Kindling the Moon (16 page)

That made me a little sad, but I didn't say anything.

“He's close to Yvonne's sister, though—Adella—and his grandmother. The two of them live in Oregon. Adella's a university professor. She and her mom drive down here every few months to visit us, or we go up there. They've been real supportive. Love Jupe to pieces.”

“At least he has that,” I said. “Not everyone does.” I gave
him a closed-lipped smile and his face softened. “My mom's parents died when I was about Jupe's age. I never knew my dad's parents.”

“My parents are both dead,” he said. “I inherited my money and property from them.”

“Siblings?”

“Only child.”

“Me too, but I guess you know that from watching the news.” I squinted at his scar. “So how did she do that?”

He traced his finger along it and exhaled. “She cut me with a kitchen knife on my way into the divorce courtroom.”

“Holy shit.” I was shocked and slightly horrified.

“In the end, it was worth it. My request for full custody of Jupe was granted without question. The judge said she should be locked up in a mental institution, but I didn't have her arrested.”

“Why not?”

“Because … my dabbling with magick is the reason she's the way she is,” he said without emotion, stubbing his cigarette into the grass. He looked away, as if that were the end of the conversation.

“What? Don't think you can just drop a bomb like that and not explain it.”

He shrugged, but didn't respond. Clearly he thought he'd said too much and was clamming up again.

“I've shared secrets with you,” I reminded him, “so it's only polite that you return the favor.”

The barest hint of a smile, but he wasn't budging.

“Fine,” I said, brushing my hand on my jeans. “If you aren't ready to tell me now, I can wait.”

He looked at me for a moment, then nodded. I interpreted that to mean that he'd tell me eventually. “Ready to get
back to work?” he asked. “We need to get this finished. You've still got to charge the damn thing with Heka once we're done.”

I sighed and pushed myself out of my chair with a groan, carefully scanning Lon's face for clues to his feelings. Funny that after all my years living in hiding, I was struck by the realization that someone else's secrets might be just as interesting as mine.

A day had passed since Lon and I erected the ward around my house, and my servitor still hadn't returned. I was beginning to worry, and contemplated pulling it back prematurely.

Apart from my house or Lon's, or my now heavily warded rental car, one of the safest places I could be was probably the bar. Being around people coming and going would help to disguise my energy from any lurking spies. So, regrettably, I resumed my shifts at Tambuku until Lon had had a chance to research our new glass talon lead. Most of our regulars acted glad to see me back behind the bar. I only had to break up one fight yesterday, and it didn't involve binding anyone, so not too bad.

Tambuku was busy today, and the work kept my mind off matters. During a short break early on in my shift, I tried to email Caliph Superior in Florida. I wanted to tell him about the glass talon and the visit to the Tamlins, but I didn't think it was a good idea to phone him, just in case his calls were being monitored. However, my email bounced back, saying that his in-box was full.

While I debated whether to risk a call to the caliph, my phone rang. Lon's number.

“Hey there,” I answered. I'd been getting antsy waiting to hear from him today, so it was a relief that he'd called.

But it wasn't Lon's voice that answered in reply; it was Jupe's.

“Heya, Cady, whatcha doing?”

“Umm, working. What are
you
doing calling me on your dad's phone?”

“You're not mad, are you?”

“No—”

“Whew! You scared me there for a second. I didn't know your number and he checks all the calls I make on my cell phone, I mean, uh, not that it matters … anyway, are you at your bar? I looked it up online. How come you don't have a website?”

“We do have one, it just isn't very big.”

“Pfft. A tiny photo with your address and phone number—that's not a website, that's a web
page
. You should let me build you a better one.”

A thirteen-year-old kid can build a website these days? Holy shit. “Umm … we'll see.”

“Hey, you wanna go on a date?”

“Huh? With who?”

“With me.”

“Uh, Jupe, I'm flattered, but I'm a little old for you.”

He laughed. “My dad said the same thing—he said you're too old for me and too young for him and told me not to get any ideas.”

“Well, he's probably right.” Though it stung to know that Lon thought I was too young.

“Look,” he said, lowering his voice. “It's not
really
a date. There's this movie playing at the drive-in that I wanna see real bad. It's only playing for two more nights. My friend Jack was
supposed to come with me tonight, but his parents won't take us. They say he's not allowed to stay out after ten on a school night.”

“When I was your age, I couldn't either.”

“Well, that's dumb. I can stay up till midnight.”

“Impressive. Why can't your dad take you?”

“He says he's too busy.”

Amanda walked up to the bar and gave me a three-drink order for a booth.

“Who are you talking to?” Jupe asked.

“I'm working, remember. I'm talking to a waitress.”

“Oh, cool,” he said, unfazed. “Anyway, so I was thinking, you could come pick me up and we could go see the movie together in your rental. I asked my dad what kind of car you rented and—”

“I can't tonight, Jupe. Working, remember?” God, the kid was hardheaded.

“What about tomorrow? Please. I'm begging! It's the last night. I'll
die
if I can't see it.”

“Jeez, you'll die? What movie is it?” I finished mixing one drink and started a tray for Amanda.

“
Creature from the Black Lagoon
.”

