"You have, Sherry," Bricker said suddenly.
"Excuse me?" she asked, glancing to the young man with confusion.
"You have seen Nicholas and Jo before," he explained with amusement. "Just not up close and probably not clearly. They were in the--"
"SUV," Sherry finished for him, recognizing the names now. They'd been the hunters in the SUV that followed Leo and his boys. She glanced to the pair with concern. "Were you able to catch those men? Is the woman all right?"
Nicholas's mouth turned even grimmer at the question, and it was Jo who said, "No. Leo crashed the car and then he and his boys fled on foot in different directions. But we had to stop and help the woman. She was pretty banged up."
"Will she be okay?" Sherry asked, recalling the terror on the woman's face when she'd found her friends dragged out of the car and herself trapped in that backseat with Leo's boys.
"Yes," Jo assured her, and then grimaced and added, "Eventually. She really was badly banged up. The emergency room doctor thought she would need months of physiotherapy." She forced a smile and added, "But that's better than what Leo and his sons would have done to her."
"And what he will do to his next victims," Lucian said grimly.
Jo frowned and scowled at the man. "I know you think we should have left her and chased after Leo, but she was trapped in the car and it was on fire. She would have burned alive if we hadn't stopped."
"It was in downtown Toronto," he said heavily. "There were plenty of mortals there to help her."
"They couldn't have got her out of the car, Lucian," Jo snapped. "Nicholas had to bend metal to get her out. Mortals couldn't have done that."
"So you saved one woman and let Leo run free to claim numerous other victims," Lucian said grimly. "I doubt the families of his future victims will think it was a fair exchange."
"You were not there, Uncle," Nicholas growled. "We did what we thought was right at the time."
"You mean you knew you should have followed Leo, but did what your softhearted wife thought was right," Lucian snapped.
"No, of course he didn't," Jo said at once. "I didn't ask him to stop. I was going to do it myself."
"But he feared you are not strong enough yet to bend the metal and get the woman out," Lucian informed her. "So he reluctantly stopped to help because he feared your soft heart, combined with your stubbornness, would keep you trying right up until the car exploded and took the lives of both the woman and yourself."
"No," Jo protested, and then turned to peer at the man whose lap she sat in. "That's not why you stopped, is it?"
"It is," Lucian assured her when Nicholas merely avoided her gaze. "And that is why I do not think life mates should work together anymore."
"Well then, you will lose a hunter," Nicholas said grimly. "Because Jo is not working without me to watch her back."
"You'll lose two hunters," Jo corrected firmly. "Because I don't want Nicholas hunting without me there to watch his back."
"Honey," Nicholas said gently, caressing her cheek. "I have been a hunter for a long time, I would be fine."
Jo didn't soften. "If you go out hunting without me there to watch your back, then I will work with someone else."
"She can work with me!" Leigh said cheerfully. "I've been practicing my marksmanship and fighting. I'm ready to be a hunter."
"No!" Nicholas and Lucian barked together, the sound a small explosion in the room.
"No offense, Leigh," Nicholas said into the silence that followed. "It is not you. I simply will not have Jo work without me."
"Then either we work together or we don't work at all," Jo insisted, and when he scowled, added, "Otherwise, I guess Leigh and I will be teaming up."
"Over my dead body," Lucian growled.
"That could be arranged if you like," Jo said sweetly.
Much to Sherry's amazement, Lucian's lips twitched with amusement at the words, but he said, "Leigh is not going to be a hunter."
"I'm not?" Leigh asked gently. "And who says so?"
Lucian opened his mouth, closed it, and then reasoned, "You are far too busy to take on any kind of job right now, my love. You have two babies to look after."
"We have two babies to look after," Leigh pointed out firmly, and then smiled and added, "And we could manage. You could take them during the day while Jo and I work, and then I can watch them at night while you work."
Sherry wasn't sure which horrified the man more. He turned green at the mention of him looking after the babies, but then paled terribly at the part about Leigh working with Jo. The women had obviously chosen their threat well. Neither man would want their wives--two newly turned immortals and relatively inexperienced hunters--working together without more experienced backup.
