We chatted for a while, enjoying the afternoon. It was nice. Toni’s friends showed up a little while later. For wolves, they weren’t entirely stealthy; I heard the bikes long before I saw them pull up to the restaurant. Mike and Lisa got off their bikes and headed over to us.
I looked at her. “Telepathy?”
“No, Bluetooth,” she said. “I called him when we were headed over here, but they might have shown up anyway. We eat here a lot.”
“Hey, man,” Mike said, grabbing my hand. “Nice to see you alive.”
“I like your car,” said Lisa, making me beam a bit. “It’s really cute!” I beamed less.
They sat down, and the waitress came right over and took their orders. She knew them as well, bending down to give Mike a hug. This time I caught it, now that she was closer to me. Werewolf.
“Oh hey, speaking of your car,” said Mike. He reached into a jacket pocket, then tossed a small metal box to me. I caught it, turning it over in my hand. It looked like an old-fashioned pager, but there was no display.
“Found it on your chassis.”
“What is it?”
“Bug. It’s disabled now. Someone was following you with it.” That would explain why I couldn’t lose the CIA rejects and their shape-changing sidekick. I said as much.
“Yeah, Powers has a total hard-on for you, dude.”
“Lucky me.”
My phone rang. I pulled it out and almost dropped it; the display read “Megan.” There was a picture. It wasn’t entirely decent. I heard a growl to my right, as Toni shamelessly leaned over to see who it was. At her growl, Mike leaned over my other side and said, “Damn, she’s fine!”
“She’s a vampire,” said Toni.
He shrugged. “She’s still fine.”
I would be speaking with Lacey about this. I clicked the talk button and said, “Hey.”
“You went out on your own!” Megan sounded displeased.
“I just went to get my car.”
“And that took six hours? I can’t believe Lacey let you go out alone!” I was pretty sure the last comment was directed at Lacey as much as me.
“Oh, no—like thirty minutes. But I ran into some complications.” She was waiting for me to continue, so I did. “Apparently the cops might be looking for me, or at least one of them. A detective named Vargas. So we decided to hide my car. Toni lent me her bike, so at least I still have wheels.” At this, Mike and Lisa both raised their brows and looked at Toni, who shrugged and gave them a “Yeah, so what?” look.
“You were with that bitch?” She was more than displeased now.
At that, Toni moved half an inch toward my phone, then stopped as Mike said, “Well, technically she’s right.” He added, “What? She is!” as Lisa smacked him upside the head. And I now realized that everyone at the table could hear both sides of my phone conversation. Werewolves apparently had very good hearing.
“Um, she’s been helping me out. In fact, I think we got a line on how to destroy the urn. Or at least make it so it’s useless.”
“You can’t trust them,” she said.
“Oh, like you can trust her!” said Toni. Lisa looked distressed, but Mike looked pretty happy that he was going to get a show. He pulled the basket of chips toward him and motioned to our waitress, who saw him and headed our way.
“She’s with you right now?” More than displeased was turning into furious.
“I’m just having some drinks with them. I was going to let traffic die down before I came over.” I tried the logic ploy. It failed.
“Them? So you’re hanging with the entire pack now?”
“Just some of them. Look, they’re cool.”
“Riding around on bikes doesn’t make you cool. Do they even know that you know what they are? They’ll kill you.”
“Hey, corpse—you realize we can hear you,” said Toni, who had gotten rather close to my side. The waitress was here now, and Mike was filling her in on what he was calling the potential catfight of the century.
“Tell that furry bitch to go to hell and then you get back here. We can handle this without their help. Lacey’s been working on it all day; she thinks she might have some ideas.” Mike had his phone out, presumably recording this, because he was saying something about YouTube.
I was going to reply when the phone was snatched from my hand and Toni got up and stormed away screaming into it. I heard “Furry bitch?” Then, “Look, you undead cu—“
I looked at Mike, Lisa, and the waitress, whose name tag read “Bethany.” The girls just shrugged. Mike held up his hand for a high five. “Nice, dude! I’ve never seen her this pissed off.”
