The minute bell rang, saving Larissa from this conversation. “Okay everybody, no homework tonight, but review the last few chapters. Big hint here – expect a pop quiz soon.”
Disgruntled voices followed that announcement as the kids grabbed their items and left. Jason went against the tide and came over to her desk. Before he could say anything she took the initiative. “Jason, you’re entitled to your opinion, but you’re not going to convince me otherwise.”
He smiled, the earlier intensity gone. “No, I understand Miss Miller. I was actually going to ask you something else. Would you be my sponsor for the upcoming fall carnival? I want to do a dunking booth. ”
“An oldie but goodie – I approve. Who would be the one dunked?”
“You, of course.”
Of course. When
don’t
the students want to dunk the teacher? “Ah. Silly me for asking.”
“Maybe we can meet up after school today so I can show you my designs and go over a few ideas I had. How about we meet in the gym?”
The gym, which was a separate building from the school and would be very empty after classes were done for the day. Goosebumps rose across the back of her neck. “I’m busy after school. Seventh period study hall, why don’t you meet me in the teacher’s lounge?
“C’mon Miss Miller, it will only take fifteen minutes, and I need you in the gym so you can see what I’ve done so far. We’ve been keeping all the supplies in the back.” The wheedling tone was in direct contrast to that intense look which once again entered his eyes.
“Sorry, I can’t. Let’s plan it for next Tuesday, I’ll meet you then.”
Like hell I will.
His lips thinned for a long moment and his eyes grew stormy. But he came back to himself and all traces of anger at her pronouncement disappeared. “Sure, next Tuesday. But let me know if you have an opening before then. I’m really eager to get on this design.” He turned and left the classroom as other students came filing in.
Jason Evans, all star quarterback and the golden boy of the school, who was unnaturally fixated on necromancers and was doing his best to get her someplace alone.
This needed to end, because either she was starting to jump at shadows or those evil creatures were coming at her through her kids, and like hell she’d let them near her kids.
For the first time since she finished the student side of high school and began the educator side, the final bell ringing brought sweet, sweet relief and thankfulness that the day was done. She was out of the building before most of her students, her little yellow loaner car tearing up the asphalt to get her home. Once home, she closed the curtains tight, hoping that would discourage any knocks from her gargoyle guardian.
She was being a coward. Fully admitted it, would sign a note to that effect. But what else could she do after that kiss…
That kiss.
Gods.
Never had anything like that happened in her life, that flint-to-wood inferno that exploded the moment his lips touched hers. If that was what happened when you called a male a coward, it was something that needed to happen a lot more often.
Every millimeter of his skin branded hers and demanded she press closer, and she wanted to do nothing except obey. There had never been anyone else who had ever caused that reaction, that desperation to have him trapped in the most intimate embrace she could hold him in.
It would have been the most perfect moment of her life, except he was the member of another race, she’d just called him a coward, and he was engaged.
She didn’t mess up often, but when she did, she went big.
The memory brought the 20/20 cringe. Somehow at the time it made sense, she was saving him from a stupid mistake – never mind it was self-serving bunk.
Gargoyles were hardly alone in their philosophy of strength, and not everyone was meant to have the fairy tale that her parents did. Even her parents didn’t have the fairy tale. Reality needed to be acknowledged.
But he was the one who kissed her. He cradled her in his arms and held her tight and made her feel so cherished. If he didn’t return her feelings, if he was at peace with his peoples traditions, then none of that would have happened. Right?
A knock sounded on the door. No, not a knock. Several heavy thumps and a loud, “Damn it, Ris, open this gods damn door now!”
Couldn’t she have one day alone to mope and obsess? After checking the peephole and seeing it was indeed family, Larissa pulled the door open, fixing in place a scowl that would signal her extreme displeasure. “What do you want, Michael?”
He pushed past her, kicking the door closed with the sole of his foot. “Don’t you dare lie to me. What are you involved in?”
Oh he did not. It didn’t matter if he had eight inches and a hundred pounds on her, like hell she was letting him get away with this bullying. “You might want to stop with the attitude right now and back off. I don’t know what you mean.”
