I was never going to hear the end of that one. “You need to be careful. Othanos could be anywhere. We now know he can teleport, which means in the time we open the door he could appear and try to take your life again.”
“Is this really your solution? Never let me out of your sight again?”
I squared off against her. “Sounds like a fine plan to me.”
“I liked it better when you did what I said.”
“When I abided by your wishes, Othanos almost killed you,” I pointed out.
Knock knock knock. “Sir, are you still there? Will you grant us entry with the book?”
Snarp squawked happily from across the room, apparently enjoying our current discord.
Emma stepped back, folding her arms, giving me a haughty, expectant look. She didn’t know her bottom lip pouted when she glared. If I weren’t trying to keep her out of harm’s way at this moment, I might have been inclined to kiss that pouty mouth until let go of any concept of leaving our apartment.
My teeth ground again. We’d specifically asked for the book and if we were going to help Emma harness her powers, we needed that book. I calculated the odds Emma would lose her mind if I asked her to back up ten paces while I opened the door. They weren’t good, and I was at least in between her and any threat that might show up when I opened the door.
I flipped the lock open and let them in. Three agents stalked in, one holding a metal suitcase. The woman who’d spoken through the door had dark brown skin, tight cornrows, and a demeanor that suffered no fools. She entered our apartment as if entering a warzone, signaling the two men with her to do a sweep of the apartment. Identifying herself as Hicks, the woman set the suitcase on the coffee table when Emma gestured to the living room.
The two men returned, but one paused by the bird cage. “Your bird, I believe, was classified as a security risk.”
“Save me, save me,” Snarp said, then whistled.
“Don’t worry about him,” I said.
The agent who met my eye hesitated.
“Walk away from the bird,” I said putting as much menace into my voice and expression as possible. I was no longer just irritated about the security threat these people posed, I didn’t like them trespassing on our domicile. This was the apartment where Emma and I lived a normal civilian life. Having the book and the agents of Veritas here shattered the normalcy of my home like a hammer to glass.
Hicks eyes flicked to the cage. “If the bird has demonic origin, we can’t proceed until it has been removed from the premises.” The hard set of her jaw suggested she didn’t understand why we hadn’t already exterminated the menace we kept in a cage.
A muscle by my eye jerked. Explaining to these people that the demon was only interested in a sugar high was a losing battle, and I wasn’t rushing to waste my breath. I was two seconds away from pulling the plug on this whole endeavor when Emma jumped in, pressing a hand against my chest as if she needed to keep me from leaping forward to tear them apart.
“Snarp’s cage will stay closed the entire time, I won’t read out loud or discuss any of the matters in front of him.”
The two men had gone entirely still, their eyes warily fixed on me. They sensed danger. Good. They may have been trained, but I'd been as well, since I could walk. I’d killed countless chimeras in the jungles outside of my temple by the time I was twelve. If the Veritas had any official records on Chevalier, I’d bet they already knew that.
Hicks met my eye, unblinking. “We can concede to your terms.” There was a bitterness in her voice. My parents had sent her, and I imagine they wouldn’t be happy to hear about a lack of cooperation by their foot soldiers. Protocol was important, but they were doing their best to repair our fractured history.
The man eyeing our bird moved to stand by the large living room window while the other stood by the door.
Hicks got to business punching a code in the pin pad on the suitcase. Then she whipped out a small knife to slice her palm without even so much as a wince. Laying her now-bleeding hand over the top, she closed her eyes and quietly chanted. A red electric spark hissed off the suitcase as the lock gasped open at the same time. The room smelled strongly of burning hair. The wards on that suitcase were powerful. They must have had to destroy a precious artifact to generate enough power to properly protect their book.
“Sit down, take a load off. Can I get any of you a cup of coffee?” asked Emma.
“No ma’am,” Hicks said, straightening.
I stood between Hicks and Emma, still holding my broadsword as I watched the trio like a hawk.
“Yeah, let’s drop the ma’am crap,” Emma said, walking back around the counter to the kitchen. “It will take me a while to get what I need from that big ass book, and if you are going to sit here twiddling your thumbs, watching me read, the polite thing would be to have a cup of coffee or tea so as not make me nervous, therefore making me take even longer.”
Hicks nodded. “Tea would be appreciated.”
Emma smiled, clearly pleased with herself as she went about filling the kettle.
* * *
The two hoursI had with the book were yet another humungous waste of time and earned me another headache.
