“God help us,” Wrassler said.
“I think we need to update our systems. Again.” I instructed him to wake Quint and have a car brought around back. His reply informed me it would be three vehicles, and that Bruiser would be waiting at the back entrance.Yikes. I had forgotten to call my honeybunch.
Hurriedly, I dressed and armed myself—jeans and handguns, one vamp-killer. I headed out the door and snapped my fingers at the guards, not the vamps who had been put to sleep by a witch child, but humans who had shown up to take over. “I’m going for a drive. So I don’t get my ass chewed, how about y’all follow me downstairs to the back entrance?”
Something brushed my leg and both guards drew on me, weapons pointing at my left thigh. I managed not to flinch at the unexpected touch or the guns. “Put ’em away. Looks like you two haven’t met Brute and his baby grindylow.”
To the werewolf I said, “You’re gonna get yourself shot someday, you stupid dog.”
Not having a human mouth, Brute didn’t talk back, but he did give a snort and it somehow sounded like a challenge, like, “They can try,” but with air and a little bit of dog snot on the floor.
To the guards, I said, “Of the two, the grindy is by far the most dangerous. Don’t let the neon green fur and the cute kitty-cat appearance fool you.”
The grindy chittered at me. “Pea?” I asked. There was no response, so not Pea. I had no idea if this one was Bean, Sprout, or Leaf. Not that it mattered. Only Pea could speak (sort of), with the ability to say, “Ssss,” for yes and, “Nnnn,” for no. None of the others responded to the names humans gave them, and other than Pea’s two words, they were identical in appearance at this age.
We all got on the elevator and I asked the white werewolf, “You know what I’m searching for?”
He cocked his head, curious, telling me he wasn’t sure what I meant.
“One who’s winged and broken, one dead twice and eaten alive?”
He nodded his head up and back down once, human gestures that always looked odd on animals.
“And while we’re chatting, I hear you’ve been guarding a very special someone while he sleeps.”
Brute tilted his head at me quizzically, as if it was a stupid question and I should know this already, and nodded again.
“Fine. We’ll talk later.”
The two guards glanced at each other and raised their eyebrows, as if saying the boss-lady was a little crazy talking to critters.
***
The wolf leaped into the back seat and growled when I held out a harness. Growled again when I pulled out the seat belt. The grindy took its cue from the werewolf and chittered at me indignantly.
“Fine,” I said. “But if we have an accident and werewolf and grindy brains get splattered all over the SUV, it’ll probably have to be totaled, because brains are sticky and will never come out, and I will not be happy about my insurance rates.”
With that smile that told me he found me adorable, Bruiser took the driver’s seat and Quint claimed shotgun. That left me no place except with the dog and the neon green kitty-like killer in back.
I glared at the wolf. Brute snorted with amusement and lay across most of the back seat area. The grindy perched herself on his back, extruded her left forepaw claws, and started grooming the hairs at his neck, just like a kitten. Except her claws were steel and little bits of hair flew up as she worked. Sighing, I belted in, knowing my jeans would smell like dog.
Bruiser started the vehicle and our three-car motorcade pulled into the street. I missed Eli, but he was off somewhere with Liz and I hoped he was having more fun than I was. Quint was cold and silent. Bruiser was deep in thought, as he had been for days, restructuring plans for the coronation, trying to out-vamp-think vamps and keep me safe while doing all the other Consort duties, which were a lot like heir or primo duties under Leo, butwith more prospective duels and attacks and battles. Like at the null prison and the airport and... My brain turned all that over and...Crap.
Brute was slobbering all over the upholstery, and I had the weird urge to scratch between his ears, which made no sense at all. Unless there was something seriously wrong with me. As we drove, I realized that I was—well, I might be—lonely.
There was a time when my life was made up of me, Bitsa—my bastard Harley—Molly, and Angie. Now there were all these people in it. People I... loved. People to take care of. Had to consider in my daily plans. Which sucked. I frowned and looked out the window. When this coronation was over, I was taking a long, hard look at my life choices.
The cars in front and in back were being driven by the two guards from my bedroom, and there were two additional shooters in each vehicle. That made eight people guarding me while I twiddled my thumbs in the back seat with a werewolf and grindylow. I used to motor around this city on my Harley Bitsa all the time. Alone. Now I had an entourage. And... I was lonely.
This was stupid. And annoying. Not that I said anything because no one was listening to me anyway. I was just the Asset. Or better—the Cargo. Yeah. A lump of clay. I held in a dejected sigh, but I felt it deep in my guts. Of course there wasn’t much room there right now, as much as I had been eating, so there was that. Being the DQ meant great food and all the cool toys I wanted. It also meant that gushy feeling deep inside that saidfamily. If I could keep them safe.
“This a great area of space to search, Jane, for an angel who is unlikely to be corporeal,” Bruiser said. “Can you give me any details at all? Maybe something you saw in the visions?”
“Curved ceiling, like a cave. There were these people standing around the walls. I keep wondering if they were angels, if they had wings. And maybe they did. There were stains or shadows running down the walls. One time I saw the place, there was some kind of shimmery red and blue light, like emergency lights but not flashing.”
“Possibly an old Catholic church?” Bruiser asked. “A glow like stained glass windows? They might have niches with statues, plaster of Paris saints, angels, some with wings.”
“Huh.” I frowned. I had been in St. Louis Cathedral. So yeah, though this was smaller. “All Catholic churches have idols?”
