Y’all can use my house, Nan says. The basement is haunted. I have a lot of friends down there. They’ll help me keep your friend safe.
“We need to move fast,” Mother says. “The doppelganger selected Vuur for a reason. Your father hired him to assassinate you, Rogaire, and you almost killed him. And he selected Jane to entice you.” My mother’s red, beady eyes pause on me. “So, I have no doubt it knows exactly how the both of you are going to react. He did not go into Purgatory wearing Vuur to drink casually, or to buddy up with a berserker. He went into that bar to be sure the both of you hear that he plans to kill your last host, using the wendigo’s nightmare.”
That’s true. Mothers are always right, more so if there’s a nanny tickling their brain cells. Nan chuckles. And my two cents says your momma wears Jane. She’s an ancient one, she is. Her powers are greater than yours, child.
Nan floats up beside my mother, making a stand.
“Ancient?” My mother looks down at the ghost.
Well, certainly not on your death bed, honey chil’, but you’ve seen some miles.
“Like you haven’t? Well, for a human, anyway. And I like to think of myself as—”
“Enough!” I shout. “Why can’t you wear Gracie and I wear Jane? I want to kill the bastard and share the glory with her!”
I toss a death-threat look at my mother. Gracie probably doesn’t wear it well.
“Have you ever fought a doppelganger?” Mother asks. “Have you even seen a fight between two doppelgangers?”
I don’t answer. I try to muster up an adult stance and a bit of anger in Gracie’s eyes. I’m sure it comes off as stubborn child.
“I didn’t think so,” Mother says.
She’s probably not mocking me, but it sure feels like she is.
“I have fought a demon’s gaffe—it was a wicked battle, even with elder approval—and that doppelganger wasn’t half as strong or evil as the one wearing a dragon-shifter assassin.”
I don’t really see Mother’s little foot tapping impatience, but I know it is. She stares me down. I look to Gaire for help.
“Are you saying we need elder approval?” Gaire says. “We are not going to do that.”
Way to go, Gaire! I’m dancing under Gracie’s skin.
Mother says, “I am an elder, and I’m not only capable, but allowed to make a spontaneous decision based on the need to defend my guardian in a life-threatening situation.”
“Oh,” I say, sounding like an adolescent teen. “Even if I’m wearing Jane?”
“No.” My mother shakes her head. “The doppelganger has seen you. Did it pass through your smoke after killing Jane?”
I have to think. I playback the knife coming at us and Jane sprinkling around me on the drive, watching the dark guy take Jane’s bullet, fall, and rush past me.
“I’m not sure,” I answer my mother. “Why?”
Mom looks at Gaire. “Were you there?”
Gaire nods. “He said, ’I’ll be back for you,’ and then he evaporated, blew through Luna while she shed Jane, and was gone.”
“Uck!” Gracie’s body shudders, and I feel it to my smoky toes. Wearing a human can be disconcerting at times. I am experiencing my first gag reflex. I doubled up on him in the hotel room! I wore his host!”
Child, that can’t be good, Nan says.
“That explains how he was able to fine you, Luna,” Mother says. “It is how I follow you. When we are given a ward, we mingle with it. If you shed Gracie and don Jane, he will know it is you. The doppelganger will strip you of your host in seconds, latch on, and draw life force until you are no more, making it and the dragon it wears stronger. At that point, I’ll probably not be able to save you.” Mother looks at me, her garish mouth in a grimace. “But you can be damn sure that after you are gone, I will destroy them both, or die trying.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Gaire says and turns to me. “We’ll have an advantage if we play this your mother’s way.”
“Crap!” I am so not wanting my mother under Jane’s skin. “Damnit, you’ve made your point. Fine, Mother! You win.”
And it’s very grown up of you to notice, Nan jibes.
“I am going to double up on someone, immediately,” Mother says. “I’ll meet you both at Nan’s home in an hour. Together, we’ll come up with a plan we can execute by tomorrow evening. Do you have a cell phone?”
“You’re doing an awful lot of doubling up, talking about cell phones, and now assisting actions you condemned me for just yesterday. What’s up with that, Mother?”
“One is never too old to learn, young lady. I hope you remember that.”
Gaire
“I don’t want anything to happen to Luna,” I tell her mother.
We’re in the kitchen at Gracie’s home. Nan and Luna are on a screened porch that wraps around the northwest side of the house. I can see them through a French door at the end of a small hall on the north side of the kitchen.