Chapter 8
8
S o?” Ez asks, raising her eyebrows expectantly. “How is it?”
Cass takes a long sip of his tea, not dropping her gaze. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Ez scowls. “Cassius? ? —?”
Obie cuts her off with an impatient snap of his fingers. A soundproofing spell settles into place over the safe house’s living room, neatly hiding their conversation from where Desi is playing with Kira and Hana in the spare bedroom, and Cass fights back a groan. “The hunter, Cass,” Obie says, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest. “What’s it like having joint custody?”
“Well, first of all,” Cass says, raising a finger for emphasis, “I have full custody, thank you very much. The hunter only has visitation rights.”
Obie looks duly unimpressed. “Uh-huh. So?”
“It’s…” Cass lets out his breath in a hiss, trying to figure out how to describe his current relationship with Julian Jackson.
Frankly, “bizarre” is the first word that comes to mind. JJ has been showing up on his doorstep twice a week without fail for two full weeks now, ready and waiting to take Desi out for a day on the town.
And to drag Cass along with them, of course. Part of Cass doesn’t really mind?—honestly, he likes having Desi within arm’s reach, especially when the alternative would be sending her out alone with a ruthless hunter?—but a much larger part of him is still bewildered by the entire process.
He’s actively helping his mortal enemy spend time with their adopted daughter, and said mortal enemy usually buys Cass lunch. He has a sneaking suspicion that the lunches are meant to be a “thank you” for the glamours, but it still manages to blindside him every time JJ asks what Cass wants to eat.
Nostringvadha forbid he actually starts to care about this stupid hunter. “It’s weirdly fine,” he says eventually. “He shows up for Desi, I glamour all of us, we go into town, we come home. Desi spends a few hours talking Jackson’s ear off, he buys me lunch as compensation for maintaining the glamours, and we ignore each other the rest of the time. It works.”
Obie looks faintly flummoxed by this reply. Ez looks faintly disappointed. “Well, dang,” she sighs, slouching back in her seat. “I was hoping you’d have some racy stories.”
Cass squints at her. “Racy stories? I can assure you that there’s nothing racy about Julian Jackson.”
“I don’t know,” Obie says. “He’s kind of hot.”
Cass sputters indignantly. “Ex cuse you?”
“What? Just stating the obvious.”
“Can confirm,” Ez agrees. “Jackson is very easy on the eyes. And the way he holds those escrima sticks? Rawr.” She shakes her head mournfully. “Why do all the hot ones have to be sociopathic hunters?”
Cass feels inexplicably defensive of his hapless lackey. “Well, you could certainly do worse,” he says, “but you could also do a lot better than him.”
“Mm,” Obie says, nodding slowly. “Like Sawyer Solomon.”
Ez makes an emphatic noise of agreement. “Sawyer Solomon was indeed smokin’ hot. Too bad she and her girlfriend left Redwater in the rearview mirror.”
For a split second, Cass’s thoughts get derailed. “Really? She and Naomi Gutierrez were dating?”
Obie rolls his eyes. “No. Ez just likes drama.”
Ez smacks his arm. “Shut up. Would you run away from everything you’d ever known for someone who wasn’t your love interest?”
“Yes,” Obie says. “Case in point: I follow your dumb asses into danger all the time, and I’m certainly not attracted to either of you.”
Cass shudders dramatically. “Good. You’re too old for us.”
Obie scoffs. “You’re both pushing two hundred fifty.”
Ez arches an eyebrow. “And you’re…?”
After a moment, Obie smiles wryly. “It’s impolite to ask.”
“Spoilsport,” Ez says.
“In any case,” Cass cuts in, “the hunter is tolerable. And I will concede that he’s amazing with Desi, which is basically his only redeeming quality.”
“And the fact that he buys you food,” Obie says.
“And that he’s a sexy beast,” Ez adds.
“Actually, it looks like Jackson has quite a few redeeming qualities,” Obie says. “Maybe we should join you three on your field trip today.”
Cass jabs a finger at him. “Absolutely not. You’re lucky I’m even letting you two meet him today.”
“Aw, but why?” Ez asks, smirking. “Afraid we’ll embarrass you, Cass?”
“No, it’s just?—?” Cass bites back a grimace. “Look, Desi adores this human, okay? So I’m?—I’m trying to do right by her, and that also means doing right by him. I want him to have his time with her. Honestly, if he and Desi didn’t need me for the glamours, I wouldn’t even intrude.”
That makes Ez and Obie go quiet. “Do you really think this could work?” Obie asks cautiously. “The custody arrangement, I mean?”
Cass lets out his breath slowly, looking away. “I don’t know. Maybe? I’m not sure how sustainable it’ll be over the long term, but…”
But JJ clearly takes his role seriously. Cass has noticed that he uses a cloaking spell to get between the Sanctum and Cass’s safe house, trying to cover his tracks as much as possible, and that he takes particular care with covering all his exposed skin so he doesn’t accidentally burn Desi. He listens intently to all of Desi’s stories, he’s unerringly friendly with the food truck operators in the Courtyard and at Lakeside, he’s reasonably cordial with Cass??—
Maybe they do have a shot at raising this kid. Co-parenting her. Whatever.
And Cass is just about to tip back down the rabbit hole of the fact that he’s co-parenting a child with a Sanctum hunter when there’s a knock on the door. Letting out an explosive sigh, he shoves himself to his feet. “Behave,” he warns Ez and Obie, and he strolls over to pull it open. “Right on time, Jackson.”
“Hey,” JJ says, stepping inside and shutting the door behind him. “Where’s Des??—??”
