24. Future Clive’s Going to Have His Hands Full

My heart lodged itself firmly in my throat. My aunt was trying to worm her way in.

Clive was up and pacing again, his phone at his ear, finally getting through. "I'm sorry to disturb your evening, Coco, but we're in rather desperate need of your help again." He paused. "Yes, thank you. I doubt you've heard yet, but there was an altercation at The Slaughtered Lamb last night. Sam's neck was severely burned—yes, she's fine now. We've just realized, though, that the choker you made her was melted in the struggle. We need a replacement, as quickly as you can make it. I can double your fee."

He listened intently and then said, "I see. Are there alternatives?" He stared out the window and my heart sunk. When he stood straighter, I began to hope. "I would consider it a personal favor, one you may count on me to repay as you see fit."

Russell's head turned at that. There was something about the phrasing that worried me.

"I'll await your call." When he turned, pocketing the phone, Russell and I were staring at him. He gestured to the doorway a moment before Godfrey walked in, closing the door behind him.

"We're clear," Godfrey said, dropping back into his chair. He looked between the three of us a moment and sighed. "Now what's happened?"

"Miss Quinn's necklace was destroyed. She has no protection against her aunt at present," Russell said.

Godfrey stared at me for a long beat. I smiled uncomfortably in return. "I don't understand. If her aunt has access to her mind, why isn't she trapping her in a vision again or telling her to jump in front of a car?"

Now all three men stared at me. "Stop with the staring! I'm not going to explode."

Clive crossed the room and sat next to me, one arm burrowing under my blanket so he could hold my hand. "A lot has happened in the last few months. Sam is no longer defenseless. When Abigail first attacked, Sam didn't even know her aunt existed or that she herself was a wicche."

He squeezed my hand. "She's worked hard to not only embrace her wolf side, but her necromantic one, as well. Sam was blindsided. Now she won't be."

"I'm sitting right here." Stupid men talking about me, rather than to me.

"You were in a different place, just trying to survive, occasionally peeking out of your hobbit hole before ducking back in."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," I grumbled.

"No, indeed. It was a necessary, healing thing. You're different now. You run into danger instead of away from it, much to my eternal pride and horror."

"You took on a nocturne of vampires in New Orleans," Russell volunteered.

"You fought off killer ghosts and crawled through a collapsed tunnel in order to rescue me," Godfrey added.

"I killed my rapist," I said, feeling more confident than I had when I'd realized the necklace was gone. "And I called a legion of ghosts to me with only a thought."

Clive turned to study me while Russell and Godfrey glanced uncomfortably around the room. "When was this?"

"In Colma. Being close to the dead makes me stronger. It's why Martha's bar is there. I was trying to train on my own, sitting in her courtyard. I asked them to come to me and when I opened my eyes, there were more dead than I could count. Martha came out, annoyed I was causing trouble when she was trying to grieve Galadriel's return to Faerie. She tried to shoo them away, but it only caused a ripple in the ghosts."

I met the gaze of all three men. "Not gonna lie, I was pretty sure I'd royally screwed up and would have a phalanx of ghosts surrounding me for the rest of my days." Grimacing, I added, "That would have put a real damper on closet dates."

"On clos—" Godfrey began before Russell's hand shot out, smacking him in the head. Godfrey shook it off with a grin and asked, "Is that what you two crazy kids call it?"

"How did you get rid of them?" Clive asked, ignoring the other two.

Shrugging, I said, "I asked them to go."

"That's all? You just asked and they left?" Russell resumed his seat, as we no longer required a guard.

I nodded, pulling Clive's hand further under my blanket and then wrapping both of mine around his. "Clive's right. I'm more aware now than I was then. I don't think she could sneak in again without my knowing."

"Knowing and actually fighting her off are two different things, though," Godfrey said. "What are we doing about getting a replacement for the necklace that was destroyed?"

"I spoke with Coco while you checked the house. She would start now, but she doesn't have the stones she needs. She can get them—already has them ordered, in fact—but they won't arrive for a few days."

"Oh." Okay, I could keep her out for a few days, assuming she wasn't already in and listening to this whole conversation. Clive was right. I was stronger now. I had new abilities, abilities I didn't want anyone to know about, least of all her. If she could control me, she'd have a unique weapon.

"But," Clive continued, "she knows of a protective stone she could get immediately. It's one of her grandmother's treasures."

Russell and Godfrey both made sounds I couldn't interpret.

"What?"

"Dragons don't part with their treasures. Ever. Even for family," Clive explained.

"And that was why he pledged to help her in any way she saw fit," Russell said.

Godfrey stilled. "He did what?"

"Sam must be protected." Clive's tone put an end to the discussion—with his own vamps, but not with me.

"Explain why those two are concerned."

"Aside from being overly cautious, you mean?" When he tried to stand, I pulled him back down to the bench with me.

"I'll accept that Russell can be cautious, appropriately so, not overly." Russell inclined his head at my words. "Godfrey, though? No. I don't accept that the one who's already been smacked three times this evening for mouthing off is overly cautious."

