Nava Katz Box Set 2

by Deborah Wilde

  I licked Leo’s envelope closed and stacked it on top of the one to my parents. “If she’s stuck here on earth, I could do a location spell. We have the note she wrote. That should work.”

  “You want to do that now?”

  I placed my hands over his and shook my head. “No. She’ll still be around tomorrow. I want to spend this evening with you.”

  We had an hour before Maya and Dev expected us all for dinner. Lilith was quiet–hopefully all her threat uttering had tuckered the witch out–but she was still weak enough that I was able to put up a mental shield around the box for privacy, just in case.

  Ro led me into the bedroom which was bathed in pools of late afternoon sun through the filtered curtains. Our lovemaking was slow and dreamy, both of us relishing each languid touch, each murmured endearment.

  We spun out our desire until we lay limp in each other’s arms.

  Rohan nuzzled my neck, and when I wrote “Nava plus Rohan” with my finger on his chest, the smile he bestowed on me was happy and lazy, while his eyes reflected an appreciation and wonder that filled me to bursting.

  It was the perfect opportunity to tell him I loved him.

  Except once again there was a knock on the bungalow’s front door. I tensed, bracing for another demon-related disaster, but it was just his dad asking Rohan to come help him find a particular hat of his he was sure Ro had borrowed.

  More knocking.

  “Rohan?” Dev rattled the doorknob.

  “Seriously? Dad, wait. I’m coming.” Ro stole one last kiss and left me in the bed, grabbing his jeans on the way out of the room.

  It was three little words. Why was the universe conspiring against me?

  Dinner was a surprisingly festive affair. While the booze didn’t flow, since we were all too professional to get drunk before this mission, the conversation and laughter did.

  Rohan rolled his eyes when my reunion with Mahmud turned into a super over-the-top, playful flirtation, then dragged me away to introduce me to the newcomers. I heard an absolutely hilarious story from Bao and An, the Vietnamese brothers, about a naga demon and a stolen boat, discovered a shared love of the old kids’ cartoon The Fairly Oddparents with Wangombe from Kenya, and tried some delicious Israeli chocolate courtesy of Zvi.

  “Who’s the Hell’s Angel escapee?” I tilted my head at the lone Rasha I had yet to meet. His wild ginger hair was only slightly less bushy than his beard. Tattooed knuckles peeked out of the sleeves of his Harley Davidson shirt.

  Ro shot me an odd look. “Go introduce yourself.”

  The Rasha watched me approach through narrowed eyes. “Fait pas ta neuve, and say hello already,” he grunted.

  Only one hunter would tell me to stop being a princess in heavy Québécois.

  “Pierre!” I squealed and hugged him. “Look at you, Biker Boy. Figured you’d be more the cardigan-wearing type.”

  “Decriss!” he swore, swatting me away. “Like I’d wear that garbage.” He patted the seat next to him. “Sit down, hotshot.”

  “’Otshot.” I snickered.

  We got a lot of strange looks in the next ten minutes, nattering away at each other in French, one or the other of us guffawing at the insults flying fast and furious. Pierre also demanded an update on Hybris. He warned me to be careful bringing her in, though he agreed that spreading rumors so other demons would hunt her down for me had been pretty inspired.

  I glowed under his praise.

  He already knew Ro and Kane, and Baruch obviously since they were stationed in Jerusalem together, so I waved Ari over to introduce him. The two fell into an enthusiastic conversation about hockey–again in French, since I hadn’t been the only Katz twin educated in the French Immersion system.

  I couldn’t get away from the sports talk fast enough. My stomach rumbled and, thrilled I wasn’t queasy, I obeyed, beelining for the buffet.

  Between Maya’s Jewish and Indian sides, she’d provided enough food for a small army–or our bunch. If I wanted Indian, I could help myself to pakoras, samosas, tamarind chutneys, butter chicken, saag paneer, and fluffy Jasmine rice. I could go Cali local with fish tacos, an assortment of salads, farm fresh roasted potatoes or grilled vegetables with balsamic reduction, or satisfy my inner carnivore and load up on steak and sausages, with a side of pesto pasta.

  If this was my last supper, I intended to eat all the things. I’d already piled my plate high with yumminess when one of the servers brought out a humongous platter.

