To celebrate the Executive sending me to Prague, I yanked on the T-shirt Leonie had bought for me. Tight, bright, and hot pink, its glittering silver letters proclaimed "50% boobs. 50% sarcasm. 100% new breed of hunter."
What's a girl without a tagline?
Technically, Leo wasn't supposed to know about the Brotherhood. The Mafia were a bunch of gossipy soccer moms compared to the code of silence the Brotherhood demanded. While DSI –David Security International –a.k.a. the global security firm the Brotherhood ran had a respected rep in high powered circles, it was a closely guarded secret that its man candy employees were demon hunters. Or that demons even existed.
Scrunching some mousse into my hair, I snagged my hair drier for a quick blow so I didn't head downstairs dripping.
Part of our secrecy was maintained by the fine job the Brotherhood did, and part of it was due to natural human desire to explain away anything vaguely monstrous with "rational" explanations, i.e. any reason that wasn't supernatural. Humans' determination to live within our comfort zones was not to be underestimated. It worked in the Brotherhood's favor.
My three-minute patience of hair drying achieved, I threw on some eye make-up.
I would never have told Leo about any of it if our reunion meeting after about a year and a half of radio silence –mostly stemming from the bad place I'd been in after high school –hadn't come with the mind-blowing discovery that she was half-goblin. Goblins were tricksters and smooth talkers, so combined with the sperm donor's glamouring ability to present as human, it left Leo's mom thinking (bitterly and to this day) that she'd succumbed to the charms of a very handsome rogue for an unforgettable one night stand.
Leo, who only had a human form and no glamour abilities of her own, hadn't enlightened her mom. Luckily, her sole visible redcap goblin features were a propensity to white chin hair, shortness, and a fascination for fussy jewels that had never made sense in our teens. Otherwise, her long straight red hair, funky style, and incredible confidence were pure awesome woman.
Given Leo's half-demon status, she was well aware of Rasha. Though she'd been shocked to find out that I, of all people, was the first chick to be among their number.
I glanced back into the bedroom at my alarm clock. Thirty seconds to spare to Rohan's deadline. I hustled out of my room, finger-combing my still damp curls, anxious for this meeting with Rohan and Drio and the specifics of my cover assignment.
Forrest Chang, the film's director and a huge Fugue State Five fan, had invited Rohan to write the theme song. Meanwhile, I was going in under the guise of Rohan's groupie, a role that Rohan was having altogether too much fun lording over me. Supposedly this cover story allowed him to stick close to me as I gained Samson's attention, but I had my doubts. This wasn't the eighteenth century and I wasn't chattel.
Drio was posing as part of Rohan's entourage without the backstory of blowing him on a regular basis, so why couldn't that be true for me as well? Go for fiction not imitating life. By the time I was halfway down the stairs, I'd resolved to bring this matter up at the start of our meeting.
The front door slammed open and Kane stormed in, bleeding from a gash to his temple. Japanese-Canadian and silky-hot with a tendency to shirtlessness, he could have been naked right now and all anyone would have noticed was the anger rolling off him in waves.
I came to a screeching halt.
Kane raked a hand through his spiky black hair. "Swear to God, babyslay, I will kill him myself, he pulls this shit again."
My heart sinking, I braced a hand on the wooden bannister, polished to a high gleam. "How many?"
"One. But it was Abyzou, the psycho spawn. She'd cornered a pregnant woman in a parking lot and was working her evil mojo to cause a miscarriage." He held up his hand at the anxious eep I emitted. "Breeder and fetus are fine."
"Is Ari okay?"
"Your twin is untouched. I, on the other hand?" He tapped his wound. "My perfection is marred." He'd heal quickly like all Rasha did, but Kane loved his dramatic flare.
I exhaled hard, then trotted down the stairs, gesturing at his temple. "Did Abyzou do that?"
"Yep. Compounded by your idiot brother. He clocked me when I stopped him from getting involved." Kane's jaw tightened. "If I hadn't been worried about protecting his ass, I might have taken Abyzou down. As it was, she got away."
A faint sheen of purple iridescence on his forearm caught the light, indicating his arms were still coated in traces of the salt-based poison that was his magic power. Toxic to demons.