“I still can’t talk you out of that, I guess?” Axel sniffed in distaste. “Nothing good in Mexico, you know. Cacti and big lizards. The occasional chupacabra. Dead Mayans.”
“I thought they were Aztecs.”
“Whatever. You all look alike.”
“Still not coming with, hm?” For reasons known only to him, Axel had adamantly refused to shadow me on my trip south. The one time I’d mentioned it, he’d acted like I’d tried to say the Lord’s prayer over him or something. “You’re going to have a sleepover with a family that has been banishing demons since before the Europeans set foot on this soil. Do I look crazy?” If I didn’t know better, I’d say Axel was scared, which amused me greatly.
“I have other things to do. You’ll be fine.”
I snorted softly. “If you really thought they could get these things out of me, you’d be down there damn quick.” He didn’t want to lose two hundred and seventy-five souls, and keeping them in my skin was as good as a bank vault as far as he was concerned. If he truly believed that Estéban’s mother could release them, he’d be stuck to my side like glue.
Axel just smirked at me. “It’s my week to wash my hair.”
I rolled my eyes. “God forbid I interrupt your beauty regimen.” The mention of the G-word got a wince and a glare from him. “You better go. Kristyn’s eyeing you like she just knows you need a pair of pirate footie pjs.”
“I’ve worn worse. If something changes, I’ll be in touch.” He waggled his fingers at my boss as he made his way out of the store, and when he was gone, she raised a brow at me. I just shook my head and went about straightening up the racks he’d wrecked.
Axel was…Axel. He was an unrepentant demon – though in all fairness, I’d never seen a repentant one – and never did anything unless it directly benefitted himself in some way. It galled me that I was dependent on him for information and protection. It seemed that no matter how I played things, my life just got more and more tangled up with stuff I wanted to leave behind.
Later that night, I lay in bed with my arms around my pregnant wife, and I tried not to think about what was going to happen if Carlotta and Terrence couldn’t get these souls out of me.
“If you think any louder, you’re going to wake the house,” Mira murmured quietly, proving that she wasn’t any more asleep than I was. She shifted a little, snuggling closer into me, and I buried my face against her neck, just breathing in her scent.
“Sorry. My brain is all buzzy.”
“I know.” Her hand found mine and drew it down to her belly, pressing it flat so that I could feel the roll of motion within. He was a kicker, our little one. Or she. Mira refused to find out ahead of time, and when her doctor was her best friend, there was no sneaking around behind her back. I just kept thinking “he” like that would make it so.
Don’t get me wrong, my daughter is the absolute center of my universe. She’s a tough kid and plays with swords and trucks just as much as she does Barbies and toy ponies. I’d had an equal number of tea parties and snowball fights, and there wasn’t anything in the world I wouldn’t do for that little girl.
But part of me wanted a son, too. A boy to carry on my name when I was gone. I guess it didn’t help that “when I was gone” felt like it was going to be sooner rather than later.
My unborn child elbowed me square in the palm at the same time that Mira said “Stop it.”
“Stop what?”
“Stop brooding.” She laced her fingers through mine. “We’ll get this fixed. I’ve talked to Carlotta, I’m sure that she and Terrence can solve this.”
“And if they can’t?”
“They will.”
I sighed and leaned up on my elbow so that I could look down at her. “But if they can’t.”
She rolled over onto her back so that she could look me square in the eyes, the green of her own impossible to see in the darkness. “Then we try something else. I refuse to believe that this is a permanent situation. And once the baby gets here, maybe I can…do something.”
I knew it was killing her that she could do literally nothing to help me, at least in a magical sense. Mira was not the type of woman who waited around for someone else to do the rescuing. The fact that she’d been benched ate at her, even if it was for the best of reasons. “A few more months. Let’s get him here safely, then we’ll worry about…other things.”
“Or her.”
