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Chase was on the phone as soon as I gave him all the information, and once again, the OIA team was activated. He told them to call him as soon as they knew what was going on.
As we waited for Delilah, I fixed up a little box for the gargoyle, and Maggie snuggled happily in her bed. Chase and I sat in the living room, watching the news on TV. There was a short segment on the "strange Faerie" who fell over the side of the Space Needle. At least reporters weren't onto the fact that the harpy had been a demon, although they made a few ill-advised chicken jokes. Louise Jenkins wasn't mentioned; the team must still be investigating.
By the time my sister slipped through the door, I was starving. I took the pizza boxes from Delilah and set them on the coffee table. "Hey, go in the kitchen and take a look at what I found. If she's awake, bring her back with you."
Delilah headed into the dining room while I opened one box and sniffed at the thick sausage and mushroom pizza, long strings of extra cheese glistening on the top. "You have the best-tasting food, Chase. I could get used to living Earthside, if only for that reason."
He snorted as Delilah returned, Maggie snuggled in her arms. "She's adorable. Where did you find her?" She settled into the rocker, chucking the chin of the wide-awake and bewildered gargoyle.
We filled her in on our encounter with the demon. "My spell backfired, but at least we were able to make use of the results," I said. "She was part of a Degath Squad. You know what that means."
Delilah's smile faded. "Hell Scouts."
"Yeah, and even though she's dead, that leaves us the two most dangerous ones to contend with. We have to solidify our plans to find Lane. I don't think we have much time. So tell us about Louise."
Delilah rolled her eyes. "Talk about bad news all the way around. I'd like to wait until Menolly's awake, though." She glanced at Chase, who gave her a frustrated nod.
I reached for Maggie and wandered over to the window. Dusk was starting to fall. "I'm hungry," I said. "Chase, you hold Maggie while Delilah and I set the table."
He started to protest, but I plunked the gargoyle in his arms, handed him the remote, picked up the pizzas, and motioned for Delilah to follow me into the kitchen. As I arranged the plates and napkins on the table, Delilah poured more wine for Chase and me, and milk for herself.
"I'm so hungry," Delilah said, licking her lips. She set the parmesan shaker on the table. "Chase seems awfully nice tonight. He didn't act like I was a freak at all."
I glanced at her, grinning. "Maybe seeing the harpy made him realize how normal you really are."
Delilah laughed as she tucked a bowl of broccoli in the microwave and punched it on for three minutes.
"You know, as homesick as I am," I said, "I have to admit how much easier technology makes things. I'll miss electricity when we go back."
"We had servants there," Delilah countered. "But thank heavens for Mother. At least we understood the language and culture before we came here."
Mother had brought us up bilingual, and had taught us about Earthside customs from the time we could walk.
"True. I suppose we were the logical choices for this assignment. Maybe headquarters wasn't punishing us after all. Most of the agents assigned Earthside go through long periods of transition, but we already knew a lot about life here before we ever joined the OIA."
"It's a comforting thought." Delilah peeked down the hall into the living room. "Chase and Maggie are asleep. She's such a cutie. Can we really keep her?" The wistful tone to her voice made me smile. Delilah always brought home stray animals when she was young, and Mother had asked Father to build a shed out in back of our home specifically for Delilah's menagerie.
"Yes, we can keep her. Her mother's probably churning out babies for some demon's sweet tooth, and HQ isn't going to want her. I don't know how Menolly will feel about it, but she'll come around."
"Everything's ready. Let's eat." With that, she went to wake Chase. While he washed his hands, I showed her how to mix up the cream for Maggie, and we fed her, then put her to bed before settling in at the table for our own meal.
"Are gargoyles intelligent?" Chase asked, taking his third piece of pizza.
"Some are," I said cautiously, in case Maggie could understand the rudiments of language. "They can be brilliant, or they can have the brainpower of the average cat. A lot depends on the nutrition their mother gets during pregnancy, the clan their bloodline hearkens from, and whether they were handled roughly at birth. Considering the harpy had her, I'm not at all sure Maggie will grow up to be much more than a pet. She may never be able to go into stasis."
If she couldn't, then she wouldn't be of any use to the OIA. Which, considering the way gargoyles were forced to live when they went Earthside, was probably the best thing that could happen to her. Some gargoyles, especially those with lower intelligence, didn't possess the ability to freeze-frame.
Chase blinked when a loud snore cut through the air from Maggie's box. "She sounds a little like a cat, a little like a pig."
"They snuffle when they're happy." I glanced at the clock. "Time to wake Menolly. We have plans to make."
"Just so long as we find Tom Lane before Bad Ass Luke does," Delilah said.
"And just so long as we find him before Bad Ass Luke finds us," I said. Neither she nor Chase had much of an answer to that.
* * *
CHAPTER 9
