“Are you suspecting my purity now, too?” I checked for frost moths before claiming my rising anger as justifiably mine.
Niko raised a placating hand. “I’m saying you’ve had a lot thrown at you, and I don’t want to see you get crushed by it. I thought a day away from the demands of your region and the inspector might do you good. Helping out here and getting practice with frost moths is a bonus.”
I polished off my sandwich while mulling over his words. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but don’t you have better things to do?”
“Healthy, well-balanced enforcers make my job significantly easier.”
“Mmm. I bet experienced ones are even better.”
“You’ve done fine so far.”
Such faint praise, yet my chest swelled with pride. Good thing I had reality to deflate me before I popped. “Pamela hasn’t been impressed. I don’t think she’s going to let Brad and me expand our region.”
“Do you want to?”
“Honestly?” I peeked at him. “I don’t know. I don’t want to take on more than I can handle. And no wisecracks about it being too late already.”
“That’s not what I was going to say.”
I’ve already covered that topic extensively, Val said.
“Pipe down,” I admonished without putting any heat into my tone.
Jamie folded his bulk into an awkward hunch, lowering his massive head to my thigh with a heavy sigh. Lux lucis sheathed him to his shoulders, atrum painted his back half, and the two energies met in an unwavering, straight line around his rib cage as if two different dogs had been sewn together. Content, I stroked Jamie’s forehead, letting my fingers trace the growth patterns in his soft coat. Something dark slid across Niko’s expression, there and gone too fast to identify.
“Go ahead,” I said. “Lay some of your optivus aegis wisdom on me.”
“I was going to say it doesn’t matter what you want.”
“Oookay. That’s not what I expected.”
“You can’t control how the regional boundaries fall. All you can do is protect the people in your region—and your pooka—as best you can. Focus on that, and let the politics sort themselves out.”
I cocked my head, contemplating him. “Not bad advice.”
“Have I ever led you astray?”
A pinprick of ice grazed my cheek. I checked for frost moths, but the closest one fluttered a handful of yards above us.
SNOW! The bold word covered the entirety of Val’s page, the equivalent of him screaming.
Another tiny flake, barely larger than a grape seed, brushed my nose. Jamie lifted his head, scenting the air. I brushed a flake off Val before it could melt against his pages.
Close me, quick! Don’t let me get wet!
“Under the coat or out where you can see?” I asked him.
Under. No, where I can see. But under if it gets bad.
“Okay. I’ll keep you safe.” I closed Val and slid him back into the strap against my hip, his spine facing the sky so the snow would slide off him.
“Let’s see what we can accomplish with a few more hours,” Niko said.
Groaning, I stood, stretching to warm my cold joints before helping Niko pack.
The next hour passed in an endless repetition of the morning’s frost moth exterminations, only this time I slogged around the muddy slope on a full stomach. When a band of seven bright white prajurit darted along the ridge, flying in tight formation, I stumbled to a halt to watch them, as eager for a distraction as I was to witness our fascinating allies in their element. Zipping around the frost moths as if the insects were frozen in the sky, the prajurit paused near Jamie, the leader dipping to land on his wide lux lucis–coated nose. A moment later, Jamie pointed his muzzle toward me, and the prajurit buzzed up the slope—two women, five men, all of them proportionate dolls with enormous eyes, round wings, and bee abdomens. They stopped to hover two feet in front of me.
I blinked to normal sight, marveling that these fairy-size creatures existed for norms to see, but they somehow remained hidden from detection nonetheless. They each wore outfits in various eye-popping hues, from teal to fuchsia to mint, their short coats and calf-length trousers embroidered with silver designs too fine for me to discern. Woolen wraps circled their lower legs, ankles, and arches, leaving their toes and heels exposed to the elements. I shivered in sympathy, though the cold didn’t seem to affect them. All seven prajurit carried twin blades strapped to their hips. The micro swords looked like flashy adornments for expensive cocktails, but I’d seen prajurit in action, and the tiny blades were lethal to atrum creatures three times their size—and to humans who pissed them off.