“What’s the deal?” I said, making sure Toni wasn’t looking before I halfheartedly slapped his hand.
Mike looked at me like I might be developmentally slow. “You’ve got a vamp girlfriend, which is kinda crazy, dude, ‘cause they’re, like, hella dangerous, and then you somehow managed to get Toni all hot and bothered, which is like a miracle. I mean, she’s no saint, but I haven’t seen her this into anyone before.”
“She’s an Alpha,” said Bethany. “They’re possessive by nature.”
“She’s the Pack Alpha?”
“Alpha female, yes. The Alpha is Quan.”
“So, then, aren’t he and Toni…?”
“No way, man,” said Mike. “They would kill each other.”
“Oh. So she likes me?” It sounded like a lame thing to say even to me, and I said so.
“Dude, she lent you her bike.”
“I kind of stole it.”
“And she didn’t kill you! But I was talking about the Honda.”
“I thought that was her spare?”
“It is now. That was her bike before she picked up the V-Max a few months ago. You know how many people have ridden either one of those bikes?”
I shook my head. “She told me only her on the V-Max.”
He nodded. “Only her for both of them. You’re the only other one to even sit on that Honda, and she’s had that bike for six years.”
“So what does she see in you?” asked Bethany, frowning. Maybe bluntness was just a werewolf thing.
Either way, I was opening my mouth for a really witty retort when I was interrupted.
“We got trouble,” Lisa said.
“No, homeboy’s got trouble; we got ourselves a pay-perview event,” said Mike.
“Not what I’m talking about.” At Lisa’s tone, we all looked around to see what she was staring at. A large Mercedes limo had pulled into the parking lot. Several figures were climbing out.
Toni must have seen it too, because she hung up my phone and was heading our way.
A man I recognized from news articles was heading toward us. He was taller than average, attractive, clean cut, and wearing a suit that cost more than my car. He was flanked by the troll, who had acquired a new suit for himself, and a short matronly-looking woman with a no-nonsense demeanor.
As soon as the trio left the limo, I felt the tingling sensation that I now associated with magic. I knew it wasn’t the troll, and since as far as I knew Jonathan was human, it must have been the dour-faced lady. The limo was out a bit, so if Lacey was right, and the proximity at which my sense was triggered was related to the person’s power, then she was strong.
They opened the gate to the patio and walked up to our table.
“Eric, would you mind?” said Jonathan Powers to the troll, who even despite the suit was looking the worse for wear. I could see the scars on his face from the battle the day before. His left eye was glazed over and looked dead. I remembered the first night he attacked me, back at the vampire bar, when Megan tried to rip his throat out. I wondered what his neck looked like.
I tensed, my hand moving closer to the .45 in its holster. I felt the werewolves tense as well, but all Eric did was walk over to a nearby table, effortlessly picking it up and moving it against ours.
Jonathan sat down and put in his order. “Corona with an extra lime. A water f
or Mrs. Singer.” Mrs. Singer sat next to Powers, folding her hands on top of the leather briefcase in her lap and looking uncomfortable in the non-refined establishment. In contrast, Powers looked relaxed and in full control. The troll, Eric, took a couple of steps back and stood motionless like a looming gargoyle.
“So, Chance,” Powers said, leaning forward and extending a hand. “We finally meet.”
I shook his hand. It was your typical power handshake, no pun intended. I hadn’t expected any different. I was thankful I was surrounded by Toni and her friends. Even if I couldn’t be sure that they would help me if things went south, he didn’t know that. At least it gave me the illusion of strength.
“Yeah, it’s a real pleasure. It’s about time we met. Your buddy Eric and I have become real close.” Jonathan laughed; Eric’s head slowly swiveled my way and he glowered even more than normal. For him it was a real show of emotion.
“I like you, Chance—you remind me of me.”
Toni snorted. “Yeah, give or take a few billion dollars and a homicidal disposition.”
