Reynard’s mind boggled a moment. “Good for them.”
“Do they have other animals in the Castle? I didn’t see any.”
“Yes. Parts of it are a bit like a zoological garden.” A bizarre, nightmarish one. “Your mother and I saw a rabbit there the other day.”
“Are the animals in cages?”
“Not all of them.”
“Don’t they eat each other?”
“No. The Castle makes it so no one’s hungry or thirsty. You weren’t there long enough to notice that.”
“You don’t ever eat in there?”
How many questions can she ask in under a minute? “Never ever. At least not the old-timers, like me.”
“That sucks. What about Choco-puff cookies?”
“Fortune is a harsh mistress.”
She made a face. “You’re laughing at me.”
“A little.”
“I’m just a kid.”
“Don’t underestimate how wonderful that is to an old soldier like me.”
She wrinkled her nose. “You’re not old. Grandma’s old.”
“I am, too. I’ve lived a long time and traveled a great many places.”
“You talk like you’re from England.”
“I was. I’ve been other places, too. Flanders. Italy. Germany. India.”
“India? Did you see elephants?”
“Of course. And a few lions and tigers as well.”
“And bears?” Eden’s eyes twinkled.
“No bears,” he said, thinking that now she was laughing at him, though he couldn’t figure out why.
She pushed a bag of cookies his way. “Have a Choco-puff.”
He took one and bit into it. It was disgustingly sweet. He ate it anyway.
“Why did you go to India?” she asked around a mouthful of chocolate.
“The king sent me. And I wanted to get away from home for a while.” From his father. From Elizabeth. From the fact that she had borne his brother a son. Oddly, the memory didn’t burn the way it used to anymore.
Eden watched him intently, the way children do. “Did you get homesick?”
“Yes, but I watched the night sky, like in your book there. When you travel the world, somehow knowing the people at home see what you see in the sky helps a lot. And it helps you sail your boat home again.”
“You can find your way with them? Could I find Spain with the stars?”
“Stars are like a map. You can find your way anywhere if you know them well enough.”
“Are there stars in the Castle? I didn’t see any stars.”
“No. There are no stars.” There is no connection to anyone else there. You are truly alone.
Eden looked glumly at the book. “I can’t remember this map, and we have to name the stars on a test.”
Reynard tilted the book to see it better. It was a map of the night sky, with lines and dots marking the major constellations. He looked at the window over the kitchen sink. It was just starting to grow dark. Not dark enough to teach her the way he had learned, from simply looking at the sky with his tutor.
He thought for a moment. “Sometimes it helps to remember them by the story they tell. Do you know your Greek legends?”
Eden wrinkled her nose. “Like gods and goddesses?”
“They play a part.” And he started to tell her the stories he knew of Hercules’ lion, of the twins Castor and Pollux, and Orion the Hunter, pointing to each of the players where they danced in the night sky.
Ashe listened with half an ear as she worked, measuring flour and trying to double the recipe without miscounting. Reynard’s voice was soft, his stories steeped in the elegance and heroism of another time. She didn’t know about Eden, but she wasn’t going to forget a word of his tale.
But when the story ended, her mind drifted. It had been a busy day, an urgent search through books with Holly and Grandma to find the perfect demon locator spell, dozens of phone calls in search of news of demons or vampires, and keeping an eye on Eden and Reynard to make sure they were all right. She’d tried contacting her hacker friend again to see what other properties the demon might have purchased. No answer. She wasn’t worried—every so often he seemed to fall off the planet only to reappear days later, but it was a bad time to pull one of his vanishing acts. Then she’d got Mac on the phone to see what he’d learned from questioning Miru-kai. Even if she hadn’t been banging on doors, the last hour was the first reprieve from the search for the urn, Belenos, or the demon.
One other thing had happened. Earlier that afternoon, Brent Hashimoto, the lawyer who was presumably not a demon-possessed nut job, had phoned with a proposal for her. Roberto’s family wanted to spend the holidays with Eden. That meant summer vacation and Christmas in Spain. In return, they’d back off about Ashe’s suitability as a parent. As Hashimoto said, their real concern was losing touch with their only grandchild.
That gave her something to think about. Ashe agreed that Eden should have a relationship with her grandparents. The sticking point for her was, as always, safety issues. As long as they agreed to work through those, she was willing to talk. Hashimoto was smart: Confronting Ashe head-on only made her hostile. Appealing to her reason engaged her. Acknowledging that nothing came before Eden’s well-being had her willing to play ball.
Perhaps it was possible that at least something in her life could be settled without a knock-down, drag-out fight? It would be nice to think it was possible.
Eventually, she started spooning chocolate batter into paper-lined muffin tins. They’d had just enough eggs. Ashe’s mood was good. Cupcakes seemed easy after the last few days. Holly’s spell was bubbling. Reynard was looking better. Eden was safe and sound.
Eventually, finished with his astronomy lesson, Reynard came to lean against the counter. Something in his expression reminded her of a stray cat confident of a handout.
“Wicked with a stake, and she cooks, too.”
“Don’t mock the woman holding the food.”
He looked from her to the bowl as if both were filled with tasty goodness. Ashe ducked her face away before she blushed or started to giggle. Even leather-clad action babes got giddy with relief some days. The memory of Reynard naked wasn’t helping her concentration, either. If lust could be stirred into a recipe, these cupcakes were going to be rising high on pure desire.
She picked up the baking pans and slid them into the oven, then set the timer and dumped the dirty bowl in the sink, where Holly was washing dishes. “There’s one more for ya, Hol.”
Holly stuck out her tongue, but her eyes were full of mischief.
“Hey, Eden,” Ashe said. “We’re going to eat supper in a little while. Why don’t you take a break and put your books away for now?”
“Put them in my office,” suggested Holly. “Move the cat off the desk if you want to play on the computer. He likes to sleep there.”
Eden slipped off the chair, gathered her books, and wandered off. Ashe watched her go, wondering if her daughter really was that calm after her adventure with Belenos and the fairy prince, or if it simply hadn’t hit home yet.
The phone rang before Ashe could pursue that thought. She picked up the cordless handset. “Hello?”
“I thought I might find you at this number.”
Belenos. She turned her back to the others and walked into the living room, not wanting them to see what must have been horror on her face. From there she could see out the front window. The streetlights flickered on, pools of yellow light backlit by an indigo sky. It was still a half hour to full dark.
“Aren’t all good little vampires still asleep?” She dropped her voice and tried to add a pinch of menace. Does he know this address? The house was secure, but they still had to come and go.
“I am neither good nor little. However, I did think congratulations on retrieving your daughter would be
