by Amanda Byrd
“Well, what does everyone want to do for dinner?”
Both Teddy and Shiloh’s heads turned on Miranda as if she was speaking a foreign language.
“What? I was speaking English.”
Shiloh piped up, “Well, you still have to take me to meet Bubblehead. Is she still at the office?”
Miranda looked at the clock on the coffeemaker—four in the afternoon.
“Probably not. I usually set her free around now because I can’t stand her. She comes in at nine. Which reminds me. Your schedule would be nine ‘til four or five, your choice, and you’d be salary. We’ll talk figures later. So you meet Bubblehead tomorrow. You deserved that sleep today. I had you up crazy early for your flight because I wanted you to meet her and forgot how tired you always were, plus I had to show you the battlefield during the day since King, Emperor, Elisonde, Interment, and I are the only ones who can see it at night. Though it’ll be lit up like flipping Christmas soon.”
“I’m sorry, did you just say Interment?”
“Oh, uh, yeah. We’ll talk about that tomorrow or later. Back to dinner, are we going somewhere or staying in? We can cook or go for Mexican, Indian, Thai, Cuban—there’s a lot here.”
The women decided they did not care what they did or ate, so they let Teddy decide.
“Well, we haven’t had Indian or Thai in a while.”
“Do they have stuff that’s not crazy spicy, like you two love? I’m not the biggest fan.”
“They do. Anything yellow curry is less spicy,” Miranda answered, “you game?”
“Sure, why not. I just hope I don’t hate it because then we’ll be getting me something else.”
“That’s fine, there’s plenty of other options right there,” Teddy cut in.
“I’m driving!”
“Miranda, you always drive. Are you ever going to let me drive Night Chariot?”
“No, Teddy. She’s still—oh, I don’t know. But tonight I drive.”
“You named your SUV?”
“Shiloh, when don’t I name my vehicles?”
“Fair enough.”
The three of them got into Night Chariot, Shiloh in the back, again freaking out over the extras it had. Built-in touch screens for movies in the headrests, heated and cooled seats, cup holders, USB ports for phone and tablet charging or media streaming to the screens. She figured some higher end vehicles should have those things though. Unless one had children, like she had. Kids were the reason Shiloh could not have many nice things unless she was able to hide them. Nice clothes got stained, nice furniture ripped or colored on, and so on it went. This was another reason for her jealousy of Miranda. Miranda had decided twenty years ago not to ever have children and changed her mind only once for about two years then back again. It was not that Miranda did not like children, she was such a wonderful aunt to Shiloh’s five kids, she simply did not want any of her own, and Shiloh could not blame her, regardless how much she loved hers.
They drove to a place in a neighborhood called Northdale, where Miranda and Teddy used to live, for their Thai dinner. It was in a strip mall and Shiloh realized Teddy was not joking when he told her there were many other options—there was a Greek place, a Mongolian Stir Fry place, a pub-type place, and a few other choices in the immediate vicinity. Shiloh wondered why they would ever leave a place so close to so much intriguing food. But Miranda had been called upon and no one cared to talk about those years, Miranda especially. That is what caused her current situation of needing human blood and hearts and a cure that would not kill her human self. Shiloh shook away those thoughts as they parked and exited Night Chariot.
They were seated quickly as it was still early; dinner time in Tampa was usually seven or eight at night. The food was amazing, as usual, and even Shiloh liked it, which surprised Miranda a great deal; Shiloh was not adventurous when it came to food—she was flat out picky. By the time they paid and left, the sun was halfway down and Miranda let Teddy drive home, to everyone’s shock. Miranda wanted, needed, to relax a little bit and if a simple car ride was the way to get it, then so be it. They got stuck in the tail end of rush hour traffic, for which Miranda was grateful. It meant a little more relaxation. She was trying desperately not to freak out over this whole Elisonde thing. She was so angry about it, she wanted to run around every day and night in full monster form until the battle.
When they got home, Miranda told Teddy her and Shiloh were going for a walk. He did not believe her. He knew Miranda was taking Shiloh to greet King and Emperor. The bond Miranda had with those boys was something sacred and they liked him enough, but he also knew he would get plenty of time with them as the years passed. The girls talked about dinner and how Miranda was so happy she pulled Shiloh’s arm hard enough to get her to come down on their walk to the gargoyles.
The gate opened and Shiloh jumped back, caught a little off guard before realizing the exit was sensor operated. They walked through, Miranda choosing to leave it open since there was hardly ever any traffic on this road and no one really knew the house existed. As they walked closer, both gargoyles came to life. Shiloh smiled a huge, excited smile, happy to know, finally, that gargoyles like these were real. Miranda again introduced Shiloh to King Nightmare first. This time, King bowed as he had done for Miranda, indicating for Shiloh to get on his back.
“Do not fly with her like you did with me. It’s rude and mean and you’ll scare the shit out of her. Just don’t,” Miranda said to King and King nodded his agreement.
Miranda jumped on Emperor and all four of them took to the sky.
