“As if I need those to start a car,” he sneered.
“True. And I could slice the tires with my katana, or remove the steering wheel, but then you could call a cab. I’m aware.” I tossed the keys to him. “This is only for the night. Tomorrow Cal and I have to meet Mickey and see what he’s learned. Come and go as you please then. I know we can’t stay together as one, not and accomplish anything, not anymore. But let’s have one last night where we all have a chance at a good sleep. Watch split five ways is better than two or three, or you up all night at your orgy of choice.”
“Then this is our safe house.” He made the keys disappear, reappear in the other hand, then vanish altogether. “Not my prison.”
“Yes. This is a good place for Cherish to hide temporarily, but it’s not a permanent answer. Everyone has Cal’s cell number. As with the ccoa attack, we’ll come if you call.” “We” because he would not be opening any gates unless I was there. He would not be going anywhere unless I was with him. The Auphe weren’t taking him from me, not again, and not for a reason so horrifying I could barely think it. I looked down at him. “Can you do that? Open another gate?”
He propped up on his elbows and shrugged. “Hey, it’s only sanity.” Behind the dark humor I saw his recognition of my trust in his control—that he ruled the Auphe blood, it did not rule him.
“It’s not so bad, kid.” Robin told him, suddenly cheerful at the thought of freedom. “Think about it. Without the gates and travelling you’d just be another cranky asshole with a gun.”
“Don’t go home until this is over, if you can help it. Stay elsewhere, but avoid your usual haunts. And try to never be alone even during the day,” I went on dryly to Goodfellow. “But I don’t think that will be a problem for you.”
“And the Auphe?” Cal sat all the way up, the humor gone.
“They have forever, little brother. We don’t. As long as we have our phones, you can gather us in a matter of seconds.” With the Auphe, seconds was often all they needed, that was true, but the “forever” was true as well. “We can’t only react to them anyway, to only expect them, not if we hope to win. Just as with Oshossi, we need to be more proactive. We need to take this war to them.” Although how, I didn’t know, with Tumulus out of the running. We couldn’t go to them. We could only wait for them to come to us.
But Cal seemed more confident. And of all of us, he did have the best chance of thinking of a way. Not because he was Auphe, but because he’d been held prisoner by them for two years. He knew them, subconsciously at least, in a way the rest of us couldn’t begin to. “Okay, you’re right. It’s done,” he said simply. He didn’t elaborate, lying back down on the carpet with arms folded across his chest and eyes closed.
“Considering they’re the most murderous creatures on the planet,” Robin drawled dubiously, “how do you plan on that?”
“I’ll tell you when I know,” he responded.
“But if you’re going to spout such outrageous claims, I think that . . .”
Eyes still shut, Cal held up his forefinger and thumb as if his hand were a gun and pointed it up at Robin, his aim unerring right between the eyes. “I’m a cranky asshole with a gun and superpowers, remember? Try giving me a day to work on it, at least, before you start bitching.” Although I imagined he’d been working on it all along, just as I had. I hoped he had more success than I was having.
Robin settled back into his chair. “A day is asking much even for one with the patience of Job. Speaking of Job, the real Job, did you know he single-handedly destroyed the concept of property and health insurance in its infancy? If not for him, you would’ve had HMOs two and a half thousand years earlier. But he broke the First Uzite Health and Home Insurance Company in its first year.”
“You are so massively full of shit.” Cal folded his arms again.
“Why do you think all insurance companies now exclude acts of God?” he countered smugly.
He had a point.
The next morning Cal and I stood on the cracked concrete of Rafferty’s driveway as I said to Robin, “You’re not coming back here tonight, are you?”
He bounced the keys again and evaded, “As you said, we can’t live this way forever.”
“You think I’m having the time of my life out here getting my ass kicked in cards by something that looks like he’s one step away from drinking out of the toilet?” Cal said sharply. “Suck it up.”
“Trust me. I plan on it.” Cal got the smirk he deserved on that one, but it was followed by an almost apologetic shake of his head, “I cannot do it. No more.” Pucks weren’t the types to be tied down against their will, whether something as deadly as the Auphe were the incentive or not. I was surprised he’d made it as long as he had. That he’d done it for us didn’t escape me. He gave Cal a reassuringly breezy grin. “But the second I crave your sour and sullen company, I’ll be back in a flash.”
“Maybe I’m only sour and sullen when you’re around. Maybe when you’re not there driving me nuts, I’m a regular ray of fucking sunshine. Ever think of that?”
I’m not worried about you; you’re not worried about me—with their invulnerability to the less testosterone-driven emotions asserted to each other, we were finally ready to leave the playground. “You might want to check on your cat briefly. Very briefly,” I suggested to Robin as he opened the driver’s door to his car. As I’d said before, his home wasn’t safe. “If she killed the neighbor’s dog, what might she do to the neighbor herself?”
He winced. “Damn. You would have to plant that thought in my mind. Other than that, I will try to avoid my condo, but I may have to put in a small amount of time petting the hairless zombie for a bit—only to keep my furniture intact and my neighbors alive, of course.” He inserted the keys into the ignition. “It’s not as if I miss the smell of ginger in the morning or the jingle of her collar.”
“You bought that thing a collar?” Cal said in disbelief, missing the real point that indeed Robin missed his cat.
“Where else would I put her identification tag?” Robin started the car and was out of sight in seconds.
“Holy crap.” Cal shook his head. “What do you think it says? The tag?”
“Just the basics, I’m sure.” I headed for our own car, parked on the street. “Dead cat. If found, please call.”
Promise had wanted to stay with Cherish in case there was an unusual daytime attack. We left them behind windows shuttered against the sun and drove off as Robin had, although with less abstinence-induced speed. We were headed for another talk with Ishiah. Face-to-face was always better than the phone. They can’t see your knife through the receiver.
Cal bounced from station to station on the radio for several minutes before giving up. “Cherish was telling me stories this morning while you were out back doing your katas.” He slapped hands lightly against his knees. “Well, after she flipped out anyway.”
“She . . . ah . . . flipped out?” I asked.
He rolled his eyes. “That card sharp shaved dog of hers was standing by the fridge, looking hungry, so I poured him a glass of goat’s blood.” He pulled a repulsed face. “Personally, I’ll stick with coffee. But Cherish came into the kitchen, freaked the hell out, and slapped the glass out of his hand. She told me I was ‘under no circumstances’ ”—he gave his best haughty imitation—“to feed her beloved Xolo. I was just doing a favor for the mangy mutt.” He shrugged. “But the princess cleaned up the mess herself, actually apologized, and made me coffee. Said Xolo was all she had. She knew she was overprotective. Blah, blah, went into some Dr. Phil crap, and I almost dozed off.”
He rolled down the window a crack to let in a stream of icy air. I didn’t blame him. Whatever Mickey had used to cover his scent still lingered in the back of the car. “I guess she noticed, because then she started to tell me about all the jobs she’s pulled. She gives Robin a run for his money. Knows everyone. Ripped off ninety-nine percent of them. Should’ve been a puck instead of a vampire. She was also asking where we’d learned to fight, who I thought was the best of all three of us. Could we give her lessons.”