"Or," Leigh said now, "you could just let Nicholas and Jo continue to work together, and I can get in a little more practice and wait for the babies to start walking and talking before I consider day care." She frowned now and asked, "Is there such a thing as day care for immortal babies?"
Rather than answer his wife's question, Lucian turned a fierce scowl on Nicholas and Jo. "You can continue to work together." Shifting his focus onto Jo completely then, he added, "But you are completely responsible for every-and anyone Leo kills from here on out."
"Lucian," Leigh said with a frown when Jo paled. "That's harsh."
"Perhaps," he agreed wearily. "But it is also true. And perhaps next time, knowing that will help Jo ignore what her soft heart wants her to do, and do the right thing instead." He turned back to Jo and added quietly, "If given the choice between one life or capturing Leo, you have to remember that you cannot save everyone, and that letting Leo go means many more deaths. Deaths that are on your head."
All the fight seemed to go out of Jo then. Nodding, she sank against Nicholas's chest and buried her face in his neck. Nicholas promptly stood and carried her out of the room.
"Well," Sam said dryly. "Anyone still hungry? Or shall I put the pizza in the refrigerator until later?"
Bricker snorted at the suggestion and grabbed one of the six pizza boxes. "Screw that. I'm starved."
"So am I," Stephanie announced, grabbing a second box and carrying it to the table. "Come on, Sherry, Basil. Grab some before Bricker eats it all."
Sherry smiled faintly, the tension that had claimed her during the previous exchange easing, and then she turned to Basil questioningly. Did he have an appetite for food again? It was apparently one of the signs of having met a life mate, along with shared passion. But while she'd certainly experienced a great deal of passion earlier with Basil, Sherry wasn't sure if she'd actually experienced the shared pleasure he'd mentioned. She'd just sort of exploded with desire when he kissed her. His suddenly having an appetite would be more of an indicator to her than what had passed between them earlier.
He smiled and opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, Lucian barked, "Basil. The council meeting is in fifteen minutes. We have to go."
"Oh. Right." Basil glanced at his watch. Sighing, he turned to Sherry and said apologetically, "I have to go. Will you be all right?"
"Of course she will," Stephanie said cheerfully, catching her hand and pulling her toward an empty chair at the table. "I'll look after her. You go ahead. She'll be here when you get back."
"Right." Basil hesitated, and for one minute Sherry suspected he was going to kiss her good-bye, but in the end he merely nodded and turned to follow Lucian out of the room. She watched him go, surprised at how disappointed she was that he had to leave her.
"Don't worry. He'll be back," Stephanie said cheerfully. "He won't be able to stay away from you for long from now on. In the meantime, have some pizza. It's really good."
Five
"I am amazed at how well you seem to be accepting all of this."
Sherry glanced up from washing her hands to meet Drina's gaze in the bathroom mirror. They were in the women's washroom of a service center about forty-five minutes from their destination of Port Henry. On
spotting the sign that they were approaching the rest stop, Stephanie had announced a need to use the bathroom, so Drina had taken the off ramp when they reached it. Once they got here, however, everyone had decided that using the bathroom was a good idea.
"You do not seem to be overly distressed about us, and that is rather rare," Drina continued with a wry twist of the lips. "Most mortals have at least a mini nervous breakdown when they find out about us."
Sherry smiled faintly as she retrieved her hands from under the automatic tap and moved to the sensory paper towel dispenser. "Believe me, I'm freaking out inside. I just hide it well."
"She is," Katricia announced, coming out of one of the booths and moving to a sink. Smiling kindly at Sherry, she added, "But it is not a serious 'freak' out. Just a sort of is-this-really-happening-or-did-someone-slip-me-a-mickey-and-I-am-having-some-drugged-out-hallucination 'freak' out."
Sherry glanced to the girl with surprise. That exact thought had run through her mind several times since Stephanie had rushed into her office.
"No way!"
Startled, Sherry turned to the line of booths when Stephanie screeched that from inside one of them. A flush sounded and then a door opened and the teenager rushed out, her eyes immediately seeking out Katricia.
