by Holley Trent
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “Did another portal to hell open up?”
“Nah. Still just the one, as far as I know. Steve was out here earlier, wasn’t he? I thought everything was okay. You’d know better than I would.”
The Foyes had a closed hellmouth on their ranch, though still accessible by certain parties. Hannah’s brother Steven was one of them. He had an unusual sensitivity to ghosts and spirits and could walk through magic that would have repelled most other people. He didn’t think that was necessarily a good thing, but he used the skill whenever the merry band of weirdoes identified some person on the other side who shouldn’t have been there. So far, he—with assistance from his girlfriend Belle—had rescued one messenger angel and two random crackpots who’d stumbled into the wrong place at the right time.
Ma cut Tito a sideways look.
“Don’t say nothin’,” he said.
Scoffing, she looked to Sean. “December is in Maria.”
“December?” He furrowed his brow. “Why?”
“December from Tucson?” Hannah asked.
Tito forced an exhalation through his nose and looked to the skies. He didn’t think asking the gods for assistance would do him any good, given the company he kept. In fact, doing so might have been a stupid idea. The gods were petty as hell, the whole lot of them, and he sure as shit didn’t want any of Ma’s competitors paying him special attention. So many had given up their Earthly forms to sustain mankind, and some regretted the sacrifice. Ma hadn’t been one of them, and many hated her and all the gods who still walked the soil.
Tito would have to handle his shit without divine interference. He’d been hoping to handle it without Foye interference, too, but apparently, that wasn’t in the cards.
“December came here to inform Tito of a certain obligation,” Ma said.
Tito scoffed and threw his hands up. “All right. Whatever. You gonna run your mouth, go ahead.”
“Tito, you’re flickering again,” Hannah said. “Pick a shape and stick to it.”
Shit.
He gave his body a hard shake, and stuffed his hands into his pockets.
Unlike Ma, he had to work hard to maintain an appearance that wasn’t his normal one. He could make himself look older or slightly younger. Fatter or thinner. Outside of taking his cat form, that was the extent of his abilities, and those had been helpful in the past couple of centuries when he had to fake his own death and move from one town to a new one to start all over again. His apparent “true” form was of a man around thirty-five who looked like he could use a few good meals. In twenty years, he’d gotten used to holding onto a heavier appearance, but the sheriff had made him lose some weight. Tito could have lost all the excess with a thought, but there were people in town who didn’t know what he was, and he didn’t want to startle them. When he wasn’t careful, though, and he was around Ma’s breathtaking energy, his form tried to revert to baseline. That was what Hannah was seeing.
“Why’s December here, Tito?” Sean asked. “I swear, I didn’t give her any info. She kept asking, though, and I kept putting her off like you told me to.”
“I told you that was going to backfire,” Hannah muttered. “Logic says that a woman as young as she was would have given up on a guy she hasn’t seen in five years unless there was magic in play.”
“Yeah, there’s magic in play,” Tito said. “She’s supposed to be my mate. I don’t know how she found me,” Tito said, “but the fact of the matter is that she did, and she came here to inform me that apparently, when we hooked up all those years ago, I got her pregnant.”
“Fuck,” Sean said.
Hannah smacked his arm hard.
“Ow!”
Tito figured the curse was better for Sean to say than him. Hannah was already cutting Tito a mean glare, and he was pretty sure she had opinions on the matter that wouldn’t necessary slate Tito on the side of the good guys. Chicks tended to side with chicks.
“Are you sure the kid’s yours?” Sean asked.
Hannah popped him again.
“Come on, babe, I had to ask.”
“That would be the intelligent query in most cases,” Ma said. “However we’re talking about a child of my descent. I would know.”
“No,” Tito said. “She’s not telling you the whole story. Ma has known, and decided not to say shit.”
“Why?” Hannah asked.
“That’s complicated.” He put up his hands in a soothing gesture, realizing a moment too late how that statement might have come across. “I don’t mean you wouldn’t understand. I mean, the history is long, and I didn’t particularly want to rehash the backstory.”