A raven-haired woman who levitated herself slightly ahead of the others offered me a shallow bow.
“Madison Fox, we have heard tales of your battles,” she said, her voice high-pitched but melodic. “Suku Ek Emas welcomes you to our territory.”
They’d heard of me? Way up here? “Uh, thank you.” I returned her bow clumsily.
“Sunan Wulan appreciates your service.”
Sunan was a title of respect for the clan’s queen and ruler. Since I hadn’t yet learned the proper protocol for interactions with tiny royalty, I relied on what I recalled from period-piece British movies when I crafted my response.
“Please tell Sunan Wulan it is my pleasure, but not mine alone. I came with Optivus Aegis Niko Demetrius.”
The leader gave a signal and three prajurit peeled away from the cluster and beelined for Niko’s bright figure just visible around the bend of the hill.
“Our faith in the Collaborative Illumination Alliance has been sorely tested,” the small woman said. “The dispute between your wardens spilled blood on our lands and destroyed our homes. These are not the actions of allies.”
“I agree.” What else could I say? Sorry didn’t cut it.
“We have spoken with the local warden, who promises us retribution and compensation.” From the grins on her companions’ faces, whatever deal they’d struck had been good for them. “We hope to rebuild our trust in the CIA by strengthening ties with you, Madison Fox.”
“With me?” Personally? Didn’t they realize I was a nobody in the CIA?
“You destroyed the poisoned titan arum.” The prajurit rubbed their wings together, creating a sour noise that bit at my eardrums.
The titan arum had been Isabel’s most atrocious crime. Held sacred by the prajurit, the towering tropical plant’s death-scented blooms were irresistible to the prajurit. Armed with this knowledge, Isabel had slathered a blooming titan arum with poison, luring entire clans to their deaths. All because prajurit were the natural predators of salamanders, and Isabel had wanted to use the fire-breathing creatures to make Brad look incompetent. What a waste.
“Your spirit is that of a prajurit,” the tiny woman continued, and her tone implied I’d been given the highest compliment possible. The remaining prajurit hovering behind her bowed, the blur of their wings never faltering. “We would be honored to send a contingent of Ek Emas to build a base in your region.”
“I look forward to working with them.” I wasn’t sure in what capacity, but having more bodies in my region combating evil would be welcome.
Satisfaction suffused her tiny features. “May the light shine on your hunt.”
Her words sounded formal, and I scrambled for a proper response. “On yours as well.”
With a satisfied nod, she darted away and the others followed. They converged on Niko, hung in the air long enough for a brief conversation, then soared into the surviving forest, disappearing among the branches.
Huh. I was famous among the prajurit. If I could figure out a way to work that into a conversation with Pamela, maybe she’d be impressed.
12
Your Jealousy Gives Me Energy
We may not have eliminated enough moths to restore normal temperatures, but we had made commendable progress by the time Niko drove Jamie and me back to my car. I tried to accept it as a w
in and not fret about the approaching night of drone hunting. At least it wouldn’t be as humiliating as the first night. It couldn’t be.
Don’t jinx yourself, I thought.
Jamie crawled into the Civic, pausing long enough for me to lay down a blanket in the hopes of saving my cloth seats from the ash-mud slurry coating him from nose to tail. I hadn’t fared any better, and when I’d tried to wipe the grime from my jeans and coat, it’d only ground the mud deeper into the fabric. Niko had insisted I change into a spare pair of his pants he’d materialized from the BMW’s trunk. They sat loose at my waist and baggy around my thighs, and I had to roll them up an inch at the cuffs so they didn’t drag the ground, but otherwise they fit.
I did my best not to think about Niko in these same pants, just his underwear separating him from the inside of these jeans. Unless he went commando.
“Keep your soul breaker on,” Niko said as he handed me a bag stuffed with my dirty pants and muddy coat.
“Where I go, it goes,” I promised. I hiked his pants back up and slid into my car. Niko waited until I turned the Civic’s ignition; then he pulled out of the lot. I watched his black car disappear down the on-ramp to the freeway.
