Aiden processed that for a moment. “So we’re it. One rusty Adept Enforcer, one righteous babe of an alien hunter.”
“Slip Traveler.”
“What?”
“Slip Traveler. I told you, that’s my designation. I’m Earth’s Slip Traveler, or ST.”
He stood up, then pulled her up out of the chair. “So you’re a righteous babe of a Slip Traveler. Either way, we’re in it together.”
Aiden slid his arms around her, cradling her against his chest.
God, it felt good to just let herself be held. Better than good, because under the shirt, under the muscle and skin warming her cheek, she heard the strong, steady beat of his heart.
Aiden worked with Cait as they went over the rest of what she knew and he got as up-to-speed as he could, given the amount of holy-shit stuff he was taking in. Then he shared what he knew about Seattle and Chicago, and what he’d learned from his Enforcer associates in those two cities.
Two hours later, she was nodding off reading through the notes he’d brought over, the printout about the neighborhoods in Chicago and around Senator Swanson’s home in Washington State. Aiden grabbed her wine glass to keep it from hitting the floor, and Cait jerked awake.
“Time for bed, sweetheart. You need to be rested to catch your critter tomorrow. We have to get that off your plate so you can focus on this other threat.”
They both looked at the clock. Almost two in the morning. She held up the sheaf of notes.
“I’ll look these over one more time, then go to bed, I promise.”
“Uh-huh. I don’t believe you.”
“Really, I’m exhausted.”
He looked into her eyes, then pulled her up and into his arms. “You look exhausted. That’s not a slam, because even tired, you’re beautiful. You need sleep, though.”
“Same, back atcha.”
“I’m going to bed when I get home.”
“You’re leaving?”
“Uh-huh. I don’t want to, but if I stay, neither one of us will get sleep and you know it.” She was more than exhausted because it took a few seconds for her to track his meaning. Then she blushed.
“Seriously.” He tipped her chin so they were looking at one another. “Sleep. Do you want me to call before I come over tomorrow?”
“No, give a knock. We’ll grab some breakfast on the way.”
“Takeout for breakfast too?”
“If it works…”
“I have a better idea. I’ll make you breakfast. You eat eggs? Ham?”
“I wasn’t kidding when I said I’ll eat anything.”
“Excellent. Okay, you come over to my pla—”
He stopped and listened, and four seconds later there was a soft tap-tap-tap on her door.
They both froze. Aiden was looking toward the door and somehow Cait knew that he was reaching out with his mind to identify the being on the other side of the door.
“Mrs. Potts?” Aiden was the first to speak. “What the…?”
Cait dashed through the living room, unlocked the bolts and opened the door. If Mrs. Potts was surprised to see Aiden in Cait’s apartment in the wee hours she didn’t show it.
“Cait, my dear, may I come in?”
Since the old woman looked agitated, Cait swung the door wide and motioned her in. Mrs. Potts wrung her hands, looking from one to the other.
“Dears, I wanted to be sure you were all right. The guard has left his post and hurried to the front of the building. There were lights and flashers. Then they were gone.” She glanced toward the door. “There wasn’t anything on the TV, so I peered out again, and the door to Three-A is open, and the guard’s still gone.”
“We’re fine, Mrs. Potts.”
“I’m so glad.” She seemed a little befuddled. “What should we do about the guard? About the open door?”
“I don’t know,” Cait said, thinking hard. “I don’t want to call the police, or the FBI. They’d just want to know why I noticed.”
Aiden grimaced. “Exactly. If I say I noticed it on the way back to my place, they’d have all kinds of questions. Same for you, Mrs. Potts. If you say anything or say that you told us first, they’ll think we’re in some kind of conspiracy.”
“They would, wouldn’t they,” she said, and cackled, showing some of her usual spirit. Sobering after a moment, she sighed. “Well, I guess the best thing is to go on to bed. Nothing we do will help the dead, and if that odious Chavez can’t manage his people, there’s no reason we should help.”
“Did he question you too?”
“Two and a half hours,” she said, waving an arm to emphasize her next words. “All over the map. What did I have for dinner. With whom did I play bridge? Why did I think I heard a dog? Ridiculous.”
“Only two and a half hours, though,” Aiden temporized. “He grilled Cait most of the day.”
Mrs. Potts smiled. “My son was with me. He’s a lawyer. He makes people like Chavez nervous.”
“Good for him,” Cait said. “We should probably get into our respective apartments in case the guard comes back. We wouldn’t want them to think we’d been in there,” she said, pointing toward Three-A.
“Oh, no, never that,” Mrs. Potts said, opening the door to peer out. “Still no guard,” she said. “Sleep tight now, you two.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Aiden pushed the door closed and reached for Cait.
“Holy crap. What next?”
Cait went into his arms and when he kissed her, she sank into him, wanting to forget, wanting him the way she had earlier in the evening. She was on the verge of asking him to stay when he pulled back, shaking his head.
“No, don’t. If you do, I won’t be able to refuse. We both need rest.” He kissed her quickly, then he opened the door, checking the hallway before he stepped across the threshold.
