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He lifts a shoulder. “We got nothin’ else to do. After taking down the Hive Queen, everything else feels mediocre.”
“You can always come to Clearhelm.” I glance back toward the van. “Savannah can have a teaching job at the Conservatory. She’d put more than a few of those stuffy old farts in their place.”
He gives me a considering look. “You really want her terrorizing the place?”
I shrug. “No skin off my teeth. I’m nearly hands-off, now. She can be Headmaster Xander’s headache. I think she’d get along with Reese.”
"And what would the rest of us do?" Trent scrubs a hand through his salt-and-pepper hair. "Me and Elizabeth are getting old, but Jimmy’s still young.”
“I’m sure we can rustle up some imp-collection jobs for him.” I straighten and turn to Trent. “Or, he can take on the ghost tours people are constantly hounding me to do.”
Trent frowns. “Jimmy can’t see ghosts.”
“But can he tell a good ghost story?” At his nod, I wave the other part away. “People don’t really want to see ghosts. They want to be titillated and scared. He’d do fine.”
“Might be nice to take a break from monster hunting for a while.” He strokes his beard. “Can’t say it would be a permanent thing, but a little vacation to relax would be nice.”
“Talk it over with the others.” I jog ahead to grab the stuffed bunny from the back of the van and retrace my steps to the other van.
Leaning through the open door, I pass the bunny to Aediva, who clutches it to her chest. She sits in the back next to Lia, with Alaska beside her, while Star and Trevor have the center bucket seats.
Savannah squats in the space between the front driver’s and passenger seats, facing the group.
I sweep an assessing glance over them. “Everyone all buckled up and ready to go?”
A chorus of affirmatives rise from the kids.
I give them a stern stare. “And you’ll listen to what Ms. Savannah says, right?”
Savannah cracks her knuckles, and more affirmatives fill the air.
“No fighting once you get to your new home,” I add. “There are plenty of rooms to choose from, and they’re all good.”
“Get on with you.” Savannah makes a shooing motion. “We got this handled.”
Not ready to leave them, I linger at the door. “You have my number if anything goes wrong?”
A warm hand grips my shoulder, and Marc drawls, “Come on, pretty boy, say goodbye or you’ll be fretting all day.”
“I’m not fretting,” I protest.
“Yes, you are.” He clicks his tongue. “Let’s go, Anny.”
She hops around giving all the kids wet kisses before bouncing out of the van to join us.
Marc pulls me away from the open door. “It was good seeing you again, Lia. Bye, kids.”
As Marc leads me away, I hear Star whisper, “Do you think he’ll teach me how to shoot? That wassocool.”
“No, he won’t,” Lia says firmly.
“I can teach you something better than shooting,” Savannah boasts.
Alarmed, I turn back toward them, but Marc tightens his hold, steering me toward my van.
He stops next to the driver’s door. “What are we going to do about the possible trackers?”
“They’ll know we stopped here, so there’s no point in giving them the runaround.” My hand drops absently to the top of Anny’s head. “They know where we live, too, so no point in hiding that, either. We can do a full scrub down and have Xander come over to check for more spells.”
