“My first one was glitchy too,” Hawk said.“My sponsor saidit can take our bodies a while to adjust to being in tune with another person.”His had taken a couple of years, which was whya Memitim’sfirst Primori was often their only Primori for the first five years.
“Do they ever fail to notify us when our Primori is introuble?”
“Yup.”He caught a squash that escaped her arms.“Our sisterNephritt lost her very first Primori when hisheraldididn’t alert herthat he was in danger.”
Suzanne’sbrown doeeyes shot wide.“That’s terrifying.Maybe I should check on Declan more often.”
“I get the feeling you check on him enough,” Hawkyn said ashe placed the gourd on the top of her squash pile.
She blushed, which told him he’d hit the mark.He’d seen theway she looked at the human she was assigned to watch over.She looked at himlike she’d been trapped in the Inner Sanctum’s 5th Ring’s scorch pit for aweekand he was carrying a glass of water.And athousand-foot ladder.
“He’s my first,” she said with a stubborn sniff, her nose inthe air.“And I’m going to make sure I do my job right.”
“That’s the problem,” he said, hoping he didn’t come off astoolecture-happy.Suzanne would tune out faster thanagriminioncould reap a soul.“You’renotdoing your jobright.We aren’t supposed to interact with our Primori or the people aroundthem.We’re supposed to watch from a distance or from the invisibility of thekhote.But you’ve been hanging out at the restaurant where he works and chatting uphis friends and co-workers.”
“Declan doesn’t work at Top,” she shot back, gettingprickly.“He works for the restaurant owner’s brother at McKay-Taggart, andtheir families and employees are kind of intertwined, so he’s there a lot.AndI just happen to like the food.Plus, there are a surprising number of Primoriassociated with both Top and McKay-Taggart, so I’m doing my brothers andsisters a favor by keeping an eye on their charges.And I’ve gotten some greatcontacts that could help me take my cooking show to a whole new level.”Shespun on her tennis shoe-clad foot and started toward the main dormitorybuilding, which housed Sheoul-gra’s largest of several kitchens.“Now, ifyou’ll excuse me,” she called out as she walked, “I have to start on dinnerbefore I get too annoyed.”
No, no one wanted her to cook while she was annoyed.Hermoodsinfused the food she prepared, soahappySuzanne was a recipe for happydiners.Not to mention the fact that her food was extra delicious when she was enjoyingherself, which was almost always.She took her job as a cook as seriously asshe took her job as a guardian, although she certainly didn’t look at thatsquash the way she did the human she was watching over.
“I worry about her,” he said to Cipher after she was out ofearshot.“She’s not ready to have a Primori.Hell, she’s not suited for thisshit at all.”
Cipher snorted.“Dude, I’ve sparred with her.She’s anawesome fighter.She moves like a damned snake.She’s way faster than I am.”
Cipher must be really impressed, because he never admittedthat anyone was better in any way than he was.And he was usually right.He wasa tough bastard whose fighting skills made him one of the most sought-aftertrainers in Sheoul-gra.The challenge was getting him away from his computer.The guy’s cyber-skills were on par with his fighting skills.
“It’s not her fighting ability that concerns me,” Hawkynsighed.“It’s her innocence.She’s so naïve.”
“She’s had decades of exposure to underworld shit anddemons, hasn’t she?”
“Yes, but it’s humans I worry about.”He watched Suzdisappear into the building.
“Humans?”Cipher barked out a laugh.“Humans are freakingharmless.”
He glanced over at his buddy.Cipher was a little naïve,too.“She didn’t grow up like most Memitim.She had a good life.”
Cipher’s voice was flat.“Oh, the horror.”
“You don’t get it.”Hawk swiped his water bottle from thebench.“Memitim infants are intentionally put into shitty situations.Badparents, war zones, poverty...it’s to challenge us as we growup.”
“Sounds like it could turn you into a bunch of psychos,”Cipher mused as he went for his own water.“Explains a lot, actually.”
No argument there.A lot of Hawk’s brothers and sisters hadserious issues, and Suzanne could often be found trying to fix them.Usuallywith food.
“Yeah, well, Suz somehow ended up with a near perfect life.Loving family, popular in school, lots of friends.Chipped nails were the worstthings that ever happened to her.She didn’t really date, didn’t get into a lotof trouble.She lived in fucking Pleasantville.Then she went straight from anidyllic human life to the Memitim training center in Hawaii, which is prettymuch a spa.”
Hawkyn had been assigned to the facility in Belgium, acold-ass castle with strict rules.Yes, he could have lived on his own afterhis fifty years of mandatory fledgling training was complete, but he’d chosento stay...until Sheoul-gra unexpectedlyopened uptoMemitim a couple of years ago.
Well, it had always been open to Memitim who wanted to serveAzagoth, but Sheoul-gra had been a dark, grim, horrible place where few wantedto be until Azagoth’s mate, Lilliana, came along.Now it was teeming with lifeand activity and a thriving community of Memitim, Unfallen angels, and even afew True Fallen angels.
“Soshe hasn’t seen what humans arecapable of,” Cipher mused.
“Exactly.She hasn’t been hurt.And I see her getting tooattached to her Primori.”
“You’re her sponsor.Can’t you talk to your Memitim bossesand get her reassigned?”
Hawkyn barked out a laugh.“I don’t know why I even tried.Got the standard ‘Primori are assigned to specific Memitim for a reason’bullshit.”
“I heard you can ask for one reassignment per century.”Cipher drained his water bottle in half a dozen swallows and tossed it to theground for one of the new trainees to pick up.There were few trash bins intraining areas for a reason, and as far as Hawk could tell, that reason was tomake trainees hate life.“You ever try to get one of your Primori reassigned?”