Jonathan Powers ignored her. “You’re clever, resourceful, dedicated. But you’re in over your head. You jumped straight into the deep end, and you have to learn how to swim first.”
“I seem to be doing okay so far.”
Bethany arrived and placed the drinks on the table, but didn’t leave.
“Granted, you’ve made some rather unusual friends. And you’ve gotten lucky so far, but it won’t last. Trust me, you can’t run on luck forever. Eventually it runs out; then what will you be left with?”
“So you came here to threaten me?” The werewolves were silent, waiting to see how I would handle this. I wasn’t sure if I was pleased with their observer status. It would have been nice to have some verbal support.
“Threaten you? I was just stating the facts. No, I came here for quite the opposite reason—to tell you that I thought you were doing a remarkable job. And to make you an offer.”
“An offer?”
“Business deal. Like I said, you’ve impressed me. Now, if your friends would be so kind as to leave us alone for a minute, I’ll go over it with you.” Mrs. Singer had set her case on the table and extracted a manila folder.
“Sorry, we’re not going anywhere,” said Toni. I silently thanked her.
“They stay,” I said.
Jonathan shrugged. “Your choice. Personally, I always prefer to keep my business deals private, but if you choose to share yours with your friends, that’s up to you. Though, a bit of advice—it’s usually a bad idea to conduct business with friends or family. It almost always ends up in hard feelings.”
Mrs. Singer slid the folder over to me, and I opened it, looking down. Toni, of course, leaned in and read over my shoulder. I could hear my phone vibrating in her hand, which fortunately covered the picture.
I wasn’t a legal expert, but as far as I could tell, it was a contract authorizing payment for services rendered finding lost property. It was basically saying that in exchange for returning this lost property that I had conveniently “found,” I would be given a one-time payment of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, waiving any future rights of ownership or compensation, yadda, yadda.
“Two hundred and fifty grand?” I said. Mike whistled. Lisa looked impressed. Bethany scowled. I was thinking that, back in Texas, that would buy me a house. Not a trailer, but a real house. I could replace the one that the vampires had just burned down and give Mom and Bryan a place to live, even have some left over to pay off my student loans. Well, maybe not after taxes.
“Not that I have come across this lost property of yours yet, but if I had, this would be generous.” I said. But a deal was a deal. And though I made mine for considerably less money, it was the deal I made. So it was what I would honor. No one could call me a complete fool, though. “I’d like some time to consider.”
Jonathan Powers’s smile faltered for an instant. I’m sure he did his research and must have known that this amount was a fortune to me.
“Of course, but you understand I am paying for property that is already rightfully mine.” Actually, I thought it rightly belonged to the government of Israel, but I wasn’t going to argue the point. “So I am a little impatient.”
“Yeah, I can imagine. Tell you what—let me sleep on it. I’ll let you know by this time tomorrow?”
He paused to consider it, and then nodded. “Fair enough.” He stuck out his hand again. “I hope you seriously consider my offer. You’ll find it is very generous. It’s the best one you’re going to get.” His way of telling me to forget about a counter. “And I was honest when I said that I like you.” Implying what would happen if I didn’t accept.
He took another long sip of his beer, then looked me in the eyes and said, “Sorry about your friends back in Texas. It’s a job hazard, from what I understand. “My expression must have changed, because he added, “You misunderstand me—I had nothing to do with that unfortunate incident. I’m just saying that the more I hear about your exploits, the more I’m impressed.
“I can always use someone with your talents, Chance. It’s become obvious to me these past few days that my current staff could use some help dealing with”—he glanced at my friends—“certain elements of society.” He tapped the folder. “And I pay well.”
He got up. Mrs. Singer rose along with him. Eric opened the gate for them, and the three got into the limo and left.
“Damn,” said Mike. “That’s a lot of money. What did you steal from him?”
“Expensive vase,” I said.
“Wow, Ming or something, huh?”
“Yeah, or something.” My phone was still buzzing. I managed to extract it from Toni. Six missed calls, all from Megan. Toni was looking at me as if trying to read my mind.
