"Probably not, but damn, this place is huge and I need to get from point A to point B without wearing my legs out."
She laughed again. Nick was infectious once you got used to him. He turned a tight circle and skated to the kitchen. Before she could get halfway through the living room, he returned with a glass of orange juice for her.
"Thanks," she said, taking it from him. "What's the word on Rosa ?"
"Miguel said she's better. She was up watching Wheel of Fortune when I called." "Good."
"Yeah, Kyrian will be happy."
Suddenly, a loud crash sounded behind her. Terrified it was Desiderius bursting in, she whirled around to see a huge pile of gold and diamonds on the floor where a twelfth-century hand-carved table used to be.
"Oh man," Nick said with a disgusted look. "Kyrian really liked that table, too. Boy, is he ever going to be pissed."
"What is that?" Amanda asked, getting up to go look at the king's ransom in gold bars and diamonds.
Nick sighed. "It's payday."
"Excuse me?"
He shrugged. "Artemis hasn't caught on to the fact that she could just wire the money into her Dark-Hunters' accounts. So, once a month we end up with a wad of gold and diamonds somewhere weird. It was a real bitch the time it landed in the pool."
"No kidding," Amanda said, awed by the amount. "Someone could get hurt." "That ain't no lie. It's what killed Kyrian's third Squire."
She turned to look at him and quickly learned he wasn't joking.
"So, what do you do with all that?" she asked.
He smiled. "I get to play Saint Nick. There's a Squire in town who will convert it into currency. From there most of it goes to charities. Two percent of it is funneled into a Squire's fund that takes care of the families of Squires who die in the line of duty or Squires who retire, and another two percent goes to a research facility that makes nifty toys for the Dark-Hunters."
"How much does Kyrian keep for himself?"
"None. He just lives off the interest of the money he had from when he was human."
"Really?"
He nodded. Wow. The man had been seriously loaded as a mortal. "Okay, can I ask a really nosy question?"
Nick smiled. "You want to know how much I make? "
"Yeah."
"Enough to make me a very happy man."
The phone rang. Nick skated off while Amanda took her juice to the couch and sat down to read the paper. She set her juice on the black coffin coffee table. A few minutes later, Nick came rushing back in, his brow furrowed. He didn't speak to her as he moved to the armoire against the far wall. He opened the locked door to display an entire arsenal of weapons.
Dread consumed her. "What's going on? Who was on the phone?"
"That was Acheron calling with a full-alert warning."
She frowned. By his frenzied movements, she knew it wasn't good. "What does that mean?"
The look on his face chilled her. "You know the phrase 'All hell's breaking loose'?"
"Yes."
"It was invented for full-alert. For some reason, there is a high concentration of Daimons leaving bolt-holes in this area, and when that happens, the Daimons reach their full power and they feed whether they need it or not. The only thing worse than a full-alert is a solar eclipse. Tonight, things will get ugly."
At seven o'clock, Amanda learned firsthand what he had meant by that.
She was cleaning up Kyrian's "breakfast" while Nick briefed him on what Acheron had said. Kyrian had chosen twice the weapons he normally went out with and he was on his way out the door when the phone rang. Amanda answered it.
"Mom?" she asked as she recognized the crying voice. Her heart stopped. "What is it?"
Kyrian went rigid at the door, then rushed to her side.
"Mandy," her mother said through her sobs. "It's Tabby…"
Amanda didn't want to hear anything more. She choked on her sob and dropped the phone. The next thing she knew, Kyrian held her in his arms while Nick talked to her mother.
Kyrian's sight dulled as he listened to her hysterical mother talking to Nick while Amanda trembled in his arms. Her tears soaked him, and as they fell, he vowed to kill Desiderius.
"It's all right," he whispered against Amanda. "She's just hurt."
She pulled back and looked at him. "What?"
Kyrian wiped the tears from her cheeks. "He didn't kill her, sweeting." Though she was in bad shape, from what he could gather from her mother, Tabitha would survive. Desiderius, however, would not.
"Tabitha is in the hospital," Nick said, hanging up the phone. "Luckily, there were only two Daimons and her group was able to fight them off." He looked to Kyrian. "You know, it sounds to me like Desi was just toying with her to make you mad enough to lose your head in a fight. There's no other reason why he would send only two Daimons and not more."
"Nick, shut up!" Kyrian snapped. The last thing he wanted was for Amanda to be any more upset. He kissed her lightly on the lips. "Nick will take you to the hospital."