“Let me help you with that, M.” Dylan rushed over and grabbed “his” pack. “Doug, great meeting you,” he said, extending his hand to Doug when he reached the front door.
“Likewise,” Doug said, shaking it.
“Yes, it was nice to meet you,” Minerva added, also shaking his hand.
“You, too,” Doug replied, eyeing her up and down a little too intently. “Sorry I took you to a greasy spoon—I had no idea you were vegans.” He shot Quinn a nasty look.
“I forgot to mention it—so sue me,” Quinn replied dryly.
“Careful, you’re talking to a nearly licensed practitioner of the law.” Doug smiled.
“‘Nearly’ being the operative word, dude,” Quinn quipped.
“Bite me.” Doug turned to Dylan and Minerva. “Hey, you sure I’m not running you two off?”
“No, not at all. We wouldn’t want to overstay our welcome,” Minerva replied sweetly, completely ignoring the fact that Doug was ogling her. Dylan was either oblivious or so secure in their relationship that he didn’t care that Doug was practically undressing Minerva with his eyes. She walked over and hugged Quinn. “Thanks for inviting us to stay with you. We had a great time.”
“Yeah, man. Great time.” Dylan fist bumped Quinn.
“Glad you could make it,” Quinn said, keeping up the ruse.
“We’ll see you two soon,” I added, keeping my game face in place as they each hugged me goodbye.
“Not if we see you first.” Dylan winked at me. Just as I wondered how they were going to make their great escape, I followed them outside and saw a black Audi S-8 in the driveway.
“Love the ride!” I called out.
“It gets the job done,” Minerva flashed me a huge grin. They got in and a minute later they were gone. I knew they’d be back—right after they returned the car from wherever they’d “borrowed” it.
“So, Dougie, how long are you planning on staying?” Quinn asked after Dylan and Minerva had left.
“Through the weekend. Mom called me yesterday saying she wanted the family to go out for dinner when they get back Thursday night, so I figured I’d hang for a few days and recharge. Tommy, Sam, and Mary are coming over Thursday too.”
Crap—Quinn’s parents were coming home in two days. How was I going to get myself out of this one?
“You sticking around?” Doug asked me curiously.
“Yes, she is,” Quinn piped in without even giving it a second thought. “We’ll be here for a couple of days or so before heading out. There are a few more places we want to visit before I go abroad.”
“You ever meet them before? Our parents?” Doug asked me.
“No,” I said, feeling a bit overwhelmed.
“Looks like I picked a good weekend to come home.” Doug smiled and raised his eyebrows at Quinn. Then he turned and winked at me. “Well, now that I know I’ll be seeing more of you over the next few days, I don’t feel so bad ditching you two so I can crash and get a good night’s sleep.” He yawned. “See you both in the morning.”
“Later, man,” Quinn said.
“Night,” I called out to Doug, who was already halfway up the stairs.
*
“Are you insane?” I whispered frantically when Doug was out of earshot. “You want me to meet your parents? And Tommy and Sam—again?”
“We’re supposed to be out in the open, remember?” he replied calmly.
“Out in the open is one thing, but meeting your family—your parents?” I sighed and closed my eyes. “Please tell me Doug doesn’t know we’re engaged.”
“I wanted to tell him, but no. I didn’t want to risk having his memory erased.” He lifted up my bare right hand. “Nice move with the ring, by the way.”
“You saw that?” I opened my eyes to look at him.
“Yeah, but I’m pretty sure I was the only one. I was looking for it. I wanted to see if you’d remember.”
“Were you hoping I’d forget?”
“Maybe.”
“You really are nuts.” I reached up and kissed him. “Hey, I want to apologize for the way I skipped out on you earlier.”
“Where’d you go?” His expression shifted; he looked more anxious and concerned.
“Tartuf’s office. I needed to get something.”
“Did you find what you were looking for?”
“I think so.” I smiled and kissed him again.
“So, are you going to tell me what Ruben said to you?”
