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“I wouldn’t have called you if I didn’t think you could handle it,” she said, and maybe she believed that, and maybe she just wanted to use me as a decoy while she got the goods, this artifact. Which, I had to admit, made me curious. Immense power, huh?
Cormac had shifted forward to lean in between the front seats, and Ben was glancing at me from the driver’s seat.
“It’ll be a few days before I can get there,” I said.
“He hasn’t moved yet,” Anastasia said. “If I have to do this on my own, I will, but I could use help. Should I wait for you?”
Glancing at Ben and Cormac I said, “Let me call you back.” I clicked off the phone and put it away.
“Well?” Ben said. “I heard ‘Roman’ and ‘help.’”
“A terrible combination, isn’t it? So—do you want to go to San Francisco?”
“And do what? Stand between two ancient, all-powerful vampires? Not particularly.”
“You know how I feel about vampire politics,” Cormac said, grimacing.
“This isn’t exactly vampire politics,” I said. “It’s bigger than that. I think.”
Ben chuckled, but the sound was bitter. “So we run off on the next quest before the last one is even done. You keep getting us wrapped up in this shit, and you want to have kids? How would that work?”
I sank back in the seat and glared out the window. “It’s a moot point anyway so why bring it up?”
“There’s adoption. We’ve talked about this.”
I didn’t want to talk about it. Not right now. Ben was making me face the question, yet again—did I have any business being a mother? How did someone be a mother and a crusader at the same time?
If I had kids, would Roman come after them?
“If I don’t go, who will? What happens the next time Roman decides to take us out?”
Cormac shrugged. “This Roman character can’t be as badass as all that.”
“Oh, I think he can,” Ben said.
The hunter’s lip curled; he liked a challenge.
“I’m just not sure I can actually help. What does Anastasia expect me to do, talk Roman into submission?”
“You stood up to him once,” Ben said.
That didn’t mean I wanted to stand up to him again. Once was enough. On the other hand, if Anastasia and I had a chance to stop him, I’d rush to San Francisco.
“Amelia’s game,” Cormac said.
“Does she get a vote?” I said.
Cormac glared at me, but maybe it wasn’t Cormac doing the glaring. Yes, then.
“This isn’t your fight, you don’t have to go,” I said.
“Will Porter even let you go?” Ben said. “I know we got you a few days off for this, but San Francisco?” Porter was Cormac’s parole officer.
“I’m a model student,” Cormac said. “He’ll let me.”
I wondered sometimes if wizard Amelia had some kind of spell to put the whammy on Porter—he let Cormac get away with so much. But I wasn’t going to complain; I’d feel better with Cormac watching our backs. Not that I would necessarily say that out loud.
Ben said, “We go to San Francisco, then. Check things out. But we get out of there the minute things go south.”