“Or her,” I agreed, and lay back down, cuddling together as we felt our child move inside her. “While I’m gone, if you need anything, call the guys, okay?”
Mira sighed and rolled her eyes. “Cameron for magic, Cole for anything else. I know. We’ve talked about this about twenty times now.”
“Sorry. Pre-travel jitters.” The little alien in her belly rolled against my hand again, as if to assure me that everything would be all right. “You probably won’t be able to get ahold of me, ‘cause cell reception is crappy down there, but I’ll call whenever we go down into town.”
“Jesse Dawson, I swear to the goddess, if you go over all this crap again, I will punch you in the throat.” She’d do it too. I believed that.
I sat up again, resting my elbows on my knees and running a hand through my hair. It was getting longer again, hanging past my shoulders now. I should have gotten it cut before we left. I’d learned the hard way that long hair was a liability in a fight. “Sorry, Mir. I just… I hate this. You know how frustrating it is to not be able to work magic to help out… Well I can’t do anything. I can’t stay here, because sooner or later they’re going to come for me, and I can’t endanger you and Anna. And even when they do come after me, I can’t risk fighting. I can’t risk all these people’s lives, and I feel so damn helpless.”
“I know. It’s not in your nature to stand by and let others fight your battles for you.” I heard a ghost of a smile in her voice, even if I wasn’t looking at her. Her hand came to rest on my back, one of the rare times she’d touched me there since…since. The extra souls made her uncomfortable. In response to her touch, they flexed a little, stretching maybe, but didn’t become agitated. I think they knew her, they knew she wasn’t a threat.
“You’ll be safe, down there. If I had to rely on someone else’s magic to protect you, it would be Carlotta’s. The very land they live on is blessed after so many centuries of magic being worked there.”
Like Axel had said, the Perez clan had been challenging demons for longer than written memory. Sure, now they used an odd combination of native magic and Catholic prayer, but the power was the same. Only a suicidal demon would think of coming after me there. Suicidal, or one that had just been tempted beyond the limits of endurance. I guess it remained to be seen if two hundred and seventy-five souls qualified as such a temptation.
Sleep wasn’t going to come easy, I could tell that already. Leaning down, I kissed Mira on the head. “Go to sleep. I’m gonna go watch TV or something. I don’t want to keep you up.”
“Hey.” She grabbed my hand as I slid from the bed, halting my retreat. “I love you.”
Words I never got tired of hearing, ever. “I love you, too.” We squeezed hands, than I slipped into my sweat pants and out into the darkened house.
Ducking my head into my daughter’s room, I was pleased to note that she was sound asleep, sprawled in some impossible position. Chunk, sleeping on the floor beside the bed, raised his head curiously, tilting it so that one ear flopped over. Good dog.
At just over nine months old, the English mastiff was still a puppy at heart, but he was already tipping the scales well over a hundred and twenty-five pounds. If he turned out like his dam and sire, he promised to grow into the size of a small buffalo before it was all said and done, which was just fine with me.
His sole purpose was to protect my daughter from the nasty things that I knew were out there, and the bigger he was, the better. I’d stood my ground against some of the worst the demon world had to offer with one of Chunk’s relatives at my side, and the
re was no better guardian I could ask for. He’d watch after my Annabelle when I no longer could.
As I padded down the hallway, I heard him slip from Anna’s room, his nails clicking against the hardwood floor. By the time I got to the kitchen, I had a big square head shoved up under my hand, those liquid doggy eyes begging me for the treats he knew we kept in the cabinet.
“You giant mooch,” I whispered, but slipped him a biscuit anyway. What can I say, I’m a softie.
Chunk took his treasure and disappeared with it back into the depths of the house.
Night had settled over the back yard, and I stood at the sliding door and looked out over my patio, resting my forehead against the cool glass. Things looked so peaceful out there, and at an earlier time in my life, I could have found peace out there, just meditating to the sounds of the fountain running into our little decorative pond.