“Good night, Aiden,” Cait said as he turned to wait for her to close and lock the door behind him. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Okay.”
“Got your back, righteous alien-hunter babe,” he whispered.
“Got your back, magic man.”
Aiden stared at her for a long moment. Then she shut and locked the door.
Aiden stood outside Cait’s door and worked a quick spell, running his magic over the walls, the windows and doors, the ceilings and floors, along the plumbing in her bathroom and kitchen, and the wiring that fed the outlets, the internet and cable services. He poured strong magic into the protective spell, setting it to keep out anyone or anything that would be unwelcome.
And setting it to alert him if anything should try to harm his Cait.
When she locked the door behind Aiden, Cait hurried into her office and called up the police dispatch. There was an officer needs assistance call outside the building, but nothing else on the list. She was surfing for any other info when her phone rang.
“You in bed yet, little girl?” Aiden crooned.
“Ha! Yeah, right. Just like you are,” she said, grinning at his silliness. “You find anything?”
“An assistance call. You?”
“The same. That’s it. You think it was a distraction for something else?”
“The Aurelian?”
“Yeah.”
“Search?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll do it. I know the building. I know the pipes.”
“The pipes? Oh, yeah.”
“And really, get some sleep, honey.”
“You too.”
They hung up and went back to their respective searches. When an hour’s worth of work hadn’t turned up anything new, nor had Aiden called to say there was a problem with the pipes or anything else in the building, she shut it down.
Dragging into the bedroom, she stripped off her clothes, clean though they were, and tossed them on the floor. Wearing only her skin, she slid between the sheets.
The alarm went off way too soon, and Cait reached for her phone to shut it off. Five in the freaking mor
ning.
“Shades of Parris Island,” she griped, remembering Marine Corps boot camp.
Aiden said they should be out on the canal by seven. She had to haul her ass out of bed.
Stretching, she reached for her phone. She was about to dial when it rang.
“Good morning, sleepy head.”
“Good morning. I was thinking about…hey! I was just about to call you!”
“Yes I know. I was tuned in, waiting for you to wake and start broadcasting. I wasn’t snooping. I’d get in trouble with the Council if I did, and believe me, they’d know.”
Distracted by that thought and the questions it brought on, she asked, “What’s the Council and how would they know?”
Aiden hesitated only a moment before he said, “The Council is our governing body. We get a visit from another adept every six months to a year. We question each other, using magic–truth magic–like I used on you, to double check that the other is following the rules. The witch who breaks the rules is reported, and dealt with.”
“Checks and balances. A witch?”
“More like confession. And yes, regardless of gender, a witch is a witch. You STs have any of those? Checks and balances?”
“Yes and no. There are some things we sign up for when we get this job and that acts as the biggest check on our behavior.”
“Want to start telling me some of that long story over breakfast?”
“You sure you want to feed me? We could just grab a breakfast sandwich or something?”
“Not just no, but hell no. Come on over when you…ooooh, you’re not dressed at all.”
“Hey, you’re peeking!” She laughed, pulling the sheet up then realized how silly it was and let it go. “Cut it out. I’ll see you in a little bit.”
“You can peek back, you know.”
“Pervert.”
“For you, you bet.
“What are you making me for breakfast?”
“Come and see.”
They hung up and Cait dashed, smiling, into the bathroom. Her grin grew wider as she showered, sitting on the bench where they’d made love, to quickly shave her legs. Little ribbons of heat coursed over her at the memory. She dressed and grabbed her keys, locked her door and stepped across the hall. She was about to knock, her hand raised to do so, when it opened. Then and there she gave up on thinking it was weird.
“Still no guard, did you notice?” she asked. “But the door’s now closed.”
He widened the gap, allowing her to pass as he peered across to Three-A. “Hmmm. Crime scene tape’s still up. Whoever went in didn’t mess that up.”
“Let’s hope it stays that way.”
He closed the door and in one stride, had her in his arms. “You look as good in the morning as you did last night.”
“I was thinking about you in the shower.”
“Ummm, those are fighting words,” he murmured onto her lips before he backed her against the wall, pressing his body full-length to hers. The kiss was long, sweet and hot as hell. She gave in to it, to the feel, the warmth, the passion of him.
She was breathing hard and he had a tent in his jeans when he finally eased back. “If we don’t stop, we’ll never get to the canal,” she said.
He blew out a breath and shook his head. “I know. You kill me, woman.” Then he tugged her toward the counter.
“Come have a seat at the bar, I’ll make you an omelet. You want OJ?”
“Yeah, that’s great.”
“Tell me about the critter,” he said.
“I want this done but I’m not looking forward to dealing with it.” She described the Ty-Op and outlined the procedure for capturing it as he managed the omelets.
Aiden let out a whistle. “A seven-foot, transparent squid thingie is a pet?”
“Well, when you’re twice that size, it’s not that big. It’s valuable and rare and quite coveted. There are breeding records going back centuries. They have clubs, shows and stuff.” Watching him cook wasn’t a hardship, and she found herself telling him all she knew about the Opthoid.
