Part 10 (1/2)
Leah had a lot less of the same things.
”So,” she said at last when he set the gnawed bone on the plate and sat back with a satisfied sigh, ”you got lucky.”
”Lucky?” Maybe wizards had a second stomach. He should have felt sick, but he only felt comfortably full. In fact, he felt like dessert. He yawned. And a nap.
”You got lucky with your first Powershot. You didn't blow off your hand.”
”And I saved your a.s.s,” he reminded her, through another yawn. ”Stress the negatives much?”
”Sorry.” The dimples flashed. ”You did, indeed, save my a.s.s. You got lucky.”
”Isn't that what happens around you? My day ends early enough to let the only person who can save you arrive in time to save you?”
”Yes, but...”
”I see no buts.”
”You've just eaten enough for two people...”
”Why is that bad?”
”You needed to replace the energy you used.”
”But that's normal for a wizard, right? It's not bad. Demons running around VanTerm are bad. But, like you said, I dealt, so that's good.”
”Fine.” She rolled her eyes. ”If you want bad, I have a hole in my favorite hoodie!”
Tony grinned as Leah shoved her hand through the hole and waved it at him. ”You're right, that's...”
He stopped grinning.
She frowned. ”What?”
”Your T-s.h.i.+rt.”
She twisted and looked down, pulling the yellow fabric aside. There was a smaller hole in the T-s.h.i.+rt.
And under that, the very tip of the demon's claw had lightly scratched Leah's skin. Her finger shook as she traced the tiny burgundy beads of dried blood on the centimeter-long scratch. ”No. That's impossible. I can't be hurt.”
”That's not exactly hurt,” Tony began but she cut him off.
”You don't understand. That's blood!”
The scratch was barely visible from across the table. ”Not much...”
”My blood!” Leah spat the words out through clenched teeth. ”I haven't seen my blood in thirty-five hundred years!”
”You must have...”
”No!”
Other people in the restaurant were beginning to turn and stare. ”Come on. We need to go.”
”Where?”
”Back to my place.” All of a sudden he didn't feel like dessert. Her eyes were wild and he wondered just how close the ”crazy lady in the desert” was to the surface.
”What are we going to do about this there?”
Good question. Too bad he didn't have an answer. Wait... ”We can start by reading your fortune cookie.”
Chapter Four.
”I HAVE TO SAY THAT I'm not surprised you lost the fortune cookie in this mess.”
Tony sat back on his heels in time to see Leah shake her head at the pair of boxer-briefs dangling between thumb and forefinger, then toss them to one side. She'd calmed down a lot in the car, and by the time they got to the apartment, she'd either got a handle on things or slid so deeply into denial she was living in Egypt. Tony wasn't sure which, but that was okay because he didn't care which. Whatever worked. ”I told you, I was sorting laundry.”
She prodded a pile of jeans with the toe of one sneaker.
Previous Contents Next”Historically, most people sort laundry in order to do laundry.”
”I was going to get to it.”
”When you get down to a pair of paint-stained sweats and a T-s.h.i.+rt you got free from a promo guy?”
”Pretty much, yeah.” He smothered a yawn with the back of his hand and nodded toward the kitchen. ”The garbage is under the sink. Try there.”
”You said you didn't throw it out.”
”I didn't throw it out on purpose.” Shoving a pile of old newspapers out of the way, he dropped to his belly to look under the sofa bed. Dead batteries. Firefly disk two. Blue silk tie. One dress shoe. Where the h.e.l.l was the other one? a.s.sorted balled-up socks. Empty Timbit box. Three issues of Cinefex. As the cheap parquet floor warmed under him, it got harder and harder to stay focused. Empty sample bottle of guava-flavored lube. Empty beer bottle. Unopened can of generic cola. No fortune cookie.
Clutching the can of cola, he shuffled backward until his head cleared the bed frame, dragged himself up onto his knees with a handful of mattress, and allowed his upper body to collapse onto the bed.
Something crinkled.
Setting the can aside, Tony rummaged in the tangle of sheets. ”Found it.”
Leah stared down at him in disbelief as she turned from the sink. ”You slept with it?”
”Calm down, we're just good friends.” Although the packaging had maintained physical integrity, the cookie within had been crushed. He got himself up on his feet just long enough to shuffle around and sit down on the edge of the bed. Then he reached out and dropped it into her hand.
Her other hand moved to cover the scratch on her side. ”This is foolish.”
”Maybe.”
”Yours could have meant anything. It didn't have to refer to the demon; that could have been coincidence.”