sky, squinting and covering her eyes with her hand. She had never before thought of the sun as something to avoid, outside of the skin cancer thing.
Being a redhead and all.
Now, as she tried to focus on the great glowing ball, she felt her heart skip beats—
The door burst open behind her and Bill jumped out. There was a pause, and then they were giving each other a hug.
“Anything I can do,” he said as they pulled apart. “I’m there for you.”
“Just take care of your Lydia, k?”
“We can still go hunting,” he offered. “You know, for things that go bump in the night.”
Jo thought of everything she’d witnessed firsthand. Everything she now knew. “I think I’m going to retire my paranormal researcher hat, too.”
“You’re giving up? I tell you, one of these days we’re going to get our proof.”
“I don’t think there’s anything out there . . . that shouldn’t be there.”
Jo gave his arm a squeeze, made another promise to call him, and then hustled off for her car. As she got in, she tossed her purse into the passenger seat and looked at all the wrappers in the wheel well. The fact that Syn had sat there just a matter of nights before. And gone back to her apartment. And made love to her . . .
“Stop it.”
She was putting the car in reverse when her phone went off again and she almost let the thing go. The idea that it could possibly, maybe, okay-probably-not-but-still, be Syn was the only reason she went bag diving, and when she pulled out her cell, she cursed.
McCordle.
Well, she needed to talk to him anyway.
Accepting the call, she continued backing out of her parking spot. “Hey, I was going to c—”
“I need you to meet me ASAP.”
“Listen,” she said as she put the car in drive, “I’m not working at the CCJ anymore. Anything that has to do with—”
“Where are you?”
“I’m leaving the paper. Which is my point. You need to get in touch with Bill. He’s back at work now—”
“Meet me at Market and Tenth. There’s an alley one block in on the left.”
“I told you. I’m not with the CCJ anymore. You need to take all this to Bill—”
“This is about you, not the articles you’ve been writing. Come now.”
“I’m not going out into the field tonight.”
As Syn spoke the words, he did not look up from his position on the floor of his bedroom suite’s closet. He did not sit up. He did not get up. He did not lift his eyes.
It wasn’t because he wanted trouble with Tohrment, who was the organizer of the shifts, the pairer of fighters, the buck-stops-here for everything war related. No, he didn’t look up because he did not want trouble.
“I know,” Tohr said. “You texted that you’re taking yourself off rotation to everybody. I guess what I’m interested in is why and what your plans are if you don’t go out to fight.”
Syn closed his lids against the glare of the overhead light—which the Brother had turned on as soon as he’d walked in, uninvited.
“I don’t have any plans,” Syn said.
“You sure about that?”
“Yup.” He repositioned the wadded-up shirt he was using as a pillow. “No plans at all.”
“You’re just going to keep lying here after sundown?”
“I may go to the weight room. Might go downtown for a burger. You never know where the mood will take a person.”
“Syn.”
When the Brother didn’t say anything further, Syn became aware that he was going to have play pupil tag or this looming thing Tohr was rocking, coupled with these awkward, unanswered inquiries, was going to continue till the end of time.
“What,” he said as he glanced in Tohr’s direction.
“What’s going on with you?”
“I’m developing the skills necessary to be a throw rug. This requires a great degree of horizontal work and concentration.”
“Listen, I know about Jo Early—”
“Yes, you do. She is a half-breed I was trying to protect, and she’s related to Butch and Manny, and she’s on the verge of her transition. No, I’m not going to be the male she uses. Her brothers are aware of this, and that’s all there is to know about absolutely everything.”
“When are you coming back on roster?”
Syn looked away to the vacant hanging rods that made a circle of the walk-in. “I don’t know.”
“So you’re out permanently?” Before Syn could back off the Brother, Tohr spoke up. “And no, I’m not going to back off. I’m responsible for partnering up all of the fighters, including