Brad had texted earlier with instructions to be at his office at seven thirty, which left me time to kill. I should have gone home and squeezed in a quick nap, but with anticipatory dread squirming in my stomach, I knew I wouldn’t be able to relax. Instead, I called Bridget.
“Are you still up for a visit, even if I’m too dirty to come inside?” I asked when she picked up.
“Are you too dirty for the patio?”
I smiled and backed out of the parking spot. Bridget was the best. “Turn on the heat lamps; we’re coming over.”
“We?”
“I’ve got a surprise for you.”
Jamie slept through the short drive to Bridget’s house and woke as I parked in the driveway. I twisted in my seat to look at him.
“Bridget is a norm. She knows all about what I do, but I don’t know if she’s prepared to see you change shapes. Do you promise to stay in dog form?”
Jamie’s jaw cracked in a huge yawn, his tongue curling toward the roof of his mouth, but he still managed to nod. Yawning in return, I swung out of the car and opened the back door. Jamie slid forward until his front feet hit the pavement, then hopped to get all four feet on the ground, dragging the blanket with him.
Bridget burst from her house. Dressed in faded jeans with legitimate holes worn through at the sides of the knees and an oversize UC Davis hoodie, she looked more like a college student than a successful lawyer. The French cottage behind her fit the lawyer image better, with its rock facade and white shutters, all of it encased in shrubbery pruned to geometrical perfection.
“Hello there. Who’s this?” Bridget bent to catch Jamie’s head in her hands, her fingers curling into the soft hair behind his ears and expertly scratching. Her voice spiraled higher as she addressed Jamie. “Aren’t you a cutie? So big, too!”
Jamie thumped his butt to the cobblestone driveway and wagged his tail, leaning into her hands. Maybe my decision to delay telling her about his ability to transform into a human hadn’t been as well thought through as I’d believed.
“Look at your boots,” Bridget exclaimed, catching sight of a gritty leather toe peeking out from the hem of Niko’s pants.
“You should see the rest of my clothes.”
She gave me a once-over. “So?”
“Oh, these are Niko’s. Here are mine.” I popped the trunk and showed her the bag of folded mud that was Jamie’s sweater and my pants and jacket.
“Niko’s, huh?”
Bridget had met Niko once, but she’d been fall-down drunk at the time, and she didn’t remember the encounter. Since it had also included a traumatic hostage situation with a demon, I hadn’t made an effort to help her recover the memory. She did, however, know Niko was the optivus aegis and sexy enough to fry brain cells. She must have been dying with curiosity, but instead of peppering me with questions while we stood in the driveway, as I would have done, she let us into the garage and threw my grubby clothing into the washer with a heap of detergent. Jamie tagged along, leaning into Bridget for pets she happily supplied.
“Wait here, I’ll be right back,” she said, after directing us to a weathered wooden table situated in the middle of a paving-stone patio in her backyard. She hustled into the kitchen through the sliding glass door.
If the meticulously groomed front yard conformed to every homeowner association guideline, the backyard was a study in rebellion. A jungle of low-water plants cloaked the fence on three sides, circling the flaky trunk of a thick myrtle. Ceramic pots of all sizes squatted in every available free space, overflowing with a riot of greenery and flowers. With two heat lamps chasing away the chill, the patio sat in the middle of the oasis, and a long pergola strung with zigzagging lights bathed the yard in an intimate glow. Bridget knew how to turn a small space into a retreat.
I blinked to Primordium, checking for frost moths. If any were in the neighborhood, none dared encroach upon the warm yard.
I adjusted the far lamp, lowering it to accommodate Jamie. Bridget emerged from the house with a thick picnic blanket, and we arranged it next to the table. Jamie flopped onto it, laid his head on his paws, and closed his eyes. He’d altered his soul, coating the outer layer with lux lucis, and I rubbed his forehead. If only all our moments together could be this uncomplicated and peaceful.
