I shouldnt be too long. The wards recognized her, flaring to life as they admitted her and Faine, re-knitting in their wake. Sorry about the mess.
He laughed at that; unless she described a glass on the counter as a mess, he had no idea what she meant. The place was ruthlessly neat and orderly otherwise. Ive seen how your sister is. This is positively orderly.
She shrugged. Shes a slob. Sort of an anomaly as most witches are orderly. But Simon is a neat freak so Im sure she works to keep it in check. Mostly. There was affectionate amusement in her tone but he knew things between the two hadnt always been so easy.
He wanted her to share that story with him. Of how she and her sister had ended up falling away from each other for the last few years. He knew the details from Larks perspective, but he wondered how the story went from Helenas point of view.
Make yourself at home. Ill be out in a few.
She grabbed a suitcase from the hall closet and disappeared into her bedroom. He contented himself with wandering the living room, looking at her books and the pictures on her shelves.
The woman won a lot of stuff. There were blue ribbons tucked here and there. Not really on display, but in and amongst her things. Statues and plaques. Pictures of her on graduation day, with her arm around Lark, her parents standing with them.
Shed been a swimmer. A runner too. Certainly a prolific reader if her shelves were any indicator. Books were everywhere, and of all types and genres. All in ruthless order by subject and even in like spine colors.
But there was nothing on her walls. They were all the same basic white as most apartments. No pictures hung. No open books sat on the arms of the chair or couch. She lived there, but the space didnt feel like a home.
Helena came out shortly with a suitcase, a weapons case and another smaller bag; given the scent, probably her toiletries.
Your weapons case is larger than the suitcase holding your clothes.
She laughed and the sound of it tightened things low in his belly.
A girl needs priorities. Also, I have clothes in Sacramento. Ive got a room there, at the Gennessee building I mean. Weapons? Well, those I keep with me because I have favorites. I can buy four of the same shirt in two colors, but my guns? Well, theyre a lot more expensive and Im partial to how they fit my hand.
He sucked in a breath and the moment between them stretched. Theres a lot to be said for a woman who appreciates a weapon the way you do.
Yeah?
He nodded but refrained from saying anything else. They needed to stop at his place and to get on the road. And he sensed the immensity of anticipation between them. Something was going to happen but it wasnt the time, no matter how much he wanted it to be.
He cleared his throat. Have everything you need?
She swallowed hard and he tasted her thundering pulse in the air between them. Yeah. If I forget something I can always pick up a replacement.
He led the way out after she let him grab one of her bags.
* * *
SHE wasnt surprised that Faine drove ridiculously fast. Or that he had the reflexes to handle the road at eighty without batting an eye.
At his place he exchanged her company car for his. A sleek and sexy BMW. The engine purred even as it roared down the freeway.
Settling back into the embrace of the seat, she pulled out her pad, a pen and her phone. She needed to call Agent Anderson because hed left her a message while she was in her meeting back at Gennessee.
Agent Anderson, its Helena Jaansen retuning your call.
Hello there. I just wanted to check in with you after last nights events. I wanted you to hear this from me, but Gentry Fenton is out on bail.
What? She wanted to turn the car around and go hunt him down so she could snap his neck. And then she wanted to find this FBI agent to do the same.
This was over our objections. We argued that he be held without bail. But his attorneys were able to show a lack of an arrest record, no history of violence, hes got a business in Signal Hill and roots in the community. They argued that he wasnt a flight risk.
This is bullshit. Utter and total bullshit. One of my people died last night. Children were targeted! Or dont they count because theyre shifters? No one gives a shit because only human children deserve to be able to play without being bombed by terrorists?
I understand. Im pissed off too, Helena. I promise you this was not what we wanted. My people will keep an eye on him and the others to be sure they dont leave the jurisdiction. Hell, maybe theyll lead us to something useful.
The other ones were released too?
He blew out a breath and she knew the magick threatened to boil over from her belly.
The ones that werent in the hospital. Im sorry.
What judge would allow that?
He paused so long she understood it. That was the problem. The judge was a pro PURITY person and had acted accordingly.
We were able to get an order for all of them to stay at least five hundred feet away from any known Other community centers or other organizations. Believe me when I say if they step one foot in that five hundred feet we will pull them in.
Where a judge will just let them go. When she hung up, she needed to get one of her team post photographs of the men arrested the night before out on the website and to all the community centers they knew of.
Im sure youre aware that we will consider it self-defense if any of these men get anywhere near our property. And who knew if thered be enough left of the perpetrators to call the cops over when it was all said and done?
Helena, I know this is atrocious. Please understand this task force is on your side. We want to stop all these hate crimes. Were doing the best we can, and we can do more if you help us.
And what does that mean?
Im not saying you dont have the right to defend yourselves. But a less confrontational manner . . .
Youll need to give Rebecca Gennessee a call on that one. Good luck to you with that. I can tell you it is the policya policy we made very clear to Humans First two weeks agothat we would no longer be turning the other cheek. If you firebomb our children, we will be confronting the hell out of any garbage washing up on our shores trying to do it again.
She hung up, so pissed that she knew if she kept talking to him shed say something worse.
I used to be so much more diplomatic, she snarled. Lark, she was the hothead. I was the calm one. Look at me now, hanging up on FBI agents.
I heard. The conversation I mean. I think you showed amazing restraint, as it happens.
I like having you around. Youre a bad influence. And I mean that in the best way. She grinned at him, some of her anger ebbing. I need to make calls about all this stuff.
Go on. Im not going anywhere.
