Page 15 of A Shade Too Far
4
Detective Eli Chu,my baby daddy and ex-husband, a brawny homicide cop who’d faced down killers without batting an eye, jingled as he stepped into the foyer. That was new.
Curious, I unbuttoned the top button of his short-sleeved dress shirt, avoiding his swatting hands. A cross, a Star of David, and a hamsa for warding off the evil eye were all strung on a gold chain around his neck. I laughed, flicking the necklace. “You know what all this is called? Apotropaic magic. From the Greek meaning to ward off.” I simulated spitting with three times with a ptu ptu ptu sound to ward off the evil eye. “There. You’re good.”
“Leave him alone.” Ryann slung an arm over Eli’s shoulder. With her electric grape hair shaved on the sides, her anime-large blue eyes, and peacock print palazzo pants, she looked like a refugee from Burning Man, not the chief Lonestar in Vancouver. I wondered if she owned a hula hoop. “It gives him comfort and a much-needed sense of security during these changing times,” she said. “My dad did the same thing when he found out.”
Eli gripped his pendants defensively. “Thank you.”
I shut the door, leading them into the kitchen. “Comfort isn’t going to do shit if he comes across a vampire, and neither is any of that.”
My ex pulled a chair out from the table and straddled it backward, clinking mightily. “Which is exactly why we’re here.”
I put my dishes in the sink to make room on the table for the cookie tin next to the puzzle and opened the lid. Inhaling the spicy tang of ginger dissipated my crankiness by a solid thirty percent. “As I explained during our last four discussions on the topic, it’s handled.”
Apparently, it was time for the 1:45PM fountain show because my nether regions kicked into active splooshing. Sitting down with my legs firmly crossed, I shoved half a cookie into my mouth. Damn, that was good. Not too heavy on the ginger, with the molasses balancing it out rather than overpowering the taste. The crystalized sugar sprinkles on top provided the final perfect touch.
Ryann examined the cover of the jigsaw box.
“Sadie is my kid too and I own half the property that’s going to be protected,” Eli said. “Trust me, it’ll be a cold day in Hell before some undead serial killer works his magic mumbo jumbo on it.”
“It’s not like Mr. BatKian lives in a double-wide in the woods,” I said.
“He wouldn’t be able to fit all his suits in one.” Ryann nibbled on a cookie.
“Right? His tailor must be on call 24/7.”
She sighed. “That man deserves every penny.”
“If you’ve both finished your little Twilight moment?” Eli raised an eyebrow until we’d both nodded.
“Word of advice?” I licked sugar off my finger. “Don’t ever make a Twilight reference in BatKian’s hearing.”
“Totally,” Ryann said. “He’s pretty rigid about his sense of self. If only he’d be flexible and recognize that we don’t just carry one persona but many, he wouldn’t be mired in such a dark aura.”
I stared at her. “Yeah, I meant that he’d tear out your throat.”
“Oh, that too.” She patted the container. “Told you the cookies were good.”
Eli dropped his head in his hands. “Will you please listen to Ryann’s proposal?”
His voice was strained, and I felt bad for ragging on him when he was clearly so stressed. The least I could do was hear Ryann out for Eli’s sake. It was good that he’d reconnected with her, both a cop like himself and someone else to help guide him in this magic world. However, while Ryann hadn’t shown any prejudiced behavior toward me, who knew what she said when I wasn’t around? Eli was already predisposed to listen to her over me because of their shared police bond.
I crossed my arms. Then uncrossed them and took another treat. “Knock yourself out.”
Should I have shown more compassion? Sure. Very few Sapiens ever broke through the perception filter to open their eyes to the existence of magic, and all things considered, Eli was dealing with it quite well. A couple weeks ago, he’d helped me take down a corrupt Lonestar who was trying to frame Laurent and me for murder. To his cop mind, a killer was a killer, magic or not.
That was great, but then I’d made the mistake of telling him about the demon parasite who’d come through my walls and thus had begun his trip on the Paranoia Express. I sympathized (truly, no one was more freaked out than me, the person the parasite had been gunning for), but when he refused to accept the fact that my way was the only way to get properly warded up, I’d gotten annoyed. Which morphed into outright pissed off when he’d brought Ryann into it.
I had experience and knowledge of this situation that he didn’t. I respected his police skills, and he had to do the same for my understanding of the magic world and my unique and precarious position in it.
“Okay, so last time we spoke, I thought it would be impossible to find anyone to ward against demon parasites because I mean, how mad is that?” The Lonestar’s facial expressions and gestures were the same expansive ones that my sixteen-year-old used when she got excited.
I didn’t buy her innocent act for a second, because I’d seen her reduce Laurent to a puddle of goo with her magic. She’d done the same to me.
“Super mad.” I snapped another puzzle piece into the New York Times headline. This discussion was pointless, but at least I could get more of the jigsaw completed while it happened.
“But ta-da! I found someone.”
