Page 28 of Medium
“Your turn,” I told him as I stuck my feet in flip-flops. We went into the guest room where he’d put his stuff the night he’d arrived from Dallas. While he pulled clothes out of his suitcase, I opened the dresser drawers I still hadn’t cleaned out after Granny’s passing.
Her favorite turquoise velour track suit would work, I decided. I added a pink long-sleeved t-shirt with a cat sitting on a rainbow on the front. I pulled out a camisole but wavered over the underwear, deciding to bring some just incase. If Pia was squeamish about wearing someone else’s underwear, she could skip it. I threw in pink socks and some slip-on shoes in the remote chance they’d fit. I wished I had some baby wipes or something, but clean clothes would have to do.
When I turned back around, Ellis had finished getting dressed. He looked edible in black shorts and a royal purple short-sleeved button up. I cursed myself for wanting him right then.
I led the way back to the living room. When I got to the back door, Ellis said, “Wait.”
I spun around, ready to tell him that we didn’t have time to discuss our relationship, but he was headed toward the sofa. He got to the end of the distance the bond would allow us to separate, and he looked at me until I followed him. “What?”
When he could reach it, he grabbed the throw blanket off the back of the sofa. He held it up. “So she doesn’t have to get changed in front of us.”
Well, fuck. It wasn’t fair of him to be so thoughtful.
Shoving thoughts of Ellis out of my mind—as much as I could with him on my heels—I marched to the back door.
Then I had to detour us again, this time to the kitchen. We’d promised Rory some water. Ellis picked up five bottles, and it took me a minute to realize the fifth one was for Ms. Jackson.
That reminded me. “Don’t Hunters usually work in pairs so they have backup?”
Ellis nodded. “Yeah, in my experience, but this might’ve been an emergency or something.”
We could ask Rory after Pia went into the tree. I sighed. He’d be here until she came out, and that could be a good ten ortwelve hours from now if her magic was severely depleted. This was going to suck.
When we finally made it to the back yard, Ms. Jackson had manifested their Ouija board on their side, and Rory was in the process of dragging the hammock frame over from under the oak tree to under the apple tree. Pia was still sitting in the plant pot, but she was watching. She’d lifted her head and everything.
She noticed us approaching, and I saw her head bob as if she wanted to hide her face again, but she firmed her jaw and looked at us directly.
I smiled and held up the clothes. “Okay, none of this is stylish, but it’ll be warm and comfortable until we can get you to a store in the morning.”
Rory came over to stand on Pia’s other side as I set the clothes down. His magic and Ellis’ reached for each other, but Ellis moved to my other side, out of range. I ignored it.
I showed Pia the underwear. “These are clean, but they’re used, so it won’t offend me if you don’t wear them. And the shoes might not fit, but I figured I’d try.”
She nodded and whispered, “Thank you.” She extended one jacketed hand toward the pink t-shirt.
Ellis held out a corner of the throw blanket to Rory. “Here. This’ll give you some privacy, Pia.” He and Rory each took a corner of the blanket and held it so it fell to the ground, creating a curtain between us and Pia. Then they faced away from her, and I did the same.
I opened a water bottle and handed it to Rory. He thanked me.
Desperate for a conversation-starter, I asked, “Where are you from?” Hunters—and there weren’t that many of them—werebased all around the state so they could move quickly as needed.
“Houston, all of my life.”
I cocked my head. “Really? I thought I knew all the magic carriers in the area.” We’d never had a Hunter here. Well, up until now I guessed. “Are you new to being a Hunter?” Maybe he’d finished college before going through training.
He frowned, then glanced toward the house briefly. His face cleared. “This is actually my first rescue.”
Ellis said, “And you did it all by yourself? Damn, that’s impressive.”
And my jealousy was back. Fuck.
CAL’S CAMPAIGN COMPENDIUM
BONDING, PART THREE: CREATING THE BOND
As mentioned in the Introduction to this entry, creating a bond requires five elements from each partner:
