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Kian
"Mo-red would scare the crap out of the residents. He looks too alien." Kian looked down at Syssi's bare feet and smiled. "What happened to your shoes?"
"They are in my bag." She walked over to the couch. "It's nothing that dark sunglasses and a baggy shirt can't fix. You know that Vanessa will be miserable there without him, especially if she has to stay for a few days, which I suspect is unavoidable. These women are even more traumatized than the trafficking victims we normally rescue."
She dropped her large purse on the coffee table and waved at Shai, who was working on his laptop. "Hi, Shai. Enjoying your vacation?"
He snorted. "What can I say? Your husband is a slave driver."
"You enjoy it, so stop complaining." Kian walked over to the bar and poured himself a shot of whiskey. "Can I get you a drink, my love?"
"Yes, please. I need one."
"Margarita?"
She shrugged. "Why not? When in Mexico and all that. What are you working on?"
"The impossible." He ran a lime wedge around the rim of the margarita glass. "What I've been striving my entire life to do." He poured salt over a paper towel and dipped the glass in it. "Eradicating evil."
She grimaced. "Good luck with that. You know what they say, though. In the same way as cancer needs nutrients to grow, evil needs money. Cut the money supply, and you might be able to at least shrink it. But as long as there are big profits from selling drugs and sex slaves, that's not feasible."
Kian opened the bottle of tequila and poured a shot into the glass. "That's precisely what Shai and I are trying to figure out—how to stop the money flow to the cartels, but I'm afraid that we are too small of a fry in the big monsters' game. They all seem to be connected."
"Like attracts like." Syssi let out a breath. "Only it seems that evil is better organized."
"Of course." He squeezed fresh limes into the glass. "There is a fortune to be made in perpetrating evil, while doing good costs money."
Closing her eyes, Syssi slumped against the couch cushions. "It's hopeless."
Guilt assailed Kian for bringing her mood down even more than it was when she walked in.
"Hey, you're supposed to say that I'm your invincible knight and that I can do anything I put my mind to."
She cast him a smile. "If anyone can do it, it's you, my love."
"That's better." He smiled back and added ice to her margarita.
"Did you check on Allegra?" Syssi asked. "Should I go get her?"
"My mother doesn't want to hear about giving her back. They are enjoying each other's company."
Syssi's eyes sparkled with excitement. "I'm glad that Allegra is spending so much time with the Clan Mother. I want her to turn immortal as soon as possible. I want our baby to be indestructible."
Kian nearly choked on the sip of whiskey he'd taken a second ago. Syssi still didn't know how his mother turned the little girls immortal and believed in the story that just being around the goddess triggered their transition.
"You know that she won't really be indestructible, just more resilient."
"Of course. But I'll take it over her remaining human."
"Yeah. I know what you mean." He handed her the margarita. "So, what do we do about the weddings, cancel them?"
"We keep them going," Syssi said. "Those couples have waited long enough. We can head out to sea tonight and go straight for Long Beach instead of stopping at Cabo and the other two ports on the itinerary. After we drop off the girls, we go back to Cabo to collect Mia's friend and continue the cruise as scheduled. This will add two to two and a half days to the trip, so maybe I'll manage to convince Sari to celebrate her union with David on board as well."
"Even if it was possible to add days to the trip, there is no chance Sari will agree." He sat next to her on the couch. "She didn't get a wedding dress. Besides, she wants to get married in her castle. It's a matter of pride for her."
Syssi lifted a hand. "Hold on. Why can't we add days to the cruise?"
"Because the crew can't stay longer."
