“Nope, no,” I said. “I do not need you at all. Today. Or ever.” I grinned at him and he made kissy faces at me. Then I was out the door before he could change his mind, but not before Hogan pressed a thick chunk of bread in my hand.
Bathin stepped out onto the porch with me.
“You sure you’re going to be okay with that ring?” I asked before I took a big bite of the bread. I moaned a little, it was that good.
Bathin just shook his head at me.
“Wait until you try it,” I mumbled around another big bite.
“The ring isn’t going to be a problem. You can touch it, I promise you won’t go up in smoke.” He held his hand out, palm up, and I decided someone should make sure it was safe.
I swallowed and then brushed my hand on my jeans. “Not that I don’t trust you,” I said.
“Of course not,” he agreed.
I poked at the scratched silver band with the tip of my finger.
Nothing. No zing, no zip. Not even a single spark or note of magic.
“That’s pretty remarkable,” I said.
“She does good work. I hate to admit it,” he said, “but she knows her stuff. Are you sure you don’t want to lock it up?”
“I do want to lock it up. But we’ve had to put some powerful weapons in the vault today. I don’t know how a demon weapon would interact being near them.”
“Powerful weapons?”
“God weapons.”
Bathin’s eyebrows went up. “You didn’t say that before. Who brought their weapons to town?”
“Not the gods. The weapons were dropped off on their doorsteps. Just like Xtelle’s ring.”
We’d started walking toward our cars. Parked next to my Jeep was the slick ‘68 Corvette Bathin had somehow gotten his hands on. Cherry red and hot as sin, it was flashy, pretentious, and frankly, suited him.
“Correct weapon to the correct god?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“And these weren’t previously in Ordinary?”
“Nope. Just like your mother’s ring wasn’t here. The rules don’t allow the gods to bring their weapons here. Hell, the rules force the gods to put down their power, so why would they be able to keep weapons that are directly connected to that power? This is supposed to be a vacation town, not a battlefield.”
“Which gods?”
“Why?” I leaned on the door to the Jeep, and stuck my hands in my pockets.
We’d been connected to each other in a strange manner not so long ago. I’d agreed to give him my soul for him releasing my father’s trapped soul. I still believed it had been a good decision, even though Jean and Myra had been horrified and furious about it.
They’d forced me to agree that I wouldn’t make deals with demons, or any other creature, god, or human that involved anything precious and rare without first consulting them.
They called it the Don’t Do Anything Dumb Without Talking To Us First, Delaney rule.
When he’d had my soul, Bathin had gotten a good feel for how humanity ticked.
In return I’d gotten a feel for how demon-kind ticked.
Which meant I knew he was putting pieces of a puzzle together right now, something about the god powers, something about the ring, and something more.
