“You are disgustingly happy this morning. I am suspicious.”
I shrugged. “Maybe it was shopping for my wedding dress. Thank you for setting that up for me.”
“Myra and Jean did all the work. I just recruited them.”
“Maybe it was watching you use your godly contract powers yesterday. Sexy. But did you have to be so nice to the people who stepped all over our rose bushes?”
“They stepped all over you,” he said. “You were the one who stepped all over the rose bushes.”
I waved a hand like it didn’t matter. “What was the power move you pulled back at the station while you were acting like a super nice guy?”
“I am a super nice guy.”
“Spill it, almost-hubby.”
“Over the last couple years, Mithra’s tried to find different ways to…I don’t know…tempt me to take his side? He hasn’t given me actual power, but he has made it so I can see how contracts connect things. People, the supernatural and the unmagical, follow rules and laws, both manmade and natural. Why are you staring at the coffee pot? Am I boring you?”
“No, I’m just trying to decide if I have time for another cup of coffee before we head out.”
He grabbed the cup I’d used earlier out of the sink, ran water in it, then filled it about half full.
“Thanks,” I said, as he handed it to me. “Carry on.”
“After a couple years seeing how…everythingis connected by some contract or other, I realized that if I talk to someone and get them to respond—an agreement is best, but any response works—I could seehowthey are tied into contracts. How they offer their word or intention or will. The construction of all the contracts we make, hour by hour, minute by minute is actually beautiful.”
“So you wanted them to agree with you so you could see how they agreed with the demons?”
“Pretty much. I offered to get them something, and they said yes.”
“The bathroom.”
“Yup. When Lori agreed to go to the bathroom with you, and the men agreed to step away from the door, that was when I saw how they were tangled up.”
“This better all be in your final report.”
“I’ll put it in the one Myra files in the magic library. It won’t be on the public record.”
“You’re getting pretty good at juggling this reserve officer thing. But you’re getting pretty good at juggling a lot of things. The job, your actual job, Mithra, our wedding.”
“I like some of those things more than others.”
“Wedding, I would hope.”
“I keep telling you not to worry about that. I love working on it. No, don’t make that face, I do. In case you were wondering, being tied to Mithra is the thing I hate. If I could find a way to break that contract, I would.”
“We will,” I said. “There has to be a way to break it, or make Mithra break it.”
He nodded.
“It did come in handy yesterday, though,” I said.
“Yeah.”
“And you looked really hot working them over. Making them like you, getting them to do what you wanted.”
He huffed a laugh. “Yeah?”
“Hot.” I put down my coffee cup and took his hand.
