Authors: SM Reine
I’d been prepared for that question. “I had to broker a deal with a local demon in order to immobilize the werewolf and save Director Friederling.”
“The same demon that raided the Silverton Mine after we had already been assaulted once earlier in the day.” It wasn’t a question. She drummed her lacquered fingernails on the desk. The sound was like hammering coffin nails. “You used a secure line above your clearance to order the release of that artifact. The same line that you had already violated to notify me.”
“I stand responsible for Agent Hawke and everything he might know,” Fritz said.
Lucrezia nodded. “Yes. You do.” That sounded awfully foreboding. “Well, did you at least complete the mission? Did you validate the cause of the unusual spike of infernal energy in the Reno-Sacramento territory?”
I exchanged glances with Fritz. He shook his head fractionally.
We hadn’t been able to verify that David Nicholas was dead. I’d scoped out Craven’s while Fritz was healing and everything there seemed to be business as usual. Since knowing details about the Night Hag’s plans was something David Nicholas was happy to kill over, I didn’t want to spread that love around. Not even with Lucrezia de Angelis.
Seemed like I was privy to all kinds of fatal knowledge I didn’t want to possess these days.
Fritz was the one who lied. “It turned out to be an equipment error. There is no unusual infernal activity in Reno, Nevada, and there is no reason for continued OPA presence in the territory.”
Lucrezia seemed satisfied by that answer, giving a sharp nod and tapping a note into her smart phone. “Nonetheless, we will establish the outpost in Fallon. A werewolf and a cult in the area is no coincidence. This area is worth observation.” She shot us a look over her phone. “I had initially thought to put you in charge of the new outpost, Director Friederling, but it seems that you require retraining in protocol, particularly where data security is involved.”
“I understand,” he said with only the slightest flinch.
“We’ll give the new base to Gary Zettel. He has other matters to attend to locally anyway.” Lucrezia tapped away at her phone even faster than before. “All that remains is the matter of what to do with Agent Cèsar Hawke.”
The bottom of my stomach dropped out. “I’ll sign whatever I need to. I’ll go to special training. I’ll swear a blood oath.”
“That won’t be necessary,” she said. “Will it, Director? Have you chosen him?”
“I have,” Fritz said.
I glanced between them. “Wait, chosen me for what?”
“You’ve been assigned as Director Friederling’s aspis,” Lucrezia said. “You’ll both receive special training and perform the binding ritual shortly. Now, if that’s all…”
I knew a dismissive tone when I heard one. But even through the cold wash of shock—
I’m going to be Fritz’s aspis?
—I knew that there was one other thing we needed to address.
Fritz stood, but I remained sitting.
“I have one request,” I said. Lucrezia gestured, indicating that I should speak. “It’s about the necromancer named Ann…”
The University of Nevada, Reno had a decently green campus considering that it was stuck in some godforsaken desert valley. The quad was grassy. The trees were big and old. Add in all of the distinguished brick buildings and it almost might have passed for Ivy League if you squinted your eyes hard enough.
Okay, maybe not.
But it wasn’t bad, anyway. I’d visited the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, so I’d seen a heck of a lot worse than UNR.
“College,” Ann said blandly.
“That’s right,” Isobel said. Her smile looked forced. “College. What do you think?”
Ann shuffled her feet, hung her head. “I don’t know. I wasn’t planning on leaving the temple in Helltown. I’ve got everything that I need there.”
“You can bring everything that matters most here,” Isobel said. “We’ve already rented a townhouse for you on the north side of town—just a short bike ride away. Anything you want us to stock in your new home? Just tell us. We can get you everything you need.”
Everything except the permanent fixtures of Helltown, anyway. Like the temple that Ann had lived in, the demons that were a constant danger to her life, and all the other great influences that came from living in an infernal neighborhood.
Ann didn’t look excited, but this was exactly what the kid needed. An actual education. Normal human peers. A chance for a regular life.
A life where she would never have to bludgeon anyone to death ever again.
What she had done was freaky. No doubt about that. But the freaky factor didn’t change the fact that she had saved my life, in her sick way, and that she was just some kid who had a lot of really terrible influences in her young life.
Everyone deserved a second chance.
Even Ann.
“You’ll like college life,” I said. “You could join a…uh…” I’d been about to say sorority, but then I tried to imagine her willingly hanging out with living human girls, and that just didn’t compute. “Anyway, I had a great time at UCLA. Made a lot of great friends. Took great classes.”
