“I am a dragon hunter,” I told her with great dignity. “We are not woo-woo.”
“Of course you are. What I want to know,” she said when I pulled into our apartment parking lot, “is whether I get related powers for being your sidekick. We need to Google that. Also, should we have t-shirts, don’t you think? Or costumes!”
A half hour later we were on the street again, having picked up my sword, and headed off to check out the address I’d copied down.
“I still think it’s weird that you’re carrying around a demon’s sword.”
“It’s better than nothing,” I told her, peering out the window as I crept down a small side road. “Besides, it doesn’t feel bad. It feels pretty right, to be honest. Here we go, four-fourteen. Wow. Who knew people still painted their houses the color of Pepto-Bismol?”
“Bright,” Teresita agreed as I pulled up in front of the house we sought. It was a small Craftsman-style house, painted a lurid pink with shiny white trim. “What are you going to say to the woman?”
“Assuming she’s in, I’ll tell her we’re here to help her start a new life.” I got out of the car and strapped the sword to my waist. “Aren’t you coming?”
“Nope.” She pulled out her phone. “I know the role of a good sidekick, and that is to let the hero do her thing when she needs to. Just yell if you want backup.”
“You’re one smart cookie,” I told her, and proceeded up a tidy flagstone pathway to a glossy white door.
A girl of about eight opened it up after I knocked, holding a white plastic wand with long stiff filaments on the end, each of which was topped with a glittery silver star. Clearly, she had been playing a fairy or princess. “Hi,” she said, after removing a candy sucker from her mouth.
“Hello. Is your mom at home? Wait, I suppose I should tell you my name, because there’s nothing quite so annoying as someone asking for your mom without telling you who she is. Who I am. Oh, Lord, now I’m babbling. I’m Veronica James, and my sister Helen asked me to help your mother out with…er…a bad situation.”
The girl scrutinized me for a few seconds, then popped the sucker back in her mouth, and standing on her tiptoes, bopped me on the head with the wand.
“Ack!” I said when a fine wash of silver glitter dribbled down my hair and onto my t-shirt. “What the…Man, that stuff gets everywhere.”
“You need it,” the little girl said, waving her wand at me so it doused the front of my legs with more of the fine silver.
“I’m going to have a thing or two to say to your mom about the toys she lets you play with,” I muttered, brushing off the silver. “Is she here?”
“She’s making Sparkle lunch. Sparkle always has to have a special lunch. She’s a princess.”
“Of course she is.” I relaxed a little, telling my anxious beast (which was on high alert for some reason) that a little silver glitter wasn’t going to hurt me and that there was nothing wrong with little girls with healthy imaginations. “Elsa? Cinderella? Sleeping Beauty?”
“I’ll get Indigo,” the girl said with the faintest hint of an eye roll. I decided that since she hadn’t shut the door on me, I could step inside without being too forward, and pretended I didn’t see the silver footprints I tracked into the hall after me.
After a few seconds, a woman dashed out from a back room, her red hair making a fuzzy halo around her head. “Helen? You are Helen Larson?”
“Hi,” I said when she skidded to a stop in front of me. “I’m Ronnie James, Helen’s sister. She…uh…she couldn’t be here.”
The woman had a slight accent, something Germanic. “I see. And you are here why?”
“Helen said you needed to be protected from your ex. I assume you need a bit of a hand getting started in a new life.” I hesitated, not sure how to go on. I wasn’t sure if she was hinting she didn’t want my help or was just trying to adjust to a change in plans. “She asked me to help you, and I’ll do everything I can, of course. If you need to find a new place to stay, I am more than happy to find you safe digs.”
She stared at me for a few seconds, then brushed past me to the door and opened it, gesturing. “Thank you. Goodbye.”
“What?” I took two steps to the doorway and stopped, confused. “I’m sorry, did I say something wrong? I’m new at this, so if there are rules that I violated—”
“We just got here; why would we want to leave?” Her face turned red with suppressed emotion. “Besides which, a local church said they would help us. You may leave. We have no use of your so-called protection.”