I sighed heavily, remembering my promise to Quinn that I’d tell him everything. “If you really want to know, then yes.”
“That bad, huh?”
“It’s not the best news I’ve heard all day,” I tried to joke.
He took a deep breath and exhaled. “Just tell me this—does it have to do with anything that’s going to happen over the next few days?”
“Not as far as I can tell.”
“Then I don’t want to know right now—not when my parents are about to come home.”
“Are you sure?” I asked in surprise while I silently sighed in relief.
“Yes. I want to have a clear head when my parents meet you.” He grinned.
It was my turn to take a deep breath. I could feel my nerves creep up my spine.
“Don’t worry, they’ll love you,” Quinn reassured me. “Besides, it’s too early for you to get all riled up. We still have plenty of time before they arrive.”
“Plenty of time for what?” I teased playfully.
“You’ve been away from me all day. I think you have some making up to do for lost time.” His tone may have been good-humored, but there was nothing innocent in his eyes or playful about the way he kissed me.
“You think Minerva and Dylan are waiting for us at the Falls?” I whispered in a slight daze.
“Not if they know what’s good for them.” He lifted me up and kissed me again.
*
As usual, luck was not on our side. Dylan and Minerva were waiting for us when we arrived. The second we saw them, Quinn put me down, looking deflated.
“Well, nice to see you too,” Dylan said, pretending to be insulted.
“No—it’s just,” I began.
“We get it. You’ve been separated for the whole day, and now you’re bursting at the seams to get into each other’s pants. Well, sorry to ruin the party, but it’ll have to wait.” I saw the concerned look in Dylan’s eyes.
“What is it?” I asked.
“The Incident Timer on my watch started going nuts a couple of hours before you returned. It’s spinning out of control. Did you bring back Tartuf’s Journal?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“Awesome!” Dylan exclaimed. “Maybe you’ve already created the unexpected variable—the something different we need. Maybe that’s why my watch is freaking out.”
“Maybe,” I replied, not feeling quite as assured as Dylan.
“So, does it talk about the ritual? Where is it?”
“It’s back at the house. I haven’t had a lot of time to look through it yet.”
“Well, go get it! Let’s check it out!” Dylan was practically jumping up and down.
“Maybe now is not the best time,” I said telepathically to Dylan.
“Why not now?” Dylan responded aloud, confused and disappointed.
“Because I told Evie I don’t want to know what the deal is until after we leave for the new portal,” Quinn chimed in.
“You don’t?” Dylan looked shocked.
“Nope. I want to spend time with my family with as little obsessing about demons as possible.”
“Fine,” Dylan stated. “But just know I’ve got a strong feeling that this Journal is going to give us the advantage we need,” Dylan said, beaming.
“I agree.” I smiled at Quinn.
“Hey, speaking of the new portal, it’s nearly ready,” Dylan stated. “A couple more trips ought to do it. In fact, now that Evie’s back, I can stop by right now.”
“And while you do that,”
Minerva chimed in, “I’ll do a perimeter check back at the house. I’m feeling a little restless now that there’s another body there.”
“Thanks,” Quinn said.
“Yeah, thanks,” I said. “We’ll be right behind you.”
“I’m sure everything’s fine. I’m just overly cautious,” she reassured us, winking as she phased out of view.
“You know, I could help you stock the new portal,” Quinn offered slyly.
“Hey, don’t look at me. I’ve wanted to show you the place from day one,” Dylan replied. “It’s your little woman that needs convincing.”
“How sweet is it?” Quinn asked, attempting to downplay his enthusiasm.
“Oh,” Dylan remarked smugly. “This new place makes the Manhattan penthouse look like a run-down doublewide.”
“Seriously?” Now I was intrigued.
“Oh, yeah.” Dylan smiled proudly.
“C’mon, Evie, just one little peek.” Quinn flashed me a new, more lethal version of his secret weapon—he combined his dazzling, heart-stopping smile with puppy dog eyes.
“No fair!” I laughed. “How long have you been working on that one?”
