“License and registration, please.”
Well, at least he’d said “please.” Caleb had no idea what all this was about, although he guessed the park was just remote enough that it might be a tempting spot for people to park and indulge in some illegal substances. None of them had been smoking or even drinking out of the water bottles they’d brought along, but clearly, that didn’t matter to the cop.
Pru went around to the passenger side, opened the door, and then fussed in the glove compartment for a moment. When she came back, she was holding the Kona’s registration, along with her license and what looked like an insurance card.
Looking as though she didn’t have a care in the world, she handed all the paperwork over to the cop.
“Prudence Nelson.”
“Yes,” she said.
“Your business in Laughlin, Ms. Nelson?”
“I came down with my friends to spend the day here. We thought we’d check out the park before we hit the casinos.”
The cop studied the documentation she’d given him for a moment longer before he handed it back almost reluctantly. Caleb strained to see what it said, because shouldn’t the officer have called out the obvious fact that it wasn’t Pru’s name on the registration or on the insurance card?
It was hard to see print that tiny from this distance, but he could have sworn everything was in her name, not Delia’s.
His eyes began to widen in surprise, and then he told himself not to react. He knew he hadn’t done that, which meant Ty must have cast the minor glamour.
A man of many talents, apparently.
“Have a good one,” the cop said. For just a second, Caleb could have sworn the eyes behind those mirrored sunglasses were blank and white, not human at all.
Before he could react — or maybe tell himself he must be seeing things — the man had climbed onto his motorcycle so he could turn it around and head back to the highway.
“That was close,” Caleb remarked once the officer was safely away. Probably better not to mention the eyes, especially since he didn’t know exactly what he’d seen.
“More than you know,” Ty replied. “He was possessed.”
“What?” Pru exclaimed.
A corner of Ty’s mouth lifted slightly. “Not by a demon,” he said. “By an angel.”
Maybe it was the heat, but Caleb couldn’t help feeling a little off balance right then. “Angels can possess people?” he demanded.
“Sometimes,” Ty said. “This felt like a lower-level angel. We call them the Watchers.”
“Guess what they do,” Pru put in, her eyes glinting with amusement.
Caleb had the sense she must be quoting from something, but he had absolutely no idea what. “All right, so what’s a Watcher angel doing possessing a Laughlin motorcycle cop?”
Ty’s shoulders lifted, and he glanced away from them toward the lazy curve of the Colorado a dozen or so yards away. “I already told you that the power of the river is very strong. If someone felt it was in danger somehow, then they’d send out scouts.”
“Who would be endangering the river?” Pru asked. Her hands were on her hips, fingernails glinting almost the same deep forest green as her hair, and it seemed clear she didn’t want to proceed any further until she had a better idea of what they were dealing with.
For a second or two, Ty’s glance slid toward Caleb. “The enemy, of course. The same enemy we’ve been fighting for millennia.”
“The Devil?” she demanded, and now Ty chuckled.
“Oh, he’s pretty hands-off these days. No, I meant the other demons who’re trapped in Hell. They’re always looking for a way to get out of there permanently…right, Caleb?”
Although he hated being put on the spot like that, he knew he had to answer. “Yeah, sure. It’s harder than you think, though. They can get out for a few hours or a couple of days…or even months, if they find the right person to possess…but eventually, they always get sent back.”
“You haven’t,” Ty pointed out, and now Prudence stared at Caleb as if he’d sprouted the proverbial pair of horns.
“You were in Hell?” she demanded.