And then his eyes lock on a point over Cass’s shoulder, and he stops dead. Before Cass can react, JJ grabs the front of Cass’s shirt and yanks him around, bursting forward to swap their positions, summoning an escrima stick out of thin air??—
Putting himself in front of Cass. Putting himself, Cass realizes with a jolt, between Cass and the threat.
In this case, though, the “threat” is just Ez and Obie, who are both on their feet and clearly ready to throw down at JJ’s sudden offensive. The purple-gold of a magic strike crackling around Ez’s hands, the shadow of black smoke around Obie as the first sign of a true form transformation??—
Maybe Cass should’ve mentioned to JJ that he was having company over today. “Settle down, lackey,” he orders, trying to edge past him. “It’s just Ez and Obie.”
JJ’s fingers tighten in the front of Cass’s shirt like a warning to stay back, and Cass swallows hard past the sudden dryness in his throat. Despite all the research he’s done on Julian Jackson, he’s never actually seen the man in hunting mode before?—never seen that hard mask slide into place, never seen how his entire posture shifts with his fight stance, never seen how he wields his escrima like an extension of his arm.
Never seen how quickly he could snap into action if he detected the slightest hint of a threat against Desi?—or Cass. The thought makes Cass’s heart shiver, and he takes a deep breath, trying to force it down. “JJ?”
The nickname seems to snap JJ out of his adrenaline-fueled headspace. “Oh,” he says weakly, easing out of his fight stance and dropping his escrima stick. It vanishes back to parts unknown like it was never there in the first place. “Um. Hello.”
“Oh, don’t mind us,” Ez says lightly, letting her burgeoning magic attack fade. “We’re just here to watch the trainwreck.”
“Ez,” Cass says, exasperated.
Rolling his eyes, Obie strides forward. “I’m Obie,” he says gruffly, extending a hand. “Nice to meet Desi’s other parent.”
JJ’s eyes flicker down to his own hands, clearly checking that his gloves are still intact, before he reaches back. “Hi. I’m JJ.” He winces. “You… already knew that.”
“Uh-huh.”
Ez flounces up next to Obie, presenting her hand like a queen expecting a kiss from her subject. “And I’m Esmeralda. You’re not allowed to call me ‘Ez’ yet.”
JJ blinks back at her. “Okay,” he says, and he carefully shakes her hand, as well. “Hello.”
“Hi.”
“Are, um,” JJ asks, and he takes a deep breath. “Are you two, uh, coming with us to the Courtyard today?”
Cass wheels around to stare at him, bewildered. The question is logical enough, of course?—after all, there are only so many reasons why Cass would be introducing them?—but JJ’s tone doesn’t sound like he’s just asking for clarification.
No, it almost sounds like he’s inviting them.
Predictably enough, Ez pounces. “Depends,” she says, batting her eyes at him. “What’s on the menu for today?”
JJ looks faintly uncomfortable. “Well, Desi wanted hummus fries. So that means Falafel Express.”
“Falafel Express sounds great,” Ez says, giving him a predatory smile. “I’m in.”
Obie cuts in before Cass can indignantly uninvite her. “But we already have plans,” he says pointedly, clapping a hand on her shoulder. “Five’s a crowd, after all. But have a good time.”
JJ waves awkwardly. “Thanks. You, too.”
“Later.” Obie shoots Cass an indecipherable look as Ez peels open a rift, and Cass squints back at him in confusion until it closes behind them.
When JJ speaks next, his voice is strained. “Trying to give me a heart attack?”
He does look a little shaky on his feet. Cass feels a pang of guilt and actively forces it down. “Don’t mind them. They’re just nosy. Wanted to know what all the fuss is about with my shiny new hunter co-parent.”
“And…” JJ hesitates, his shoulders hunching. “And we can trust them?”
JJ’s phrasing makes Cass’s heart do something funny. Because he’s not asking “do you trust them,” not asking “can I trust them”—
No, he’s asking whether “we” can trust them. Whether Cass and JJ together can trust Ez and Obie to keep Desi safe from the Chain and the Sanctum, whether Cass and JJ together can trust them to keep JJ’s identity a secret.
Apparently, there’s a “we” now. An “us.”
Cass is surprised to find that he doesn’t hate the idea as much as he thought he would. “Yes,” he says quietly. “I’ve known them for over two hundred years. They’d never do anything to put Desi at risk.”
Eventually, JJ nods. “Okay.”
“Speaking of which,” Cass adds, eyes narrowing, “where in Nostringvadha’s name are you stashing that escrima? I thought humans couldn’t make pocket dimensions.”
A hint of interest flashes over JJ’s face. “Generally speaking, we can’t. Instead of a full pocket dimension, it’s a small gap in spacetime just large enough for my weapons, attached to me with a leash spell and a hair-trigger summoning spell.”
Cass almost starts with surprise. Ez is the best spellcaster in their group, of course, but Cass is no stranger to pocket dimensions, using them for everything from his weapons arsenal to extra closet space. JJ’s jury-rigged system actually sounds like a fascinating workaround. “Is that standard in the Sanctum? Or did you think it up yourself?”
“Not quite standard, but?—?” JJ’s smile wavers. “The, uh, hunter who trained me taught me the principles when I was a teenager.”
Sawyer Solomon. The one who defected. Slowly, Cass nods. “Interesting,” he says, and before he can be tempted into a conversation about the finer points of magic and weaponry with JJ, he takes a decisive step back. “I should, um, get Desi. She’s busy with Kira and Hana right now.”
JJ’s lips twitch. “A very important pastime,” he agrees, and as Cass carefully lifts Obie’s soundproofing spell, he’s suddenly struck by the bizarre thought that he actually wouldn’t mind talking with the hunter more often.