Parker worried about Nick with the ferocity that Nick worried about Parker, and they went round and round with it, each caring more about the other than they did themselves.
Nick turned back to the glass. “What do you want?”
“I want to talk to you, god killer,” Gile’s mouth said. “In here. Not there.Here.”
“No,” Parker said immediately. “No. Not happening. He’s not going in there when you’re giving away parasite infections like it’s a toaster for opening a new checking account. You can hear him fine from here.”
“Here, or I will kill Redmond Gile, 32 years old, who takes care of his mother, volunteers at a pit bull rescue, has one sister, two nephews, and three dogs. Their names are?—”
“Okay,” Nick said. “I’ll go. But if you kill Gile before I get in there, deal’s off.”
Nick reached over and turned off the intercom, then the lights.
“No,” Parker said. “No, Nick. Not happening. This is not happening. I don’t care if he tells me that Gile donates his whole salary to prevent child hunger and spends his days off running errands for Mother Teresa! No.”
“King,” Rios was still frowning. “Why does the parasite call you a god killer?”
For a second, everyone froze, even Tate, whose expression dropped into a deep, unhappy scowl. Nick knew the reports. He knew what had been written down and what hadn’t. He knew how both he and Parker kept their freedom.
He also knew that, as Parker would say, some cats couldn’t be contained in bags, no matter how good the lies on the paperwork were.
“When the Sun god’s attack on San Amaro happened, I was involved personally in killing some of the attacking gods,” Nick said. “So was Parker. The report should be available from the BPT.”
“Yes, I’ve read the redacted version,” Rios said. He looked between them, then back at Tate. “I’m sure the un-redacted version would be fascinating.”
“King, you think it’s a good idea going in there?” Tate asked.
“No, it isnota good idea, which is why he’snotdoing it,” Parker said sharply. “He’s staying right here, and we’ll…”
“What would you do?” Nick asked him. “We need to know what the thing wants.”
“What it wants is irrelevant if it attaches itself to you!” Parker said. “I don’t care if it will go away if we give it a parking validation stamp! You are not?—”
“Would you go in?” Nick waited, both eyebrows raised. “Because you’d go in there. Don’t pretend that you wouldn’t.”
“WhatIdo—” Parker wet his lips. “What I do is different.”
“No,” Nick said. “No, it’s not. This thing is going to kill him, and I’m not going to stand here and let him, not without trying to find out why.”
“Why did I have to marry a guy who’s so good?” Parker said. “Be a little more selfish! Don’t be so heroic—it makes the rest of us look bad.”
“If all it needs is parking validation,” Nick said. “I’ll bring the stamp with me, but this is something you’d do, and I have the receipts to prove it.”
“I distinctly remember telling you not to do things I’d do. I said, ‘If I’d do it, you turn around and don’t do it.’” Parker put his hands on his hips, but he was glaring at Nick’s chest as thoughworking through a tough problem. “Okay, so if you’re going in, we need to figure out a way to make sure that no alchemy circle can get on you. Options?”
“Shields,” Zahide said immediately.
“Personal shields,” Nick said, nodding. “Maybe even multiple layers.”
“Knives,” Parker said, blinking. He grinned fiercely. “Lots of knives.”
Zahide and Nick looked at each other, and Nick winced. This was probably going to be painful.
As Zahide got to work on a couple of shield spells, Parker herded Nick into a bathroom.
“Private magical practice,” he said to Rios. “Protected by the first amendment.”
Inside, Parker checked all the stalls before locking the bathroom behind him. Then he touched Nick’s chest, the flash of gold on his skin visible and then gone. If Nick didn’t know to look for it, he never would have seen it.
