were not here to hurt Sophie. She wouldn't even make a good meal for animals this size, and they certainly could have snapped her in two long before now if they'd meant her harm.
The damage in Sophie's room the night before might have been caused by the hounds, but they had not been the aggressors. Something had come here to hurt her, and they had protected her, even as they were now. Charlie didn't care why, he was just grateful that they were on his side. Where they'd been when he first rushed into the room after the window broke, he didn't know, but it appeared that now that they were here, they were not going to go away.
"Okay, I'm not going to hurt her," Charlie said. The dog relaxed and backed off a few steps. "She's going to need to go potty," Charlie said, feeling a little stupid. He just noticed that they were both wearing wide silver collars, which, strangely, disturbed him more than their size. After the stretching it had gotten over the last year and a half, his Beta Male imagination fit easily around two giant hounds showing up in his little girl's bedroom, but the idea that someone had put collars on them was throwing him.
There was a knock at the front door and Charlie backed out of the room. "Honey, Daddy will be right back."
Chapter 14
14
BARKING MAD
Charlie opened the door and Lily breezed by. "Jane said you have two huge black dogs up here. I need to see."
"Lily, wait," Charlie called, but she was across the living room and into Sophie's room before he could stop her. There was a low growl and she came backing out.
"Oh my fucking God, dude," she said around a huge grin. "They are so cool. Where did you get them?"
"I didn't get them anywhere. They were just here."
Charlie joined Lily just outside the door to Sophie's room. She turned and grabbed his arm. "Are they, like, instruments of your death dealing or something?"
"Lily, I thought we agreed that we wouldn't talk about that."
And they had. In fact, Lily had been great about it. Since she'd first found out about him being a Death Merchant, she'd hardly brought it up at all. She'd also gone on to graduate from high school without getting a major criminal record and enroll in the Culinary Institute, the upside of which was that she actually wore her white chef 's coat, checked pants, and rubber clogs to work, which tended to soften her makeup and hair, which remained severe, dark, and a little scary.
Sophie giggled and rolled over against one of the hounds. They had been licking her and she was covered with hellish dog spit. Her hair was plastered into a dozen unlikely spikes, making her appear a little like a wide-eyed Anim茅 character.
Sophie saw Lily in the doorway and waved. "Goggie, 'Ily. Goggie," she said.
"Hi, Sophie. Yes, those are nice doggies," Lily said, then to Charlie: "What are you going to do?"
"I don't know what to do. They won't let me near her."
"That's good, then. They're here to protect her."
Charlie nodded. "I think they are. Something happened last night. You know how the Great Big Book talks about the others? I think one of them came after her last night, and these guys showed up."
"I'm impressed. I'd think you'd be more freaked out."
Charlie didn't want to tell her that he was worn out from freaking out the day before about his little girl killing an old man with the word kitty. Lily already knew too much, and it was obvious now that whatever lay below was dangerous. "I guess I should be, but they aren't here to hurt her. I need to go check the library in Berkeley, see if there's anything about them there. I need to get Sophie away from them."
Lily laughed. "Yeah, that's going to happen. Look, I have work and school today, but I'll go do your research for you tomorrow. In the meantime you can try to make friends with them."
"I don't want to make friends with them."
Lily looked at the hounds, one of whom Sophie was pounding on with her little fists as she laughed gleefully, then looked back at Charlie. "Yes, you do."
"Yeah, I guess I do," Charlie said. "Have you ever seen a dog that size before?"