“So, what happened back in Texas?” she finally asked.
Damn; they caught that. “Nothing; just did a job. It didn’t go well.” She kept on staring.
“What? I’m not lying.”
Lisa snorted. “You aren’t saying much, either.”
“Hey, Bethany—could we get some more chips?” asked Mike, shaking the empty basket at her. Bethany ignored him, obviously not wanting to miss this.
“Well?” said Toni.
I sighed and drained my beer. Wishing it would refill itself, I looked at Bethany, but her expression told me that if she could ignore her other three tables of customers that had been trying to get her attention for the last few minutes, then she could ignore me just as easily.
I did it fast, like pulling off a band-aid. “Fine. I hunt vampires back in Texas. Or I did. We ran into a nest last Friday, and they killed everyone except for me. So I took a job here in California to lay low in case they were still chasing me. They found my mom’s house last night and burned it down.”
“Shit. Sorry, man,” said Mike. Lisa looked sad for me.
“Was anyone home?” asked Toni, looking concerned. I shook my head.
Bethany said, “So you hunted vampires? Is that all you hunted?” I was really beginning to dislike her.
“Yes,” I said. But honestly, that was only because that was all we had found to hunt. I’m sure we would have killed werewolves without any more thought than vampires, had we found any. To us they would have all been monsters. A couple of days can change one’s perspective.
Toni made a different connection, and her concerned look vanished. “So, let me get this straight. A bunch of vampires kill your”—she searched for the word—“coworkers and burn down your house. So you come to California and the first thing you do is shack up with one? Are you fucking insane?”
“Wow, the way she says it, that does make you sound pretty stupid, dude,” supplied Mike.
“That’s not what happened. Okay, so that is what happened, but it’s not as bad as it sounds. Megan saved my life. She’s not going to hurt me.”
“No, just drain you dry. You’ll be like a human version of her dairy cow.”
Bethan
y couldn’t ignore her tables any longer. She left, giving me a parting look of disapproval. If they decided to vote on killing me because I knew too much, I was pretty sure of the direction her thumb was going.
“So you’re going to take the money, right?” asked Mike. “‘Cause if so, you can get a killer bike.”
“Of course he’s not,” Toni answered for me, which was kind of annoying, despite the fact that she was right.
“Nah, I just wanted to buy some time, so I told him I would think about it,” I said, truthfully.
“If you don’t take the money, I think he’s going to kill you, man. I mean, dying for family or something I can see, but dying for a vase? A vase that he just offered you two hundred and fifty grand for? Seriously, dude, you keep lowering my opinion of your intelligence.” Lisa gave me a pitying look and nodded in agreement.
“I don’t plan on letting him kill me. And it’s not just a vase,” I said. “It’s like a magic WMD. I’m not sure if he wants it for any other reason than just to have it, but I think it’s better if we just destroy it. I don’t know if I would trust anyone with it.”
“And who has it now?” asked Mike.
“Friends,” I said.
“The vamp,” said Toni. “I see you trust her with it. So tell me, is she that great of a—“
“What does it do?” Mike, thankfully, cut her off.
“It’s full of demons. It might even let you control them.”
“Demons? Seriously? Cool.” He saw the look Lisa and Toni gave him and was about to change what he said, but then he shook his head. “No, sorry, man, but that’s pretty cool.”
“Well,” Lisa said, “It’s obvious that it shouldn’t fall into a man’s hands.”
“I wonder if demons could, like, fetch beer and chips,” said Mike. “’Cause that alone would put them way ahead of some wome—” Lisa’s hand against the side of his head cut him off. By the sound of it, she had smacked him pretty hard.
Chapter 17
It took me almost another hour to extract myself from the werewolves. Getting away from Toni proved especially difficult. I had to promise to call her later on to make sure everything was okay. She was teetering between tough and clingy, and it was kind of weirding me out. Not that I didn’t appreciate her; it just felt wrong for some reason.
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