“Oh, you’re gonna rehash it,” Hannah said. “Maybe not right now, and maybe you don’t want to, but here’s the thing. I’ve been feeling that tug all day. I could sense that a new Cougar was in the area that I have oversight over, and now I know why. You’re telling me it’s a child? Children don’t usually come on my radar this strong.”
“Because she’s not a Cougar in the same sense that you and the Foyes are,” Ma said. “My magic flows through all of you because I created the race. I was not born of it, however.”
Sean took off his sunglasses and massaged the bridge of his nose. “Okay. I’m getting you. You and Tito can shift into cougars because you have an affinity to that animal, but you’re not the same as the rest of us.”
“Exactly.”
Hannah turned to Ma. “So, this child—”
“Cruz.”
She seemed to have to try extra hard to pronounce the name the way December did with a c-e sound at the end rather than like “crews.”
“Okay. Cruz,” Hannah said. “She’s not a Cougar like us, but I can sense her the same way I can sense you and Tito when you’re around because the magic is similar.”
“Yes.”
“And does December know that … ” Hannah made a waffling gesture.
Tito turned his gaze to the sky again. “No.”
“Okay, then.” In an undertone, she added, “Yikes.”
“I convinced her to spend the night in town,” Ma said. “She was going to leave, but I warned her a storm was coming through and that the roads are prone to flash flooding. She’s at the motel.”
“So, Tito has to tell her that her kid is a demigod, basically. That’s the gist?”
“That’s the tip of the iceberg,” Tito muttered.
“How could the situation possibly be any worse?” Sean asked.
“You know, the usual way when you’re not ready for a mate but have one anyway. You know a lot about that, right?”
Ma had sent all three Foye brothers on mate quests against their wills. Things had turned out okay in the end, but all parties had been expectedly hostile at the start.
“You can’t say no to a mate,” Tito said, “so I tried to stay away. I hoped she’d move on to someone else, because I can’t do it, man. You and your brothers always ask why I don’t date anyone more than once, and I’m gonna tell you, okay? I was married a long time ago. Had a son. Both my wife and son died. I tried to flout the rules just like Ma did by taking a human for a consort, and my cousin elected himself as enforcer. I’m not gonna endure that again. It was Necalli last time, but I’m sure there are others waiting to get a piece of me and mine. In case you don’t know, Ma’s good at making enemies for both of us.”
For once, Ma didn’t rebut.
Hannah walked over and put her head on Tito’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, Tito. I can’t imagine how you feel, but I know your heart is usually in the right place. You want to cool things down between you and December? If she’s really your mate, I don’t really know if you can. Trust me. I was that stubborn woman who let her guy succumb to a curse because I was too stubborn to accept someone I didn’t pick out for myself. But even I knew deep down that I wasn’t ever going to find anyone who could be my counterbalance. Apparently, I’m hard to get along with. I really do believe that there’s someone for everyone, b
ut sometimes being with them is just … hard.”
“It gets easier,” Sean said quietly. “If you let it.”
“Tell us what to do. We’ll help. You know how word travels around here, though. You may not be able to keep Cruz a secret for long.”
“I don’t know what to do,” Tito said. “I didn’t want this to happen again.”
Sighing, Hannah gave him a squeeze, and then looked to Ma again. “Have you met her?”
“Yes. I’ve been watching over her since the beginning.”
“Does she know you’re her grandmother?”
Ma gave her head the slowest shake.
Suspicious, but then again, she rarely wasn’t.
“Okay.” Hannah pulled some air through her teeth and scratched her blonde head.
“Is December pissed?” Sean asked.
“Yup,” Tito said.
“Okay, then. That’s the place to start.”
“Who?”
“I’ll talk to her,” Hannah said. “I’ll take her dinner and try to get her to stay for another day. We’ll figure out tomorrow when tomorrow comes.”