  I poked Rohan. “Is that fried chicken and waffles from Roscoe’s?”

  He looked pretty smug. “It is. I had Mom get some to prove to you how good it is.”

  Ro had waxed poetic about the stuff. I was amazed he hadn’t composed a song to the damn chicken. Unless “Rhapsody of You” was about those plump juicy thighs.

  I snagged a drumstick. There was no way it could live up to the hype.

  One bite and oh, how wrong I was. My breathing quickened.

  Ro smirked. “Admit it. I was right.”

  “I admit nothing,” I said through a mouthful of the crispiest, lightest, most mouthwatering fried chicken I’d ever tasted. I got a second plate and helped myself to two more pieces and two fluffy waffles, dousing all of it in maple syrup before sitting down on the nearest couch with my food arrayed in front of me.

  While Ari and Kane both seemed to be mingling, it was always somehow with the same group at the same time. Oh, how I wanted to see that finally reach its inevitable conclusion.

  And say “I told you so.”

  Raquel texted me to say she’d found the Tomb of Endless Night and I wriggled my hips joyfully. I was going to stop Sienna. And if that seemingly impossible event could come to pass, then maybe I’d even bully her into giving me a long life.

  “Who’s that?” Ro asked.

  I glanced up over him to answer, struck dumb for a moment that I might really get to be with this amazing man long-term. I ducked my head to hide my moony-eyed look and texted Raquel the coordinates and the approximate time we’d be at the compound. “Raquel. She’s got the Tomb.”

  He rubbed my back. “We’re in business.”

  Maya and Dev were circulating. They seemed to know a few of the Rasha quite well, like the L.A. contingent and Baruch. But eventually they narrowed in on us.

  Rohan moved over so his parents could sit down with us. I loved that he didn’t stop touching me just because they were there.

  I wiped off my mouth and hands, dropping my napkin onto my empty plate. “Thank you so much for dinner. I’m sorry I haven’t really seen much of you, just imposed on your hospitality.”

  Dev patted my knee. The linen fedora he was wearing was pretty cool and I could totally see Ro stealing it. “That’s okay. We know this was a working visit. Next time you’ll come to hang out. Maybe in a couple months when it’s not so hot.”

  Ro’s hand stilled for a fraction of a second, and I knew he was thinking of Lilith.

  I leaned against my boyfriend. “Sounds perfect.”

  “Next time bring your tap shoes,” Maya said.

  “She better,” Ro said. “Now that she has that new floor of hers to christen.”

  My breath caught. I could picture it so easily. Dancing for Ro at his place, him accompanying me on his guitar as it turned into a dance of another type.

  No one, not Lilith, not Sienna, and definitely not Mandelbutt was going to rob me of that future. “Have shoes, will tap.”

  “I’d like to see you dance in person,” Maya said. “The videos never do a performance justice.”

  “You’ve seen videos?”

  “Ro-Ro found them online and showed us. You’re very talented.”

  I blushed, more from the idea that Rohan had cared enough to share that with his parents than her compliment. “Thank you. It was my life.”

  “We’re sorry you lost that,” Dev said, “but we’re glad that path led you to our family.”

  What would have happened if I’d still been on track w
ith my tap dream when I’d gotten my powers at Ari’s induction ceremony? Would I have come to resent my magic? My dancing? If I’d been at the top of my game instead of at my lowest, who would I be now? Because I really liked this woman, one with a deep purpose and a renewed, far more mature sense of self.

  A part of me would always grieve the future that could have been, but sitting here with Dev and Maya and the love of my life, I couldn’t have stopped the grin that broke free if there had been a gun pressed to my head.

  “Me too,” I said. “I can’t wait to spend more time with you both.”

  “Good.” Maya smiled. “That’s settled. Excuse us. We should check on our guests.”

  Dev stood up and offered her his arm. She gave him a saucy curtsy before letting him escort her across the room.

  It was the most adorable sight ever.

  Plus, they liked me. They really liked me.

  “You have good parents, Mitra.”

  “Yeah, they produced a top-quality kid.” He grinned at me and my heart did a little flip.

  We were surrounded by a few dozen people. There was no privacy, no romance, and it didn’t matter. I didn’t need a perfect moment to say this to him. I just needed him.

