“Wait, what?” blinked Alex.
“Girl talk,” said Molly, sticking her tongue out at him. “Amber, you coming?”
“I’m good, thanks,” she answered.
Thinking of Rachel, Lorelei forced herself to let Amber stay behind. She led the two other women through the crowd.
“I thought all you women were supposed to go to the bathroom in a pack?” Jason asked.
“I never fit in with that,” she shrugged. Her head tilted. “Alex, what’s wrong?”
He turned to look in every direction. A frown grew ever deeper on his face. “I just lost my dates,” he complained, more to himself than anyone else. “Both my dates. How the hell did I manage to lose both my dates?”
Behind him, Wade tugged on Drew’s sleeve. As they leaned together, Wade asked, “Y’all notice the two different guys on opposite sides of us who keep taking pictures with us conveniently in view?”
“Uh. No,” Drew admitted. “No, I haven’t.”
“Ninja at eight o’clock. Spider-Man at two o’clock.”
Drew smiled broadly and waited a beat before glancing in that direction, doing his best to be subtle about it. “Sure you aren’t being paranoid?”
“Nope,” Wade shook his head. “Of course, ah’d ask maybe one of our supernatural buddies t’ check it out, but they all just took off.”
“Ninja looks like he’s leaving now,” Drew said, noting how the two both turned their backs to head out. “You wanna follow? Or talk to Spidey?”
“Let’s follow the ninja,” Wade said. “This turns out all wrong, ah’m gonna feel terrible for punchin’ out a childhood superhero. Hey, Alex,” he called, “Drew an’ me are gonna go check somethin’ out.”
Alex blinked. “Okay?”
“Stay with Jason an’ Amber,” Wade advised as he and Drew headed out. He had no time for anything more than that.
Alex watched as the pair disappeared. He turned to Jason and Amber, who stood just out of earshot. “Where’d Drew and Wade go?” Jason asked.
“Bathroom or the bar, I guess?” Alex shrugged. “This party broke up fast.”
“Aw, don’t worry,” Amber assured him. “We’ll stay with you.”
Jason winced. As soon as Amber looked away, Alex held out his hands in a plea and mouthed out, “Sorry!”
* * *
Rachel didn’t go far. She only needed to ensure no one would see her fade out of sight or touch from mortals. Then she immediately spun 180 degrees and stomped back through the crowd, literally passing through people on her way.
No angels blocked her path. Most of the guardians hovered above the crowd, watching their charges for as long as they could spare, then flying off to look in on other charges in other locations. Others lingered. A given guardian angel had to split his or her attention between many charges, and had to prioritize appropriately. Some guardians took a hands-off approach. Some guardians intervened more than others.
A few guardians were wet blankets. “Daniel!” Rachel snapped as she found him looming over Jason and his date.
“Oh, now she wants to talk,” huffed the other angel. He folded his arms across his chest and frowned to show his indignation.
“Now? What the fuck, Daniel?”
His brow knit together in further disapproval. “Must you be so coarse?”
“Yes. Suck it up. Daniel, you could’ve come talk to me at any time. Anyone can. You know that. Open door, like I told everyone when I got the job. What’s with the fuckin’ attitude all of a sudden?”
“You might have been a little more pro-active.”
“I’m pro-active about all sorts of shit! Daniel, my job is to watch over the city as a whole, not tell you guardians how to do your jobs. Every fuckin’ one of you has more experience at your job than I’ve got at mine. Besides, is my management style what you want to talk about right now?”
“Perhaps it is,” came the other angel’s sour reply.
“Oh, get off my ass,” Rachel scowled. “I know damn well you can’t be comfortable with that.” She pointed to Amber without even looking at her. The young woman had her arms draped around Jason’s neck, fingers knit together as she pulled him away from the group’s table. Alex followed.
Daniel glanced at his mortal charge and huffed again. “Yes. Well. I can’t say I didn’t see anything like this coming after everything your mortal boyfriend and that hussy you’ve shacked up with have already put my Jason through.”
“Wha-! What the shit, Daniel? Are you gonna explain what’s up or just take cheap fuckin’ shots at me all night?”
He grumbled and shifted his stance and fought with himself over what to say. “It’s the sort of thing that we must leave to mortal hands.”
“Spill!”
“She’s an undercover agent. Jason represents a lead on her case. She’s posing as a classmate to get close to him and his friends.”
“Yeah, I got that much from just looking at her, thanks,” fumed Rachel. “Who’s she work for? Jason’s not even dirty enough to have gone anal on those bimbos he was with last month-“
Daniel’s eyes fairly bugged out of his head. “Can we please not discuss such things?”
“-let alone commit crimes, so what’s she after? And who’s her guardian?”
“I am,” came a voice to Rachel’s side. She stood almost a head taller than Rachel, with dark hair hanging to her shoulders and a stern, proud look in her eyes. The angel looked Rachel up and down, giving no hint of approval with her expression. “Theresa,” she said.
Rachel stopped herself, taking a breath to control her emotions. “Sorry we’re meeting like this.”
“Indeed,” nodded Theresa. “I was told that you do not require guardians to meet with you upon entering your dominion?”
“No,” Rachel shook her head. “I don’t micro-manage. You guys know what you’re doing.”
“Excellent. I’m glad you understand this.”
Rachel blinked. “Okay, I don’t want to read you wrong, so I’ll just ask: are you unhappy about something here?”
“You seem quite unhappy yourself.”
“What, apart from my friendly banter with Daniel?”
“Huh. Friendly banter,” Daniel repeated sourly.
“I’ve heard a good deal about you,” said Theresa. “I haven’t liked much of it.”
Rachel’s jaw slowly clenched. “Oh, for the love of fuck. Please tell me you weren’t spreadin’ ‘em for Vincent, too.”
“Hardly. I’ve more sense than that,” Theresa replied. Rather than wait to see if Rachel caught the veiled insult in her comment, she continued. “You know full well that your actions are not lauded by everyone, regardless of the opinion of your council. I am happy to know good things arose from your fiasco. I am not entirely comfortable with the way in which that happened… or how certain vital standards have been allowed to slide in your special case.”
“Nice,” Rachel sighed. “Well, welcome to Seattle and all that bullshit. Guess we can skip trying to be friendly. What the fuck is up with your girl?”
Theresa’s gaze turned on Daniel just long enough to stare a few daggers at him. “I’m sure our associate here has told you more than enough already.”
“Like fuck he has. Who does your girl work for, and what’s she investigating?”
“I’m not sure it’s best for you to know, Rachel,” Theresa replied. “You are quite close to the situation. Your direct involvement has compromised these mortals enough already, hasn’t it?”
Rachel’s eyes flared. “Oh, holy shit, you’re gonna walk into my city and piss all over everything that’s happened in the last month before you even take a look around? Is that your plan? I am way more careful with my involvement than you are with your fuckin’ attitude, stranger. Tell me what’s going on.”
“Is that an order?” Theresa asked. Her cool tone relaxed somewhat, but not so much as to signal an apology.
“No,” answered Rachel. She forced herself not to growl. “Call it a request for professional fu-courtesy. Professional courtesy,” she repeated, though her glare showed nothing of the sort. “I’m worried about Jason ‘cause he’s my friend and I care about him, and I can see plain as day how mixed up about him your girl is. But that’s her emotional train wreck to live through, and yours. I wanna know if this is small-time bullshit or if it’s something serious.”