“No.”
“No phone calls home, either,” noted Jon. “Drew’s family is bound to get worried in a day or two.”
“You’ll have to cross that bridge when you come to it,” said Elizabeth.
Theresa put her hand over Elizabeth’s. The other angel withdrew hers quickly, looking to her comrade with sudden annoyance. Theresa ignored it. “Rachel, as you say, no one is leaving your dominion and no one has come to serious harm. This is a trying predicament for Wade and Drew, but it isn’t fatal and it isn’t born of evil. The same can be said for Jason.”
“Is he with Amber right now?” asked Rachel.
“Yes. They are safe. I will look in on them again as soon as we depart.”
“It concerns me,” Elizabeth spoke up, “that your sorcerous ‘predicament’ puts you into such close contact with these mortals that you would take this personal involvement in their matters.”
At that, Rachel dropped her professionally pleasant expression and stopped trying to fight her scowl. “You wanna check the fuckin’ attitude, princess? Some nasty supernatural motherfuckers have come into my city lookin’ for mortal scalps, and these three guys are damn sure on their hit list. Friendship or not, that makes all this my business. And you don’t know how many conversations I have with my other guardians about the mortals they watch over every fuckin’ day of the week, so maybe you wanna watch and learn before you judge, okay?”
Her eyes swept the group. Jon and Marvin’s frustration remained. Theresa closed her eyes to hold her temper in check. If anything, Sergio seemed to show some sympathy for Rachel’s concerns.
Elizabeth just turned her head down and looked away. “As you wish, Dominion.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, we’re all on the same side here last I checked,” grumbled Rachel. “Look, I don’t wanna take up any more of your time. You all got shit to get to. Just stay on your toes and don’t be a stranger to the other local angels. We’ve got good communications going around here finally and we need to make use of them. If it looks like this is going to go supernaturally pear-shaped, I need to know immediately, capeesh?”
“We’ll give a yell,” nodded Sergio.
Elizabeth couldn’t hold it back. “Do you plan to tell your succubus? Or your mortal lover?”
“I plan to stick to my fuckin’ duties and keep the fuckin’ faith with my fellow angels,” Rachel said through gritted teeth. “Hope everyone else does as well. We through?”
“Yes. We’re done here,” Theresa answered quickly. She turned to Elizabeth and Sergio. “Come on.”
Rachel blew a lock of her blonde hair out of her face as the trio left. She turned her eyes to Jon and Marvin. “How bad is it?”
The pair looked at one another with slight discomfort. “It’s ugly,” Marvin said. “The leader of this investigation doesn’t have the soundest judgment. He’s not after Wade or Drew, though. He wants the vampires. And the werewolves. Our boys are just a means to that end.”
“As far as we can tell, anyway,” added Jon. “Our concern is guardianship of our charges, after all. It’s not our place to follow the agents around.”
“They haven’t spoken to either Wade or Drew since last night, either,” Marvin nodded. “At the moment, they’re both being kept isolated. The most harm they have suffered since last night has been from boredom and worry. They’re tough. They’ve come through okay this far.”
Jon snorted. “You’d probably be proud of them, actually.”
“Always am,” Rachel said. She let out a heavy breath. “Okay. Thank you. Find me and let me know if this goes wrong, okay?” She gave each of them a slap on the arm and then strode off the side of the building.
Marvin and Jon exchanged frowns. “You didn’t tell her about Hauser’s angel.”
“You didn’t, either.”
“Of course not! I didn’t want her to punch me.”
“Well, she’ll find out sooner or later… just hope I’m there to see it.”
“And hope she doesn’t punch both of us afterward?”
* * *
Anticipation built throughout the short drive back to Onyx and Molly’s home, muting the friendly banter and laughter shared in the restaurant. Streetlights flashed past as Molly drove. Though she normally kept the stereo on, tonight she opted, without conscious thought, to leave it off.
None of them missed the change of mood.
Sitting in the back of the car, Alex found himself staring at his companions. He could only see so much: arms, shoulders, their necks and hair. He wanted to see more, of course. His body and mind often reacted this way to attractive women… but in the case of these two friends, it went beyond that. There was much more.
He broke the silence: “When do you have to be in class tomorrow?”
“We both start at nine,” Onyx answered.
“Yeah, we didn’t think about that,” grumbled Molly. “You gonna be okay without stuff from home?”
“Sure. I’ll just buy a notebook and a pen from the bookstore before class.”
Again, they drifted into silence. Alex accepted it, sensing that no one found it uncomfortable. That alone bode well for them.
They arrived. Parked. Exited the car in the ever-present light rain, still in silence. Onyx found Alex’s hand with hers and held it as they walked across the small apartment complex. Molly unlocked the door and opened it, looking back over her shoulder with a quiet smile. She discarded her leather jacket as Onyx closed the door and threw all three of the locks.
Alex took his cue from Onyx: like her, he hung his coat up on the rack beside the door.
Despite mutual hopes and desires, none of them knew who would or should make the first move. Every experience had its own mood and context. He didn’t feel the least bit awkward, though, and much like the silence in the car he found that promising.
“What do you think?” Molly asked Onyx, still smiling quietly.
“Oh, you know what I think already,” Onyx said, blushing a bit in spite of her comfort. “The question is what you want?”
Molly glanced thoughtfully at Alex, then back at Onyx. “Yeah. I’m there with you. Might not be the wisest thing, but it feels right.”
Alex waited. Onyx turned to him and explained. “Two things. First, our bedroom is kind of a disaster, like the rest of this apartment. We didn’t expect company. There are dirty clothes and books and disorganized bits of make-up everywhere.”
“’I’m shocked,’” Alex deadpanned, “’shocked to discover that gambling is going on in here.’”
“Shit, he just quoted Casablanca,” Molly blinked.
Onyx couldn’t help her grin. “Told you he was cool.”
“What’s the second thing?”
“Witch stuff. We need a minute. You can watch, if you want. So, uh… that time we got together… I was being careful. I had my defenses up.”
He cracked a grin. “Okay, I know this is gonna sound like a total line, but the whole thing with Lorelei means I’m sterile and I can’t catch any diseases,” he said, scratching his head.
Molly and Onyx both erupted in laughter.
“No, it’s true!” Alex laughed back. “Succubae aren’t meant to spread misery-at least, not like that. I mean they spread all sorts of hate and drama anyway, but that’s about scheming, not…” The ladies kept laughing. He sighed and said, “Look, the point is, whatever you want me to do to be ‘safe,’ I’ll do it. Condom, magic spells, whatever. I don’t need it, but I don’t expect you to believe that.”
The laughter abated. “Wait, wait,” Molly chuckled, waving her hands. “So all these women you’ve hooked up with-“
“You realize I can still at least count ‘em all on my fingers, right?”
She paused to laugh again. “They do expect you to wrap it up, right?”
“They usually don’t even think about it,” he admitted, looking at the floor. “It’s a succubus cootie thing, I guess.” Eventually the laughter from that died off, too. “Again, though,” Alex pushed on, “anything you want me to do-“