Got higher than a kite a few times.
She didn’t need to know that part.
She still looked dubious. “Yeah, I guess.”
“Free room and board for four years, plus two extra if you move on to graduate school,” Isobel said firmly. “And a budget for some fun stuff on the side. All you have to do is stay in school.”
“Here? Why?”
Isobel shrugged. “Why not?”
University of Nevada, Reno: Why Not?
Now that was a slogan for the ages.
“There’s a cemetery just north of the campus,” I added.
That got Ann’s attention. Her eyes brightened. For the first time, I realized that her irises were blue. Kinda pretty. I hadn’t noticed them hiding behind her thick glasses earlier. “Really?”
“Yeah. Our Mother of Sorrows. You can reach it by going under a bridge by the north parking lot.” I’d seen it with Isobel when we first came to the campus to talk to the administration. I wouldn’t have even noticed, but Isobel had gotten the same bright look in her eyes when we walked past. Death witches and their graves, what could I say?
“Hmm,” Ann said.
She wandered away from us to explore the quad. We hung back to let her get her bearings on her own.
Isobel had returned from Los Angeles just for this moment, and I was glad that she had. It was nice standing here with her in the sunshine, watching Ann spread her creepy fledgling wings, taking her first creepy steps out on her own. I wouldn’t have wanted to share the moment with anyone else.
It looked like there was something going on at the student center, since people were streaming toward the doors. Ann stood beside the line without joining it. At a distance, Ann’s slouchy jeans and half-hunched back and pasty skin made her look like all the other kids.
“I’m feeling something,” I said. “It’s this weird squishy thing in my stomach.”
Isobel grinned at me. “Could it be pride? Are you proud of the necromancer girl you can barely tolerate?”
“Maybe. Wait, no—I think it’s indigestion.”
Her laugh made the gray spring day just a little bit brighter. “You were right, Cèsar. Ann really needs this.”
“I like to think that I have good ideas occasionally.” But only occasionally, punctuating all the other bad ideas I was much better at having.
Isobel looped her arm around my waist, squeezing me tight. We fit together well. I liked it.
Ann returned to us.
“I guess I’ll stay,” she said, her cheeks glowing bright red. “Thank you.”
I dropped the keys to the townhouse into her hand. It was on a keychain that also had her new address and the key to a used pickup truck we had bought for her. The truck was red. No OPA black for Ann. “You’re welcome, kiddo.”
“I’m going to go check out the cemetery,” she said. “Guess you two are leaving now?”
I glanced at the mountains. The sun was still plenty high, but I was itching to escape northern Nevada before darkness hit. “Yeah, I think so. Call us if you need anything?”
Ann’s eyes gleamed. “I don’t think that will be a problem.”
With that, she walked away, disappearing into the crowds of students.
“That’s our good deed for the month,” I said, sauntering back toward the SUV with Isobel under my arm. We had the OPA special. It was one of the newest models, very comfortable for eight-hour drives down the most boring stretch of highway on the face of the Earth, also known as The Five.
“Only one good deed a month?” Isobel asked. A mischievous smile crossed her lips. “Does that mean all our other deeds are naughty?”
I think she’d meant that to be teasing, but it just made me think of every horrible thing I was starting to suspect about the OPA. “Where our agency is concerned, I really don’t know.”
Her smile faded. “How much trouble are we in, Cèsar? How bad is the situation?”
I thought of bleeding apples, werewolves, and the number of supposedly allied kopides that had tried to kill me. I also thought of Fritz waiting for me in Los Angeles and how I was about to sign away the last of my freedom in the form of a binding ritual. Now that I was going to be an aspis, the OPA owned me body and soul.
Didn’t get much worse than that.
“Bad,” I said, slipping on a pair of sunglasses. “Real bad.”
We still got in the SUV and headed back to Los Angeles.
Tomorrow was Monday. We had work to do.
DEAR READER,
I HOPE you’ve enjoyed
Silver Bullet
! If you’d like to know when the next Preternatural Affairs novel (
Hotter than Helltown
) comes out, visit
my website
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new release email alerts
.
I hope you’ll also leave a review with your thoughts on the site where you bought
Silver Bullet
—it helps other readers find the series, and I appreciate the feedback!
Happy reading!
Sara (SM Reine)