“I’m sorry if I can’t give you the help my sister was insistent that you receive,” I said stiffly, noticing out of the corner of my eye that a couple was striding down the sidewalk toward us. “I guess the only thing I can say is that if you need anything, I’m happy to help— What is he doing here?”
I interrupted myself when I got a glimpse at who was approaching. Ian was marching determinedly toward us, a purposeful expression on his face.
“Who?” the woman asked, about to close the door on me.
“My…er…for lack of a better word, boyfriend. You don’t have to worry that Ian’s a threat or anything. He’s a good guy, too.” I mentally ran through the options open to me. There was no helping it—if I wanted to help this poor, scared woman, then I’d have to make a sacrifice or two. “You know, my sister said that Alexander might know we were coming here. Maybe you shouldn’t stay at this house—after all, if I could find you, what’s to stop a determined ex? You’ll just have to come back to my place.”
“Your place? Where is that?” the woman asked, suspicion plastered all over her face. “We only just arrived, so I don’t see how anyone could find us.”
I remembered the mysterious phone call of a few nights past. “My sister seemed to think he could. And if you’re still packed, then you shouldn’t have a problem moving quickly,” I said cheerfully before turning to greet Ian. “I’d accuse you of following me, but this time, I’m so happy to see you I could kiss you all over.”
Ian had looked like a black storm cloud when he approached, but at my words, he paused and gave me the oddest look. “Why would I follow you? More to the point, why are you here?”
“I’m here doing my job.” I shot the woman at the door a bright, confident smile that didn’t at all demonstrate just how unsure of myself I was at that moment. “But if you weren’t following me, then what are you doing here? Did Helen ask you to help this woman, too?”
“I told you that I’d never met your sister.” Ian eyed the woman. “I take it you’re Indigo?”
“Yes,” she answered, clearly nervous. She pulled the door closed a few more inches, as if it would protect her from us. “You’re the dragon hunter’s boyfriend?”
“For lack of better word,” I said hurriedly, giving Ian a look that said he’d better play along with me since I’d obliged him in the past. “He’s also a dragon hunter. See? That’s his sword. Oh, wait, you probably can’t see it.”
“She can see it,” Ian said.
“Oh, good. Well, then. Why don’t you and your little girls grab what you need for a couple of days, and we’ll get you to my apartment.”
“What’s going on? Are we having a meeting on the front porch?” Teresita pushed alongside Ian and smiled at the woman at the door, who had pulled it closed another inch or so. “Hi. Are you the woman on the run? Don’t worry about anything. My friend here is a kickass superhero partial dragon woman, and she’ll keep the big bad jerkshit away from you. I’m Teresita, by the way.”
I thought the woman was going to slam the door in our faces, but after another suspicious look at us all, she gave sort of a defeated sigh, and said, “I suppose it doesn’t really matter. I’ll get our things together. It’ll just take us a few minutes.”
“Do you need a han—” The door shut firmly on my offer of help. I grimaced at it, then turned to the others. “I guess not. So, Mr. Mysterious, how do you know her name if Helen didn’t ask you to help her, too?”
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For a moment, Ian appeared to have been turned to stone; then he said in a voice that was rough around all the edges, “Indigo is the woman your sister asked you to help?”
“Yes. She’s on the run from a bad ex-husband or partner.”
“I should have known,” he said, rubbing his forehead as if he had a headache. “I should have guessed nothing would be straightforward. It’s not like I ask for an easy job. I wouldn’t dare. But simple? How can that offend the Fates by asking for simplicity in my life?”
“Are you having some sort of an episode?” I asked him, wondering what the hell he was talking about. “And while we’re on the subject, how do you know my battered woman?”
He closed his eyes for the count of three, then said, “She is part of a job I’m on. Anzo wished for me to locate her. I should have known this would happen, since life always seems to twist whatever I try to do into something impossible.”
