Two little words, and they were starting to become ours, a means of acknowledging our soul-deep understanding of the other person like we truly were two halves of the same whole.
A throat cleared on the far side of the mountain, but its echo carried to me all the same.
Apparently, Wu was not a fan of PDA.
“You should get back to Portia.” I held still, so very still, inviting Cole to linger though I knew he couldn’t stay. “I can get myself home.”
Wu appeared in my periphery, his forehead pinched and mouth tight. “I’ll walk her to her car.”
A low reverberation began in Cole’s chest and rattled through his throat as he raised his head.
“He did drive all the way out here.” I met Wu’s gaze over Cole’s shoulder. “Or fly.” I cocked an eyebrow at him. “I can never tell with you guys.”
Wu declined to answer, surprising no one given his stance on charun keeping their own counsel on personal matters.
Heaving a great sigh, Cole withdrew the rest of the way from me, but his meltwater eyes glinted with mischief. “I can give you a ride home.”
“Ride.” I wet my lips. “On you.”
The gleam heated several degrees, as did my cheeks. “Yes.”
“I’ll just, uh.” I pressed a hand to my stomach. “Maybe next time?”
Cole chuckled, a deep and rumbling thing that left me squirming in place. “I’ll hold you to it.”
I found my hand fisted in his shirt without my permission, reluctant to let him go, but – perhaps taking him too literally – I was in no hurry to remove it. “You do that.” I tugged the fabric once then forced my fingers to relax. “Take care of our girls. And our boys.”
“I don’t like this.” His own reluctance to leave me with Wu was anchoring him here when he was needed elsewhere. “You shouldn’t be left alone.”
Wu cleared his throat again.
We both ignored him.
“They need you.” I gave him a playful shove that did nothing but pop my wrist. “Go on. Shoo.”
Cole eased back a few steps and let his dragon free. The towering beast dipped its massive head, antlers angled away from my face, and brushed its cheek against mine. The familiar pressure of his tail wrapping my ankle made me grin so wide my face hurt.
An affectionate Cole was an irresistible Cole, scales and all.
Our gazes met for a single instant, but then his camouflage stole him from my sight. A low rumble filled the air while his tail unspooled, the warning aimed at Wu, and I popped his flank. Or at least I think that’s what my open palm hit. “Behave.”
Wind blasted my hair away from my face, and the leathery creak of his wings grasping for sky ignited an ache in my heart. The intensity of his presence lessened with each mighty flap until I could no longer sense him.
“Come on, Luce.” Wu’s voice dragged my gaze from the sky. “We should get you home.”
“What is it with you guys?” I started walking back to my Bronco, and he fell in step with me. “Do I have a curfew now?” The thoughtful noise he made earned him a glower. “That wasn’t a suggestion.”
“Of course not.” A hint of teeth flashed in his smile. “I left my car near an ice cream parlor. Would you mind giving me a lift?”
Fishing out my keys, I unlocked the Bronco. “Are your arms tired or something?”
His now familiar sigh punctuated the night. “Is that a no?”
Still annoyed with him for pushing my buttons, I was tempted to let him find his own way back. He had no clue how little slack the coterie cut me, Cole in particular, but I wasn’t about to explain myself – or us – to him. Plus, the whole partnership thing meant I had to learn how to play nice with him eventually. I might as well start practicing now.
I climbed in and waited for him to settle before aiming us toward Hannigan’s. It was a safe bet this was the ice cream shop he meant. Most folks didn’t appreciate the fine line between ice cream and frogurt. I parked at the curb, angling my head to the right, mesmerized by the neon signs splashing colors across the darkened sidewalk.
He followed my line of sight. “Would you like to go in?”
“Nah.” I flashed back to my last visit and had to admit, “I’m probably banned.”
“I could make the purchase for you,” he offered. “What’s your favorite flavor?”
“You little enabler you.” I heartily approved.
After rattling off my order, he ducked in Hannigan’s and loaded up two medium cups with enough soft serve to numb the ache in my chest where worries for my coterie resided and enough toppings to make his debit card weep from their weight. While he paid, I scanned the empty seating area through the giant plate glass windows.
The framed dollar bill Cole had smashed had been rehung in its place of honor. Otherwise, it appeared Mr. Hannigan had used the generous check Cole had written him for damages to restore his business to its pristine, vintage charm rather than modernizing the place. I was still gazing off into the middle distance when Wu appeared at my window with his hands full and an expectant look on his face.
“Walk with me?” I wasn’t ready to go home yet, but I had nowhere else to be and nothing else to do. I was all wound up after the visit from Sariah, and I had no outlet for that nervous energy. “I promise I won’t tell Cole you didn’t escort me straight home.”
Sticking it to Cole appealed to Wu if the flash of his teeth was any indication. “All right.”
I climbed out, he passed over my cup, and we set out to take a turn about the square.
The Greek revival courthouse at the heart of Canton was the most beautiful building in town, an opinion shared by several motion picture companies who had filmed on its lawn and in its halls. It rose, elegant and pale, from a lush green patch of lawn across the street. We didn’t cross to the greenspace but kept to the sidewalk, strolling past the small shops lining the square surrounding the courthouse.
I would have called what we did people-watching, except the hour meant it was more like car-watching as folks blazed through town on their way home for the night.
My footsteps ground to a halt in front of a bridal shop overflowing with jewel-toned fall colors as I savored my last spoonful of froyo. The one-two punch of Mrs. Tacoma’s mothball and fruitcake essence radiated from the place, stinging my nostrils, and that last mouthful soured.
“Human mating rituals grow more bizarre with each successive generation.”
I reeled my focus in from the tidy boxes stacked on shelves in the back, each one labeled with the name of a bridal party, to study Wu. A second reflection caught my eye first, and I frowned at her, thinking she looked familiar, before the why of it dawned on me.
Who else would have been standing so close to Wu eating froyo like it was going out of style?
No one with any sense. That eliminated the pool down to, oh, I don’t know, me.
The coterie might be working its magic on my touch-aversion, but clearly there were still dissociative echoes bouncing between Conquest and me if I was no closer to that knee-jerk recognition of self that others took for granted when they saw it reflected back at them.
“It’s Kapoor,” Wu said abruptly, reaching for the muted phone in his pocket. “What have you got?” Wu snapped to attention. “That is interesting.” His eyes met mine. “I’m with her now.”
The woman in the glass cocked her head, the thick ends of her ponytail sliding over her shoulder as she strained to catch both sides of the conversation. Mostly she gave herself a headache. A worse one. Barely twenty-four hours passed without a sledge hammer wrecking her temples. One of these days, if the pain got much worse, she might crawl in for an MRI, but she would rather walk across broken glass than be admitted for testing.
After all that focused effort, when a second voice poured into the night air, I met her wide eyes in our shared reflection, suddenly tasting panic that I might have tapped into some wellspring of power within me, only to realize Wu must have worried I was going to aneurism and put his call on speaker.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“We have a lead on Famine.” Kapoor’s voice poured into the night. “I need both of you to come in.”