Page 134 of The Satyr's Guilt
“What about money?” Rein swallowed a largegulp of wine.
“We’ve got it handled. Course, I discovereda few necessary tweaks when I had to run. I’m good for now. Mayneed to hit you up later.”
Braelyn chewed on her bite of ravioli,closing her eyes as if savoring the dish. “Must get boring.”
“Not really. Lots of travel.”
“How did you come to be?” She set down herfork.
“After the Schism,Custodes Templiiorganized. The names, the job, the duty passed from tracker totracker. That’s the way it’s been.”
“Doesn’t answer why.” Braelyn sipped herChianti.
“Because this day was predicted nearlyfifteen hundred years ago by the Cambion from Wales who created ourgroup.”
****
On the front porch of Ram’sfarmhouse, Denim rang the doorbell, shifting nervously from foot tofoot. She wanted to go to bed, to hide her head under the coversuntil Ram returned. Or she wanted to go on a killing spree untilshe found him. Neither avenue was open to her nor productive.Instead, she was here, about to break a little girl’s heart whilethe Firebrands interrogated Steven again.
The door swung wide open. Jonquil greetedher with an inviting smile, as sunny as her namesake.
“Hi, kid.” Denim swallowed hard.
The girl grabbed her hand, bouncing towardthe kitchen as if she had a prize in tow. “Come meet Mara. She’s mydemon nanny. Not that I really need one. Daddy is overprotective.It’s a Firebrand thing.”
“Of course.” What should she tell Mara andJonquil? She didn’t want to lie, but she didn’t want to scare themeither.
“Mara, this is Denim. She’s Daddy’sgirlfriend.”
Denim cocked her head at Jonquil. “Thatmight be an exaggeration.”
Mara dusted flour from her hands, brushingaside a lock of hair. “Nice to meet ya.”
“The same.”
The nanny was a tall, curvaceous Scathversion of Sophia Loren.
Great. Ram has his own food stash right athome.
Mara returned to her task. “Join us. I wasfinishing with the biscuits for dinner. A nice roast beef fromAerilon is in the oven. Potatoes and braised carrots are next. Apie for dessert. The satyr should be here in about an hour. Then Ihave to be somewhere tonight.”
“What?”Panic time.Denim tried tokeep her voice calm. “Can you hang around for the night? Ram kindof sent me with a message. Since his job got a little complicatedtoday, he won’t be home.”
Mara did not glance away from the biscuits.“No. Usually I can when he gets detained but not this time. He knewit. This isn’t like him.”
Jonquil’s little fists snapped to her hips.“Daddy promised me we’d do some fun things while he was offwork.”
Denim nodded. “Uh, I think this wasunavoidable. A last-minute thing.”
Mara punched a fist into the biscuit dough.“Humph. I’m going with my mate on a trip to Knife’s Edge for a fewdays. Ram was going off rotation for the time. When will he getback?”
She has a mate. Good.
“Not sure. Tell ya what. After dinner,Jonquil, we’ll pack a bag so you can head to my place tonight. Howabout it? We’ll watch movies, stuff ourselves with popcorn andcandy, and rack up some coin with poker.”
Clapping her hands together, Jonquil gave alittle hop. “What’s poker?”
“It’s a card game every girl needs to learn.It’s how you get cash from guys. I’ll teach you. You’ll be anatural.”