Helena handled calls for two hours more, including one to Rebecca Gennessee, who let forth a curse-laden invective the likes of which Helena rarely heard. She actually felt sorry for Agent Anderson, who she did believe meant well.
She instructed her staff to deal with the alerts to all community centers, covens, clans, et cetera, with the pictures of the PURITY people whod been released. Theyd have their own team watching the men, and if they got anywhere near anything that could harm an Other, theyd know what a mistake theyd made.
Eventually Faine pulled off the freeway and into a place for some food. It was a little diner shed stopped at often enough on her way to San Francisco. Nothing fancy, but a lot of food for reasonable prices and their iced tea was good. But their milkshakes were heaven.
It was also run by shifters, which made her feel safer.
She dug into her cheeseburger and watched him drain a milkshake and order another as he demolished a French dip and shifted to his next plate.
I envy your metabolism.
He smiled her way. You seem to do okay.
I have a physical job. But if I ate like you, Id be unable to move.
There are benefits to being Lycian.
Being in a diner run by shifters, being surrounded by Others of all types, meant it was easier to speak about their world without fear. It was nice.
So nice she wanted to keep the topic away from current events. And know more about him, too.
Tell me about it. Whats Lycia like?
His surprised smile made her glad shed asked. Its beautiful. Forests and lakes mainly.
Industrial? Or? Im sorry. I know my ignorance is shameful. I guess youre my brother-in-law and I dont know much of anything about where you come from.
Weve never taken much effort to educate Others here on what were like. He lifted a shoulder. Not industrial. We do have machines and production, but its nowhere near the scale you have here. Life is slower.
Easier I suppose when you live so long.
He nodded. Yes. Theres no rush-rush-rush attitude there. Life is savored. Theres much time spent with family and Pack. Our young are kept home for far longer than yours. We tend to live in familial groups. Leviathan land is very large, spread out over hundreds of miles. We live in clusters, usually with our immediate family. Ill take you. When we get some breathing room that is.
She smiled. To Lycia? Really?
Youd like that?
Are you kidding? Id love that. Ive been dying to go since Lark first told me about it. A world of warriors? Im thrilled.
His smile, which was normally laid-back and slightly dirty, widened into something else. It would be an honor to take you.
If we survive Thunderdome, that is.
Thunderdome?
How long have you been here? On this side of the Veil, I mean.
Mainly Ive lived in Lycia. My father has a private security force; I have been a lieutenant there. I came here and lived for thirty years or so in the eighteen hundreds. That was an interesting time. Then for about a decade in your nineteen twenties. Ive only been here for short periods of time since.
Thunderdome is from a movie. Dick of a leading man, but its a fun movie. Plus, Tina Turner is in it, big win. Essentially its an arena, two men enter, one man leaves. She bet they had stuff like that in Lycia for real.
Ah, I understand. You and your sister like cultural references.
I can see I need to expose you to more movies. You know, update your knowledge. Theres plenty of downtime stuck in hotels on this damned roadshow. Ill take your education on. She winked. Also, I cant quite believe youre old enough to have been here in the eighteen hundreds.
They paid the bill and headed back to the car after a stop at the mini mart when they gassed up. You never knew when you were going to need Red Vines or peanut M&Ms after all.
Soon he was back on the freeway, which had been mainly empty once theyd cleared the Grapevine and had descended into Central California. They hit pockets of traffic here and there, but nothing too heavy.
He started to speak again, taking up the conversation from back at the diner. The world here was different then. In eighteen forty. I lived in London.
Really? Did you go to balls and dress up and all that stuff?
I had a wife.
She paused. A human wife?
All our lives were taught to avoid humans. Short life-span, you see, means that should you love one, youll see them grow old and die. Thirty years is nothing to me. But to her, my Lydia, it was from the bloom of her youth until she passed, devastated by tuberculosis. She was fifty-five. Which for then was a ripe old age.
Helena hadnt even thought of him being married. She tried to wrap her head about it.
Im sorry.
It was over two hundred and fifty years ago.
Well, seems to me that to you, thats not so long ago. And some things arent so easy to get over.
He breathed out. His eyes were hidden behind some snazzy sunglasses so it was hard to know what he was feeling just then.
Was it difficult? The fact that theyd have seen you as black?
He was nearly unbearably handsome. Tall and broad. Dark skin, luscious lips, deep brown eyes. Like Simon, he tended to dress up in suits. He often looked like hed stepped out of a magazine ad for designer menswear. But in eighteen forty, people would have been less accepting of his skin color.
I had a lot of money. That tends to ease the way. There were plenty who did not speak to me and who avoided my presence. But more who sought ways to ease me into their company because of the wealth I possessed. The rumor was that I was an African prince of some sort.
Well, you are a prince, so that part was true.
He snorted. Yes. I havent thought of Lydia in some time. Thank you.
What was she like?
She had no idea why she asked. It wasnt really her thing to poke around about a mans old girlfriends or exes. But his Lydia had been dead over two hundred and fifty years. It wasnt like there was a threat. Nor should she even be thinking about it that way because, hello, she was his friend and colleague.
Kind. Beautiful. Theyd needed the income and no one had offered for her. It made her sad. She knew horses really well. Thats how I got to know her. She wasnt helpless like many women of her time were bred to be. She was smart and well read. I loved her. He shrugged. We got on. We married and she moved into my home and we had a life together for a time. She died and I went back to Lycia.
Did she know? What you were, I mean?
No. It wasnt something she could have accepted.
Helena reached out, squeezing his hand. She couldnt imagine having to hide such a big part of yourself that way. She wondered if he felt like half a person.
You have a good heart, Helena.
She laughed. Dont tell anyone.