“Really?” I was getting all sorts of weird vibes from him, ranging from anger and sorrow all the way up to dread and repugnance. “Why does your boss want her, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“It’s not something I can discuss here.” He turned to look back down the street, and raised his arm, waving it back and forth a couple of times. “I assume your intention is to take Indigo back to your apartment.”
“That’s what I was thinking, yes. I mean, it’s still a mess, but if she helps, we can make it livable pretty quickly. And to be honest, I don’t know if I can live there after what happened.”
“Did you see her place?” Teresita asked, waving when Sasha appeared at a trot down the sidewalk toward us. “Some rat bastard shredded literally everything she had. I saw it this morning, and it’s like a bomb exploded in there.”
“We’ll get it cleaned up,” I promised. “You can help.”
“Gee, thanks,” she said, giving me a lopsided grin.
“I thought you couldn’t face going into your apartment,” Ian said softly when Teresita went to greet Sasha. “That’s one of the reasons why I offered to help you clean it.”
“And I appreciate that offer. I just…” I gave a little shiver. “I can’t think of living there anymore. But if I’m just mucking it out for someone else to stay there? Yeah, that I can do. Um. That is, if you don’t mind me staying with you for a few days until I can find somewhere else? Somewhere that hasn’t been…tainted.”
“You are welcome to stay with me as long as you like,” he said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. I had hoped for a little passion in his eyes, something that would tell me he was happy to have me share his bed, but he looked more distracted than aroused.
At that moment, the door opened behind me, and two little girls hopped down the stairs. They looked similar in age, although not identical twins. Each wore a backpack while Indigo followed with two wheeled suitcases.
“This is a bit ridiculous, you making us move just after we arrived,” she said when I went to help her. “Who’s that?” She nodded toward Sasha.
“That’s Sasha. She’s an…uh…” I didn’t know what to say about Sasha. Ian saying that Indigo could see his sword meant that she wasn’t a normal mortal being, but then again, she didn’t look like superhero material, either. She looked, to be honest, like a frazzled woman at the end of her patience.
“Apprentice,” Ian finished for me, taking one of the suitcases from her.
“She’s from the Court?” Indigo asked, narrowly watching Sasha and Teresita.
“She is.” Ian eyed the little girls as they ran to the street, their suitcases bumping after them. “And speaking of that, I assume those are—”
“Yes,” Indigo interrupted somewhat breathlessly, pushing past me. “If you insist we leave, then let’s go. I have to alert the church of our new location.”
“Sure. My car is the VW Bug across the street. Um. Ian, can you take their luggage? Indigo and her girls can ride with us.”
His eyes flickered to mine, an oddly unreadable expression in them. I felt like he was trying to tell me something, but I couldn’t decipher what it was. “My car is bigger. If Indigo and her charges would like to come with me, Sasha could ride with you. My car is just at the end of the block.” He took her arm and started to escort her down the sidewalk.
I leaped out in front and grabbed Indigo’s other arm. “Are you kidding? And have the ghost of my sister haunt me to the end of my days? No, thank you. We’ll all fit in the Bug if you take the luggage. You can have Teresita, too, if you like.”
“I can hear you, you know,” Teresita said, interrupting a comment to Sasha.
I grinned at her and tugged Indigo toward the street where my car was parked.
“I think everyone will be more comfortable in my car,” Ian insisted, and more or less stole Indigo from me and had her several feet down the street before I realized what happened.
I set down her suitcase and ran after them, blocking the sidewalk so Ian had to stop. “Look, my sister made me swear I’d help this poor lady—”
“And no one is saying you can’t help,” Ian said, talking right over the top of me. “But there’s no reason we shouldn’t travel in comfort, is there?”
“We will be fine in my car,” I argued, my chest and face flushing as anger rose within me. I didn’t know why Ian was being so obstinate, but I wasn’t going to stand for him stealing my abused woman! “Now kindly back the hell off.”
“Look, I don’t care whose car we ride in, so long as we don’t stand out here where anyone can see us,” Indigo said, looking by turns exasperated and annoyed.
