"She says, 'Mr. Jack, Daddy Mike is praying to Jesus and is holding Mommy, like she's hurt. I can see it in my mind; you have to go help them.' "
Marlene jumped up out of the stool like she was being chased by wasps. Her hand was waving, shooing away Rider's words as she laughed. "Oh, no, oh, no, this is . . . this is-"
"Outrageous comes to mind," Rider said with a droll smile. "So, what's the protocols, oh wise senior seer of the house? The kid cannot cruise these halls if her gift works while she's in range. And what if she can pick up at a distance? When Rivera gets back here-"
Marlene slapped her forehead. "Rider, I can't even begin-"
"Just for grins, not to make your job as housemother more difficult, but uh . . . you know the old vamp style when they go to work. Special FX, thunder and lightning-you know what we lived through with those two in the old compound, right?"
"I'm going to have to do a divination and consult the ancestors on this, will have to go back to the Temt Tchaas and see what my old black book has to say, 'cause,chile, no! And I don't know if I should try to block her, for fear of potentially damaging her new, growing gift. But one thing's for sure, that child cannot be trolling these halls unescorted. Me and Delores are gonna have a come-to-Jesus meeting this morning, trust me on that." Marlene folded her arms over her chest.
"Tea water's boiling, Mar," Rider said, chuckling and taking another deep swig of coffee. "Not to worry, the kid is completely tuned into Nickelodeon right now . . . but boy-o-boy, when Mike finally gets his rusty ass down here to forage in the fridge like a bear coming out of hibernation, I am going to rib him until he threatens my life. Trust me on that, hon.It's just too rich to pass up."
Marlene laughed. "He'll kick your ass."
"Yeah, that he will, but it'll be worth it," Rider said, laughing.
She smiled and began making tea, flipping off the burner. Rider sat back, much less tense, but theirs was indeed an old dance. He waited; she put loose herbal green tea in a bamboo tea ball. He watched her process calmly, knowing that she had to think while her hands worked.
"So, you went out to get a newspaper and a cup of coffee without any backup and without a sidearm, in this time of day-walkers. Musta been a helluva argument."
Rider let his breath out hard. "There's breaking news that warranted knowing first thing."
"Ah . . . and CNN might not have it on cable. Are we out of coffee?" She kept her back to him as she spoke, but her smile threaded into her voice.
"Check it out," he said, opening the paper. "Get this, Mar-arare tornado touched down inBrooklyn . Flooded the subway systems-on the same day we had our little skirmish in Harlem, but after we dropped Father Pat off to a safe house inBrooklyn . I love the media spin on these cosmic events. It sounds so much better to say that a natural act of God occurred, like a twister, than to say that maybe a swirl of demons looking for a priest after they got their asses fried in Harlem were seeking retaliation. Just like the steam-see, page thirty-five: mysterious steam rising inManhattan is not another attack by Al Qaeda. Authorities claim an underground steam vent somehow burst, sending downtown workers and residents scrambling."
He closed the paper hard. "That is such a crock. That was the leftover cavalry after Damali flushed them onto the expressway-they traveled as far as they could and probably had to gather to blow out a blocked portal underground or something."
Marlene stirred raw honey into her tea and came to the counter with Rider. She sat down calmly, without saying a word. He grunted and opened up to the science section. "Not impressed with the weather?All right, then how about this. Last night was a new moon. Mars, the planet of war-my sidebar editorial comment added for emphasis-was visible from the northern sky . . . the big red dot, while we were fighting. Scientists say that from midnight onward, the Perseid meteor shower was the most impressive this year than it had been in years past . . . sixty meteors fell per hour."
"Let me see that," Marlene said, taking the paper from him.
"Oh, so now I have your attention."
"That's a meteor per minute that ourside was lobbing-talk about a shock and awe campaign." She glanced up at Rider from the paper and then flipped to the weather. "Only one human casualty, a car accident-tragic, but think of how bad that could have been . . . a frickin' tornado hittingNew York City , c'mon, Jack." She handed him back the newspaper.
"People could have drowned in the subway, or gotten electrocuted from falling power lines . . . trees had been uprooted and smashed houses and cars, but no civvy got hurt." He sat back, vindicated. "I told you I had to go get a paper."
"All right," she said with a gentle smile, sipping her tea. "And it was safe, relatively . . . word came down, we're under protection until our Neterus get back-but that doesn't mean we can just be going buck wild without precautions."
He raised his to-go cup to her. "I know. And you'll be proud of me, I left without a weapon because I didn't trust myself. Figured I wasn't going far;Tara told me we had a sorta temporary shield, and if I bumped into somebody who was gonnapiss me off, it was best that I couldn't draw on him."
Marlene nodded."Wise man."
Rider raked his hair with his fingers. "You know how I feel about this," he said, losing all mirth from his tone.
"Yeah, I do." She landed a hand on his shoulder.
"Fucks me up bad, Marlene."
"Which part? The part that he's no longer afterTara, or the part that he's found somebody new?"
Rider looked at her and a half smile began to tug at his left cheek. "The part that still wants to empty a clip in his vampire ass for making my heartstop a few times over my lady."
"Who is now yourwife. "
"Yeah, yeah . . . true." Rider let out a hard breath and then looked out the window. "But it's a real challenge knowing . . . okay, you're right, I've gotta let it go."