Chapter Three
Juanita and her sister Evelyn spoke in rapid Spanish. I could understand bits and pieces, but not enough to make heads or tail of the conversation.
I’d met Evelyn once before, when Juanita had gone into hiding at her place. She was short and plump, like Juanita. Older by about six years. They’d come to the States when they were little. At first, Evelyn wasn’t too sure about me. She was protective of Juanita.
With the necromancer, Justin, killing people around me back before Christmas, Evelyn had viewed me as a threat. The fact we killed Justin and his psycho cronies didn’t totally clear me in her books. I courted trouble, had some seriously bad mojo in her world. Rolph vouched for me, explained about how I’d reforged the Norse sword Gram and all, but she wasn’t convinced. I had no beef with her. I’d probably be the same way in her shoes.
When Katie and I showed up with Jai Li and chocolate ice cream this time, her attitude softened somewhat. Raising a kid apparently meant I wasn’t a complete lunatic.
Our elf friend Skella had been ferrying Rolph back and forth from his job in Surrey for the last few weeks. She traveled by mirrors—step into one, step out another. A damn handy skill to have.
Juanita had the baby in late June and, by the pictures Rolph had shown me from those first days, it looked like a cross between a naked mole rat and that chest monster thing from Alien.
It was a huge deal that I was willing to hold young Jacob Rolphsson after those pictures. Parents shouldn’t show children until they started to look human. Even the troll twins were better looking than poor Jacob just after birth. I questioned the sanity in how the naming passed from the father’s first name. Rolphsson was awkward.
I sat in a rocking chair and Juanita placed little Jacob in my lap. He was asleep, with the most amazing look on his face. Here this child was, sleeping in my arms, and I had the strangest urge to lean in and sniff his hair. I have no idea what brought that on, but it was heavenly. Pure bliss. There was like thirty seconds or so there where I thought I might slip into walkabout—just let my spirit leave my body for the pure joy of it—the sensation was that powerful.
Jai Li was very reverent of the baby. She approached him with care, only dipped her head in long enough to sniff his hair, then scampered away. She wasn’t upset though. Just seemed afraid to touch the little squaller.
Her caution was justified. Almost immediately he woke crying and filled his diaper. It was precious and disgusting. Rolph laughed and took the amazing fluid translator away from me before something started to leak. Katie thought I was being a big baby; Jai Li actually laughed.
I dreaded touching the little guy ever again. At least he hadn’t puked on me.
After the sun went down, Rolph and I went out onto the back porch to talk.
Things were getting more stable in Vancouver. The longer the self-proclaimed King of Vancouver held sway, the more settled things had gotten. The gang warfare that occurred right after I’d killed Vancouver’s tin-pot dictator dragon had died off. Rolph said the king had been fairly ruthless in the beginning, reconciling the old factions that had once worked for Jean-Paul. Some retribution had been bloody, but now things were calm. Vice was still as rampant. Plenty of drugs and prostitution, gambling and such. But there were fewer deaths, fewer predators on the streets. Bad for business, the king claimed.
“The King sends his condolences and his congratulations on defeating the necromancer and his cultists. He has asked once again that you visit him. He considers you a hero of the realm.”
I laughed. “I’ll pass. Last thing I need in my life is to get mixed up with another spooky underworld type. Dealing with Nidhogg and Qindra is more than enough for me, thanks.”
“How fares the witch since you rescued her?” Rolph asked.
“Nidhogg has kept her pretty close to home. It’s been strange. You remember Stuart?”
“One of your Black Briar compatriots, correct?”
“Yeah, anyway. He’s been hanging out with Qindra. He’s gotten pretty protective of her. It’s cute. First Gunther takes up with Anezka and now Stuart is with Qindra.”
“It is fitting. Finding a mate helps one find themselves.”