  “Rohan.”

  He blinked his golden eyes at me. “What?”

  “I want to tell you something. I–”

  “No.”

  I froze at the insistence in his voice. Tried again. “You don’t understand. I want–”

  “I know what you want to tell me and I’m not letting you.”

  I crossed my arms, magic sparking off my skin. All right, he didn’t love me, but was it so awful to even hear that I loved him? Did he feel guilty about his lack of reciprocal feelings?

  “You’re not the boss of me. I can say what I want.”

  Great start, idiot.

  “I can’t hear it if you’re saying it like some kind of preemptive goodbye.” He pulled me flush against him, burying his face in the crook of my neck. “Say it tomorrow.”

  I’d shut down my magic before he could be injured. “Hmph. I might not want to say it tomorrow, you imperious bastard.”

  Ro flashed me his rock fuck grin, softening it into something so much more tender. “Say it tomorrow,” he implored me softly. “When it’s not goodbye. When it’s a promise for the rest of our lives.”

  He didn’t know that Lilith was growing stronger with each passing second, her siren croonings that my time of reckoning was coming, growing harder to ignore. My time was slipping away like grains in an hourglass.

  I mentally knocked that stupid hourglass onto its side. “Tomorrow,” I vowed.

  29

  Three and a half hours was a long time to be crammed into a jeep with four men when everything on the radio was shit and there was zip to see out the window other than highway, desert, and night sky. None of it stopped my brain from churning at top speed about everything that could go wrong.

  Between Ari and I, we could have transported everyone there, but Baruch refused to let us expend our magic on that when we could suck it up and drive. Plus, we needed the armored truck in our convoy.

  The first hour wasn’t so bad. I sat up front with Baruch who drove, leaving Rohan, Kane, and Ari to squish into the back. I had full rein of the music, my edginess translating to me lasting about a minute on any given song, until Rohan started kicking the back of my chair, griping about the musical torture.

  We switched it up in hour two. I was now sandwiched between my brother and Kane, who did the grown-up version of “he’s looking out my window,” sniping, until Baruch threatened to punch both their lights out.

  Then there was hour three. Baruch was bear snoring in the passenger seat while Kane drove. Ari, still in the back with me and Rohan, stared stonily at the back of Kane’s head. Ro had fallen asleep as well and was making these adorable snuffling noises. Less adorable was his dead weight squashing me into the door and smushing my cheek against the window. My left side had gone numb but no matter how I tried to shove him, he didn’t budge.

  Sienna expected an answer from me. Not any answer either. An answer that involved proving my undying loyalty to all witch-kind by taking her side against the Rasha. And if my undying loyalty involved my actual dying, she wouldn’t shed any tears.

  I called Raquel on my burner phone to make sure she was on track to meet us, but it went to voicemail. I hung up and immediately received a text.

  Rohan startled awake with a snort, jostling my arm. “What?”

  I bent over to snag my cell from the floor. “That’s what woke you, dude who I’ve been shoving for an hour? You millennials. So tied to your phones. Pathetic.”

  The text was from Rivka. “The funeral is on Thursday,” I said.

  “Text back that we’ll be there,” Ari said.

  My fingers hovered over the keys. I had yet to speak to her about Esther.

  Another text came in. She left you something. You don’t come. You don’t get it.

  I called Rivka. “You sound like your sister.”

  “I was the original,” she said. “I’ll give you your inheritance when you come.”

  “I don’t want anything.”

  “I know. You’re still getting it. She was very clear.”

  “Clear when?” I snapped. “She wasn’t an oracle. She didn’t know she was going to die.”

  “Terminal cancer,” Rivka said gently. “She knew.”

  “But she’d done chemo. She looked better.”

  “She had months at best, so stop beating yourself up about this. She genuinely cared about you. Said you reminded her of her younger self.”

  “Don’t ruin all my fond memories of her.”

  Rivka barked a laugh and my heart clutched. She really sounded exactly like Esther.

  “Thursday. Eleven o’clock at the Jewish cemetery in New Westminster. I’m hanging up before I get maudlin,” she said and did just that.

  I cuddled into Rohan. “Thursday at 11. You’ll come with?”