Settling back on the bench with me, he pushed out a breath. "It indebts me to the dragons. I offered a favor to Coco, but she could ask on behalf of another dragon—or all of them. If they need help—any sort of help, including battle—I've promised to aid them in their cause."

"Even if that cause is wiping out all vampires," Russell added.

Oh. "I was all ready to say, ‘Hell yeah, we fight on the dragons' side,' but I can see how that could get sticky." We sat in silence a moment. "Call her back. Tell her never mind. I'll be fine."

Godfrey snorted. "Never going to happen, luv."

"I'll deal with what comes," Clive said, resolved.

"It's future Clive's problem."

He glanced over, brows furrowed.

"Nothing. So, since there's not much to be done on the Abigail front, should we get back to the Leticia problem?"

Crossing the ankles of his outstretched legs, Clive said, "By all means."

"Okay," I began. "If Leticia has finally agreed to bring Clive down, it makes sense that she's nearby. Coordinating attacks on multiple fronts is more difficult from farther away."

Russell nodded that they were following my logic.

"That being the case, I decided to try to find her."

"I thought you'd already tried," Godfrey said, his fingers drumming on Clive's desk.

"Right. I did." I kicked off my running shoes and sat cross-legged, tucking all of me under the blanket.

"If you're cold, does that mean Abigail's in there listening?" Godfrey asked.

"No. I think this is just her pushing at boundaries. I'm not sensing anyone up here with me," I said, tapping my forehead. "Anyway, back to Leticia. If she's here, she's found a way to hide her signature, or someone who can do it for her." I held up a finger and searched for any eavesdroppers. Nope. We were clear. "That being the case," I continued, "I used my enforced downtime last night to mentally walk the streets of San Francisco, looking for any and all supernaturals."

"If I might interrupt, Miss Quinn. I thought your necromantic abilities allowed you to sense and manipulate the dead. How are you sensing all supernaturals?" Russell's soft, deep voice rumbled in the quiet room.

"Not all. I can't see wicches. My guess is that it has to do with immortality. I didn't expect to be able to sense Stheno and her sisters. It was faint, barely there, and maybe my heightened emotion in the moment helped, but whatever the reason, I saw them and could use my magic on them."

"I see," he said, though he looked troubled by the information.

"So, I took a walk to see who I could find. Vamps and ghosts are easy to find. Also, just to set your minds at ease, we have no zombies."

Clive made a sound in the back of his throat that I recognized as almost a laugh. "At least we've staved off the zombie apocalypse a bit longer."

"Right? Focus on the positive, people. Anyway, again, it was really faint but I also found immortals like Meg, Horus—by the way, does anyone know why he's here?" When they all shook their heads, I continued. "I found the fae, on land and at sea. Immortality seems to be the common denominator.

"Eventually, I decided to cross the bay and begin looking north."

"She was at it for hours," Clive said.

"There's a pack in the North Bay, but I couldn't see them."

"Werewolves are immortal," Clive stated, a little more forcefully than was necessary.

Shrugging, I said, "Owen once told me that they couldn't see werewolf auras. They—oh, I guess we, although I've never seen an aura—wicches believe it's the duality of man and wolf that obscures the aura."

"Perhaps what you're seeing in your mind is a kind of aura," Russell volunteered.

Huh. I hadn't thought of it that way. Interesting. "Anyway, I didn't sense anything other than the fae." I let the blanket fall to my waist, no longer freezing. Maybe Abigail had given up.

"I always know when the sun rises because you all wink out at the same time."

Clive turned to study me. "We do what?"

"I'm not sure how to explain this. Since I've been living here, there's a constant background hum in my head. You guys are like fanged white noise machines. Except when the sun is up. Your consciousness winks out and it's completely silent."

All three men seemed lost in thought. I supposed when you were hundreds of years old, learning something new about yourself was a good enough cause for a pause.

"So," I eventually continued, "I was searching the coast up near Bodega Bay when I felt the house wink out. What was interesting, though, is that I felt the same thing up there. I couldn't sense a vamp, couldn't sense anything, but when the sun rose, I felt an almost imperceptible drop in background noise. I could totally be wrong, but I don't think so."

Godfrey stood, rubbing his hands together. "Road trip."

"No," Clive said, standing and pulling me up with him. "I won't leave the nocturne unprotected if Leticia is nearby. Sam and I will drive north. You two will protect our people."

Russell inclined his head a moment before Godfrey repeated the movement.

"If we find anything, we'll call." Clive moved to his desk while I sat back down to put on my shoes.

I ran upstairs, got coats, and met Clive by the door to the garage, his topcoat in my hand.

"Thank you," he said, slipping it on when the phone in his pocket buzzed. He pulled it out, glanced at the display, and answered. "Coco, do you have good news?"

He listened for a tense minute while I wondered if protection from my aunt was coming.

"Yes, of course. May we visit now?" He paused a moment and then said, "We're on our way." Pocketing the phone, he took my hand and led me into the garage. "We're visiting the matriarch of the Dragon clan. She'll decide then if she's loaning us the relic."