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Now I did feel like a heel, but I chose to ride over it. “I have to buy a new car. I don’t want to buy a new one, but there’s no help for it. Mine’s trashed. So what say we go down to the dealer and see what we can find? Roman will front me the money, so no worries on that count.”
“We can get one hell of a good deal. We did before.” Camille snickered as she began brushing through my hair and parting it into sections. She used a mister to moisten the curls and smooth them down as she braided them.
“What kind of car are you thinking of getting?” Delilah pushed aside the files she’d been looking at. “Another Jag?”
I frowned. “No… too many associations now with being almost pulverized twice. I’m thinking I might get a Mustang. I thought about it before the Jaguar and now… well…”
“Why don’t we build it online and then order it?” Delilah brought up the website, and within seconds, we were building my new car. I wanted the royal blue color—or that’s what I called it—and as we added up the options, I grimaced at the price tag. But Roman had said to get what I wanted and I could take as long as I wanted to pay him back. Of course, he’d also said I didn’t have to pay him back but that wasn’t going to happen.
Delilah hit the final update button and then a search. “Looks like you can have it in three days at the Belles-Faire dealership. Forty-one thousand and some change.”
I grimaced but texted Roman. Within minutes I had a return text to forward the information and the check would be delivered to the dealership, so that I could pick up the car without worries when it came in. And that was that. No muss. No fuss. No hours spent listening to the dealer trying to sell me something I didn’t want.
“Is Nerissa home yet?” I wanted to talk to her. Wanted to start mending the fences before they fully broke.
“Not yet, but she should be soon. Now hold still while I finish your hair.” She made quick work of the rest—by now she’d had plenty of practice—and I had shiny new beads in my cornrows.
I suddenly wondered why I’d been so hesitant to change them before. The new beads were pretty, and they didn’t do anything but spruce up my hair. Why had I been so resistant? Pondering the question, I barely noticed when Camille’s phone rang and she answered. But the next moment, I sure as hell noticed her conversation.
“Holy fuck. Right! We’ll get right over there. Thanks, Carter.” As she punched the End Talk button, Delilah and I looked at her, waiting.
“You don’t want to know. But we have to go out tonight and we’d better get our butts in gear. Carter wants to see us now. And he said come prepared and with a full crew, which I’m translating to ‘be ready for a fight.’”
We scrambled. I scribbled off a note for Nerissa, while Delilah hurried outside to alert the men. Camille raced upstairs to change clothes. Within ten minutes, we were armed and ready to go. Because Aeval’s men were guarding the house, we decided that Roz and Trillian should stay behind, while Morio, Smoky, Shade, and Vanzir would go with us.
“Morio, Smoky, Menolly—you come with me. Shade and Vanzir, ride with Delilah.” Camille barked out orders as we crowded out of the doorway. As we split off to the two cars, a streak of lightning split the sky and rain thundered down. It was definitely the night for a fight, all right.
Carter was waiting for us. He hurried us in, out of the rain. Tea was waiting, and cookies—you could always count on Carter to provide refreshments and hospitality, even if the situation was dire. And by the look on his face, the shit was about to hit the fan.
We filed into his living room and gathered around the coffee table, where he had what looked like some architectural plans scattered around. He took his seat, and without chitchat or even his usual niceties, he dove right in.
“I think Lowestar will try to wake Suvika tonight.”
Crap. None of us had expected to hear that. We stared at him, silence thick as pea soup.
“What the hell did you do to spur him on like this? It had to be you—only a major disruption in his plans would force him to move this fast. He’s slow and steady; otherwise he wouldn’t have flown under the radar all these years.” Carter bit into one of his cookies and cocked his head, a quizzical look on his face.
I glanced at the others. “We may have freed all his potential sex slaves.”
“You may have? Or you did?”
“Well… did. Or at least all of them we could find. We have them in hiding—if Lowestar finds them, chances are he’ll either kill them or worse. He’s not the type to take this sort of behavior lying down.” I scuffed my foot against the carpet. “By the way, do you know of a Fae woman named Eisha te Kana?”
Carter did a double take. “You’re friends with a paid assassin? Of course I know who she is.”
It was our turn to spit-take. “You mean you actually know her name without checking up on any files? Then she didn’t give me a false name?”
He slapped his palm to his forehead. “If you’ve run afoul of her, consider yourself lucky to still be alive. Eisha’s well paid, but not because she’s terribly discreet. No, she’s willing to take risks—put her own life on the line to go after her target. What the hell happened?”
I shrugged. “I think Lowestar hired her to kill me after I refused to sell my bar. That didn’t work, so she planted a tracer bug on me and another goon—maybe her, too—came after me.”
Carter shook his head. “Probably right on that. She’s never out to get anybody on a personal level, but the woman will do anything for money. Chances are she was paid well to make a hit. And now that she’s failed to kill you twice? She’ll probably be long gone before whoever took out the contract can catch up with her and take her down for failure. I doubt you’ll ever see her again.”
I leaned back. That was reassuring, yet not. She was still out there. Gun for hire. Or in this case, SUV for hire.
“Meanwhile, back to Lowestar and Suvika. Word has filtered through the grapevine that he’s performing the ritual tonight. So I did a little more research—I paid dearly for this information so I hope you appreciate it. The ritual to waken the demigod must take place during the first three days after the dark of the moon, in the autumn-tide. So it’s perfect timing.”
Carter tossed a dossier on the table. “Here’s what I could gather. I think there must be a temple complex beneath the Farantino Building. And I think that’s where they will be performing the rite. To do so takes blood. Human blood. The fresh, warm, sticky blood of a virgin girl and a strong young man.”