“That’s a plan. I’ll meet you at the motel,” Ma said, and then she vanished.
Sean and Hannah both turned to Tito, and he didn’t stick around long enough to read their expressions. He already knew Sean’s would be a textbook image of “What the fuck, dude?” and Hannah’s would be judgy in that Avenger way. Plus she was Southern. That upbringing apparently gave her extra mojo for judging.
Tito ran. Faster, harder, until he disappeared, and he didn’t look back.
He preferred to feel like a shit stain in the comfort of his own home. They could judge him from afar.
He just needed time to figure out how to tell the mother of his child that he’d abandoned her because she was his mate.
Maybe another six hundred years would be enough.
chapter THREE
At the tentative knock, December set down her phone—on which she’d been squinting at the weather app—and looked toward the motel room’s door.
“Door, Mommy,” Cruz said.
The child lounged at the end of the queen-sized bed, resting her chin on her hands, and staring agog at cartoons December didn’t recognize. She wasn’t entirely certain that Adventure Time was a show for kids, but she and Alicia had watched a lot of inappropriate television as children. Their mother hadn’t minded so much back then. Whenever she’d poked her head into the den to see what the girls were doing, she’d smile and turn quickly away if they weren’t up to anything naughty. Back then, Mama would have abided them anything, but that changed when their uncle-in-law moved in.
Another knock.
December sighed, set the phone on the nightstand, and then quietly shuffled to the door.
She put her eye to the peephole, holding her breath lest the visitor hear her there.
Paranoid, perhaps, but she hadn’t liked the looks of some of her neighbors at the motel. A bunch of bikers had apparently checked in the day before and took up an entire block of rooms. They’d been milling around the door of her unit after she’d checked in, and December had had one mind to march Cruz straight back to the office and tell the owner, “Never mind.” She’d remembered the storm, though. Mrs. Estobal had warned her not to travel, and so December had stayed put. The weather system hadn’t weakened much coming off the Gulf of Mexico. New Mexico was about to get rained on, and hard. December didn’t want to be driving in that.
Spying the shock of red hair and the familiar cowboy hat, December took a step back. “Sean?” she called out.
“Yep. Me and Hannah.”
“What are you doing here?” Besides shouting through the door. Duh.
December undid the chain, unlocked the knob, and pulled the door open.
Sean stood on the covered walkway with his right side turned to the door and his gaze on the parking lot. Hannah seemed to be peering at something farther in the distance.
“Um. Everything all right?” December asked.
“Sure. Sure,” Hannah said. She turned, smiling, and gave a little wave. “Long time, no see.”
“Yeah. I haven’t seen you since before you two got married.” December cut her gaze to Sean. “I guess Hannah keeps you reined in and on your best behavior now?”
He shrugged. “She tries. Not an easy job, you know.”
During his twenties, Sean had something of a wild oats-sowing period. He’d needed to get off his mother’s ranch and find himself or something. Apparently he had. He’d stopped visiting Tucson and his other haunts, but for years, he’d been something of a fixture at the bar. He knew her entire Tucson family … except for Cruz.
She narrowed her eyes at him.
“What?” he asked.
“Did you ever pass on those messages I told you to give to Tito?”
“Uh, I like your … boots. Your, uh, boots are nice.”
“Sean.”
He put up his hands. “Can I, like, plead the fifth? I swear, there is no good answer to your question.”
She let out a ragged breath and rubbed her eyes. He was probably right. Either he’d told Tito and Tito hadn’t responded or he hadn’t told Tito, which made Sean a huge bozo. “You want to come in?” she asked. “And how’d you know I was here?”
“Mrs. … um, Estobal told us.”
Hannah flicked his shirtsleeve.
“Sorry, babe. Bad with names.” To December, he said, “She thought maybe you’d want some dinner. We were going to bring you something home-cooked, but got held up. So, no, we won’t come in. Let’s go eat.”
