Chapter 17
Stuart was filling his travel mug with coffee when Eric came by on Tuesday morning.
I let him in, and he followed me to the kitchen where the two men greeted each other without fisticuffs or sarcasm. As far as I was concerned, that was a portent of good for the entire rest of the day.
“I called you,” I said as Eric took a seat at the table. “I wanted to hear how yesterday’s patrol went.”
I’d tried to get the scoop from Allie, but all she told me was that it was “awesome,” that Jared was “badass,” and that hunting with her dad was “really cool.” As an aside, she said that they’d killed five demons between the three of them.
Then she told me that she was too tired to go into the details, and crashed in her room.
Since I’d thought she might be avoiding talking about it, I peeked in on her when she didn’t answer my knock a few hours later. And, yeah, she’d been sound asleep. And not even eight o’clock yet.
Because she’s a teenager, despite that early bedtime, she was still sound asleep this morning.
“All she told us was that it went well,” Stuart said, “but what’s your assessment?”
“Same. She was great. And I like Jared. No signs that he’s evil, no sense that this is all a ploy. He seems like a good kid who genuinely wants to protect her.”
“Kid,” I repeated.
“You know what I mean.”
“Great. Allie’s finally on the verge of getting a boyfriend, and he’s a vampire.” With a sigh, I poured him some coffee, then topped mine off as Stuart added cream to his mug.
Eric’s face went tight. “I don’t think she’s ready for boyfriends yet. And I didn’t say that I thought he was interested in her like that. Besides, Jared seems like a genuine asset to us, but if he lays a hand on her, I’ll stake him myself.”
“Not if I get there first,” Stuart said, and the two men shared a knowing grin.
I rolled my eyes . “I’ll join in with you on the concern about his vampire status, but you two are going to have to get used to the idea that she’s fifteen. Boys will be in the big picture. Probably a string of them. Deal with it.”
Eric looked at Stuart. “You okay if I just cut to the chase and put a stiletto through their eyes?”
“I know the District Attorney. I’m sure we could pull strings so you avoid the murder charges.”
“Guys…” I tried to sound terse, but inside I was doing cartwheels. The two men in my life were actually, finally getting along. As far as I was concerned, this was Christmas.
“She really did okay?” Stuart asked.
“She did amazing,” Eric said, his voice full of paternal pride. “It’s not her fighting skills that worry me, it’s what’s going on in this town.”
“The demons are getting persnickety,” I said, taking a seat at the table as Stuart leaned against the countertop, his brows raised.
Do demons get persnickety?” he asked.
“Apparently they do,” Eric said. “Over the last few days, I’ve had demons calling me Sire and swearing to protect me. Then five minutes later I’m jumped by a demon with a sharp blade. Allie’s the same.”
“Right,” Stuart said. “That day she met Jared…” He trailed off as he shifted his attention to me. “Didn’t that demon say he wasn’t going to hurt her, and her mother would approve of him?”
“Something like that,” I said. “So what do we think is going on?”
“I have no idea,” Eric admitted. “To be honest, I don’t even trust the ones who say they’re not going to hurt us. But it does seem as if we’re dealing with two warring factions of demons.”
“But why are you and Allie in the middle of it?” Stuart asked.
“It has something to do with the Lilith,” I said. “I’m certain of that.”
“I can’t say you’re wrong,” Eric said, “mostly because I know you’re right. But I really wanted to be done with that bitch.”
“I don’t blame you,” Stuart said, then frowned, obviously considering something.
“What?” I asked.
He turned to me. “Have demons been protecting you, or only hurting you?”
It was a good question. “Just attacks.”
Stuart tapped his fingers on the counter the way he does when he’s thinking. “Father, daughter,” he said. “Same blood.”
Eric shook his head. “Not anymore.” He gestured to his body. “I’ve gotten used to it, but it’s not me.”
“But the demon lineage,” Stuart pressed. “That’s why Allie is … the way she is.”
“We got the demon out of him,” I say to Stuart. “You can’t possibly have forgotten that.” Stuart had been right in the thick of it.
“Yeah, well, I’m all out of ideas. And I’m late,” he added, glancing at the clock. He pushed away from the counter, then kissed me goodbye. This time, it was a regular kiss, not the claiming kind that he’d given me in Eric’s presence before out of an overabundance of jealousy.
I’ll admit I like those kinds of kisses, but today I was happy for a typical goodbye-to-my-wife kiss. If nothing else, it was a good first step—maybe even a second step—toward the two men in my life finally finding their way through this forest of craziness.