Quinn shrugged his shoulders and acted like it was no big deal. “I realized my old smile was losing its potency on you.” He hit me with the new smile again. “So?”
“So, I think your ‘potency’ has reached an all-time high!” I exclaimed, still chuckling. “Fine,” I said, sighing. “Go. Check it out. But don’t tell me or anyone else about it—not where it is, not what it looks like—nothing. Got it?”
Quinn and Dylan just looked at me in surprise—like they couldn’t believe I’d caved.
“Go!” I exclaimed with a chuckle. “Before I change my mind.”
Dylan looked thoroughly impressed with Quinn. “Dude, you need to show me how to do that.”
Quinn laughed.
“No, seriously,” Dylan continued. “M’s had the upper hand for a while now, and I really need a new edge.”
“I’ll see you back at the house!” I called out as they disappeared.
*
“Anything?” I asked Minerva when I arrived back at the Harrisons’. She was sitting on the roof of the pool house. From her vantage point, she had an unobstructed view of the entire backyard and anything that dared to wander up the bluff from the beach.
“No.”
“You check on Doug?”
“No, not yet.”
“I’ll go. You stay here.” I teleported myself into Doug’s bedroom. The television was on, but he was fast asleep. I tiptoed across the room and turned off the TV, so there’d be no way to confuse a late-night show with his own distress calls.
“He’s fine,” I reported when I returned to Minerva’s side.
“And the other boys?”
“Checking out the new hideout,” I replied reluctantly.
“I thought you didn’t want anyone but Dylan to know about it until the last minute.”
“I didn’t.”
“So, what happened?”
“Quinn’s mastered this new puppy dog eyes-smile combo.”
“Getting soft are we?” Minerva giggled. “I’ve grown immune to Dylan’s tactics—he doesn’t get away with as much as he used to anymore.”
“Well, that may not be the case much longer. Dylan witnessed my reaction to Quinn and began pumping him for pointers.”
She chuckled softly. “Men are amusing creatures.”
“Yes, they are,” I concurred.
We sat in the same spot, occasionally taking turns to do perimeter sweeps, until shortly after the sun rose. Dylan and Quinn hadn’t shown up, and I assumed Dylan had taken Quinn back to the Falls to sleep.
Wanting to stretch my limbs, I stood up and took a deep breath, but instead of getting a nose full of the cool, dewy morning air, I got a whiff of something else.
“Do you smell that?” I whispered in alarm, sniffing the air more intently. I immediately caught the faintest hint of a putrid, rank odor, which could only mean one thing: Servants. I pulled out my hunting knife, and Minerva followed suit. I scanned the area and couldn’t see anything, but the smell was unmistakable.
“Crap! How many do you think there are?” I whispered.
“I can smell at least two,” Minerva replied quietly, completely geared up and ready to fight.
“How far away?”
“I’m not sure.” She sniffed the air again. “Not far. I think they might be in the water.”
I flashed back to just a few nights ago when Quinn was in the lake and shuddered at the thought of what could’ve happened to him had he been swimming this evening.
“You think they’re headed this way?”
“I can’t tell.”
“Well, I can.” I phased out of view.
“Evie, stop!” she whispered harshly. “They’ll sense you.”
“I’ll be fine,” I whispered in my invisible state. “It’s a hybrid thing. I’ll be back in a few.”
Knowing I was untraceable in my phantom form, I flew up over the ravine and headed towards Quinn’s beach. Sure enough, I spotted two Servants in their hideous demonic forms bobbing in the water not more than a half-mile from shore. They weren’t moving. They weren’t doing anything. Maybe they were testing us, waiting to determine what our response would be when we figured out they were there. Maybe they were waiting for Quinn to return before they pounced. Hate and rage curdled within me. I clenched the handle of the hunting knife and moved in closer, only to reevaluate their range from my position. I was pretty sure I could nail one of them.
“Evie!” I heard Quinn call out for me. “Hey, Evie!”
The Servants faded from view immediately.