I glanced over at the big guy. He was delirious with Juanita, and now Jacob. He’d been alone for a long time. But I didn’t think you needed someone else to complete you. Don’t get me wrong. I love Katie. But if I relied on her for me to be a whole human, what would I be if something happened to her or to us?
“What’s the king like?” I asked, changing the subject.
Rolph shrugged. “I have not met this king in person,” he said. “Always an emissary between he and I. Not that it matters in the grand scheme.”
I wanted to know what Rolph did for a living these days but was afraid of the answer. He had been willing to get his hands dirty in service of the sword Gram. I just didn’t know fully where his limits were beyond that. My instincts told me he was a good man—cared for his family. That was good enough for me.
“Something Evelyn said recently has piqued my curiosity,” he said after we’d let silence fall between us. “She said there was a bruja in town.”
“Witch?” I asked, thinking back to college Spanish. “Like Qindra?”
“Doubtful,” he said. “But not something we should overlook. She was at the grocery the other day, met this woman in the produce section. Evelyn did not like the way she selected her avocados.”
I laughed. “Seriously?”
He grinned at me and shrugged. “Maybe it’s nothing.” He grew silent again. “Still, I’d hate to risk my loved ones just because it seems silly.”
“Good point.” Hell, we’d found worse with less clues. “I’ll be here all weekend. How about I poke around tomorrow?” Could it be Madame Gottschalk? She lived down in Kirkland. Why would she be messing around up here? Or maybe her sister had come over from Minsk. Didn’t feel right either. Something I’d have to look into.
Rolph smiled and nodded. “That would be much appreciated. Do you have the blade with you?”
Here it came. I never knew if he was being generally interested, or if the old crazy cult of the sword stuff was gonna rear its ugly head with him again. He’d searched for that blade for a couple a hundred years after he’d lost track of it. Kinda obsessed.
“Yeah,” I said. “I have it here in town—”
He turned quickly, started to speak, but I cut him off.
“—and it’s in a safe place, no worries. You concentrate on your family.”
He let a sigh escape him and leaned against the railing once more.
“It is as you say. My priorities are with my family now. I have surrendered my responsibilities for the blade to you.” He turned his head slowly and looked at me. The dark of the night and the thick shaggy hair made him look even more sinister than normal. “Do not forget,” he said quietly. “Never let down your guard.”
I nodded and clapped him on the shoulder. “It’s under control, bud. Don’t you worry your pretty little head about it.” I gave him my best grin and he smiled finally.
“You are insolent and brash,” he said, but his voice had lightened. “I question the wisdom of Odin to have marked you in his service. You are capricious. More Loki’s temperament.”
I stepped back, shocked. Loki? The betrayer? Seriously?
He looked back at me and recoiled. “My apologies,” he said, holding up his hands. “I meant no disrespect. I just meant that you are unpredictable, headstrong. No enemy could discern your next action, as you yourself don’t seem to know what it will be.”
I rolled my shoulders and let the muscles loosen up. I’d gone into serious fighter mode at those words. Loki indeed. The Norse gods were a crazy bunch, the whole lot of them. But Loki had betrayed them to the dragons. Who cares that he fell to them in the same assault? Bastard. Fire pulsed through my veins as the runes on my scalp and left calf burned with the call to action.
“Evelyn is on edge,” he said. “The day of the suicide, she collapsed. Juanita found her on the kitchen floor. She said she had felt something powerful. Something she said dealt with death and obligation.” He looked at me. “She has the sight. I have seen this. But this makes no sense.”
Something niggled the back of my mind. Hadn’t Gletts said something about a portal somewhere in Bellingham? Maybe there was more woo-woo activity here than I’d given credit.
“Did this have anything to do with the witch who was picking avocados?”
Rolph grinned sheepishly. “She said that was the biggest reason the woman stood out. She said her aura was painted with the same sweep of energy as when young Katie’s friend killed herself.”
Strange coincidences, I’m sure. But I’d promised to look into things for him. I’d call Qindra; maybe she felt something.