"You can read her?" she asked with disbelief.
Katricia nodded. "Yes. She is hard to read, though. You have to concentrate and focus and then it is still a bit fuzzy."
Stephanie turned to Drina. "What about you?"
"Yes."
Sherry was actually surprised at the answer. Since the woman had thought she was handling all of this well, she'd assumed she couldn't read her somewhat scattered thoughts.
"Your thoughts are a bit scattered," Drina acknowledged, as if she'd spoken aloud. "But trust me, it is nothing like how some people react."
Katricia nodded. "You really are handling this well."
"Thanks," she murmured, looking the woman over. This was Basil's daughter . . . who was born in 411 AD. Sherry hadn't really got the chance to do more than utter a quick hello to the girl as she'd been hustled into the van when they'd left the Enforcer house that morning. The start of her day had been rather rushed. After a restless night as she tossed and turned, fretting over everything that had happened the day before and everything she'd learned since, Sherry had been roused from sleep that morning by Stephanie bursting into her room to tell her they were leaving in half an hour and if she wanted coffee and breakfast before they left she'd best get up.
Sherry was out of bed and pulling on her clothes even as the girl whirled and rushed back out. They were her clothes from the day before. There had been no choice. Lucian had arranged for her purse to be collected from the store and returned to her the night before. He'd then requested her keys and given them to Justin with the order to go pack her a bag. However, Justin hadn't returned by the time she'd gone to bed.
She'd spotted her suitcase by the front door when she got downstairs and briefly considered dragging it back up to her room to find her toothbrush, brush her teeth, and change her clothes, but the smells from the kitchen had convinced her to put it off until after she'd eaten. She'd found Sam, Mortimer, Justin, Stephanie, and Basil already eating in the kitchen and had eagerly joined them. But she'd regretted that decision when Katricia and Drina arrived just as she was finishing her breakfast and she found herself rushed out of the house and into the van without the opportunity to change first.
Her introduction to the two women had been a brief, "Sherry this is my daughter, Katricia and my niece Drina," as Basil handed her into the van behind Stephanie. Sherry had murmured a "Hello, nice to meet you" almost over her shoulder as she climbed inside and then they'd been on their way. With Drina driving, Katricia in the front passenger seat, and Stephanie alone on the first bench seat in the back, Basil and Sherry were left to take the back bench seat. It made conversation difficult, and all Sherry could see of Katricia was the back of her head.
Now Sherry took note of Katricia's blond hair, athletic body, fine facial features, and silver-blue eyes and thought she definitely took after her father in looks. Katricia seemed nice too, as far as Sherry could tell, and that made her wonder if the girl knew that she was supposedly her father's life mate.
"There is no supposedly about it," Katricia said with amusement, finishing at the sink and moving to the paper towel dispenser. "Uncle Lucian said it was certain. He also mentioned catching the two of you being naughty in the kitchen, and my father has never forgotten himself so much as to do something like that. You must be life mates."
"We were just kissing," Sherry said at once, blushing brightly as she assured herself that was really all it had been. Okay, maybe there was some groping and stuff too, she acknowledged vaguely, but being naughty made it sound like they had actually been doing the dirty on the kitchen counter, and while things might have been heading in that direction, Lucian's arrival prevented it.
Thank God, she thought, but not with much conviction. As embarrassing as it would have been to be caught further along in their passionate exchange, she couldn't help but think it very well might have been worth it. Basileios had knocked more than her socks off with his kisses and caresses, and she'd been jonesing for more ever since, but Basil hadn't done more than give her a peck on the cheek when he saw her to her room the night before.
"The passion between life mates is rather powerful," Drina said quietly, making it known that she at least was still in her thoughts. "But Uncle Basil is old-school."
Sherry wasn't sure what that meant exactly. She knew the man was old, but--
"He was raised in Atlantis," Katricia added gently. "They were taught to always be respectful, especially to women. He will try to fight his urges in order to give you time to adjust. It is the gentlemanly thing to do."
