Stef’s clothes came down next in an eerie flutter, her shoes hitting the grass in ominous thumps.
“I’m glad it worked out,” Edden said. Then he turned to me and my smile faded. “Can I have a word with you?”
He hadn’t wanted to introduce us so I’d get her cat. That left one thing.
“Oh, no!” Jenks said, figuring it out when I did. “Rachel, say no,” he insisted. “We can’t take in two strays. We already have a cat. Rex and Boots won’t get along.”
But Edden was tugging me away, turning me so I was sure to see Stef, poor, homeless Stef and her cat with nowhere to go. “What he said,” I told Edden. “This is your problem, not mine. She came to you, not me. You take her in.”
“I can’t take her in, Rachel,” he coaxed, hunched and plaintive. “Think how that would look. And I can’t put her in any of the FIB’s safe houses.”
“I’m facing eviction in two weeks, too,” I said, and he leaned closer, agitated.
“She’ll have found something by then,” he said with a forced brightness. “Maybe you could room together. Eh? I’d feel better if it was more than you and Jenks. You need people, Rachel, and she’s good people. Give her a break.”
“Stay out of my life, Edden,” I said, then lowered my voice. “I can make my own friends, find my own roommates. Besides, being my roommate isn’t good for anyone’s health.”
But I could see her behind Edden, trying to hold her cat and get her shoes at the same time. Her forehead was creased, and I could tell she was thinking about where she was going to sleep tonight. If I didn’t take her in, she’d be living at the hospital, trying to hide her cat. “I suppose she and Boots could stay in the boat for a couple of weeks,” I said, and Jenks smacked his forehead to make sparkles fall from him like rain.
“Great!” Edden beamed. “That’s just great.” Arms swinging, he strode to Stef. “Stephanie!” he called jovially. “Good news. I’ve got a place for you to stay. Short term,” he added when Jenks faced him, dusting an ominous black. “Down by the waterfront. You like boats, right? Nice place in the hollows.”
I frowned. David had just said the same thing about the street our new place was on. Unfortunately I was still wearing the frown when Stef looked up, and I quickly forced a smile.
“Ah, thanks,” she said, eyes darting. “I can’t impose. Boots and I will find something.”
But I remembered what it was like being kicked out, all your stuff ruined by the I.S. and on the curb. “Sure you can,” I said, coming to take the cat so she could handle everything else. He settled into my arms with a token growl, and I beamed at her, tightening my grip so he wouldn’t jump away. “Jenks and I could use the company. I’ll introduce you to my real estate agent. If she found us something, she can find you something. I guarantee it.”
“Sure,” Jenks said, wings a low hum. “Rachel can tell you all about how the I.S. screwed her over. Cursed all her stuff. She had to live in a church with a vampire for three years, but look at her now!”
I stifled a wince, sending a pleasant surge of ley line warmth through Boots when Stef’s plates and flatware came falling down like silver rain.
“Thanks.” Stef’s expression became tired as she cataloged the mess. “I really appreciate it. Word is, even the hotels are full.”
“Damn junior baseball tournament,” Jenks said, but it was too early for that. It was Constance. How many people was she bringing, anyway?
Boots finally stopped jamming his back claws into my gut, and I looked across the parking lot to see David standing guard over a group of Weres, overseeing them as their handcuffs were removed and they began carrying things from the lawn to the three small moving vans at the curb. He turned as if feeling my eyes on him, and I gave him a wave, getting one in return. We were good.
Apart from Doyle still chucking Stef’s things out the window, it seemed to be over. “Let’s get Boots settled. Edden can get your stuff in a van.” I turned, smirking at his sudden alarm. “Right, Edden?” I said pointedly, and he nodded, knowing he owed me. Owed me big. “My car is three blocks down,” I continued as I began to lead her away. “Edden will bring your stuff by the boat when they get done throwing it out the window. You’ve got your phone, right?” I said as I ducked under the tape.
She nodded, a numb look on her as reality set in. People parted before us, wary after seeing what I’d done to Doyle, and I gave her the cat, as she seemed to need something. The crowd thinned fast until it was just us and normal foot traffic, and I valiantly tried to keep the conversation going about her job (she was a nurse), Boots (a rescue from a few years back), anything to distract her, but finally I let her subside into a miserable quiet. Jenks was silent as well, his dust all but nonexistent as he sat on my big hoop earring and sulked. But I couldn’t walk away. The I.S. was abusing their power and acting like a bully. Ignoring that wasn’t who I was.
And as I spotted the three vamps in that brown Volvo following us a block behind, I hoped it wasn’t going to get me killed.
CHAPTER
4
Jenks’s continued mood had me worried as we left the busy street and turned to the waterfront and Piscary’s old restaurant. He was sitting in his usual spot on the rearview mirror, his feet thumping the long glass as he kept an eye out my back window. Boots was watching him with black eyes. Stef’s grip was tight on the cat, but it was in distress, not to protect Jenks.
Meeting my gaze, Jenks shrugged at my unspoken question of how much of a problem I had taken on. Stef seemed nice. She clearly had a good job and was reasonably even-tempered if this afternoon was any indication. But what if she liked listening to seventies music? There was only so much “Muskrat Love” I could handle.
But anthropomorphic rodents in lust vanished from my thoughts as my phone rang and Jenks dropped down, his cheerful wing chirp telling me he recognized the caller.
“Hey, blood bag!” the pixy shouted, having stomped on the accept icon. “How’s it dripping?”
“God, Jenks. Give me that,” I said, jerking my phone out from under him and giving Stef an apologetic smile. “Hi, Ivy. Everything okay?”
“We’re great,” Ivy said, her low, smooth voice filling the car with the memory of midnight and dust. “I saw the picture. Looks nice. Where is it?”
“It’s a shopfront in downtown Hollows,” Jenks said as he hovered in front of the phone, his dust making wild patterns on the screen. “I’ll give you the tour if you two ever get your lily-white asses back here.”
“That’s actually why I’m calling. We hit a snag,” she said, and I felt my smile fade.