Bridget disappeared back inside. I unhooked Val from his strap and laid him on the table. I’d stuffed my palmquell into my purse when I’d taken off my filthy coat, and I pulled it out now, lining it up next to the handbook. The pet wood and lighter came next, followed by the knife, which I unhooked from my belt so I could lean back without the sheath jabbing me.
Bridget paused in the act of carrying a tray filled with teacups, a steaming teapot, and snacks back to the table.
“Should I be worried?”
“About?”
She nudged her chin toward the lineup of weapons. “Are we in danger?”
“We should be fine.” I scanned the skies. The sun had set, but if Brad had felt drones in the area, he would have called.
“We need to work on your reassuring skills.” Bridget set the tray on the table, went back inside, and returned with slippers and a towel. “For your boots,” she said.
“You’re the best.” I tugged off the boots, slid my feet into the world’s fluffiest slippers, and sat with a groan.
“Okay, start at the beginning. Where did you get Jamie?”
“First I’d like to introduce you to Val.” Seeing Val chatting with Doris this morning had made me conscious of his inherent isolation. Unless I opened him, he didn’t get a chance to participate in the world around him. I’d be a grumpy beast, too, if I were forced into his passive role. Since he’d seemed to appreciate getting to be a part of my lunch with Niko, I thought maybe he’d enjoy this, too.
“Who’s Val?” With complete naïveté, Bridget picked up the handbook and thumbed through his pages, all of which would look blank to her. She ran her fingers over his cover, then used the towel to clean off dried mud. “This is beautiful. The detail on this cover, the way these ribbons of color flow through the leather. This isn’t some knock-off journal. Where did you get it?”
“From Brad. That’s Val, the book.”
Bridget’s fingers stilled.
“In Primordium, those pages are full,” I said. “He speaks, or writes, on the first page.”
“Are you telling me this book thinks?” She closed Val and hugged him to her chest.
I rolled my eyes. I should have expected her to react like this. I loved a good fiction novel, but Bridget loved all books. She couldn’t pass a garage sale, used bookstore, or Barnes & Noble without buying at least one book.
“He thinks, has opinions, cracks jokes, gets mad—and he observes from somewhere on that leather jacket you’re smooshing against your breast
s, which is why I carry him around in this strap.” I pointed to the leather strap I’d left dangling across my chest.
“A sentient book. That’s got to be the coolest thing I’ve ever heard of.”
“He has his moments.” Val also had a lot of moments in which I’d wished he had a neck I could strangle, but I left that unvoiced.
When Bridget finally relinquished him, I opened Val to his first page and set him between us.
She’s a norm! Val’s observation filled the entire page.
“But a very cool one. She’s a lawyer.”
“What? What’s he saying?” Bridget asked.
Right. Including Val had been easy with Niko and Doris, because they could read what he said, too. Being an interpreter wasn’t going to be as much fun.
“He’s surprised I’m chatting with him in front of you, a norm.”
“This is surreal,” Bridget said.
A lawyer? I bet she knows some amazing librarians.
I translated, and Bridget laughed.
“Now I know for a fact that you’re not teasing me, because you’d never say that.” She petted Val’s open page with obvious yearning. “Dice, your life is crazy.”
“Absolutely.”
Bridget poured hot tea for each of us, then thrummed her fingers on the table while I took a sip.
“Okay, enough with the torture! Where did you get a Great Dane? Why are you in Niko’s pants? What about poor Dr. Love?”
“It’s not like that.” But I couldn’t help replaying the heat in Niko’s eyes as he’d leaned in to kiss me. Why had I backed up? Alex and I had been on only one date. Taking a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to kiss Niko wouldn’t have made me a horrible person.
Just a skeevy person, taking advantage of a frost moth–induced moment that would have made our interactions afterward even more awkward. As flattering as it was to know Niko found me attractive, he’d never once showed any interest in me when in full control of his emotions. I’d be a fool to read too much into that almost-kiss.
A Fistful of Frost Page 16