Chapter 11 #2
“Or I’ll ruin your fucking life,” I replied easily. “I don’t care if you’re someone’s mom.”
“So, this is the thanks I get for calling you? Aren’t you a peach,” Rogue remarked snarkily, though she looked more puzzled than angry.
“Riot,” Grace whispered, her voice hoarse.
“I’m here, beautiful,” I said, leaning over her face, the nickname rolling easily off my tongue. She was beautiful, but I also didn’t want to tell Rogue her name.
Grace’s eyes blinked open slowly, and she scrunched them tight as though she was looking directly into the sun instead of the dark inside of her car.
“How are you feeling?”
“So, so bad,” Grace groaned.
“What do you need? Should we go to the hospital? You scared the shit out of me,” I admitted as I traced the edge of the swelling around her eye, forgetting for a minute that Rogue was still standing there, watching our interaction.
Grace seemed to notice her at that moment too, her surprise brushing at my skin like little sparks. I’d never been so grateful to feel her emotions before. It was a reminder that she was very much awake and here with me.
“No hospital,” she breathed, attempting to push herself up on weak arms. I lifted Grace into a sitting position, and she gripped my thigh for a moment while she steadied herself. “I just need sleep. And carbs.”
“Fascinating. Well, I gotta go,” Rogue announced. “I left Quinn with my brother and I need to make sure they’re both still alive. Shall we ensure your secret is safe with me?”
“Name your price,” I replied resentfully, tightening my grip on Grace like I could shield her from Rogue’s curiosity. No daimon ever did anything for free. Except maybe Dare.
“A favor.”
“To be determined at a future date, I’m guessing,” I deadpanned.
“It’s not like you have a choice,” Rogue sang, extending her hand. For fuck’s sake.
“Fine,” I gritted out, taking her hand. “In exchange for your complete silence about what happened here tonight, I will grant you a favor to be determined at a later date.”
“Deal,” she replied with a self-satisfied smirk as a ripple of La Nuit’s magic passed between us. Grace was silent throughout the exchange, but I could feel her curiosity reaching out to me like tendrils searching for something.
“See you around, lovebirds,” Rogue announced, flipping me off over her shoulder as she strode away, and I grimaced at the promise I’d just made. Maybe Bullet could give me some guidance on her, since he’d decided to be helpful with his cards this time around.
“I need to get you home, Gracie,” I murmured. “We’re too exposed out here, and you need to eat. I’ll make you grilled cheese.”
“I was so looking forward to making you dinner this time,” Grace sighed heavily, looking oddly disappointed considering the hellish ordeal she’d just been through. “And not only have I still not made you dinner, now at least one person knows about us.”
“You don’t sound as upset about that as I thought you would,” I said, helping her buckle in. Hopefully it was dark enough that no one recognized me driving her car. As the only agathos in town, everything about Grace was pretty notable, including her silver SUV.
“Well, it’s kind of my fault,” Grace replied with a wan smile.
“It’s no one’s fault. I’m just glad you’re okay.
” I pressed my lips against her forehead as Grace made a noise of disagreement, staying there a beat longer than necessary just to appreciate how fucking great it was that she wasn’t unconscious, before I climbed out and let myself in the driver’s seat.
“Shouldn’t we have stayed?” Grace asked as we rounded the corner to her building. I was driving like an old lady, but I was worried if I went any faster I’d jostle her and she’d faint again. “Won’t the police want to speak to me?”
I snorted. “Apparently the owner and his brothers are dealing with the guy himself.”
“That sounds terrible,” Grace replied, alarmed.
“Oh, I don’t know,” I said absently as I parked across from the apartment. “They’ll probably rough him up a bit and tell him to fuck off.”
Sounded better than a criminal record to me, but I also didn’t really give a fuck about the guy who could have shot my girlfriend.
Well, not my girlfriend.
Was she my girlfriend?
I glanced back in the rearview, suddenly worried that Grace could somehow hear my embarrassing train of thought, but she seemed totally lost in her own world, chewing nervously on her lower lip and glancing over her shoulder like she wanted to go back.
Shit, she did want to go back. A human in trouble was like a siren call to her, even when she had exhausted her abilities.
I’d always thought being an agathos would be easier than being a daimon, but now I wasn’t so sure.
We were both bombarded with human misery, but they were actually expected to fix it.
I climbed out of the car, taking a quick look around to make sure we hadn’t been followed before making my way around to her side of the vehicle. Grace startled when I opened her door, so lost in her thoughts she hadn’t even realized I’d gotten out of the car.