Twenty-One
Shiloh dreamt of their flight that night. It was a truly freeing experience and one that Shiloh would not mind making a regular occurrence. She could get used to life down here. Well maybe not the heat and humidity, but she was willing to give it a try. After all, she did enjoy hurricanes and tornado threats, but she did seem to live in a bubble that precluded any of that from happening near her. Hell, the radars could show rain wherever she was, with an actual circle-type space around the exact spot she was in. So maybe she would not get to “play in a hurricane” as she called it, though she knew how disastrous they were.
Shiloh hated that she lived in a weather bubble, but she would risk it. To help Miranda and get away from a town where everyone knew everyone and everything about everyone, even if only for a little while. She would start looking at schools right after she met Bubblehead. It was seven in the morning and Shiloh hated early mornings like this, but sixteen years of children made her wake naturally. Brutus, her husband, never got up when one of the babies cried. She figured he was miserable already and she had only been gone a few days. She showered and dressed and headed to the kitchen to see what Miranda and Teddy had for breakfast to find Teddy on his way toward the garage for work.
“Morning, Shiloh! How did you sleep?”
“Great, thanks! So I take it you’re on your way to work?”
“Yeah, I’ll be home around four or so. There’s plenty in the pantry, fridge, and freezer in the kitchen for breakfast. If you want animal meat, that’s in the freezer in the garage. Miranda’s private stash, though I don’t think she’d mind much if you ate some.”
“Oh, ugh gross, no, I’m good. Thanks though.”
“Okay, well, have a great day. See you troublemakers later,” and Teddy disappeared.
Shiloh continued to the kitchen and poured herself a bowl of cereal. Miranda was a little predictable when it came to finding her dishes—this was part of her slight obsessive-compulsive disorder and her psychiatrist agreed. Shiloh found herself wondering what her shrink knew of this new development but figured she would ask Miranda later. It was too early for all that kind of talk. Miranda made her way into the kitchen, eyes half closed, using her hands to guide her search for the coffee pot.
“Hey, Miranda. You know that would work better if you opened your eyes, ri
ght?”
“Shut up unless you want to go grab me a blood pack from the warmer.”
“Eew, no. Wait. Is that something I’m gonna have to do for you at work? Please tell me no.”
“No. I bring my own and they stay in my office with me. Happy?”
“Yes. So when are we leaving so I can meet Bubblehead and make fun of her stupidity to her face?”
“You are not making fun of her to her face. I need you to behave or she can press harassment on me. No, insurance isn’t an excuse. Be serious,” she could not contain herself and started giggling at the thoughts of the things Shiloh would say, “please?”
“You’re a damn buzzkill.”
Miranda poured her coffee and started giggling again.
“What’s so funny?”
“I’m hearing your insults in my head is what’s so funny.”
The women laughed and coffee came out of Miranda’s nose. Piping hot coffee. Not only did it burn like fire but some of it made its way into a lung, too.
“Jesus-” and Miranda launched into what seemed like it might be an endless stream of expletives, “seven freaking hells that hurts!”
Shiloh laughed and choked on her cereal.
“Serves you right for laughing at me.”
They laughed harder and Miranda almost dropped her mug. That ended their fun for the moment. They both knew dropping a mug full of the magical bean juice was nothing other than blasphemy; a crime against caffeine. Miranda finished half the mug and refilled. The women bantered for a while, carefully making sure no more of the sacred hot bean juice came out of any unexpected orifice. When Miranda had finished her third mug, she decided they would leave after just one more mug, which would not take more than five minutes for her to drink. Flying kicked her ass but only because she was still new to the exhilaration she felt. She had no idea how the hell Shiloh was as awake as she currently was.
“Hey. How the shit are you so damn awake right now, anyway? Flying still kicks my ass and I have two unruly bastards living in me.”
We resent that! We are not unru- okay, fine. We are. Never mind.
“Honestly, I’m sleeping so well. Like deeper than I have since before kids. Does that help? Also, I’m not being hounded by two little boys, so I’m a little happier.”
“Damn. Makes me glad I never wanted any of my own. Anyway,” she took her last mouthful and put the mug in the sink, “you ready?”
“Let’s do this! Okay, that was much bouncier than I meant it to be.”
“Shut up,” Miranda laughed, “let’s go.”
They went into the garage, on the way there Miranda telling the cats they would be back soon—because cats cared so much when their humans would return—and she grabbed a blood pack to give her real energy that would last, not just a quick caffeine high. Night Chariot welcomed them in, comfortable and warm. She purred to life and Miranda slid her hand over the dashboard in a petting motion, cooing and calling her a “good girl”. One more minute of Miranda acting like her truck was a living thing and Shiloh thought she might snap and slap her, but Miranda hit the garage door button just in time. Off they went down the driveway.
They arrived at Miranda’s office earlier than Bubblehead on purpose. Not that Miranda wanted to scare Bubblehead, though she did think it would be funny if they did and honestly she expected they would because the girl was just so oblivious. Miranda showed Shiloh the computer system and how to electronically submit to insurance companies and handling self-pay patients and the sliding scale for certain patients who were uninsured or had lower income. Shiloh caught on by the time she had submitted two patients, including documenting in the system that their insurance had been billed. Miranda knew Shiloh was the perfect person for this job. She did not really need coding experience because Miranda had a cheat sheet already made up and there really was no possible way to screw it up, yet Bubblehead had managed to on two separate occasions.
