“Yeah,” I said, thinking of all the friends I’d left behind. “I know.”
“Pretty fucked-up, huh? But you know what they say about mysterious ways. And here I am now, ready to whup some demon ass.” She reached her arms out, clasped her hands, and cracked her knuckles. “Gotta say, I thought you’d be a little more badass.”
I lifted my brows. “Excuse me?”
“Oh, come on! That demon was about to whup your pretty little hide. If I hadn’t showed up when I did, you and Little Bit would be nothing but a stain on the concrete.”
I couldn’t deny she had a point. “You didn’t catch me at my best.”
“Guess not.” She nodded at Rose, who had looked up with interest. Not at me or Kiera, but at the waitress, who was now delivering our food. “What’s the story with the kid? The demons want her. I got that. But what are you doing with her? Just protecting her, or is there more going on?”
The waitress’s eyes went wide, at least until Kiera tilted her head up and stared the girl down. Then she spun around and hurried off, glancing once back over her shoulder before sidling up near the burly cook who’d started coming our way earlier.
I eyed them for a moment, then decided that neither appeared to be about to kick us out, call the cops, or contact the local psychiatric ward. “She’s my sister,” I said. Since Clarence already knew the scoop, I didn’t figure there was any harm in telling Kiera.
“No shit?” She shot another glance toward Rose, then frowned. “So, what? You drag her around on missions and stuff?”
“Not as a general rule, no.”
“But today’s an exception because?”
“Because it’s national Bring Your Sister to Work Day,” I snapped. “What’s the deal with all the questions?”
She leaned back, hands up, eyes wide. “Shit, chill. Sorry.” She took another bite of pie, chewed, swallowed, and pointed her fork at me. “So what do you say? Let’s go see what you’ve got going on.”
“You want to go kill demons?”
“No, I wanna go kick puppies,” she retorted. “Hell, yeah.”
“Oh.” I considered that. “So, where exactly does one go to find a demon?”
She shook her head, as if baffled by my very existence.
“Damn, you are green. I thought I was getting paired with some big-shot superchick. What were they doing, hiding you under a log?”
“Something like that,” I admitted. “I started out with a mission. Very top secret. Not a lot of opportunity to go out looking for demons on my own.”
“Right,” she said, with a knowing nod. “You were out there keeping those sons of bitches from opening the Ninth Gate. You’re like a legend now among us soldiers.”
“Really?” I couldn’t help the quick swell of pride. Pride, then guilt. Because I hadn’t really done a good thing. I’d done a crap thing, and from the way Kiera was looking at me, she didn’t know it. To her, I was some sort of hero.
Except even that probably wasn’t true, was it? More likely, she was in on the whole big thing. And to her, I was the biggest sort of fool.
ELEVEN
“This probably isn’t the best time to go demon-baiting,” I said, casting a significant look toward Rose as we climbed back into Kiera’s Pontiac.
“The hell it’s not. The beasties have been buzzing lately. The convergence is coming up, and they can feel it, and they’re all rooting for their buddies to find the Oris Clef and open the gates up wide. Fortunately, we’re not going to let that happen.” She raised a hand and waited for me to meet it with a high five, which I did. Why not? That was my plan, too, after all.
“I’m all for the killing demons and stopping the convergence plan,” I admitted. “But that wasn’t actually my point.” I cocked my head toward the backseat and Rose, remembering what I’d promised my mom and thinking that rabble-rousing the demon population wasn’t high on the Keep Your Sister Safe list.
Then again, neither was getting her infected with a demon’s essence.
Kiera dug the keys out of her pocket and started the engine. “Oh, please. What? You think seeing a demon turn to goo is going to scar her for life? From what you’ve said, she’s seen worse. Probably be damned cathartic for her.”
When she put it that way, I had to agree.
“Besides,” she continued, “we’re fighting the good fight here. I mean, hell. Forget shielding the kid. You should be training her.”
And, once again, she had a point.
Still, every decision I’d made since I’d gone out to kill Lucas Johnson had somehow been tied to me watching out for Rose. How could I justify all my efforts to protect her if I was going to turn around and thrust her into the middle of the fray?