Great. Now I was deemed a poor judge of character among the demonkind because I hung around with Ryan. This was getting better and better. “Well, you’d better get used to him and learn to get along with him, because he’s my friend.” I flicked a glance to Ryan and was surprised to see him looking at me with a pleased and grateful smile on his face. I found myself returning the smile. Yeah, I had his back.
I ran my hands through my hair. “Okay, so, I guess I need to get you something to wear.” There wasn’t a whole lot of my clothing that would fit her, except for sweats and stuff like that.
“Clothing would be appreciated,” Eilahn replied.
Shit. This would get expensive if I had to provide her with an entire wardrobe. And no doubt she’d be living with me, too. Fuck. I was so not ready for this. If Zack was a syrazaas well, was he bonded to Ryan the way Eilahn was to me? I had to assume that, if he was, Ryan was completely unaware of it.
I looked at the clock above the sink. Almost five A.M. And me with about two hours of sleep in me. This was going to be a fun day. “Well we’re going to have to find a store that opens early, because we need to get moving on figuring out how to stop the golem before it’s sent after one of us again.” Or sent after someone close to us,I thought with a sudden rush of worry. Tessa’s wards wouldn’t keep the creature out any more than mine had.
“Hang on,” I said, grabbing my phone and going to the living room. I quickly dialed my aunt’s cell phone number, fidgeting as it continued to ring. She picked up on the fifth ring.
“Mmmph?”
“Aunt Tessa? I’m sorry I woke you up,” I said in a rush, “but I need you to go somewhere else for a little while. I’ll explain it all later.”
“Somewhere else? What are you talking about?”
So much for “I’ll explain it all later.” I should have known that Tessa wouldn’t blindly submit to my request. “The construct I told you about isn’t stopped by wards,” I told her. “It came after me at my house, walked right through the wards, but I managed to get away from it. We’re pretty sure we know who’s controlling it, but until we stop him and destroy the thing I don’t want to run the risk that you might be a target simply because you ... you matter to me.”
“Oh, sweetling, that’s such a nice thing to say,” Tessa said, voice still fuzzy from sleep. “But don’t you worry about me. I’m not at home anyway.”
Fear pierced through me as I flashed back to the hideous moment when I’d discovered that the Symbol Man had taken my aunt. “Where are you?” I asked, voice shaking despite my desire to remain calm. “Are you all right?”
She let out a low laugh. “I’m quite fine, Kara. I’m at Carl’s house.”
Relief mixed with embarrassment washed over me. “Oh. Oh, well that’s good.” I smiled weakly. “Okay, well, be careful anyway, all right?”
“We’ve been quite careful, sweetheart. You know I haven’t hit menopause yet, so I make sure Carl uses a condom—”
“AUNT TESSA!”I screeched as she burst into laughter. “You are a horrible evil woman, and you know perfectly well what I meant. Eww!”
“I know, I know,” she said, still laughing. “I couldn’t resist. You’ve been far too tense lately.”
I snorted. “Yeah, well, there’ve been a lot of things to make me tense.”
She was silent for a few heartbeats, and I expected her to say something reassuring such as, That’s all over now. It’s going to be all right now.
“You have a heavy load,” she said instead. She sounded tired but this time not because I’d woken her. “I’m so sorry. This is my fault in so many ways.”
“No, it’s not your fault. It’s going to be fine,” I said, a little off-balance that I was the one doing the reassuring now.
“The demons are not ...” she trailed off.
“Aunt Tessa? The demons aren’t what?”
“The demons are not demonic. You know that.”
I frowned. “Um, yeah. I know.” We’d had these conversations before about how the demons we summoned were not the evil demonic creatures of religious mythos.
“It applies in reverse as well.”
“Huh?” I scowled. I was too tired to sort through verbal games. “What are you talking about?”
“The demons are not demonic. The demonic are not demons.”
I bit back a whimper of frustration and slowly counted to five. “Aunt Tessa, I love you dearly, but you’re driving me batshit crazy at this moment.”
I heard her yawn. “I’m sorry. It’s not important right now. I’m going to go back to sleep, sweets. You’ll let me know when I can go back home?”
“Um, yeah,” I muttered, feeling off-balance again.
“You’re a good girl. I’m so proud of you. I’ll talk to you later.” And with that she disconnected.
I let my hand fall to my side and let out a low groan. She’s going to drive me absolutely crazy. Well, that much was back to normal.
I returned to the kitchen. At least Eilahn was no longer glaring at Ryan.
“Okay, I don’t have a car,” I said. “So, Ryan, you’re stuck driving me. Us.” I fought back a yawn. I wanted to go through the financial info again, but I knew that it wouldn’t help at this point. Showing that Vic had used Roger to participate in a little insider trading didn’t provide any proof that Ben Moran was responsible for the murders. I didn’t even have proof that he was the one who let slip the information about the sale of the bank. “But we need to relocate. I don’t know how safe it is to stay here.”
“If you were attacked here once, it could happen again, and with more force and preparation,” Eilahn pointed out.
“I think it’s time to take the fight to our opponent,” Ryan said, eyes narrowing.
“With what?” I said, frustration rising. “We have nothing. No proof. No probable cause for a warrant.”
“Fuck warrants,” he growled. “This asshole tried to kill you in your sleep. I don’t know about you, but that kinda pisses me off.”
I snorted softly. “Yeah, well, it didn’t exactly give me warm fuzzies.”
He stood up. “This has gone beyond what our legal system can deal with. Think about it, Kara. There’s no waywe’ll ever be able to put together a case that could go to court. Ben Moran isn’t strong enough to crush someone’s spine, and we can’t exactly present his accomplice in trial.” He leaned forward and planted his hands on the table. “You said it yourself. We have no proof.”
My mouth felt dry. Ryan was voicing things I’d been reluctant to consider. “But then we’re nothing more than vigilantes, Ryan. And what are we supposed to do? Go kill Ben Moran?”
“If that’s what it takes to eliminate the threat, then yes.” He straightened, never taking his eyes from me. “He brought this on himself, Kara. If he hadn’t brought the fight to us by attacking you, then he probably would have gotten away with this.”
“But what if we’re wrong?” I said. I rubbed my arms, unsettled at the turn the conversation had taken. “What if he’s not the one doing this? Ryan, I couldn’t live with myself if we did something drastic and he wasn’t the bad guy.”
Frustration and anger swept across his face. “Then we’ll make sure we’re not wrong. We’ll get proof, or a confession, or whatever it takes. It won’t be anything we can take to court, but it’ll be enough to let us know we’re doing the right thing.”
I gave a shaky nod, but I still felt horribly conflicted, which, frankly, surprised me. I’d always kind of assumed that in a truly dire situation I’d be able to do the whole superhero thing and Do What Needed To Be Done—no matter what—to save the world. After all, I knew without a doubt that, as a police officer, I could pull the trigger in a life-or-death situation. I’d carefully examined that moral issue when I’d first entered law enforcement. But what Ryan was talking about was different—taking the fight to the bad guy and eliminating the threat in a preemptive strike. Crossing heavily into that grey area, and edging dangerously close to the darker edge, if not going over.