Sergeant Hanna sighed. “Get out of my office.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I said, standing up. Angel rose, too, but was slower to leave.
“We may need to keep Jude in the truck with Tiana,” he pointed out.
“You’re field lead. I’ll leave that up to you,” Hanna said.
I hated being sidelined, but I also didn’t want to endanger the team. “Maybe I can ask Lilith to teach me directly?” Having met her once, I got creepy Wednesday Addams vibes from her, but she hadn’t come across as the type to enslave me or demand my children or something.
“We don’t ask favors of gods,” Angel said. “We never know when they will demand a return of something terrible.”
“Oh,” I said, and sat back down, worrying at my lower lip with my teeth.
“I’ll request the archive pull texts on necromancy,” Hanna said. “Sadly, most of our records are journals rather than actual guides.”
“I’ll accept any help I can get,” I said.
“That includes Woodward.”
I swallowed another curse. Angel growled. “He’s handsy.”
“Then I trust you to teach him his place.” She stared at us a long moment before waving at us to leave. I bolted for the door, desperate to be free. Angel followed close behind as we headed to our desk to pack up for the day. I had a long moment of excitement to be free and off callout for the next three days. Even if it meant prepping my life to be without me for a full week.
“Can we stop at the bakery and get something for Grandpa and Ivan?” I’d grab some stuff for Nikki, too. The constant tripsacross the Veil no longer bothered my stomach, but I’d been training hard enough this week to feel like I was running on empty.
“Sure. We need to grab foodstuffs anyway,” Angel said as he wove around the bullpen, which was thankfully mostly quiet as everyone was packing up on our team for the weekend. Even the NHVs would be out with us, stationed in two TVs—tactical vehicles, which were a bit like a cross between a tank and a mini motorhome built for war.
While I didn’t look forward to the week eating, sleeping, and fighting in each other’s pockets, TFW rotation was the reason for my giant pay bump. I had dreams of increasing my nest egg to buy a house to fit all my weirdness, my little brother, my grandpa, and hopefully my new boyfriend. I thought that maybe in a year, I could pay cash for something nice, and even afford help to look after Grandpa while I was at work. Was it too small to be focused on building a home, when the military and some supernatural god were after me? Or deflection?
I jogged to our office and shoved my computer in my bag, hoping to bolt. But Remi walked through our door, a stack of books in his arms, his blue hair tied up in a messy but tiny bun, as he plopped the stack on my desk.
“What the hell, Woodward,” I growled. “This is a weekend off.”
“Just a little light reading to catch you up,” Remi said. “History of Necromancersand some basic spell stuff.” His gaze flipped to Angel as my man growled. “Nothing dark, kitty cat. Just simple light spells and tracking, that sort of thing. Not all variants have the ability to do structural magic, but I thought maybe with your supervision, he’d be willing to try.”
Ezra walked by our office, and Remi stiffened.
“I’m willing to come over and provide more personal training. Show you my ropes,” Remi said, turning on the charm.
Was that how it was? Flirt with me to make Ezra jealous? Hmm.
I shoved the books in my bag and sauntered around the desk to play coy as I watched Ezra pause outside the open doorway at one of the many supply cupboards. Eavesdropping, obviously.
“Ropes, you say?” I asked. “Who’s tied up? You or me?”
Remi blinked. Angel growled low, crushing an empty stainless-steel coffee thermos as he tried to pick it up. Oops. I shot my man an innocent look, which he either ignored or didn’t believe.
Ezra paused in his quest for whatever supply had suddenly gone missing for him right at quitting time. Perfect.
Remi slipped his arm around my shoulders, floating just above actually touching me. “I have the best knots.”
Angel sputtered. The next second, Angel had me flung over his shoulder like a sack of flour, my bag and his wrapped around his other arm.
“Angel, what the hell?” I asked, suddenly staring at his fine ass. This wasn’t a bad angle.
Remi hooted with laughter.
“Have a good weekend,” Wade called after us.