  “Of course,” he said.

  “Esther said I reminded her of her younger self.”

  Ari snorted. I reached over Rohan and punched my brother’s thigh.

  “Not surprising,” Kane said. “Dr. Gelman was a total shit disturber when she was young.”

  “How would you know?” Rohan said.

  “I hacked into Brotherhood documents after her death. They had a huge file on her. There was this fifteen-year period they suspected her of killing all these big-time demons before the Rasha could. We’re talking dozens and dozens. She was legendary.”

  “And instead of lauding her for it, she got a file,” Ari said. “Nice.”

  “Exactly,” Kane said. “Rasha are a bunch of glory hogs. Present company all included. Tell me you can’t all score your kills.”

  Ari and Rohan muttered their assent.

  “Hang on.” I leaned forward to see them all. “You guys keep track of how many demons you’ve taken out? My God, why am I asking this question? Of course you do. Do you circle jerk the numbers or just whip them out one-on-one to compare?”

  “Both,” Ari and Rohan said at the same time.

  The first jeep in our caravan turned off the main road. Kane followed, raising his voice over the whine of the motor as we bumped our way through the desert. “Ready to be legendary, babyslay?”

  “We’re all gonna be legendary,” I said. “Tonight we bring down the old regime and forge a brave new world where witches and Rasha work together. Now someone wake the bear up.”

  As expected from our earlier reconnaissance, the jeeps reached the ridge undetected. The clock on our dashboard glowed 12:35AM in big blue digits.

  Ari immediately left, shadow jumping to the top of the ridge with a pair of high-powered binoculars.

  The rest of us stood silently waiting for his return. Well, most of us did. Kane looked decidedly fidgety.

  The wind whooshed over the desert as loud as a rushing river, while the sky above was so stuf
fed full with stars that I swore I could reach up on tiptoe and grab one. It was cold at night, but we had lightweight warm gear that wouldn’t restrict our movements.

  Ari returned and gathered us into a circle. “Six guards on the roof. No one on the ground. I checked around the compound. Nothing hiding out in the desert.”

  “You good with that?” Baruch asked me.

  I cracked my knuckles. “Child’s play. The plan is on track. I’ll take them out in waves. First the Rasha outside, then the ones inside. Make sure when you follow me in to secure the men, that you keep barriers between myself and all of you at each stage until I give the all-clear. Don’t want you hit with my magic. Once the Rasha are dealt with, I’ll track Sienna.”

  “Is the Tomb here?” Baruch said.

  “It will be.” I had faith in Raquel.

  “The terrain is rocky,” Ari said, “but the trucks should make it to the compound no problem.”

  Baruch turned to Mahmud, Wangombe, Pierre, and Bastijn. “You have the C-4?”

  “Ready when you are,” Mahmud said.

  “Remember your assignments,” Baruch said. “Hard proof against Mandelbaum and his men to present to the Brotherhood gets loaded in the jeeps. Demon and blood samples in the lock-up in the armored truck, otherwise, everything gets destroyed. Be thorough.” He canted his head up to the moonlight. “Five minutes. That patch of clouds will provide some cover. Nava, get ready on my signal.”

  “Will do.” I pulled Rohan aside for some privacy. “Technically, it’s tomorrow.”

  Ro scowled at me. “Don’t you dare.”

  “Rohan Liam Mitra, you listen up.”

  This might not be a gazebo or the tap floor at his place, and it might not be as cozy as the two of us waking up together in bed to a rainy morning. Before, I’d hated that I could never find the perfect moment to say it. Now I’d run out of moments. I had to make this perfect by itself, even if the air was thick with tension about our mission and I’d found new places to sweat.

  I kissed his knuckles, pressing his hand to my heart. “Being a twin, Ari’s always been my other half. But you make me the most myself I’ve ever been. The most complete as a person in my own right. You found me in the darkness and didn’t let me stay there. You pushed me to remake myself into someone better, someone who I am really proud of being. Being with you… it’s like living a tap dance all the time. I’m more awake and more alive and at my happiest. I know this seems like the worst moment to say it, but I never want you to wonder or doubt it. I love you, Rohan.” I spread my arms helplessly. “I’m yours.”