"But perhaps if we —"
"Aunt Riley," I interrupted softly, "I love you to death, you know that, but right now —"
"I need to butt out," she finished for me. Her voice was amused, but there was steel in her gray eyes. "You know that's impossible for me to do."
Tension ran through me. I couldn't let her help me any more than she already had. I had lost my mom. I didn't want to lose my other mom as well. "Look, I promise I'll holler for help when I need it, but there's really nothing you can do at the moment. Hell, there's nothing for me to do."
She considered me for a second, then said, "Is Azriel still helping you?"
"Yes."
"Then I'll back off for the moment. But if you don't holler, and go get yourself dead again, I will be madder than hell at you."
I smiled, relief and amusement running through me in equal amounts. "I promise, on Mom's soul, I will call in your help the moment I need it."
She harrumphed. Meaning she undoubtedly caught the catch-22 in that statement – that I was never going to be desperate enough to call in her help on the key search – but all she said was, "Keep in contact regardless, Risa, or I will get involved, whether you like it or not."
"Noted," I said, and hung up. The phone rang almost immediately, and the tone told me it was Jak. I hit the vid-phone's Answer button, and Jak's image popped up on the screen. "Jak," I said, voice a mix of relief and confusion. If everyone I cared about was safe, who the hell had Hunter gone after? "Are you okay?"
He frowned. "Of course I'm okay. I'm ringing you, aren't I?"
"Well, yeah." I hesitated. "Where are you?"
"At the office, like I said I would be." His frown increased. "Are you okay? I mean, you look a little pale —"
That's because death is reaching her sharp little claws toward one of my friends. I swallowed back bile and said, "Look, I'm fine, but I want you to go home right now. And don't open the door to anyone but me."
"Why, if I didn't know better," he said, amused, "I'd say you were worried about my safety."