“I should just take over as the guardian,” Mordecai mumbled.
“That’s probably true.” I turned the handle. “Okay—why are you two following me?”
“You’re certainly a helluva lot quicker to notice the obvious,” Daisy said to Mordecai.
“We’re going with you.” Mordecai adjusted his blanket.
I studied their faces to see if they were kidding. They weren’t, which meant they were just dense. “I don’t need a peanut gallery.”
“Um, hello?” Daisy put a hand to her hip. “A large and crazy lunatic is stalking you, or were you too drunk last night to remember telling us about your altercation at the bar?”
“I was not too drunk”—I was a little too drunk, because I only now remembered filling them in—“and it wasn’t an altercation. It was a calm conversation between an arrogant jerk—”
“Who thought he could use his magic to influence you,” Mordecai interrupted.
I put out my finger. “Whose magic can’t coerce me.”
“No. You don’t remember the conversation from last night,” Daisy said, looking skyward.
I blinked, trying to dig through my extremely foggy memory. Looked like she was mostly right, after all—I’d done a great job drowning my sorrows.
“He practically knew your life story,” Daisy said, adjusting her shirt in preparation for people seeing her. Which they wouldn’t. “He clearly has the wrong idea about you and is trying to push the envelope. He’s dangerous. You’re not safe out there on your own.”
“Oh really?” I asked. “And what are you guys going to do? Throw your blanket at him, Mordecai? How about you, Daisy? Are you going to threaten to raid his porn collection in search of blackmail? Honestly, you guys, you’re teenagers. Stay here, learn stuff, and figure out how to dig yourself out of this hole I’ve dragged you into.”
“I like this hole, thank you very much,” Daisy said primly, “and now it’s time I return the favor. My scream is extreme. People can hear it for miles—”
“We really need to work on your understanding of distance,” Mordecai said.
“With three of us, not even a deliciously large, unbelievably attractive, and dangerously charismatic stranger—those were your words, were they not, Alexis?—who knows too much will try to kidnap you,” Daisy said before stepping forward.
I grimaced. “I didn’t actually say all that, did I?”
Daisy gave me a flat look that told me all I needed to know.
I hated that it was true.
“We may not be good at protection,” Mordecai said, “but we can help with customer service.”
I shook my head, but he wasn’t done.
“That stranger now knows you aren’t easy to manipulate. Not one on one, anyway. He also knows you have a soft spot for me. I don’t want to be kidnapped to bring you to heel. It would be safer for you to take us with you.”
I paused with my mouth forming the word “no.” I wasn’t sure the stranger knew the extent of my soft spot for my wards, but…he’d have some idea. Only a fool wouldn’t be able to put two and two together, and this stranger was by no means a fool. Still, kidnapping was a little extreme. A guy like the stranger, with looks, money, power, and sexy magic, wouldn’t stoop so low as to basically blackmail a woman into bed. Talk about a blow to his ego. The odds of that were nearly nonexistent.
Except…he did blast me with the sexy magic, so…
“Just don’t teach him how to easily manipulate me.” I blew out a breath. “But—” They stepped to either side of me, pushed my hand off the knob, and opened the door while knocking me to the side. “Hey. Freaking hell. Don’t mind me, I’m just standing here.”
“Come on,” Daisy shouted over her shoulder.
“Where are you guys going?” Frank stood in the center of my lawn, watching the kids head to the car parked at the curb. If only I’d had a garage to hide the thing.
“How many times do I have to tell you, Frank? Get off my lawn!” Shaking my head, I stomped down the pathway to the sidewalk and my waiting car. “You can come,” I told the kids, telling them something they already knew, “but you are to stick to the rear and keep your mouths closed, is that clear?”
“Where else am I going to go?” Frank asked as I brushed past him. “No one at home will talk to me.”
“You know where else you can go, Frank. And there’ll be plenty of people to talk to when you get there.” I walked around the hood of the car as I unlocked it.
“I’m not ready,” he called.
“That is so creepy.” Daisy shivered as she slid into the back seat.
“He doesn’t mean any harm.” I raised my voice so Frank would hear. “He’s just incredibly annoying and prone to constant trespassing.”
“Heartless,” I heard as I got into my seat.
“Daisy, I’ve picked up a very bad habit from you.” I put the keys in the ignition.
“It isn’t stealing, because you’ve tried that in the past and failed miserably at it,” she responded.
“I’m a good person, that’s why.” I showed her a sour face in the rearview mirror.
“That’s not nice,” Mordecai admonished.
“Well, since you mutinied and took over the leadership role on this ship, I’m allowed to be a brat. We’ll see how much you like taking the high road.” I turned the key as Frank drifted closer to the car.
He bent down to look in. “I’ll just stay here and wait for you to get back.”
I shook my head and stepped on the gas. “I might need to force Frank to leave. This is starting to get ridiculous.”
“Starting?” Daisy huffed.
“I picked up the eye rolling from you,” I told her, heading to the area of San Francisco with the heaviest foot traffic for all things magical. Strangely, it wasn’t in the magical district. Or even in the dual zone where we lived. It was in the non-magical tourist area, visited by solely non-magical folk who wanted to check out magical freaks and their crafts. Magical people had to get a permit to set up shop there, and we needed to re-register each year.
“Ah, crap. I should’ve told you guys you couldn’t come because you aren’t included in my permit.” I tapped the steering wheel in annoyance. “Missed opportunity.”
“Not really. The fact that you’re not turning around right now is indicative of how that argument would’ve gone.” Mordecai entwined his fingers in his lap.
I shot him a narrow-eyed glare. “Okay, Mr. Word-a-Day, tone it down with the adult shtick. Not even my mother sounded that educated.”
“That’s because she wasn’t,” Daisy said.
“I should drop you two off right here and make you walk back.”
“Then you’d be responsible for killing me,” Mordecai said. I noticed he hadn’t rushed to correct Daisy about my mother’s education.
I ground my teeth. “Oh, the regret I now have about bringing you lug nuts. Oh, the regret.”
He was right, of course, and we all knew it. The rule was one “stall” per permit, each stall being no more than a number on the pavement. As far as the officials were concerned, you could shove as many freaks as you wanted into the designated empty space.
I hated putting myself on display, another freak to amuse the masses, but I needed money.
It was time to take my magic into the public again.
16
Alexis
“He barely eyed your permit,” Daisy said in a hush as I rolled into the mostly empty parking lot, which would later be filled to the brim. It was the closest lot to the choice stalls. All the big players generally parked in this area.
All the big players, and me, who got to join them by virtue of not needing the cover of darkness for my craft and having absolutely nothing in the world better to do than show up before most of the patrons.
“I’m here every time I’m between jobs.” I drove to the first row and steered to the corner closet to the walkway. “They’ve seen me every few months, for about a month at a time, for the last…eight hundred million years. It’s only an issue when a new person comes on. Then it takes forever.”