After Rolph went back into the house, I stayed on the porch, rolling my head from side to side, trying to loosen the knots. I needed to go for a run. I had way too much pent-up energy. Sleeping tonight was going to be tough.
After a quarter of an hour or so, Skella came out onto the porch and leaned against the railing to my right.
“Hey,” she said.
She was still dressing like a Goth—all black loose-fitting clothes and black makeup. It was a lot neater, more put together than when I first met her. I guess she was doing okay with the income Black Briar was paying her as an emergency transportation consultant.
“Things have been pretty slow since we busted up Chumstick,” she said. Her voice was full of longing and woe. “I’m bored. At least when I was helping Black Briar keep an eye on that haunted house, it was something. Taking people through the mirrors isn’t exactly high adventure, but it beats sitting around the sick room waiting for Gletts to get better. And don’t get me started about Gran.”
I laughed. Her grandmother Unun led a clan of fairly xenophobic elves. The fact she tolerated me and Katie was close enough to a miracle. “How is the old lady?”
She sighed again. “Gran is getting worse, honestly. Gletts is just pissing me off.” I could see the frustration in her. I was pretty sure she was a few decades older than me, but she acted like she was fourteen most of the time. “He’s stable, the jerk. Personally, I think he’s sandbagging, you know? Perfectly good body and he refuses to step up and carry his load. Just moans about how weak he is. Selfish, that’s what it is.”
She loved Gletts. I knew it. It’s the way she worried about him and protected him. In those first days after he’d been wounded, she was on edge all the time, afraid he’d die. Now he was just being churlish.
“And Gran is just making it worse. She hovers over me all the time, like I’m in danger or something. It’s creepy.”
“She loves you,” I offered. “Cut her some slack.”
Skella sighed and leaned against the railing, like all the wind had been knocked out of her. “I just wish there was something to do.”
“You could get a job, right? I’m sure Rolph could help you get the right papers and all. I don’t suppose you have a birth certificate or driver’s license or anything?”
I knew the answer by the look on her face. Elves don’t usually register with the government. “Strictly underground work for me,” she said. “And that’s getting harder to come by. I don’t want to become a stripper or deal drugs or anything.”
The wind was picking up a little and the temperature was dropping under fifty. I wished I’d brought my jacket.
“What if,” Skella said quietly, as if she said it too loud it would go away, “I was thinking maybe you could get me a job out at Flight Test. I know you’re working on a new movie. I could be an extra or something. Or maybe be a runner. I’m good at getting supplies and such.”
Now that was an idea. My night gig as a props manager was an exercise in managing chaos. Flight Test was in the early stages of filming Cheerleaders of the Apocalypse, and our director, Carl, was always looking for unpaid interns.
“I think we can work something out,” I said. “I’ll discuss it with Carl and Jennifer, but I don’t see why not. Extras aren’t paid very well.”
“Honest?” she asked standing up straight and clapping, totally blowing her Goth mystique.
I looked at her, quirking my eyebrows up.
She quit clapping and grew solemn once again. “Yeah, right. That’s cool.”
Kids. I promised I’d call her and let her know. She was beaming by the time we’d all said our goodbyes and headed to the hotel.
As we drove away, Rolph stood on the porch with little Jacob in his arms and waved to us. I wanted to talk with Katie about what Rolph had told me, but I didn’t want to do it in front of Jai Li. Katie would be concerned, maybe even upset. Jai Li was likely to just be scared, and I didn’t want that.
Family definitely made things different. Having Jai Li in our lives was a curse and a blessing. I loved her. It’s just that the logistics of having a six-year-old hadn’t occurred to either Katie or me at the time. This would be the first time we’d checked into a hotel since we got her. No grown-up time this trip.
I’m not sure I knew how to behave in a hotel room if I had to keep my clothes on all the time. No wonder parents were so crazy. Kids really put a crimp into things. But they’re totally worth it.