"Oh," Sherry said, doing her best to ignore that she was blushing and that this was the weirdest conversation she'd ever had. The daughter of the man she was lusting after was reassuring her that his lack of jumping her was out of respect, not any lack of desire. Weird.
"Yes, you could say we are weird," Drina said suddenly with amusement. "But then over time I have learned that normal is kind of overrated . . . and really boring."
"Yeah, I guess it is," Sherry said with a grin. Certainly, her life had been going along in a nice, normal fashion before Stephanie burst into her office. Comparing it to her life now, just a day later, her life before did seem kind of boring.
"Oh, come on," Stephanie said suddenly with disgust as she finished drying her hands and tossed the paper towel away. "This is so unfair. I can't hear what she's thinking so I'm only getting half the conversation."
"Ah, poor Steph," Drina teased lightly, slinging an arm around the girl's shoulders and steering her toward the door. "I guess you will just have to try harder to read her. I suspect if you do, you will find you can read her too."
"Really?" Stephanie asked, glancing over her shoulder as Sherry and Katricia followed the pair out of the bathroom.
"Really," Drina assured her, urging her to the side to avoid a collision with a supporting column. "But try doing it when you are not walking, so you do not run into a wall."
"You wouldn't let me walk into a wall," Stephanie said on a laugh, but turned and faced forward and then shrugged out from under Drina's arm. "I'm going to Wendy's to get a pop before we go."
"Hang on." Drina collared the teenager before she could take off. Pausing, she glanced around, smiling when Basil moved away from the wall to join them. Glancing from him to Sherry, she asked, "Do you guys want anything?"
"Coffee from Timmy's for me, but I'll get it," Sherry said at once, glad she had her purse back and didn't have to depend on these people for money, at least. Realizing that Drina wouldn't allow Stephanie to go to Wendy's stall alone after what had happened the last time she'd gone off on her own, Sherry asked, "Do you want a coffee or something too? I'll get it for you while you go with Stephanie."
"You will not," Ba
sileios said calmly. "I shall take care of the drinks. Just tell me what everyone wants."
"I will let you guys fight it out with Katricia while I take Steph to Wendy's," Drina said with amusement. Turning to head for the fast food counter with the impatient girl, she added, "But I would appreciate a medium coffee, double, double . . . and maybe a chocolate dip donut."
"Oh, me too, please," Stephanie said over her shoulder.
"Got it," Sherry said with amusement, but was perplexed by the bit about fighting it out with Katricia. It was she and Basileios who were--
"I am paying," Katricia announced interrupting her thoughts, and when Basileios opened his mouth to argue, she held up a gold card. "It is on the council."
Basil's eyebrows went up. "Are we handing out credit cards now?"
Katricia shrugged. "Uncle Lucian gave it to me this morning when we stopped to pick up his van. I gather Enforcers are being issued cards to use on the job." She glanced to Sherry and explained, "Enforcers used to get cash for expenses on the job, but there were some lost receipts and stuff, and Bastien was bitching about needing them for taxes, so Lucian has decided credit cards are the way to go."
She turned to lead them toward the coffee shop stall then.
Sherry followed, but asked curiously, "Who is Bastien and who pays for them?"
"For the credit cards?" Katricia asked.
"For the cards, and the house and vehicles and the hunters," Sherry clarified. "I mean I assume you all get wages?"
"I am actually a deputy in Port Henry now," Katricia told her. "I mainly work for the town, but I sideline on occasion for Uncle Lucian, like now . . . and yes, Enforcers are paid."
"Everyone on the council contributes to the funds needed to run the Enforcers," Basileios said, answering her initial question as they started toward the long lines of customers waiting at the Tim Horton's counter.
"So you basically pay for the decisions you make?" Sherry suggested, recalling that he'd told her last night that he too was on the council that ran the Enforcers who kept immortals in line.
"I suppose you could say that," he agreed wryly.
"And does that influence your decisions?" she asked curiously as they stopped at the end of the shortest line, one that still had a good twelve people in it. Sunday was a prime day for travel, with people returning from weekends away or day visits.