Page 70 of A Shade of Myself
My child was less than enthusiastic about being pressed into cleaning duty on Sunday morning, but after flicking on her light and opening her curtains, I only hung around to hear the moaning long enough to ensure she was out of bed and processing the list I’d left her, before heading over to my employer’s house, having confirmed Emmett was home.
I caught Tatiana coming out her front door on the way to a friend’s house to borrow a carry-on bag and updated her about my findings.
“Missing sibling, huh? Well, it’s not a vampire doing it. This is bigger than their compulsion abilities are capable of.” She rooted around in her enormous purse for her car keys.
“Could it be a demon?”
“Hard to say.” She frowned at the reading glasses with one broken arm that she’d pulled out, then tossed them back in. “I don’t know enough about demon magic.”
“What about any Ohrists with illusion magic?”
“Don’t know any personally but I can ask around.” She cackled. “Kadeem isn’t going to be happy he missed out on this.” She jingled the keys. “Must run. Carry on.”
“Wait! I won’t see you before you leave tonight. Be nice to the criminals.” I hugged her.
She resisted for a moment, then hugged me back tightly. “Now.” She stepped back. “Don’t drop the ball while I’m away. Even though I’ll only be gone a few days.” She sighed, her body sagging. “I’m really too old to be flying halfway around the world only to practically turn right around again.”
“Can’t you stay longer?”
“I could, but in my experience, you don’t want to hang around after doing jobs like this.”
“Well, safe travels.” I saluted her and headed inside.
Emmett was running bills through a cash counter machine in the kitchen, wearing pinstriped trousers with a toothpick wedged into the corner of his mouth.
Jazz streamed from the phone plugged into the small docking station. Combined with the checkerboard floor, red vintage furniture, and mint green cabinets and appliances, I felt like I’d stepped back in time.
I sat down across from the golem. “Are you running an illicit gambling operation or just plain old counterfeiting?”
“Tatiana prefers that her clients pay cash.” He slotted another stack of bills into the small machine. They filed through with a thwwwwft sound, beeping when the stack was sorted.
“Since when do you listen to jazz?” I moved aside some cash to place my purse on the table.
“It’s a special playlist that Tatiana made for me. She loves this music.” He shrugged. “It’s growing on me. Like a fungus.”
Tatiana hadn’t made me a playlist, but instead of feeling jealous, I was happy for Emmett. After my scare with that illusion of Sadie’s death, I’d felt a renewed appreciation and gratitude for my family. If Emmett and Tatiana were bonding that way, I didn’t begrudge that. The golem hadn’t had it easy in terms of feeling loved or wanted, and despite all of Tatiana’s success, friends, and acquaintances, she spent a lot of time at home with no one except her two assistants. Sure, she had her art, but she didn’t have family of any sort other than Laurent. And that relationship was complicated at the best of times.
“Speaking of Tatiana.” Emmett switched his toothpick from one side of his mouth to the other. “She bitch to you about going through security at the airport?”
“No, why?”
“Apparently, her hips have so much metal in them that guards keep trying to strip-search her for weapons.”
“Poor guards,” I said, grimacing. “I hope they die with no regrets.”
He chortled. “I told her to film it.”
“I didn’t know Tatiana had a hip replacement.”
He shrugged. “She’s part Terminator or something.”
Sure, Emmett. I fell into the sound of sorting bills and the wail of a clarinet. Was Tatiana the reason Laurent loved jazz so much? The image of Tatiana and a young Laurent bonding over old jazz albums gave me a fuzzy feeling.
Emmett secured a bundle with an elastic band. “You here to hang out?”
“No.” I wrapped an elastic around another bundle. “Have you ever had feelings for anyone?”
“Like wanting to kill the wolf?” The golem ran the last of the cash through the counter. “Often.”