Now, I knew the second I opened the door, Sveta would be on my heels – she had awakened the moment I left my room, and was currently lurking in the kitchen doorway while I pretended not to notice – and it was impossible to relax while an armed woman paced a track in the grass behind you. Not to mention that the sheer amount of magic wafting around through my yard was enough to set the souls in my skin jangling like a four alarm fire. My sanctuary had turned into my prison, it seemed.
I guess lack of sleep makes me a bit melodramatic.
“We have a long flight tomorrow. You should sleep.” Hunh. Didn’t expect her to break the silence first. I glanced over my shoulder to see her leaning against the door jamb, gun hanging loosely against her bare thigh.
“I can sleep on the flight.” She made some kind of vaguely agreeing noise. “You should crash while you can. I’ll just hang out in here a while.”
“All right. Call if you need me.”
“Hey, Sveta?” She paused, only the tilt of her head telling me that she was listening. “Do you ever think of quitting? Of not…doing this anymore?”
There was no hesitation in her answer. “No.”
“Why not?”
She turned just enough that she could look directly at me. “Because I do not know how to be anything but this.”
I had to wonder if I did.
Chapter 4
Morning came all too early, as those following sleepless nights are wont to do, and there wasn’t enough coffee in the world to help me deal with the small whirlwind of chaos that settled over my household.
Surprisingly, the problem wasn’t Sveta and Terrence, who set about loading everyone’s gear into the rental van with quiet military efficiency. No, the herding of the cats was related directly to my family, and their desire to say a proper goodbye to Estéban.
His packing job had to be checked and rechecked. His room was searched at least twice to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything. Annabelle’s hair had to be put up in pigtails, and only Estéban’s skill would do. Chunk, sensing that something major was happening, anxiously kept getting underfoot, and the debate over what snacks Estéban was allowed to take on the plane in his carryon nearly started World War III.
“Take your coat.” Mira pressed the heavy winter parka in to his arms, and he gave me a helpless look.
“It does not really get cold at my mother’s, Miss Mira.” He put the coat down.
She picked the coat up. “Take it anyway. Just in case.” Back into his hands it went.
“I do not have room in my bags for it.” The coat was down.
The coat was up. “But…”
“Mira!” Finally, I stood up, taking possession of the much-contested garment. “He can leave it here for now. If he needs it later, we can ship it to him. I promise, I will not let him freeze to death in Mexico in the middle of summer.”
She gave me the same helpless look the kid had just shot me, and I sighed. “Baby, he’ll be fine. I promise.”
Tears glimmered in her eyes, and she ducked her head under the pretense of adjusting her ponytail. “All right, but when I get a phone call saying ‘please send me my coat’, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
I swear, my wife isn’t normally crazy. But the pregnancy had her maternal instincts in overdrive, and whether we’d intended it or not, Estéban truly felt like one of our own kids. In the year or so that he’d lived with us, he’d become family, and he was the first child to leave the nest. Mira wasn’t dealing well. I wasn’t sure I was either.
And as far as Annabelle was concerned, we were taking away the big brother she’d always wanted. She fixed those devastating blue eyes on him and let the tears spill forth, clinging to the teenager’s knees with all her might. “I don’t want you to gooooo!”
“Oh, Bellita…” The kid got down on his knees and hugged her tightly. “I will miss you very much, too. But I promise I will write you letters, so you must practice your reading every day, all right?”
Anna sniffled, but nodded solemnly. “But you’re still my big brother, right? For always? Pinky swear?”
“Pinky swear.” He sealed the deal with a handshake of linked pinky fingers, then stood up with her in his arms. “And you can walk me out to the car, all right?” He gave me a significant look over Anna’s head as he turned to head out front.
Right. A moment alone with Mira. She had taken the coat again, holding it in her arms like it was going to fly away without restraint. Her eyes were a little red, but she wasn’t actively weeping, so I counted that as a good sign. “Hey. You gonna be okay?”
