a waffle order up for Betty.
He looked pissed.
"Great," I muttered to myself.
"What are you doing here?" he said.
"Serving coffee." I delivered Andrew's coffee and then headed back into the kitchen, where Tobias was manning the grill while Kenny headbanged on his iPod, supervising the waffle irons. Tobias shot a look at me and whistled loudly to Kenny, who raised his head.
"Take over for me, Ken. I'm on break."
Without skipping a headbanging beat, Kenny walked over and monitored the grill. Tobias took me by the elbow and led me out toward the back dock. On the way, I grabbed a small ceramic prep bowl full of raspberries off the counter and then followed dutifully until we were sitting, once again, in the two nylon camping chairs in the back. I sat down, pulled out a raspberry, and popped it in my mouth. Man, they were good.
"I thought you were going to stay home," he said.
"I was," I said. "But, you know, best laid plans."
"This isn't a joke," Tobias said. "I was going to come by and see you after my shift."
"Why?" I said, sitting forward a bit. "Did you find something?"
"Not much. I made some calls to friends, just preliminary stuff. His name is Cain Taggart. From Hastings, Tennessee. He's a conjurer, although he didn't show up on Magical radar - "
"You guys have Magical radar?"
The edge of Tobias's mouth quirked up a bit. "I mean, they only first heard of him recently."
I sat back, flushing at my own stupidity as I chewed on another raspberry. "Shut up. I don't understand how this world works."
He smiled. "Don't worry about it. Few people do. Anyway, he dropped off the surface about two months ago, and no one has seen or heard from him since." He cleared his throat. "I also looked into your friend Davina." He gave me a look. "She didn't show up anywhere at all. Are you sure her real name is Davina Granville?"
I stared at him. "I didn't check her driver's license or anything, no. But she says she's just a small-time conjurer. Maybe she's just never done anything to show up on your radar."
Tobias shrugged. "Maybe."
I set the raspberries down on the ground and leaned forward, looking at Tobias. "I trust her. She almost got herself killed last night protecting me - "
"Last night? What happened last night?"
"Cain attacked us," I said, then held up my hand as Tobias sat forward. "I tried to call you, my cell phone was dead, and by the time I could contact you, we were home safe and I was exhausted. I'm telling you now. Please back off, okay? If I have to deal with one more well-intentioned but overprotective person in my life, I'm going to throw myself headfirst into the falls."
Tobias smiled. "Well, that would be bad."
"I know," I said. "I could get wet. And possibly even a little muddy."
This time, the flush was his, appearing at the base of his neck. I felt myself warm up all over, and this time, I didn't think the tingling I felt was from any paranormal source. I reached down and grabbed the bowl of raspberries again, cupping it in my hands.
"So," he said after a while, his voice just as calm and in control as always. "You're okay, then?"
I looked at him, and our eyes met again, and there was more tingling, all over. Oy.
"Yeah," I said, my voice soft. "I'm fi - "
And that's when something small hit my face and bounced off.
"What the...?" I pulled back a bit and swatted at the air by my face. "What was that?"
"I think," Tobias said flatly, "it was a flying raspberry."
I hopped up out of the chair and looked inside the ceramic bowl I'd been holding; it was empty. I glanced around and a number of raspberry butterflies zoomed around the patio, their wings seeming to be made of some kind of raspberry juice vapor, my yellow light flickering around them as they flew. I checked my fingers and I caught the last fading glimpse of the light on my fingers; I hadn't touched the raspberries at the time of transformation, nor did I intend to change them.
Evolving power, I thought, and my throat tightened.
The wayward raspberry that had hit me in the face now flew drunkenly around Tobias's head, then backed up a bit, as if trying to get a good look at us, as though we were the freaks of nature. For his part, Tobias stared back at it, equally mesmerized.
"Huh,"