Michael was pacing, his hands running in his hair as he talked, the way all the males of her family acted when they were upset. “You aren’t going to throw me off that easily. I’m fucking mad as hell I allowed myself to become so wrapped up in seeing that guy in your apartment that I forgot myself the first time and let you talk me out of what my gut was saying.”
“Nothing was left unfinished the last time.”
“Red running lingerie.”
The out-of-left statement confused her so much she forgot to yell. “What are you talking about?”
“The woman in red running lingerie, that’s what you said you saw at the park. Except how could you have seen the woman who had barely started her run when she was grabbed by the orcs if you weren’t there at the same time? And where is your car? Shall I tell you what lot it’s in and what the current shape is, because I made a point to find it when I realized it disappeared the same day as the attack.”
He tried to tower over her but she wasn’t having it, stepping forward to make him break away. “What orc attack, Michael? The orc attack that was never reported on the news and there is no police record of? You might be on the force, but being the chief of police’s daughter has its own set of advantages. Don’t think I can’t find things out.”
“Why the hell did you go behind my back?”
“
That’s
all you have to say to me? You come here full of righteous indignation while you are hiding all sorts of crap from me, and when called on it you get huffy because I was a little underhanded in finding things out? I’m not playing that. You either come clean to me or you can get out.”
He raked his hand through his hair, creating chaos in the formerly smooth strands. “This isn’t about me.”
Really? He thought he could play that with her? “It sure as hell
is
about you! It’s about the fact that I don’t know what’s what in this world anymore, and even those closest to me have secrets I would never have imagined. So you tell me, Michael – does Dad know? Whatever you’re involved in, does he know about it?”
Muscles ticked in his jaw as he contemplated her, anger still within easy reach but banked at the moment. “Are we coming clean with each other?”
She sat on the couch in front of him, crossing her arms. “You tell me.”
The drumming of his fingers made a staccato against his jean clad leg. He lowered his head as if in defeat. When he brought it up all heat was gone from his gaze. “I wasn’t in the military, not like you think.”
The world shifted beneath her feet, a roller-coaster sensation she didn’t expect and didn’t want. “That isn’t funny.”
“Not meant to be.” He shook his head, coming to sit beside her on the couch. “In Basic, I was recruited for a Special Forces type team.”
“You mean like the SEALS?”
“I mean…” He trailed off. The late afternoon sun came through the window, casting half of him in shadow and making his beloved features a little starker, a little harsher. “There are a lot of dangers in this world. Humans can’t completely place our protection under the control of members of other races. We need to keep a hand in things ourselves.”
“The Seven Houses,” she muttered, and was rewarded with his surprised jump.
“You really do know a lot of things.” He picked at his pants leg. “We’re not enemies and this isn’t about trying to start trouble, but yeah, we can’t leave things entirely to the Seven Houses or the other races governments. We need to remain strong on our own, and I was part of a group whose job is to protect us.”
“Why are you mentioning this to me now?”
He took a deep breath, his face filling with sorrow. “I’ve never left it. I’m still part of that Special Forces team.”
She jumped up, away from him. If he slapped her it would have shocked her less. “You’re a cop, Michael. You’re a cop with Dad and the bros.”
“I came back because it was part of my cover.” He looked up at her, his eyes tired, haunted. “I’m not a cop, I’m undercover. I’m sorry, Ris.”
Her father… “Does Daddy know?”
Michael shook his head, his eyes breaking away from hers.
“This would kill him.” She rubbed her hand against her upper arm, trying to warm herself against this sudden cold. “He’d never recover from this.”
“I know.” Flat, blunt, taking full responsibility for the damage.
“Then why?”
He stood then, his posture not showing any further apology. “Same reason you’re keeping secrets now. To protect him. To protect all of you. All I ever wanted is my family to be safe. Dad buries his head in the sand. I don’t blame him, and I never want to force him to do otherwise, but I knew I had to do things differently.”
When put like that, she couldn’t argue. Everything he said was true, and wasn’t that why she had gone against what she knew her father would have wanted? Having your own thoughts spoken aloud by someone else made it really hard to remain mad at them.