“It’s not your job to save everyone,” I told her gently, reaching across her to undo her seatbelt. Her breath hitched at my nearness, and I brushed my lips across hers as I pulled away.
“It is though,” she whispered, licking her lips . “Helping humans is literally what I was created for.”
I couldn’t stop the disgruntled noise that came out of me as I helped Grace out of the car.
I was called to human doom, but I had free will as well.
I could walk away without doing my “duty” and not feel a smidgen of guilt for letting the goddess down.
The Great Mother hadn’t been so generous with her creations.
I wrapped an arm around Grace’s waist, shrugging her purse over my other arm, and led her across the street to her building. She was walking, which was positive, but definitely leaning pretty heavily on me.
I wanted to know exactly what she’d done that made her feel this exhausted so I could make sure it never happened again, but getting food in her first was more important.
As soon as I got her in the house, I kneeled on the floor to tug off Grace’s boots while she blushed profusely, before removing her coat and guiding her to the couch.
In the very recesses of my memory, I remembered my mom setting me up on the couch with the TV remote and snacks when I’d broken my leg in fourth grade.
It was one of the few memories I had of her actively taking care of me.
With a tight smile, I handed Grace the remote and went to the kitchen to grab peas from the freezer for her swollen eye, wrapping it in a kitchen towel as I brought it back to her.
She’d settled into the corner of the couch with a throw over her legs and gave me a bemused look as I handed her the peas.
“For your eye,” I explained, feeling like an idiot. I wouldn’t know how to take care of a goldfish, much less a person.
“Thank you,” Grace replied with a gentle smile, wincing as she brought it up to her face. “It’s not so bad,” she assured me.
“It shouldn’t have happened,” I muttered, heading back to the kitchen to make grilled cheese again. I should probably learn to cook something else. My phone buzzed in my pocket while the food was cooking and I pulled it out to find another message from Bullet.
Bullet:
Everything okay?
Fuck, I was going to have to tell Grace about him. He obviously knew about her, and I wasn’t going to keep that information from her.
Me:
Fine. I have plenty of questions for you though.
Bullet:
All will become clear in time, mon chéri. Go look after your patient, Nurse Riot.
He really was the worst.
I brought a tray of food out for me and Grace, who instantly tried to push herself up.
“Woah there, where are you going?” I asked, setting the tray down on the coffee table.
“We’re eating here?” Grace asked, looking at me like I’d just sprouted horns.
“Uh, yeah? Is that okay?”
“Oh. I’ve never eaten dinner on the couch before,” she replied, looking bemused. “This is fun.”
I really needed to up my game if Grace’s version of fun was eating dinner on the couch. Too bad I couldn’t take her on a proper date. This secrecy thing was bullshit.
“Okay,” I announced, handing her a plate. “I’d like to hear what happened today, but first I need to talk to you about Bullet.”
“Bullet?” she replied, blinking at me. “Is that a name?”
“Hm? Oh, yeah. He got shot when he was a kid and wears the bullet that almost killed him around his neck, hence the nickname.”
“Right,” Grace replied faintly.
“He’s from the Oneiroi line so he has prophetic dreams, plus some other methods of communicating with the Goddess of Night,” I continued, surprised when Grace suddenly straightened, giving me her undivided attention.
“Anyway, I’m pretty sure he’s been having visions about you.
He knew something had happened tonight, and even though he didn’t mention you by name, he said he couldn’t do a reading on me alone if I wanted answers.
” I scratched the back of my neck sheepishly.
“I haven’t told him anything about you specifically, but I thought you’d want to know that you’re on his radar. ”
“I assume agathos don’t usually appear in daimon visions,” Grace replied, looking resigned rather than upset.
“I assume not,” I agreed. “Anyway, he seems to be on your side— our side—and I guess meeting him is an option if you want to turn to the darkness for answers. I should warn you, I knew him growing up. He’s a pain in the ass, speaks in riddles, and loves show tunes.”
“He sounds kind of fun,” Grace replied with a fond smile. “Obviously, I haven’t met him before because I didn’t know any daimons before you and I’d definitely remember someone named Bullet, but when you talk about him…I don’t know. He sounds familiar to me.”
I frowned as I took a bite of my grilled cheese. Surely, Bullet would have mentioned something if they’d met? No, they couldn’t have met. Bullet barely left his house these days.