“Did I seriously just lose my mind and insist that he take a parka to a nearly tropical environment?”
“Yeah. A little.” I opened my arms and she stepped into them, her belly interfering just a little with our usual snuggling position. “It’s okay. He knows you love him.”
She sighed, resting her forehead against my chest. “I know he needs to go home. I can’t imagine not seeing Anna for over a year, I’m sure his mother is about to go crazy for missing him. But the house is going to seem pretty empty without him.”
“I know.” I rested my chin on top of her curly head, stroking her back soothingly. “But hey…we’ll still have Sveta and Terrence. You can mother them. Maybe see if Sveta will let you paint her nails or something.”
She snorted softly, but her shoulders shook with silent laughter. “I think I’ll pass.” Finally, she looked up at me, drawing my head down to kiss me gently. “Be careful. Come home to me.”
“Always. You know that.” I crouched down to rest my head against her stomach, but the occupant inside was quiet at the moment. “You take care of your mom, you hear?” Mira’s fingers tangled in my hair, and we sat like that for a moment, just breathing together. Then, something crashed outside and broke the spell. “Time to go.”
Somehow, we got everyone herded into the car that was supposed to be there, and no one stashed away that wasn’t supposed to be – though Anna tried – and with a last few tears and kisses and dear god would someone just drive, we managed to get on the road.
Kansas City’s airport is actually pretty easy to navigate, compared to some other places I’ve passed through, and we arrived with plenty of time to get our bags checked and get through security.
All four of us had demon slaying gear to pack – mailing things to Mexico wasn’t an option – and since the government tends to frown on weapons like that on airplanes, we were forced to check the heavy duty crates. They were locked and tagged with all the proper paperwork to ensure that they’d remain that way, and for extra precaution, Terrence had placed some magical locks on them too.
As the sky-hops loaded them onto the cart to wheel them away, I could see the sigils flare into visibility from time to time. Only to me, though, and presumably the three champions with me. Ordinary people would never see the magic right under their noses, and if they did, it could usually be explained away as a trick of the light, or fatigue. Hopefully, the physical locks would keep out the airport thieves, and the mystical locks would keep out…worse things.
Checking our bags was the easy
part. Getting through security, however… That was another issue.
I’d flown a lot in the last few years, I knew the drill. Anything that even looked like it contained liquid – like my mace canister – was in my suitcase. I wore my scuffed up sneakers instead of my combat boots, and I had my key chain collection of other anti-demon paraphernalia ready to dump into the bin to go through the scanners. No big deal.
Terrence, on the other hand, would try the patience of a saint on one of his good days. This was not such a day.
“Sir, you can’t take that on board.” The TSA agent patiently held his hand out for the silver flask that the old champion was clutching protectively to his chest.
“It’s for medicinal purposes!”
“Sir, all liquids have to be in a three-point-four ounce bottle, in a Ziploc bag, and no one believes that your gin is medicinal.” The security guy looked terminally bored, and I had to wonder how many times a day he had this argument.
“You can’t have my flask! It’s real silver, you know what this costs?”
“Then you’ll have to dump it out, sir.”
From the look on Terrence’s face, that suggestion seemed tantamount to offering to kick the baby Jesus or something. “That’s expensive gin!” Even his hair was offended, standing out from his head in irate disarray.
“I’m sorry, sir, regulations.”
I could see actual security guards starting to mass off to the side, and knew we were about two more tirades away from seeing Terrence get strip searched. Leaning close, I muttered into his ear, “Just go dump it out before they send you into a little room with a big burly guy and some rubber gloves.”
With a look of utter disgust at the TSA agent, Terrence hobbled off toward the restrooms to dump out his flask, slamming the point of his cane down loudly with every step just so that the entire world could know that he was pissed off. When he returned, the smell told me that more of the gin had gone down his throat than down the sink.
A Snake in the Grass Page 4