Not long after Stuart left, Eddie shuffled into the living room, his hair sticking up in all directions and his chin prickly with whiskers. “So the kid did good?”
Eric confirmed that she had, and Eddie nodded as he joined us in the kitchen. “Always knew she would. So, you going to let her go hunting with vampire boy without a chaperone?”
“Don’t call him that,” I said with a sigh. “If we’re letting him into our lives, we should at least call him by his name.”
“Eh,” Eddie said as he pulled Eggos out of the freezer, then popped two into the toaster. “I fixed that necklace for her,” he said. “You make her wear it when she’s with that boy.”
“You don’t trust him?”
He peered into the toaster as if that would make the waffles cook faster, then looked up at me with a shrug. “As far as that girl’s concerned, I don’t trust anybody.”
His concern for her made me feel warm and fuzzy, but I also didn’t want to leave her unprotected. If she had a powerful vampire to guard her back, that was a good thing. And when I told Eddie as much, he shrugged and grunted ascent.
“I can’t say I disagree, just saying she should wear the necklace.”
I’d purchased the necklace he was referring to for Allie’s last birthday from Eyes Only, a shop that sold spy equipment in Old Town.
Mostly novelty and cheap stuff, but there was real equipment available to those who asked.
Eddie had suggested having her wear a tracker, and his suggestion had proved essential in saving her life.
Unfortunately, it had also been ripped from her neck, the chain broken and the setting smashed.
“Thanks for fixing it,” I told him. “I’ll tell her it’s important to you that she wears it.”
“To me?” Eddie asked.
“She loves you, old man. Go figure.”
At that, he turned positively pink and even offered Eric one of his waffles, a clear sign of a good mood.
Eric declined, saying he needed to get to the school for a faculty meeting now that we were getting close to the beginning of the school year. “Plus, there are a few bodies I need to disintegrate in the basement.”
I grimaced, and pushed the yogurt I’d pulled from the fridge away. I’d eat it later.
After that flurry of morning activity, things slowed down.
Eddie had gone to go meet Rita before going to work a few hours at Eyes Only.
Allie was reading in bed. My friend Fran had picked up Timmy for a playdate with Elena, leaving me alone with a Swiffer, a vacuum, a can of Pledge, and a dust rag.
Not my favorite way to spend the day, but it had become inevitable.
The dust bunnies were forming a union, and Timmy had started writing his letters on the surface of the coffee table.
Normally this wouldn’t bother me too much, but we had people coming to the house on Saturday.
Considering my terrible skills at housecleaning, I figured Tuesday was a good day to start with the whole process.
With luck, the place would be shiny and presentable by Saturday, when a horde of toddlers would destroy it all over again.
An hour or so later, Mindy had bounced through the back door and trotted upstairs with barely a wave in my direction.
Other than that, nothing much changed. Except that I’d shifted my focus to the kitchen and was in the middle of scrubbing the stove top to within an inch of its life.
How it became so dirty when I used the microwave for almost everything is one of the mysteries of the universe.
I was desperate for an excuse not to work, but the loud, high-pitched voices of the two girls coming down the stairs would not have been my first choice at a distraction.
“You’re seriously blowing off our shopping day tomorrow to go patrolling with him? And I can’t even come along?”
“I told you. You don’t want to get hurt before you go onstage.” I’d told her the excuse I made up. Apparently, she thought it was a good one.
“You’re shoving me away because of a boy, Al. We were supposed to be learning to fight together.” Mindy’s voice carried all the way to the kitchen. “I mean I get that you’re better than me, but I don’t suck.”
“Come on Mindy. It’s not like that.”
“It is. Ditching your best friend for a boy. Totally lame.”
“You just don’t get it. I—”
“What? What don’t I get? You’ve been acting different ever since you got back from Rome. You’re not talking to me, Allie. What happened to best friends forever?”
“I am not being different.” Her voice was hard and harsh, and I knew that Mindy had inadvertently cut deep. I took a step toward the stairs, then forced myself to stop. This was something the girls had to work out between themselves.
“Whatever,” Mindy said. “You know where to find me if you want to hang out. And as for hunting tomorrow, good luck. I hope you don’t die.”
The words were nice, but the tone was bitchy. Then, from my perspective near the sink, I saw her open the back door, and disappear into the backyard. At the same time, Allie came into the kitchen with a huff, then pulled herself up short when she saw me. “You heard all of that?”
“I heard.”