Cassidy,” Arcayos says, leafing through the paper again as we walk. He keeps his voice pitched low so that only I can hear him on the crowded downtown street. “We need people to trust me. The real me, as well as Hawk. It’s the Champion’s job to make people feel safe.”
“Hawk.” At my driver’s side door, I’d turned to him, before I can continue, he signals for me to go around to the passenger’s side. When I make an annoyed sound, his lips give a crooked twitch.
I climb in, waiting until our doors are shut before I continue.
“Arcayos, don’t you get it? The more the people in this city trust the Champion to take care of the criminal element, the less they trust the cops. You—the real you—is undermining the police every time you interfere.”
“They trust me. Hawk, I mean. And they trust you.”
“They trust Hawk because he’s the perfect cop. Mr. Charming, Mr. Perfect. They only trust me when I am with him. And they don’t trust anyone else. Not Colburn, not anyone else in the department.”
“Are you jealous, sweet thing?” He puts my key in my ignition and starts my car.
“Don’t flatter yourself.”
“Kind of petty, don’t you think?”
I round on him. “Petty? Arc—Hawk—ugh. No one will say one word to me when I’m by myself. People only fall over themselves to talk to me when I’m with you. It’s so easy for you. None of them would trust you so much if they understood what you are.”
“Then we will just have to make sure you are always at my side, won’t we?” he purrs.
I shake my head. “Sometimes I really can’t stand you.”
“You didn’t feel that way last week in the evidence warehouse.” He scritches my knee with his fingers.
A little jolt races up my spine. He hasn’t brought that up since it happened. I’d say I was grateful, but it’s not like he hasn’t found ways to remind me. Most of the time, I’d succeeded in pretending the whole thing never happened. Until I found him watching me across our desk over the top of his mug, or glancing at me in the car, his eyes agleam. I hate him for putting me in that position, but I hate myself more for putting my job at risk, for putting the chance to find my sister in jeopardy.
I glare at him, willing away the clenching in my core. “You did something to make that happen. I know you did.”
“I didn’t.” He holds up his hands. “You did that all by your magnificent sexy self.”
Since arguing is useless, I nod to the paper he’s put on the seat between us. “Find anything interesting in there?”
“There is another article about the Hooded Swordsman.”
“Shit.”
“It’s the same as all the others,” he says. It bothers me that, while he sounds regretful, his lips turn up with a hint of a smile.
I find the article near the front page and give it a quick skim.
“It is the same. ‘Hooded Swordsman strikes again, crime rate lowest it’s ever been, blah blah.’ That woman you saved told the paper she’d be dead if it weren’t for you.”
“Do you want me to apologize for keeping the city safe, Cassidy? Would you rather I let those demons tear her apart?”
“Of course not! But you…” I push my hand through my curls. “You can’t do that anymore, okay?”
“Do what? Protect people?” He pulls smoothly into traffic, ignoring when someone blasts their horn at him.
“Go around kicking criminals asses when you’re not on duty. You have to leave it to the cops. We can’t have you sending the message that vigilantism is a good thing. You have to stop.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Why?”
“When the Ak’tar beckons, the Champion must heed the call.”
He sounds like his old self again, but the words also sound as if he’s quoting someone.
I snap my eyes to his, then to his chest where the Ak’tar would be if he was in his true form, then back to his face. “Wait a minute. Is that what that means? When that thing glows, it’s calling you? It means someone is in trouble?”
“Well, sometimes it’s Va’halzoret calling to me, and other times it signals a demonic presence, but sometimes it means someone needs my help, yes.”
I remember. That day he roped me into this deal of ours, he said someone needed him. “I thought that was a joke. So, what, it’s like a bat signal or something?”
He snorts.
“And when it does that, you have to go?”
“Yes. The Ak’tar