“Son of a—!” I cursed, fearing the demons were headed for the house. I immediately returned to find Minerva, Dylan, and Quinn standing on the outdoor patio.
“Come on. We’re out of here,” I grabbed Quinn and teleported us to the Falls.
“Where’s Minerva?” I asked when Dylan arrived right behind us.
“Making sure the Servants are gone and Quinn’s brother is okay.”
I breathed a sigh of relief to know she was okay, but my relief quickly turned to anger when I realized the unnecessary risk Quinn had been put in just by being there.
“Why didn’t you bring Quinn back up here the second you smelled the Servants?” I demanded crossly.
“Because I refused to go without you,” Quinn snapped back.
“It’s true,” Dylan said. “College Boy didn’t want to go, and I couldn’t make him.”
“What? Why not?” I asked Dylan.
“I don’t know,” he replied in bewilderment. “It’s not like I didn’t try. He just resisted me somehow.”
We both looked at Quinn curiously.
“Have you ever had trouble teleporting him before?” I asked Dylan.
“No.”
“But I’ve also never refused to go with you before,” Quinn threw in.
“That’s true,” Dylan agreed.
“That’s impossible, right?” I asked Dylan. “I mean, there must’ve been some glitch. It’s not like a mortal can choose whether or not to go with us, right?”
“Well, apparently, I can whenever you’re acting like some deranged, one-man S.W.A.T. team,” Quinn replied petulantly. “What the hell were you thinking, Evie? That could’ve been a trap specifically designed to lure you to them.”
“I was fine,” I whispered in response. Still, I’d been so focused on protecting Quinn, it hadn’t even crossed my mind that the Servants might’ve been targeting me.
“K.C., you are absolutely not to go anywhere on this Earth without Minerva or me by your side—period, end of story.” I’d never heard Dylan speak with such authority. “I’m sorry, but it’s for your own good.”
“Okay, dad.”
“I mean it, Eve.” Dylan only used my first name when he was really upset with me. “You do realize Quinn doesn’t have a chance in hell of sur
viving if something happens to you, don’t you?” he added telepathically.
I nodded apologetically.
“You’ve got to stop trying to be a hero. If not for your sake, then for Quinn’s,” he added aloud.
“Okay, okay. Is the lecture over with now?”
Dylan stood there for a minute and looked at the sky as if running through a mental checklist of the points he wanted to cover. “Yes,” he stated smugly.
“Ugh,” I harrumphed, shooting Dylan an annoyed look before I marched off towards the cave.
“Dude, you need to teach me how you just did that,” I overheard Quinn say to Dylan under his breath.
*
A handful of hours later, Minerva arrived in the Falls.
“There haven’t been any other signs of the Servants on or anywhere near the Harrisons’ property,” she announced.
“Maybe they’re getting ready to make their move,” Quinn said.
“I don’t know,” I pondered aloud. “Ruben said if we stuck with our plan, then everything should be fine on the eighteenth.”
“He did?” Quinn asked optimistically.
“Yeah, he did,” I reassured him. “But,” I continued, shaking my head, “maybe we should reconsider staying at your parents’ house. It’s too risky—especially when your whole family is planning to get together. We could be putting them in danger. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I think we should go to the new portal tonight.”
“We can’t,” Quinn replied.
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because today is the ninth.”
“So?” Dylan asked.
“Damn it,” I mumbled under my breath. With everything else that had happened the last couple of days, I’d forgotten. “Tomorrow is the three-week deadline for the Moon Mercenaries to recover Quinn’s blood.”
“Have you heard from them at all, K.C.?”
“No.” And I doubt I will, I thought.
“And, also, I really should see my parents, if only for a night,” Quinn added. “It’s been a while, and my mom will be seriously disappointed if I bail on them—not to mention suspicious if we’re not there for dinner tomorrow night. I guarantee you Doug’s going to tell them you were staying with me while they were out of town.”
“Going to meet the parents, are we?” Dylan asked telepathically, raising his eyebrows at me in amusement.
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