probably happy they’re not hostages any more, Georgia, but do humanity a favor and give them some space huh?” Joe stopped walking to nail her squarely in her big blue eyes. “They’ve been through something traumatic. Your questions and the whole camera thing won’t help them.”
“Killjoy,” Georgia accused. “What about the woman who was shot? She’s still in there?” she asked, realizing she wasn’t going to get anything worth broadcasting from Joe.
“A woman was shot?” Joe knew this tactic of firing questions, as she shot her own in his direction, was especially annoying to her, but he considered it entertaining as hell.
“Yeah, that’s what I heard. One of the hostages was shot. She was wearing a cute red slip.”
“Well, Georgia, I think you could be right about her still being inside,” Joe said, lifting a dark eyebrow and looking over his shoulder at the hospital exit. As odd as his conversation with Pria’s family had been, he was suddenly glad they’d taken her from the hospital, even if he had no idea how they’d managed to do it so damned quickly.
Georgia’s interest in Joe evaporated like a tiny puddle on a suffocating afternoon. She started moving back toward the hospital exit as if she’d never seen him before in her life.
Free again, Joe jogged to his car. Once inside, he placed a call to the hospital to talk with the ER’s charge nurse, a guy Joe respected for his ability to get things done quickly. After explaining his conversation with Georgia Hudsis to the nurse, Joe suggested that any hostages leaving the hospital should be escorted out by hospital security or cops and taken through a back exit from the ER to the parking garage. He’d already arranged for each of them to be driven home by cops if no family members showed up to get them.
As Joe was dumping Georgia and hopefully preventing her from wreaking emotional havoc with ex-hostages, Pria dropped her head on the backseat of Keirc’s SUV, looking forward to reaching the Sanctum, a haven for supernaturals a little less than a hundred miles from Saint Rushton, where she’d been raised with Keirc by her step-parents, Miri and Andrieu. Keirc was behind the wheel, with Monroe riding shotgun. Miri was next to Pria in the back seat.
“So, Whitwater’s dead,” Keirc said breaking the silence. “Your kill?” he asked Pria.
“Yes,” she answered. “My kill.” The thought nauseated her slightly even though she’d killed before. As her mother had been a fallen angel, she had the abilities to preserve life or end it. In some circumstances, ending life was a noble calling, but she wouldn’t have taken Whitwater’s life had there been an option. With Joe Cafaris facing a certain death if he’d taken her place, she’d had no choice. If Whitwater had only wanted money, she’d have done nothing to prevent him from taking it. “How did you know what happened?”
“Monroe heard a news report at the bakery. The initial report said a number of police vehicles were at the bank, but he knew that was where you’d gone, so he called Keircnan,” Miri answered. “Keirc tracked police scanners and then hit the hospital databases. That’s how we knew where you’d been taken. All of the hostages went to Saint Rushton University General.” Miri covered Pria’s hand with her own. Knowing her stepdaughter, she could sense Pria’s uneasiness as well as the pain in her arm. Miri also knew that if Pria had killed, there had been no alternative. “Tell us what happened,” she said.
Pria outlined the events at the bank, including the fact that Joe would have died if he had taken her place as Whitwater’s shield.
“Well, I think the humans should be thanking you, although I still can’t for the life of me see why the hell you want to live or work among them,” Keirc said, unearthing a conflict that had existed since Pria had made the decision to move from the Sanctum years ago. “The Sanctum is your home, Pria. You’re safe there. Much as you might wish otherwise, you are not a human and humans…”
“Keirc, please don’t start…,” Pria said, trying to cut her stepbrother’s rant before he really got rolling.
“You descend from an angel and a vampire, for Christ’s sake, and what happened today could prove to be a risk for everyone at the Sanctum, which is where you belong, Pria.”
“Keirc, the Sanctum…”
“Is a safe haven for all supernaturals, Pria,” Keirc continued. “Your own mother was a founder with your father. And, now, I’m going to have to do a hack and scrub on a lot of records to prevent problems.”
The sound of Keirc’s voice was becoming unbearable to Pria, as she cut him off again. “Keirc just shut the hell up!”
“What of this detective, Pria? What did you tell him?” Miri asked.
“Nothing,” Pria answered.
“I told him that Pria owns the Maidenheart Bakery,” Keirc said. “He would’ve ended up knowing that anyway, if he doesn’t already. He’s very bright, Pria, and very strong willed. It was tough to glamour him, while you were leaving the hospital.”
“He offered his life for mine,” Pria said. “I know we may be facing problems but he deserves respect for that.”
“Problems? Ya’ think?” Keirc said sarcastically. “We do all we can to avoid anything that would reveal who and what we are to humans, Pria, and when something like this goes down, it’s a headache. Still, it was a very righteous kill. You should be proud of that at least.”
“Thanks Keirc. I’m so glad you’re proud of me,” Pria replied, her voice oozing sarcasm to equal his.
“Keirc complains about your choices but he loves you Pria. He’ll do what needs to be done once we reach home,” Miri said. Her voice was firm but soft, an order for Keirc in disguise. “You should stay at our home until you are healed, of course.”
Pria agreed wearily and closed her eyes against the fading warmth of the afternoon landscape moving past the car windows. The sound of Miri’s cell broke her light doze briefly, but she only listened to Miri’s voice relating the details of her ordeal to her stepfather, Andrieu, for a moment before letting her thoughts coast. She knew Andrieu would be waiting when they arrived at the Sanctum.
“Don’t worry about anything Pria. I’ll take care of things at the bakery, Keirc will do what he does and you’ll get better,” Monroe said.
A werewolf of few words, her business partner and best friend, his advice warmed her heart. “Thanks Monroe,” Pria said smiling. As the conversation died, she put her head back against the leather seat and thought about what Joe’s hair would feel like against her fingertips. His dark, soft curls had brushed his collar but his eyes had really drawn her. He might be human, but walking into the damned bank had taken balls, she thought. His arms felt so strong as she’d collapsed against him. The thought drifted as she fell into a light sleep.
Joe was finally headed home, a place where he relaxed and left the cacophony of his world behind. He was looking forward to a long shower when he pulled his car into the garage, but as he hit his bedroom, his cell rang again. Grabbing at it like it was something to be crushed, he eyed the screen. The caller was Cy Kent. Sitting on his bed’s edge, he answered it, tugging a show off.
“Yeah, her family took her home,” Joe explained. “To their home, actually…it was her stepbrother…guy named Keircnan... No, I don’t know how to spell it. He said he didn’t think she was interested in talking to the media or suing the shit out of us or