“Your turn. What are you involved with?”
Tiredness hit her like a sledgehammer. These last twenty-four hours had been hell, and she wasn’t out of the woods yet. She wanted to sleep and process, but Michael wouldn’t let this go, not until he knew everything. “How did you know, and don’t tell me lingerie girl – you pieced that together after the fact.”
Michael’s eyes narrowed and became cop’s eyes, questioning and searching out the truth. “A woman named Fallon came to visit me. She said you would recognize her name.”
If she lived a thousand years, Larissa was pretty sure she’d never forget Fallon. “What did she have to say?”
“She didn’t give me any details. She said she had more information about the attacks for you and your guardian, and gave me directions of where to bring you tonight if you wanted to meet.” The pacing started again. “Who does she mean, guardian? The man in your apartment?”
“Yes, he’s been protecting me.”
“And what have you needed protection from?”
She didn’t want to say it. She didn’t want Michael to become part of this nightmare. But he had told his secrets, and that was the deal. “Necromancers.”
Michael’s knees buckled before he righted himself. “Fuck no, fuck no…
Necromancers
, Ris? You don’t know what they can do, the horrors I’ve seen…” He grabbed her hand, pulling her closer to his body. “You’re sure?”
His terror was bringing her own back, batting down walls she’d been using to keep it contained. She had to get away or she would be curled up on the floor. She pulled her hand from his, wiping it over her face as she gave him a nod, the only answer he was going to receive.
He stayed still for several moments, looking lost, his hands clenching at his sides. A word floated through the air. “Why?”
She would give anything to fully know the answer to that question. “They’re going to use me to somehow rip the Human Realm and the Magic Realm apart and return the Magic Realm back to how it was before.”
If Michael was unhappily stunned at the prior mention of necromancers, he was poleaxed at this latest revelation. “Impossible,” he whispered, the slice of sound low and haunted.
She said nothing and let him come to terms with this newest revelation in his own time. When he came out of his stupor his eyes were a laser focus on her. “This Fallon, she’s from the Guild, isn’t she? Fuck, I should have known.”
He didn’t sound happy about this new bit of knowledge. “You know of the Guild?”
“Not because I want to. I’ve been very happy that I haven’t had any run-ins with them this far in life, though I guess that’s changing now.”
“What did you think of her?”
He didn’t hesitate. “That she’s scary as hell and you’d be ten shades of stupid to mess with her.” He took a few moments then, and she saw protective older brother fade to be replaced by cool cop logic. “That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t meet up with her and see if you can learn something, as long as you have your back-up guardian – who, by the way, you haven’t fully explained yet.”
“I can’t explain him.”
Michael narrowed his eyes at her. “Larissa…”
She held up a finger in warning. “Don’t take that tone with me. I can tell you my secrets, but I won’t betray those who have been protecting me all this time. I would be dead several times over if it wasn’t for the male that you saw. He’s been by my side throughout all of this.”
Michael’s hands slipped into the pockets of his jeans. “I’m sorry you didn’t feel like you could have come to me, to the family.”
“It’s not that I couldn’t, it’s that I wouldn’t. Protection, right? If something had happened to any of you because of me… it was easier to risk myself alone.”
He came over and enveloped her in a giant hug, squeezing her so hard she was lifted a few inches off the ground. “Never again. No matter what, you come to us.”
“No.” She pushed away from him. “I still don’t want Dad to know, and I have others to protect me, people more qualified than Dad or the other bros.”
She could see the war behind his eyes at that statement, but after long moments he nodded. “Yeah. I hear you.”
“Thanks.”
He looked around the room, taking in the family photographs that lined her walls. “So what now, Miss Hear-Me-Roar?”
She smacked his arm, a giggle escaping. Gods, it felt good to laugh again, even such a small sound. “I need to see Fallon. It’s time we all laid our cards face up, because cloak-and-dagger is not my thing, and if the Guild can help, I’m want to meet with them.” Jason’s face flashed before her, the weird intense look in his eyes as disturbing in memory as it was in person. “This might be affecting people close to me. It needs to end, no matter how unsure I am about my possible allies.”