“Da.” Kira nodded firmly and shook her hand. “Dosvedanya.”
“Dosvedanya,” Beth murmured the Russian good-bye and then turned to start up the hall.
“It went well?” Matias asked, falling into step beside her as they headed toward the elevators.
Beth nodded, and then said, “So, Matias, am I right in guessing you were the one keeping an eye on Kira?”
“Sí,” he admitted and shrugged. “It was no trouble. She was in a lot of my classes and likes the same clubs I do.”
“Well, it looks like you won’t have to keep tabs on her anymore.”
“Why?” he asked with surprise.
“She plans to move to Toronto,” Beth explained. “In fact, I think she’s flying back with us. So don’t forget to text her the address of the airfield.”
“Speaking of which,” Scotty said before Matias could respond, “I do no’ think Mortimer and Lucian are going to thank ye for this.”
“The girl was planning on suicide by Council,” Beth said solemnly as they reached the elevator. “I had to do something.”
“Kira?” Matias asked with surprise, trailing her onto the elevator. “Suicide?”
“Her father cut off her lover’s head a couple months ago,” Beth explained quietly. “She isn’t taking it well.”
Eyes widening, Matias raised a hand to his throat, but said, “That explains why she was not receptive to my advances.”
“I don’t understand,” Donny said, and Beth realized he hadn’t caught the first part of the conversation when he asked, “Why would Mortimer and Lucian be upset with Beth? What did she do?”
“She suggested the lass move to Toronto and train to be a Rogue Hunter,” Scotty explained.
“Really?” Donny asked, and then pursed his lips. “She might do okay. She’s big enough for the job.”
Beth grimaced at the comment. Kira was a good six feet tall. She was not only voluptuous but muscular as well. The sword training she’d mentioned had shown in her physique. Still, Beth thought as the elevator doors opened and they crossed the lobby to the exit, size didn’t make a good Enforcer. Smarts did. She was only five-foot-three and considered herself a damned fine hunter.
“I’m hungry,” Donny said suddenly as they headed for the parking lot. “Can we stop at a coffee shop and get doughnuts on the way to the house?”
Beth glanced at him with disbelief. “Seriously? There were probably twenty or thirty food stalls in that place where you could have got food.”
“I want a doughnut, though,” he said with a shrug.
“They probably had a doughnut shop in there somewhere too,” she said with exasperation.
“I will stop at a Tim Hortons on the way to the house,” Matias said as they approached the SUV. Beth suspected he made the offer to keep the peace.
“Oh, good.” Donny beamed at the man as he followed him around to the driver’s side of the SUV. “I like the ones they have with white icing and all those pretty sprinkles.”
“Such a girl,” Beth muttered under her breath with disgust as she reached for the front passenger door handle.
“Allow me,” Scotty said on a chuckle as he got there first and pulled it open for her.
“Thanks,” Beth murmured, a little flustered by both his nearness as he leaned around her to get the door, and the chivalry displayed by the action.
“My pleasure,” he assured her with a smile as she slid into the seat. He waited until she was settled and then closed the door and got into the seat behind her as Matias and Donny got in on the other side.
“Well!” Matias said cheerfully as he fastened his seat belt and started the engine. “Is this not wonderful? Business is done and now we can play.”
Beth turned to him in question. “What did you have in mind?”
“Dancing!” he announced happily. “The girls here, they do not know how to dance, my cousin. You and I will show them.”
Beth chuckled at the claim, but shrugged. “Sure. Why not?”
“But doughnuts first, right?” Donny said from the back seat.
“Sí, sí, doughnuts first,” Matias assured him. “We will stop there on the way back to the house, and then you can all change while I order the pizza, and we will eat properly before we go out.”
“Will anything be open by then?” Beth asked dubiously, glancing at the watch on her wrist.
“Cousin, you are forgetting the time difference again. It is not even yet ten o’clock,” he said in a pained voice. “I promise we will be at the club by midnight and have hours to dance before it closes.”
“Starbucks!” Donny squawked suddenly.
“I see it,” Matias said with exasperation.
“Are we sure Donny should have coffee?” Scotty asked, sounding disgruntled. His voice sounded so close she was sure he had leaned forward in his seat.
Turning, she saw that she had been right, but merely shrugged. “Our trainers thought it best to find out how you reacted to things like coffee before you were on the job. We are done with business now, so we might as well let him see how he handles it.”
Scotty looked dubious, but merely nodded and sat back in his seat.
Six
“Can you no’ turn this music down? I think me ears are bleedin’,” Scotty complained from the back seat.
Beth chuckled at the claim, and leaned forward to turn it down, but then asked, “So you’d rather go back to Donny talking?”
“Hey!” Donny bent to peer down into the SUV from where he stood on the back seat with his head, shoulders, and chest out of the vehicle through the sunroof. “What happened to the music? Did you shut it off? Did he shut it off? Do you think it’s broken? Maybe it’s not the radio. Maybe it’s the station. Maybe the satellite was knocked out of the sky or—”
“Turn it back up!” Scotty barked.
“That’s what I thought,” Beth said with a laugh and cranked up the volume again.
“Yeah!” Donny shouted and straightened to continue playing air guitar in the open night air as they sped down the highway. She should have probably ordered the boy to sit down and put his seat belt on, but honestly, he’d turned into such a chatterbox once the caffeine had hit him, she’d rather risk it. Beth made a mental note to herself to warn Mortimer that Donny shouldn’t be allowed coffee. Ever. He was one of the immortals it did affect.
Much to everyone’s relief, it was only a couple moments later when Matias slowed as he approached the driveway of a nice ranch-style home she thought might be clad in light brown brick. She wasn’t certain. While the increased night vision immortals enjoyed allowed them to see relatively clearly in the dark, it wasn’t that great when it came to colors. But between her night vision and the fact that the driveway ran up the edge of the property a good thirty feet to the side of the house, Beth was able to see that while the front yard was small and neat, the backyard was absolutely huge with more than enough room for the large six-car garage and the attached outbuilding it housed.