Chapter 16 #2
“Fin is like a puppy,” she scoffed. “No one would suspect him of being involved in an investigation, but he’s good at distracting people.
He’s handy when I want to get tongues wagging.
He gets them going, then I sit back and listen.
It’s amazing what people say around old people,” she continued.
“It’s like they think for every wrinkle that appears we lose a handful of brain cells.
” Once again, she pierced her grandson with a steely stare.
Parker threw his hands up in the air. “What’re you looking at me like that for? I don’t think that. I think you’re devious, not senile.”
Edith lifted an eyebrow.
“Oh, come on,” Parker said. “I know you phoned me in the middle of the night to trick me into saying things.”
Edith smirked at Davina. “Worked like a charm too.”
Parker rolled his eyes.
Davina slipped her hand into Edith’s. “You always were clever. ”
“Wait. Are you two…?” Parker waved his hand between Edith and Davina. “Like a thing?”
Davina squeezed Edith’s hand. “Now that we’ve reconnected and I have a home base here, we’re getting to know one another again.”
“But… But Nana’s old enough to be your… your nana.”
Davina looked at me. “You haven’t had the talk yet?”
Parker swung his attention to me. “Talk? What talk?” He rubbed his chest. “How much more is there to know? I’m not sure I’m ready for all of this.”
I frowned at Davina. “He just learned about supes today. Of course he doesn’t know everything already.”
“Levi?” Parker grabbed my arm. “What are they talking about?”
“Some supes age differently from humans. Davina is probably a lot older than your grandmother.”
Davina nodded.
“Wait, how old are you?” Parker asked me.
I scowled at the women across the table. I had not wanted to have this conversation. Not yet.
“Levi?”
I turned to him and took his hand in mine. “Do you promise not to panic?”
“Have I panicked yet?”
“Well…”
“Okay. I was a bit surprised right there at the beginning, but I’ve been good since, right?”
“That was only a couple of hours ago,” I said.
“Please?”
“Fine.” I sighed and rubbed my face with my free hand. I thought about lying, but I’d already lied to him so much. “I was born shortly after the Romans conquered my home.”
“The Romans…” Parker said slowly. “As in Caesar and Antonius and Nero? Those Romans?”
“Uh, yes. I was born in Crete. My mother is a minotaur.”
Davina whistled in surprise. “You come from Crete? Are you part of the dynastic line?”
I ignored her. Whether my family had once ruled Crete was irrelevant now.
“And your father?” Parker asked.
“I don’t know who my father was.” I grimaced. “He was one of the centurions who led the attacks on my homeland. From what I know, he was a brutal, cruel man.”
Parker blanched as he figured out what I was saying about my conception. Some women had thrived under the rule of the Romans. My mother wasn’t one of them. His fingers squeezed mine. “Is your mother still… around?”
I nodded. “She lives in Spain now, in a tiny home in a community full of British ex-pats.” I didn’t know how she did it, living in such a place without a maze, but she swore that her neighbors’ little houses and the twisty streets provided enough of a maze to satisfy her minotaur’s needs.
She’d lived through being conquered by Romans, though, so she had what I considered a false sense of security in today’s world.
“So, she’s okay?”
“The last time I talked to her, she was dating a guy who used to own a fish and chip shop in Scotland. He’s retired now. They seem happy.”
Parker nodded. When he didn’t ask any more, despite Davina’s inappropriate questions, I decided to get us back on topic.
Teaching Parker about supes was all well and good, but I needed to know more about those hunters.
I glanced around to find that most of the restaurant had cleared out while we were talking.
They’d probably left to tell the rest of town about me kissing Parker.
That was the way it was in Willow Lake. Gossiping was a competitive sport.
I didn’t even want to know how many times the videos of us kissing had been shown around town.
The dinner crowd wouldn’t show up until after five, so we had a bit of time. The few people still here were supes. They were listening avidly to our conversation, not bothering to pretend otherwise.
“Should we go upstairs where we can speak privately?” I asked.
Davina shook her head. “It’s fine. The local supes need to know the risks anyway.”
Parker glanced at his other patrons. “Wait… are all these people supes?”
Edith rolled her eyes, looking exactly like her grandson when he’d done the same thing a moment ago.
“Huh,” Parker said, crossing his arms again. He was doing that a lot today, and I wished I could make him feel safe and comfortable again.
“Can we talk about the situation with the hunters? Why do you suspect something now?” I asked Edith. “What’s changed? ”
“I met a couple of other kids the last time I called on Finley for some help,” Edith said.
“They’d been in his class, occult for dummies or something like that.
Apparently, there’s a parent group that sponsors the class and that YouTube channel.
My guess is that the professor identifies potential new recruits and instructs other students to bring them in. ”
“So you think Tammy and Kyle are higher in the organization?”
“Based on what they were saying, yes.” Edith nodded, then she met my gaze and held it. “And I think you made quite an impression the other night.”
“Shit, that’s right,” Parker exclaimed. “Levi’s house was broken into after he met them at the pub.” Then he jabbed his finger at his grandmother. “And you… Why were you out skulking around if you already know about supes?”
“Well, I’d always planned to do that.” She lifted a thin shoulder.
“I wanted to make sure Davie’s old team hadn’t gone rogue.
I’d heard they’d stepped away from the game, and that was suspicious as hell.
They were the best team out there. I couldn’t see any reason they’d all quit like that unless something bad had happened.
Thought that demon might have flipped to the dark side and dragged them all down with him. ”
Davina patted Edith’s hand. An affectionate gesture I wouldn’t have expected from the woman… Nor would I have expected Edith to tolerate it. Weird. “Apparently the people who she’d been talking to forgot to mention Gage had bonded with Willow Lake.”
“Demon? What demon?” Parker squeaked like a mouse. His face paled. “First, a hellhound and now a demon?”
“It’s fine,” I tried to soothe him. “It isn’t like what humans say…”
“You owe me that chat. Be prepared, because it’s going to be a long one.
” He swallowed hard. “Holy crap… That’s why you brought that tactical case, isn’t it, Nana?
Do I even want to know what you have packed in there?
” He pushed out of the booth. “I need tea to get through the rest of this conversation. Something soothing. Maybe mint. Jesus,” he muttered as he walked away with his fingers digging into his ginger hair.
Edith watched him leave, before casting her gaze toward me. “He isn’t usually this melodramatic, but once in a while he reminds me that he is his mother’s son.”
“Hey. Lay off him. It’s been a lot for him today,” I said, not liking how Edith was disparaging Parker. I didn’t care if she was his grandmother. Parker was taking this way better than I’d expected.
Her eyes twinkled in amusement, like I’d just fallen into her trap.
“I knew you liked my grandson. Is he your mate?”
It was lucky I wasn’t drinking coffee because I would have spit it across the table again. “He’s human,” I said in a harsh whisper.
She opened her mouth to say something, but Parker returned with his tea. He sat down and straightened his shoulders. He looked in control again.
“Levi and I have a plan. We’re going to infiltrate the group and see what they know,” he announced. “Then we’ll know if all this worry and speculation is for nothing. I still think Finley is a good kid.”
“Excellent.” Edith nodded. “Davie and I will be your backup today. Now we need a plan.”
I groaned and wished I’d escaped from the booth when Parker had gone to get his tea.
What had I gotten myself into? This was going to be a disaster.