Drina bit her lip and glanced from the young mortal to Harper to see him looking slightly embarrassed by the kid’s adoration. Clearing her throat to get Jason’s attention, she asked, “Did you see who threw it?”
Jason shook his head, “No, sorry, no. I just saw this firebird flying at the two of you and shouted and—” His gaze shifted back to Harper. “Wow, man. You could play for the Jays. We’d kick ass every game.”
“Yes, well, here, maybe you could dispose of this.” Harper handed him the bottle of fluid, and when Jason nodded and took it, he reached for his wallet and pulled out three twenties. As he handed them over, he said, “Sorry about forgetting to pay.”
“Oh, no problem,” Jason said at once. “I knew it wasn’t on purpose. We just got distracted with the security video. But, hey, this is too much,” he added, keeping two of the bills and offering the other back. “You only got forty bucks worth.”
“Keep it,” Harper said, urging Drina toward the car. “And thank you again.”
“Yeah, thanks! Hey, you two have a good night. And stay safe, huh?” Jason called as he turned back toward the store, and then Drina heard him mutter, “Man, that was something else. Wow.”
“You have a fan,” she said, as they got in the car.
Harper grimaced as he started the engine, but said, “He’s a good kid. A total geek, but he has the good sense to recognize a goddess when he sees her.”
“A goddess?” Drina asked on a laugh.
Harper nodded and shifted into drive to head out of the gas station. “He was sure your name must be Aphrodite or Venus.”
“Right,” she snorted.
“But he kept your clothes on in his head,” Harper announced, and added wryly, “Which raised him in my estimation. Like I said, a good kid.”
“And he saved us from a great deal of pain,” Drina added, her voice becoming more subdued.
“Pain?” he asked dryly. “Try saved our lives and his own too. If that bottle had landed, the whole damned place probably would have exploded. Those were gas pumps.”
Drina nodded and reached over to squeeze his legs. “He helped, but you did the saving. Nice catch,” she added quietly.
“That was desperation,” Harper said on a sigh as he pulled out onto the road. “I didn’t really notice the bottle, but I saw the flaming, fluttering cloth coming at us like a bird on fire and . . .” He shook his head. “It was the last thing I saw in the porch before it became an inferno. That time I didn’t know what it was and wasn’t quick enough to stop it. This time I was.”
Like a recurring nightmare, she recalled his words and squeezed his leg again. But then frowned and glanced out the window, before announcing, “We have a problem. Two, actually.”
“Only two?” Harper asked dryly.
Drina smiled faintly, but said, “Stephanie wasn’t there. The attack was on us. It may not be Leonius.”
“Except that you’re about Stephanie’s height, wearing her coat, and your hair is tucked under a hat so you could easily have been mistaken for her,” he pointed out.
Drina glanced down at the bomber she wore and frowned as she realized he was right. That made her mouth tighten, and she said, “Which means we have a different set of problems.”
“That he doesn’t seem to be that concerned about keeping her alive for breeding since the explosion could have killed her,” Harper guessed.
Drina nodded.
“What’s the other?” he asked.
“Stephanie must have controlled the driver of the car.”
Harper took his foot off the gas, allowing the car to slow as he sought out her eyes. “You think so?”
“What would you do if someone suddenly popped up in the backseat of the car?” she asked quietly.
Harper’s head went back a bit as realization struck him. “The car didn’t slow, stop, or jerk to the side. It just continued smoothly up the road.” He frowned. “I didn’t know she could control mortals already.”
“Neither did I,” Drina said on a sigh. “And she shouldn’t be able to.”
“No,” he agreed, taking one hand from the steering wheel to cover hers on his leg. He was silent, considering this, and then said, “She could make him take her wherever she wanted.”
“Yes,” Drina agreed.
He thought for a minute, and then asked, “Where does her family live?”
“Windsor.” Marguerite had told her a bit about Stephanie in New York—what she’d been through, where her family was from, etc. Marguerite seemed to feel bad for Stephanie, but then so did Drina.