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“Is she an initiate, I mean?”
Sawyer opened her mouth as if she was about to announce what she really was, when I interjected.
“She’s with me.” I would have liked to leave it there but knew Prescott wouldn’t let it drop until he had an explanation. Like other normal-person things, he sometimes didn’t pick up on social cues. I made up a lie that was close enough to the truth to be believable. “She’s thinking of joining the temple, and I want to show her what the culture is like before she makes any decisions.” The lie came out so easily.
“So it’s a take your juvenile delinquent to work day, then,” Prescott said.
Sawyer sighed dramatically. “Ugh, please. She won’t let me do anything cool.”
Leo and I exchanged glances, and I almost reminded her she’d gotten to fly a helicopter just the night before, but if she wanted to tell people this was the worst trip of her life, she was welcome to. Maybe if she believed that, she would go home and stop her quest to become a cleric. Her obliterated mark meant she could lead a normal life still.
We had yet to come up with any food ideas we could agree on when Deedee sauntered up to our little huddle. She was accompanied by three other clerics whose faces were familiar but whose names I couldn’t remember to save my life.
I’d forgotten over the course of the year how stunning Deedee was. One look at her and you knew without a doubt whose cleric she was. She had the classic girl-next-door round cheeks that had once been so popular in the pages of Playboy, before fake breasts and lip implants became the standard. Her golden-blonde hair hung in perfect waves down to the small of her back and her figure was, in a word, enviable. Currently she was flaunting every inch of it in a tailored black mini-dress and towering Louboutin heels.
Her pale-blue eyes flashed and she looked ready to spit venom when she saw Prescott standing with us, but since she’d made it clear she was headed our way, she couldn’t run off because he was here.
“Tallulah. Good show last night.”
“Thank you.”
“A real shocker,” one of the girls with her added with a titter.
“Oh man, that’s one I’ve never heard before.” I sighed. “Let me add it to my list of great Rain Chaser puns.” Glancing down at the woman’s name tag, I saw the arrow sigil of Artemis. One of the others had a heart to match Deedee’s, and the third had the intertwined rings of the goddess Frigg.
Clerics of lust, virginity, and marriage. Sounded like a pretty stellar knock-knock joke waiting to happen. That or a really risky choose your own adventure for any poor man who might engage them in conversation.
Granted, anyone looking at our group would see storms, bad luck, and death. I imagine given the two options folks would probably gravitate towards Deedee’s posse instead of ours.
Deedee ignored my jab at the Purist—whose name was Constance—and went ahead with what she had come to say. “So, the girls and I are meeting up with some of the other clerics for a bit of an impromptu opening-day mixer.”
Nothing out of the ordinary with that, though the thought of a big group of clerics out on the town unprotected made the small hairs at the back of my neck rise. I couldn’t stop the cleric from going out, but it still made me nervous.
“Is she tagging along to make sure you don’t accidentally sprinkle sex magic on everyone?” I nodded to Constance.
The girl pouted in return. Must suck being a born wet blanket.
“Now now. Aren’t we all meant to be temple pure?” Deedee reminded. “Tawny and I excluded, naturally.”
I grimaced. “Yeah. Sure.”
Deedee’s gaze cut meaningfully to Prescott, then back to me. I doubted there was a single person in the group who missed the implication of that stare. Especially when my neck started to burn. It was probably bright red.
For someone who was supposed to be my friend and called me for help when she was scared, Deedee was being a bitch. Was she just pissed that I wasn’t condemning Pres as guilty like she had?
I reminded myself she didn’t know the truth of Prescott’s innocence, and as far as she was concerned I was being buddy-buddy with a guy she thought had killed one of the newbie Infatuates. That might make me pretty surly too.
I’d get a drink in her then explain things the best I could. Maybe then she’d lighten up and stop acting like the villain in a high school drama.
“So, the mixer,” I offered, hoping to change the topic back to something friendlier.
“It’ll be great,” enthused Frigg’s cleric, Ana. There was nothing sarcastic or mean-spirited in her delivery. She seemed genuinely excited about the prospect of a night on the town with other clerics.
“We’ve got VIP at Foxtail.” Tawny beamed from ear to ear with this proclamation until she saw my blank stare. With an exaggerated sigh she said, “It’s a club at SLS. One of the best in the whole city.”
“Very exclusive,” Ana whispered.
Cade, who had been patiently listening to all of this, showing no sign that he was interested in any of it, cleared his throat. “Sorry, are you telling us this because you’re bragging, or because you want to invite us?”