“It would be safer for them to ride with me,” Ian said, taking a step closer until we were toe-to-toe. I couldn’t help but notice the flames in his eyes, indicating he was riled. Well, he could just join the club.
“Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you? Really, Ian, I hadn’t pegged you as the sort of man who grabs glory like that…What in the name of Simple Green is that?”
About twenty yards beyond Ian, smack dab in the middle of the (thankfully low traffic) street, a strange thing happened. Or appeared. Something about the air caught my eye, some…thickening…of the air. It was as if the space there gathered itself up into a long pucker that stretched from the street upward about eight feet.
Just as Ian turned to see what I was staring at, the air rippled and tore open to reveal blackness, through which emerged four people, one woman and three men. As soon as they stepped through, the torn blackness dissolved into nothing.
“Demons!” Sasha said brightly.
“Get in the car,” Ian said, pulling out his sword and starting forward.
“What? No, I’ll help you fight.”
“Get the esprits to safety!”
“Hey, look, it’s Aspen.” Teresita, with her back to the odd scene, noticed something was up and turned to stare at the people coming toward us. “And there’s John. Hello again, Aspen!”
“What?” Indigo asked, turning back to look at the demons.
“Get in the car!” I yelled, running toward Teresita, pulling my car keys out. “Here, take these. Get Indigo and her girls out of here. Sasha, you go with them. Take them to my apartment.”
“What’s going on? What is Aspen doing?” Teresita shaded her eyes, peering at the group of four. Aspen and a man I assumed was her husband knelt in the middle of the street, drawing something on the ground with cans of black spray paint. A car turned onto the street and stopped, tapping on its horn politely. The two other men strode over to it, ripped the car door off, and pulled the driver out, throwing him across the street. Ian, who had been walking toward the foursome, now broke into a run, and headed straight for the two men who I guessed were demons.
“GET IN THE CAR NOW!” I bellowed, shoving Indigo and her two girls into the backseat, their luggage abandoned on the sidewalk.
“What—” Teresita started to ask.
I grabbed her by both arms and gave her a little shake, my face in hers. “You are my trusty sidekick. Get Indigo and he
r girls to safety. Don’t ask questions, just do your job.”
“Aye aye,” she said, saluting sharply, then without another quibble headed for the car. Indigo, in the backseat, managed to extricate herself from her daughters, and looked like she was going to crawl out when Teresita got into the car, blocking her exit. Sasha hesitated a second, watching me while I pulled out Falafel’s sword, then to my surprise ran over to me and gave me a quick hug.
“Zizi’s blessings upon you,” she whispered, then was gone, leaping into the car just as Indigo started shouting something that I couldn’t hear over Teresita gunning the motor. She sped off with a little spray of gravel, allowing me to face the four people in the road, my mind alternating between wonder that my anxious animal was nowhere to be found and the hot rage that suddenly filled me.
Ian had reached the two demons by this point and was fighting with them. Both had swords, short, ugly-looking weapons. I stalked toward Aspen and her husband, who now had drawn a complicated triangle symbol on the street, strange runes chasing each edge.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I asked as I got closer, my fingers tightening around my sword. “That’s defacing public property, not to mention your friends assaulted that poor man. Sir, just stay there, don’t try to get up. I’ll call the police and an ambulance for you.”
“Do you think the mortal police can do anything to help you?” Aspen looked up from where she was spray-painting a semicircle below the triangle. “You brought this upon yourself when you sought to steal the sacrifices from the church.”
“What church? What sacrifices?”
“Kill her,” the man next to her said, bringing a pocket knife out, flipping open a blade, and quickly slashing his forearm so that it bled onto the triangle.
“What?” I shrieked, bringing the sword up to protect myself. “Are you insane?”
Aspen rose, her face hot with emotion. I glanced beyond her. Ian had one demon down, crawling away from him, and was now battling the second. I saw him glance over my way. I lifted my sword to show him that I was all right and didn’t need his help.