"I have a flamethrower."
Astrid snapped her head toward him. "You have a what?" she asked incredulously.
It was his turn to shrug. "It pays to be prepared."
"Well," Simi said. "Those are nice for toasting marshmallows, but they'll only make Thanatos mad. Regular fire won't hurt him. I have this really neat gelatinous goo that comes out with my fire and it squirts my victims so that it don't come off. Wanna see it?"
"No!" they said in unison.
Simi stiffened. "No? I don't like that word."
"We love you, Simi," Astrid said quickly. "We're just scared of your goo."
Astrid hit Zarek in the stomach as he started to correct her about loving Simi.
"Oh," Simi said, "that I understand. Okay, you can live."
After ascertaining that there really was no food there, Simi sat cross-legged on the floor. She hummed to herself as she twirled a strand of hair around her little finger. "So, you got QVC?"
"Afraid not, sweetie," Astrid said.
"You got Soap Net?"
Zarek shook his head.
"You got any TV?" Simi continued in a voice that sounded like a petulant toddler's.
"Sorry."
"Are you kidding?" Simi rested her chin in her hand and looked up at him. "You boring people. A demon needs her cable. Akri done tricked me. He didn't tell me I'd have to go without cable. Don't you even have one of those itty-bitty TVs that has batteries?"
Yeah and on that note, he pulled Astrid away from Simi.
"It won't work," she whispered.
"What?"
"Pulling me away so she won't hear. She hears everything."
He stopped. "Well, then, she's in for an earful."
Zarek stood there looking at Astrid. Memorizing every line of her face, every curve of her body.
He didn't know what to do to protect her. Jess couldn't come get her in the daylight and he didn't trust the Squires to get her to safety, either.
Not to mention the idea of letting them know of his hideout while they were out to kill him themselves didn't seem like a brilliant move either.
There was no one to trust and the only way he knew to protect Astrid was to call Thanatos out and finish this.
Tonight, he would find Thanatos and one of them would die.
It was something he didn't want to tell Astrid. She wouldn't let him go if she knew.
"Look, we'll need food tonight. I'm going to leave you and Simi here where it's safe and I'll go scout supplies."
"Why not send Simi? Nothing can hurt her."
Zarek slid his glance over to the demon, who was playing This Little Piggy on her bare toes.