“I didn’t rescind my custody,” I said. “And I won’t, unless Jade wants me to, or you become a threat to her.” I glanced over at Jade—she didn’t mind my draped arm, so I moved into the next phase and caressed her arm with my fingers. “Then again, should you become a threat to her, I won’t need to rescind my custody, because I’ll take care of you myself.”
Orrin relaxed, his shoulders falling before he nodded and sipped his tea.
A moment passed, then he spoke. “I don’t have a cellphone.”
“And?” I prompted.
“I will be unable to take photos for the task force,” Orrin said.
“Oh.” Jade blinked. “I suppose that’s true. Well, I can show you on mine—”
“That is too much of a security risk,” Orrin informed her. “You shouldn’t go around showing others your personal cellphone, considering your family.”
Jade scratched her neck. “It’s not like I have secret slayer apps on my phone. It’s mostly all the location tracking apps my family made me install before I moved.”
“Really? Slayers don’t have some kind of social network you’re all plugged into?” I asked.
Jade shook her head. “That would be too much of a security risk.”
“You don’t have a way to mass contact all slayers?” I asked. “That seems like something delightfully underhanded and very slayer-like.”
“Slayer families are self-sufficient. We pool our resources, have a standard code of operations, and meet for training purposes but we have no ruling body.” Jade meticulously straightened her paperwork into a neat pile, then glancedlongingly at the card game, reaffirming my need to get us dealt in. “If things got dire there’s the slayer stake, of course, but that’s about it.”
Orrin stared at her, confused but unwilling to admit it.
Typical fae.
Jade took pity on him. “The slayer stake is a call out to all slayer families in the region as an official request for help. Slayer families are honor-bound to help, for a price, of course.”
“I see,” Orrin said.
I watched the card game, observing the players and waiting for my best opportunity.
As formal as the task force was, they wouldn’t be against Jade and me joining the game—they were too curious and obsessed with fun for that.
But I’d need the correct way in, or Jade would feel that we’d been accepted solely to keep us from being offended.
Asking either of the vampires was out, due to Jade’s sensitive nature. Grove was a possibility—he and Jade seemed to be the most comfortable as Grove didn’t have a single bone of respect or self-preservation in his body. However, this was the first time I’d witnessed him playing, and unless someone convinced him the old maid card used poison to kill the players, I wasn’t sure he’d play again.
That meant the best target was likely Brody.
I studied the werewolf’s back—which, as usual, had paw prints on the back of his uniform that were the handiwork of his packmates.
Brody turned away from the game, his gaze going to the open door, which likely meant that with his werewolf senses he could either smell or hear Sarge approaching.
He started shuffling toward the usual table he shared with Binx, which brought him close to us.
“Brody.”
“Huh?” The werewolf snapped to attention, his gaze naturally settling on Jade before flicking to me.
“Who is the champion of go-fish-old-maid today?” I asked.
“Oh.” Brody scratched his side. “I think Binx technically won the most rounds, but Grove got pretty close to beating her.”
“That’s impressive. Isn’t this his first time playing?” I asked.
“Yeah, but he’s suited for the game. No one can guess what he’s doing, himself included.” Brody grinned, relaxing. “Of course, if we let Clarence play, he’d clean all of us out. That’s why we only let him join in two days a week. Though even he might have some trouble against Grove.”