They talked as they ate together, and she realized it was fun to talk shop. Talking openly with another human about their respectively weird jobs was a novel experience. She was also so vocal about the sensual pleasure of home cooked, earthly food that they nearly ended up on the floor again.
They reminded one another that they had to go. They had work. To keep her hands off him, she finally slipped out of his grip and dashed to her place to gather her things while Aiden changed into boots.
Rolling the folded crates near the door and packing her tools in one large duffle, she parked everything where it would be ready. “C’mon Patten, get a move on,” she muttered.
She suddenly realized that she’d called herself by her real name again. That had to stop.
“Jeez, girl. First you go telling Sh’Aitan secrets and then you risk your cover by calling yourself something other than Dr. Cait Brennan.”
Her door opened and Aiden poked his head around the corner just as she sensed a presence. She automatically wheeled around to face him, hand on her weapon. But she knew it was him. Damn it. That bothered her almost as much as anything else. How was that happening?
“You ready?”
“Yeah.”
“All this goes?” He bumped the bag by the door with his foot.
“Not yet. Just the duffels this time. The capture crates are ready to go, but we’ll come back for those. If we locate it today…well, that’s not likely, so we’ll pack light for now.”
On one hand, she meant exactly that. On the other hand, she knew she was hedging her bets, leaving herself the option not to involve him any further. She’d just roll with it, magic man included, until she could get it done.
“Sounds like a plan.”
With the door locked, they headed for the car and the canal.
It was another beautiful October day. Within a few minutes drive, she could see the glint of the river, the smaller ribbon of the canal.
“Where do you want to pull in?”
“You said Georgetown, right?”
“That’s where I was getting a hit,” he offered, turning down a residential street at an angle, bringing them down to the road beside the Canal.
“They don’t tend to move around a lot.”
“Then we can either go down to Georgetown’s waterfront,” he said and pointed to the left. “We could rent kayaks and paddle around and look for it. Or we can go down Canal Road to the right, pull over into one of the parking areas, and cross over to walk the towpath like you did the other day.”
“Let’s start with the towpath. Walking will be good for me. Maybe clear my head.”
“Something wrong with your head?” he asked lightly, as he turned into a parking lot along the C&O Canal. “You seemed to be thinking about very heavy stuff when I knocked on your door.”
“Yeah. Maybe I’m losing it.”
He pulled into a parking spot and leaned over to gently brush the backs of his fingers down her cheek. “We’re all insane, you know, those of us with power. We have to make hard, sometimes brutal, choices. Facing that makes us a bit loonier than the average bear.”
“Huh, maybe that’s it,” she said, loading several gauges and some empty tubes into the backpack she’d brought along. It let her avoid answering his questions or commenting on his reference to their mutual uses of power, since hers was mostly technology. “I think if I take some samples here, then up river, toward Georgetown, I’ll know if your pickup is on target. If we can get close, I can come back at dusk tonight or dawn tomorrow and catch it.” She didn’t want to tell him there might be a second one. She didn’t want to think it.
“I’ll take that,” he offered, holding out his hand for the bag. For a moment, they played tug-o-war with the strap. “C’mon, let me be a guy.”
“Okay, okay.” She let go of the strap. As they walked down the path, he took her hand as well.
“The general location is half a
mile downstream of where I met you the other day. So, just tell me when you want to stop, take samples, watch the birds, hang out. Smooch.”
The thought of smooching made her go hot with the need to do more than smooch.
“I think the samples would be best,” she said.
“Oh, come on,” he grinned down at her. “Don’t you want to see some of the cool wildlife?”
“I’m a city girl, mostly. I’m not big on wildlife.”
“City girl?”
“Yeah. Didn’t get much wildlife in New York.”
“Did you grow up in the city itself?”
“Lived there for a long time. I was born in Idaho.”
“Wow, that’s country. Or at least a lot of it is.”
“Not in Boise, although there’s a lot of business that’s drawn around farming. I don’t remember much about Idaho.”
“What did your family do there?”
“Dad worked for Boise State, then moved to NYU. Economics professor.”
“I was born in Texas,” Aiden said. “My dad was an executive with AT&T. We moved a couple of times, The Twin Cities, Pensacola, Florida. He got sent to Charleston, South Carolina, when I was fourteen, and we stayed there till just before I graduated from high school.”
“Oh man, did you have to move before you graduated? That sucks.”
“Not because of the job. My parents were killed. My brother and sister and I had to go live with my Aunt Bennie.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Cait exclaimed. She stopped on the trail, and gripped his arm. “That must have been awful.” She remembered that note in his file as well.
“It pretty much wrecked all of us. Don’t know what we’d have done without Aunt Bennie.”
“Did she come to Charleston, or did you go to her?”
“We went to her. She was in Virginia. Newport News. I left after two years, and went to Emory University in Atlanta.”
“Does your aunt still live in Virginia?”
“No, she moved a little farther south,” he said with a smile. “Myrtle Beach.”
“Does she know what you do?”
“Aunt Bennie knows. Her husband, my uncle, was one of my first teachers.” He flicked a glance over his shoulder. It was the third or fourth time she’d seen him do it, and she realized he was always checking, on alert, watchful for threats.
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