“Where?” December asked. “I’ve already been to the diner once today.”
Hannah hooked her thumbs into her belt loops and scanned the parking lot again, her head jerking toward sounds that seemed far off in the distance. December hadn’t spent much time with the woman, but long enough to decide she seemed unusually agitated.
Maybe that’s just Hannah.
“My brother Steven texted me,” she said. “There’s a taco truck parked in front of the park. Ten-minute walk from here.”
“I want to go to the park, Mommy,” Cruz shouted.
December sighed.
Hannah laughed and leaned sideways into the doorway, to see past December. “You like tacos?”
“Depends on who’s makin’ them.”
December closed her eyes and shook her head. “Sorry. I didn’t introduce you, but I guess she rarely needs an introduction. She kinda owns whatever room she steps into.”
“Sounds like someone else I know,” Sean said quietly.
“Yeah. I bet. I guess he told you, huh?” December opened her eyes only so Sean could see the dare in them.
Given the dicey mood she was in, he needed to pick his words very carefully. He was a nice guy, at least to her. He never said anything she didn’t like hearing, but he’d been Tito’s friend long before she and Tito had hooked up. If he had to choose a side, she knew which one he’d be on.
Sean shrugged. “I know. That’s all that matters.”
Safe statement.
“I see he’s not with you,” she said.
“I can’t speak for him and I’m not gonna try to play intermediary for him, either.”
“Really?”
“You have the right to be angry,” Hannah whispered. “No one’s taking that away from you. We just want to make sure you don’t feel like you wasted a trip here. He has family.”
“Yeah. I met his mother very briefly.”
“I know her well,” Hannah said, “and I think she’d be interested in spending time with her granddaughter.”
December wanted to believe that, but she was already becoming weary of the situation. She’d stuck her neck out and tried to do what was right—at least, in her opinion—and had been given the cold shoulder by the person who’d mattered most.
“You don’t believe me?” Hannah asked.
“I don’t want Cruz getting hurt. I grew up with too many folks disapp
ointing me, and I’d just as soon she not be around anyone if they’re going to be like that.”
“Be around who?” Cruz asked at December’s side, and December nearly jumped into outer space.
“Cruzie, stop doing that!” December clutched her chest. Her heart felt like it was trying to sprout wings and take flight.
“Doing what?”
“Creeping up on me.”
“I just walked.”
“Yes, baby, you walked very quietly and I didn’t hear you behind me. You can scare a lot of folks like that.”
Hannah smirked. “There’s this one old lady in town we keep threatening to tie a bell to the cane of. She shouldn’t be as stealthy as she is.”
“Let me know how that goes. I might have to implement some system before Cruz starts kindergarten so she doesn’t scare the hell out of her teachers. Maybe I’ll get her some shoes that squeak or something.”
“Will they have lights, Mommy?”
“If necessary,” December muttered.
“Yay! Who are they?” Cruz pointed, rudely, to the Foyes on the other side of the doorway.
December gently nudged her hand down. “That’s Mr. and Mrs. Foye.”
Hannah snorted.
Sean side-eyed her and asked in a flat, low tone, “Did she lie, wife?”
“No.” Hannah snorted again. “It’s just weird to be called Mrs. Foye, especially seeing as how there are three such couples around here that could be called the same. I’m Mrs. Foye. Your mother is Mrs. Foye. My two best friends are both Mrs. Foye.”
“That’s a lot of Foyes,” December said.
Sean shrugged. “Well, we’re losing one soon. Belle will become a Welch. She’s marrying Steven whenever she can find a couple of hours to leave the ranch. Seems a fair trade.” He knelt in front of Cruz. “So, about those tacos. The guy who makes them—he’s pretty legit, in my opinion. His name’s Tiny. He set up shop last year.”
“Tiny who used to ride shotgun with Tito sometimes?” December asked sourly.
Tiny was a nice enough guy. It just seemed to her that everyone in the small town seemed connected to Tito in some way.
