From the floor, the guy snarled. “Fool. Your trust is misplaced.”
Eric grabbed him by the collar and hauled him up off the ground. Cutter held his hands behind his back as Eric got right in the demon’s face. “What happened to you creatures bowing before me? Calling me Sire?”
“I would never bow before you. But if you kill me, another will come. He won’t rise. He cannot rise. We will not let him rise.”
Laura looked at me. “What does that mean?”
I shook my head. I didn’t know. Around us, the other contractors were staring. I could see the blood lust in Eric’s eyes, I knew he wanted to shove something sharp and pointy through the demon’s eye, but this wasn’t the time or the place. And I desperately hoped Eric realized that, too.
After a full five beats, Eric tossed the demon back on the ground. “Get the hell out of here before you lose an eye.”
The demon looked as if he was going to attack again, but then he turned and raced for the door, crying out as he went, “He cannot rise, he will not rise...”
Cutter looked at me, breathing hard as he reached for Laura’s hand. “Cryptic little guy, isn’t he?”
“Yeah,” I said. “They almost always are.”
CHAPTER 19
“So you really like the idea?” I asked Stuart as we sipped coffee at the breakfast table the next morning. “I mean, you really think it makes sense?”
“You’re sure this is something that you want to take on?” he asked. “I mean, my part is the easy part. Paperwork and signing checks and documents. You’re taking on quite a load, Kate.”
“Not alone, though. You’ll help with the office administration, right? And Eric will be training and helping with overall operations, and Cutter will help, too. Plus, Father Corletti will send others to help train as well.”
“I think it’s a great idea,” he said. “What are we doing about high school, though? Is Allie going to go all in at your new academy? Or will she stay at Coronado High?”
“Forza West,for Allie,” I said. “But we’ll be bringing in academic teachers, too. I have a feeling those will be the classes she tries to skip.”
He nodded slowly. “That makes sense. What about Mindy?”
I grimaced. To be honest I hadn’t thought about that. And right now my brain was very, very tired. I’d spent most of the time between two in the morning and right now on the phonewith Father Corletti, talking to him and Marcus about the idea and all the practical aspects of getting my idea up and running.
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “She’s decent in the field, but I think she’d really rock at training to be analimentatore. I mean, Laura rocks at research. Like mother, like daughter?”
“So the school would teach that stuff, too?” Stuart asked. “The history, the demonology, all of that?”
“Along with regular academic courses. Yeah.” Though if this school turned out to be anything like my experience, there’d be more fighting and less academia, except for those on thealimentatoretrack.
“How are you going to recruit the academic instructors?”
I sighed. “Stuart, I came up with this idea yesterday. I haven’t thought of everything yet. But you’re right. We’ll need to recruit. We’ll need accreditations. And I’m really hoping my organized and resourceful husband will jump all over that.”
“I’ve got back-to-back meetings today, but I’ll give it some thought. I promise.”
“Yeah?” He got up, then kissed me on the cheek before taking his coffee mug to the sink. “Anything for you. You know that right?”
“What are you doing for Mom?” Allie asked, padding into the kitchen in her bare feet and bunny-covered pajamas.
“Stuart’s looking into some legal aspects of an idea I have.” I couldn’t help the fact that I was practically bouncing in my seat.
Allie glanced at Stuart, her brows raised. “Mom’s dying to tell me what it is. Is it okay? Can you tell me? Is it a secret?”
I laughed. “No, I think it’s okay for you to know, but you need to also understand that it may not happen. A million things have to fall into place to make it a sure thing.”
“What?” Now she looked really interested. She pulled out a chair and sat at the table, then took one of the pieces of buttered toast I’d made for myself. “What’s going on?”
“We’re thinking about making the Greatwater mansion into a training center.Forza West. A full-on boarding school for training hunters.”
