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My cell phone rang a few seconds after I curled up on the couch. At least it felt that way. But somehow, when I was able to blearily focus on the screen, it insisted that the time was one p.m.
“Kara Gillian here.”
“You’re not at the station. You’re not at your house. You’re not resting. You’re pushing yourself too hard—”
“Shut up, Ryan,” I growled. “You just woke me up, so piss off.”
He chuckled. “Well, since you’re not at your house, you must be at your aunt’s.”
“You really are too smart to be a fed. By the way, when were you going to tell me that I was on an FBI task force?”
“As soon as I got word that it had been approved. I’m assuming it’s been approved since you’re telling me about it.”
“I guess so. My captain doesn’t seem real happy about it, but he can kiss my ass.”
He laughed. “Ah, I see you’re in a pleasant mood today. Can I buy you lunch? Or, in your case, I suppose it would be breakfast?”
“I changed my mind. If you have to ask that, you’re definitely not too smart to be a fed.”
“Smart-ass. Meet me at the Lake o’ Butter in half an hour?”
“Pick me up. My car’s a piece of total shit.”
“Your own damn fault for driving your other one into a river.”
I growled something rude and hung up, but I was smiling.
I jumped into the shower and allowed the hot water to blast me for a blissful two minutes before I reluctantly shut it off. I toweled dry quickly and was just pulling on clean clothes when I heard Ryan’s car in the driveway. Running my fingers through my wet hair, I headed to the door and opened it to see Ryan standing at the edge of the driveway with a slight frown creasing his forehead. “Is something different?”
“Yeah. Come on in while I find my shoes. I had the wards redone. At least partially.”
He nodded, frown disappearing as he climbed the stairs. “Had them done? You summoned?”
“Yep.” I shut the door behind him and headed to the bedroom. “Same demon my aunt used. They’re not finished, though. It’s gonna take a few go-rounds to get it done right, but it’s still better than the crap I’d put up.” I fished my shoes out from beneath the bed. “So please tell me that this task force is not really a white-collar-crimes task force, because I like you, but that financial shit bores me senseless.”
Ryan laughed. “Well, I’m glad that the name of the task force is boring, because that’s the point. Yes, we do our share of mundane investigations, but we also get called to anything ‘not quite right.’ I will admit that your background in White Collar did help with the approval on our end. Anyway, it’s not a full-time gig, but now that we’ve pushed the various approvals through, it’ll be easier to bring you on board for some of our unusual cases.”
“All right, I can deal with that. Being on a task force sounded cool, but I didn’t want to be pulled out of Violent Crimes entirely.”
His eyes crinkled in amusement. “I’m so glad we could accommodate you. Now, hurry up and get your shoes on. Zack’s holding a table for us.”
Zack was in fact holding a table for us, but at nearly one-thirty in the afternoon it didn’t much matter, since he was the only person in the place. “I hear that Ryan’s convinced you to come to the dark side,” he said with a teasing grin as I sat.
“Only occasionally,” I corrected. “I’m not sure that y’all could handle my darkness full-time.”
Zack snorted. “Some things are best left to the unknown. So, anything new going on?”
“Actually, yes.” I leaned forward and lowered my voice, even though there wasn’t anyone else nearby. “I summoned last night to get the wards at my aunt’s house redone and found out some things in the process about that portal.”
The two agents leaned forward in unison. “Spill,” Ryan commanded.
“Well, first off, it looks like the reyza that I summoned to remove all the wards knew darn good and well that the portal was there. He would have realized it the second he made it into the library.”
Ryan grimaced. “And he took that info back and either used it or sold it, right?”
“Most likely.” I sighed. “I want to be pissed, but he didn’t betray me. I mean, that’s how their honor works. He did precisely what I asked him to do.” I was still pissed, but I knew it wasn’t going to do me any good, so I was trying to ignore it. “Anyway, that’s just the beginning. Apparently it’s some sort of connection between the spheres, but not one that large or higher-sentience creatures can get through. However, other creatures can be ‘pushed’ through from the other side.”
“Like the psycho pixies?”