“So?’
“So what? Do I want the job? Yes.”
“Awesome. When do you want to start?”
“Meh, we’ll figure that out later. For now-”
Shiloh was interrupted by the main office door opening. It was Bubblehead, completely, as usual, oblivious to the fact the door was even unlocked in the first place, let alone that Miranda and someone else were behind her desk. She looked up and screamed. Miranda and Shiloh erupted into the kind of hard laugh that made a person cry and breathing a painful and conscious effort. When they could see straight again, Miranda apologized and introduced Shiloh and Bubblehead. Bubblehead was shaking harder than most startled people, as if she was now traumatized and would need therapy of her own to overcome this horrifying experience.
“I’m not staying, I wanted to show Shiloh the office. She’s thinking about moving down and wanted to see how far I’ve come with my practice. She’s got uh, her husband needs my help, so . . .” Miranda trailed off and left it at that, knowing Bubblehead did not care or seem to even notice Miranda was speaking to her. She still wore a look of shock.
Miranda and Shiloh left, laughing as soon as the door closed behind them.
“Oh my God, she’s an idiot!”
“I told you! I can’t stand her! I’m so glad you said yes.”
“Yeah, we’ll talk more about that once we get in the truck because, my luck, she’ll actually hear what I’m saying and I’ll have to start today.”
They laughed the rest of the way to Night Chariot. Once inside, they talked details and Miranda dictated it all into a note-taking app on her phone so she could give Shiloh the offer in writing. They hugged and left the parking lot, driving back to Miranda’s house so they could plan the construction of the battlefield once Shiloh had officially accepted her offer of employment.
Twenty-Two
On the drive back, Miranda launched into the full story of everything that had gone on involving Elisonde. From Miranda finding the castle for sale all the way up to a few nights ago, when Elisonde found her in the woods during her and Teddy’s impromptu target practice. Shiloh was more pissed off about it than Miranda, which was a little absurd since Shiloh had not been the one followed from England back to the United States and everywhere else. Though, by Shiloh’s reasoning, Shiloh was now being followed as well. Miranda figured she was probably right in thinking that, since Elisonde wanted every bit of leverage she could get against Miranda.
“Great, and my kids and Brutus come down soon,” Shiloh let out a sigh.
“Girl, they won’t be here until after I kill that bitch. They’ll be fine. Promise.”
Soon enough, they were back in Miranda’s garage, getting out of Night Chariot. It was still early, so Miranda had time to look up contractors and Shiloh could look into school ratings and reviews from other parents. She had decided the kids and Brutus would move here during their winter break, which meant new schools for all but the babies who were not in school yet. Next up, daycares for them. Miranda used her phone, some app she had for different services and ratings and reviews of those services. She found two she liked for Shiloh to call. While she was searching for contractors, Shiloh had been using the laptop to look at schools and daycares. She found ones fairly close to Miranda’s house, which also had large district lines, so when they found a place to live, if Miranda was not insane enough to build them a guest house, they would not have to switch schools again.
“Okay, I found two for you to call, Shiloh. They need to come out and give estimates before we commit to one or the other. Also, ask them to bring portfolios to the estimates. Here’s the address,” Miranda said handing a piece of paper to her with names and phone numbers of contractors and the address of the field. Shiloh knew what Miranda wanted done, so that part was easy.
“Umm, Miranda, how am I getting there?”
“Oh, I’ll play chauffeur. They won’t think twice about it. I’ll stay in Night Chariot and you
can tell, err, show them what ‘you’ want to be done. You’ll just have to act like you’re me for the estimates. But, you’ll have to bring the portfolios into the truck so I can see them. Try to set them up one hour apart so we’re not wasting a whole day on this. We’re, no, I’m losing time here. Not that I really need a plan other than containing the inevitable fire.”
Shiloh understood every word Miranda said and every word she did not. They had known each other long enough to be able to listen between the lines. Shiloh picked up Miranda’s land-line and made the calls, scheduling for the following day at nine and ten in the morning.
“They’re handled. You know what’s great? I don’t even need to go look at these schools because parents have posted photos and such. So I’ve got one high school, one elementary, and one daycare. I’m set. But, I don’t want to impose so I have to ask: how long can we stay here for?”
“Are you out of your damned mind? As long as you need to, though I suspect it won’t be long because I’m paying you starting now anyway.”
“Miranda! You can’t- how can-” Shiloh let out a flustered sigh.
“Again, I can and I will. I want you to be happy here. Which reminds me, I need your routing and account numbers so I can get the direct deposit started.”
Shiloh wanted to scream, to protest in some way, but she knew Miranda would not stand for it. Hell, Miranda might bite her just to teach her a lesson. No, she would not, would she? Shiloh did not believe that. Shaking that stupid thought away, she went to her room to finish unpacking; her clothes had been strewn about long enough and if she was going to be living here for any amount of time, she needed to get everything out of her bag.