“No,” she said, very softly. “Not him.”
“Then. . why?”
“Well. .” Lyssa hesitated. “I’m part of a. . Witness Protection Program.”
Eddie bit the inside of his cheek. She frowned at him, and he had to look away fast before he blew it.
“Wow.” Jimmy sounded breathless. “What happened?”
“I saw something involving a. . a Bolivian drug cartel. And now they’ve found me. The problem is, they may know we’re friends.”
The boy bounced a little, and the dog groaned. “They could try to use my mom and me to get at you.”
“You’ve got it. I made an arrangement with the Feds, and Eddie is helping.”
“You’re flying out today. Private jet,” Eddie said.
She glanced at him with surprise. “You and I need to help your mom pack, then we’re going to put your things together. You can’t take much.”
“But you’ll be able to get whatever you need when you arrive in San Francisco,” added Eddie.
“I need Icky.”
“Of course.”
“And my case files.”
“Absolutely,” he said, smiling.
Lyssa kissed his head. “Go sit with your mom. I need to talk with this guy for a minute.”
Jimmy ducked away from her, wiping her kiss from his head. But instead of leaving, he hesitated in front of Eddie.
“I’m glad we talked,” he said, sounding completely grown-up.
“If you need to talk more, I’ll always be there.”
The boy chewed on his bottom lip. “I’ll be here, too. . if you need to talk.”
Eddie blinked. Jimmy ran from the room.
“What a kid,” he murmured, then stopped breathing when he looked at Lyssa and found her staring at him with soft, haunted eyes.
“What you did for him. .” she said.
“You heard.”
“Everything.” Her gaze flickered to his hands. “I hadn’t paid attention. I thought it was just a birthmark.”
“He needed to know.”
“You helped him more than anyone could have.” She was quiet a moment. “I went to the kitchen.”
Eddie looked down. “And?”
“I hope it’s a long time before he hurts someone else, but I’m not an optimist.”
He sighed, rubbing his hand. “I called my boss. He’s finding a private doctor for Tina, someone discreet.”
“Discreet as a private flight?”
“The agency has resources. Might as well use them.” He chanced a look at her. “How are you holding up?”
“I don’t know. It was. . strange. As awful as it was that Tina’s husband found them. . when I realized it was just him. .”
“You were relieved.”
“Yes,” she whispered. “That’s horrible, right?”
“No. Aaron Roacher is only human.” Eddie rubbed his eyes, tired. “After the blast, and I put you in that car. . I turned around, and Nikola and Betty were standing there. Just being near them was terrifying. It was worse than fear.” He met her gaze and found it solemn and thoughtful. “Can they turn that on and off?”
“Sure,” she said. “It’s a projection, but the darkness you feel is also part of them.”
“You told me those two women are servants. Not the actual Cruor Venator.”
“They’re as close as you can get without actually being part of that bloodline. And that’s close enough if you ask me.”
“So it doesn’t take another Cruor Venator to kill them?”
Lyssa gave him a sharp look. “Where did you hear that?”
“Lannes. Why?”
“That’s. . not common knowledge outside certain communities.”
“But you know it.” Eddie held up his hand. “Right, you can’t tell me anything.”
She looked down, flexing her gloved right hand. “My mom was a witch.”
He had suspected as much. “Did the Cruor Venator murder them?”
Her nod was small and pained. “It was horrible.”
“You saw it happen?”
“I was the bait,” she whispered.
Chapter Eleven
The doctor never did give his name, but he was a stout Chinese man in his forties who wore a dark gray jogging outfit and a baseball cap that he tugged backward while working on Tina’s face. He liked to whistle, but he hated Icky on sight and made the occasional stupid joke about falling down stairs. It was tolerable the first time, but by the third, Lyssa was ready to strangle him.
He did a good job cleaning Tina’s cuts, though. Jimmy pressed his cheek against her arm the entire time and squeezed her hand. Lyssa retreated to the hall, where she stood with her back pressed to the front door, hugging her stomach.
She heard Aaron Roacher whimpering in the kitchen but felt only disgust for him.
Eddie found her there. When she looked at him, all she could think about was the kindness of his voice as he’d talked with Jimmy, the sincerity and strength. Even she had felt better listening to him, as though the world would be okay, no matter what.
She didn’t look down at the scars on his hand. She could picture them perfectly, and now that she knew what they were, she couldn’t imagine not having realized before.
Someone had repeatedly put out a cigarette on his hand.
I killed a man when I was thirteen years old.
Words from his mind that had slid through hers, a million years ago on that sidewalk. It hadn’t frightened her then. . maybe because it didn’t fit her image of him, which was calm, in control, and gentle.
But now she had a clearer understanding of what might have happened. And it broke her heart for him.
He gave her a reassuring smile, and it made him so handsome she had to look away or risk staring.
“A car is coming,” he said. “The driver does some jobs for the agency every now and then. Tina and Jimmy will be safe with him. We’ve got a private jet waiting for them at LaGuardia. One of my friends will meet them in San Francisco. They’ve got a room at the St. Regis, and we’ll rent an apartment for them before the end of the week.”
“I hate to ask for anything else, but. .”
“She’ll have a job,” he told her. “Though she may have to go to school at the same time.”
“Tina will love that.” Lyssa’s voice barely worked. “But this apartment will need to be cleaned, too, before their roommate comes home from vacation. And then there’s Aaron. .”
“It’ll be taken care of.” Eddie leaned on the door beside her. Heat rolled off his body, surrounding and soothing her. “We need to worry about other things. If the Cruor Venator can only be killed by her own kind, then we need to find one who’s on our side.”
Lyssa said nothing, but Eddie didn’t seem to notice.
“Lannes told me a Cruor Venator was murdered a hundred years ago. She was supposed to be bad news, but the witch who stopped her. . never seemed to kill again. Not that anyone knew. If she’s still alive. .”
“No,” she said, more sharply than she intended. “I wouldn’t count on that.”
“There can’t be that many witches in the world. One of them must know something.”
“You’ll get yourself killed asking.”
“Not every witch is bad. I don’t believe that.”
“You’re right. But power does weird things to people. There’s no middle ground I’ve found. You’re either extremely good with it. . or you’re a supreme jackass.”
He made a frustrated sound. “We have to do something.”
Again, she kept silent.
Fear has its use, but cowardice has none, her mother had once said. Quoting Gandhi, no less.