Sounds like a fancy word for fart, if you ask me.”
“No one did,” Canaan and Nico said together.
“There is another possibility,” Nico continued. “Moonlight Sanctuary. Their constabulary has our schedules.” He raised his eyebrows in what was clearly an I-told-you-so look.
Canaan accepted the look without comment. “Okay, so where do we go from here?”
“First thing would be to change the patrol schedule.”
“Can’t do it, Col.” Dov shook his head. “What?” he asked when found everyone looking at him. “If we change, then who’s going to catch the little critters who are still coming over on the old schedule? No can do. We’ll have to double the patrols; one for the demon, one for the vamp.”
“Dov, that’s two cognizant thoughts in one conversation.” Broadbent gave him a thumbs up. “You never cease to amaze me.”
“Yeah, my mom used to say that a lot, too, but it was usually when I did something stupid.”
Everyone passed their plates for Canaan to load in the dishwasher after he insisted Grace stay seated where she was. After more teasing from the twins about what size apron they should buy their Liege Lord now that Grace had found a way to make him do housework, the group got back to business.
“Nardo,” Canaan directed, “As always, you’ll be in charge of the new patrol schedules. And you…”
When Canaan pointed at her, JJ had the urge to snap to attention and salute.
“Look at this stuff again and see if you can find another pattern for us to use. If you need anything, Nardo will get it for you.”
“I beg your pardon, my lord, but you might ask her nicely rather than order her about. She is a lady after all.”
“Gee, thanks Professor.” JJ was touched. “But it’s okay. I’m used to it.” Canaan was treating her like part of the team. It was exactly what she wanted. She said to Canaan, “I’ll get on it right away, sir.”
“We need someone to go over to the Sanctuary to ask a few discreet questions.”
“Yes, but it won’t be you, Nico.” Canaan smiled wryly. “After the last time we were over there, you’ll just scare hell out of them or some idiot will call you out.”
“Get in your grill,” Dov said, seemingly out of nowhere and then he clarified. “Call you out is so last century.”
“I’m going to get in your grill if you’re not careful.” The Liege Lord pointed to the frying pans on the stove. “You take care of those.”
“I think we can kill two birds with one stone, my lord,” Nardo interrupted before Dov could get himself in more trouble. “I’d like to take Joy over there and we could ask a few questions while we’re at it. We might get more if it doesn’t look like an official inquiry.”
“And you want to take JJ over there because…” Canaan raised his eyebrows in question.
Nardo inched along the counter until his shoulder touched JJ’s. He grasped her hand and held it tightly to his side. “I think she’s one of us.”
“Well of course she’s one of us. We’ve already determined that. Where were you?” Grace laughed and looked like she was going to say more.
Nardo cut her off. “No, you determined she was one of you, a Daughter of Man. I’m saying I think she’s one of us.” He pointed to the men in the room. “Paenitentia.”
“What?” JJ was the first to say it. And then she thought, She’s one of us, my lord. I’ve heard those words before. She’d felt very proud to be ‘one of us’, until…until… The thought was gone.
“Too many of the pieces fit,” Nardo was saying, “Your height, your build.”
“Lots of women are tall and thin,” Hope argued, “I used to hate them.” She looked up at Nico and smiled.
“Your strength, your speed.” Nardo kept the list going.
“I’m in good shape, so what?”
“For a human woman, Grace is in great shape,” Nardo pointed out, “She’s been working out with the twins for a couple of years now and they push her hard.”
Eyes wide, Dov appealed to Canaan. “She makes us, boss. She makes us push her hard.”
“Col, You’ve sparred with them both.” Canaan glanced between the two women. “Pound for pound, who’s stronger, faster?”
“Sorry, Grace,” Col sounded as if it was a betrayal, “JJ’s got you, hands down.”
“Yeah, you two decide to duke it out and JJ’s gonna whup your ass. And she hurts!” Dov added.
“I hurt,” Grace said indignantly.
“Nah, we pretend you hurt, so you don’t get discouraged.”
Grace folded her arms across her chest and huffed.
“That still doesn’t prove anything,” JJ reasoned. “Some people are stronger than others, you guys included.” She tried to make a joke of it. “I haven’t been able to beat any one of you.”
“And that was a real shocker, wasn’t it?” Nardo still held her hand tightly to his side, just to prove his point. “How’d you score at the Police Academy?”
“There are different criteria for men and women,” she hedged.
“Wouldn’t have mattered to you if there wasn’t though, right? You would have scored at the top either way. Unless, of course, you purposely lost.”
“I thought about it,” she admitted in defeat, “But I couldn’t do it.” It hadn’t won her any friends either. And he was right about the sparring, too. At first, she thought she was
weak from illness, but it didn’t take her long to see the truth. “Anything else?” she asked weakly.
“Yeah. How much does it take to get you drunk?”
“He wants to get her drunk? I thought they’d already… Ooof!” Dov grabbed his side where Col’s elbow had dug in.
“More than most,” JJ admitted, ignoring the scuffle at the sink. Long before she was of legal age, she was winning money in bars by drinking much larger men under the table. Yes, it took a lot to get her drunk. She’d been there more times than she wanted to remember.
Nardo nodded. “You metabolize the alcohol faster. You burn off calories faster. It’s why you eat so much.”
JJ felt the blood drain from her face.
Grace jumped to her defense. “Leave off, Nardo. She doesn’t eat that much.”
“The hell she doesn’t.” That was Col.
“Shit. JJ makes Hope look like a picky eater,” was Dov’s contribution.
“Hey!” Hope and Nico shouted together. She sounded offended. He sounded furious.
JJ was praying for a hole to open up in the floor.
Canaan brought two fingers to his mouth and whistled. They all quieted in time to hear Broadbent, who’d been sitting quietly sipping his tea and trying to console JJ and Hope.
“Barbarians, my dears. Good hearted, but barbarians still. It has been my cross to bear and now it is yours.” He glared at the twins and then shook his head sadly at Nardo. “I had such hope for you,” he lamented.
“I don’t care how much she eats,” Nardo argued, “I’m just saying she eats more like us than a human woman.”
“Like he has so much experience with human women,” someone, probably a twin, muttered.
“Before this conversation deteriorates any further,” Canaan growled, “You still haven’t said why you two need to go to Moonlight Sanctuary.”
“I talked to my brother. That’s what I was doing on the computer. He’s an expert in genetics, well, animal genetics, but he said there’s a doctor in Moonlight Sanctuary that’s top of the line in genetic research for the Race. The guy thinks there’s a genetic reason for our low birth rate. Anyway, Tony says he’s fairly certain this Dr. ad Fenton will be able to verify it, probably with a simple blood test. I figured we’d take a run over there and see this guy. Sooner the better, right?”
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