“The one from the sixties?”

He snorted derisively. “The sixties? Man, I thought you knew about classic movies—1954. It never gets screened anywhere around here. Please, Cady. Please, please,
please
—”

“I have to work a half-shift tomorrow, so I won't get off work until eight-thirty.”

“It starts at nine-thirty. How long would it take you to get here?”

“Uh, thirty minutes. Maybe less now that I know the shortcut up your cliff.”

“COOL! We have time!”

“I don't know, Jupe …”

“Hey, you kinda owe me. My dad's been locked up in his stupid library for the last two days doing research for you and ignoring me. Besides, he says I'm driving him nuts anyway. If we leave him alone, he'll do your research faster.”

I laughed. “Hell's bells, where did you learn to negotiate?”

“Will you do it? Huh?”

“All right,” I said, caving in. “I'll pick you up at nine. Does your dad know?”

“No, but he won't care. He likes you. Wait, hold—”

I finished mixing the drinks just in time for Amanda to return with more orders; as I lined up four new tiki mugs, muffled conversation on the other end of the line turned into muffled yelling.

“Arcadia,” Lon's voice said from my phone.

“Who is this?” I teased.

“You can't take my son on a date.”

“I didn't ask him. He asked me.”

“He stole my cell and called without permission.”

“Sounds like a personal problem to me.” A low growling noise came out of the phone. “It's just for a couple of hours. I'm not going to let him make moves on me, sheesh.”

“You better not. He's still a virgin and I'd like to keep it that way.”

My jaw dropped. “Are you joking? I can never tell if you're serious.”

“Mhmph.”

Okay, he was joking; the sad thing was that I was starting to be able to read his grunts better than his words.

“I'll try to control myself,” I said. “Come on, it's just babysitting. Don't you trust me with your kid?”

“Says you, the person attacked by a Pareba demon a few days ago.”

Ugh. He had a point. What if something happened while Jupe was with me? Lon would never forgive me. I sure as hell wouldn't if it were my kid. “You're right, maybe I shouldn't—”

“I know you've got your charm and have warded the rental car, I'm sure it's fine. To be honest, it's not you I don't trust, it's him. He once sneaked off from the drive-in.”

“Oh, really? Well, I've never had a date bail on me before.”

“I bet.”

“You bet what?” What the hell was that supposed to mean? I accidently overpoured the Mai Tai I was making and started cussing under my breath as I grabbed a bar towel.

“Look, he's kind of a pain in the ass, so if you're just telling him yes because he put you on the spot, don't worry about it. I'm sure you've got bigger boys waiting in line for dates on your nights off.”

I held the phone away from my ear and looked at it momentarily before speaking. Oh, too young for him, was I? “Lon Butler, are you trying to find out if I'm dating someone?”

Amanda leaned over the bar to grab napkins and gawked at me. “You're talking to Lon Butler on the phone?” she whispered excitedly. I made a face at her and put my finger up to my mouth to get her to shut up.

“No, I was just saying—” Lon began. Low grunt, long sigh. “Don't feel obligated to entertain Jupe.”

Wide-eyed, Amanda giddily puckered up her mouth before I pushed her away from the bar. Great. Now I was going to have to concoct some lie about why I was talking to him.

“Well, it's not a big deal,” I told Lon. “I like Jupe and I'm happy to get him out of the house and give you some quiet time. Besides, if I had ‘bigger boys' lined up right now …
well, more interesting ones than the two losers who've asked me out tonight already—”

One of said losers, Tambuku's favorite Earthbound healer, Bob, looked up from his drink with a wounded look. Oh, brother … “Sorry, Bob. You know I didn't mean that,” I whispered before turning away to finish with Lon.

“Anyway, I probably wouldn't be settling for movie-night with a teenage boy if I did.”

He paused, then replied, “It's your funeral.”

“All right, well, I'll pick him up at nine tomorrow. I take it you haven't found anything today, research-wise?”

“No.”

I sighed. “Well, I gotta get back to work.”

“See you tomorrow,” he replied. “I'll make sure he's ready on time.”

“Sounds good, have a go—” But the line went dead before I could finish. “So rude,” I mumbled to myself. Maybe dating the younger Butler was preferable after all. He didn't grunt.

The next day, I stopped by Father Carrow's on my way to work. He was in his front yard watering plants. He glanced up to watch me step out of the car and smiled as I approached.

“Good afternoon, Father.”

“Cadybell, what a nice surprise. On your way to work?” He rested the garden hose trigger on the porch steps and took a red bandana out his back pocket to wipe his brow. He was wearing a large floppy straw hat and dark blue pants.

“Yep. Watering your special shrub? What's it called? Yesterday …”

“Yesterday, today, and tomorrow. See, it still has all three flower colors on the side. The dark purple are the youngest, lilac middle-aged, and white are the oldest.”

I leaned forward to breathe it in. The shrub stood the same height as me. “It smells so good. I can't believe it's still blooming.”

“Lots of fertilizer and love, my dear. How's it going with Lon?” If I didn't know better, I would've said there was a little mischievous sparkle in his eye when he asked. I ignored it and answered casually, “Not bad. I was going to give you the latest update on the demon.”

“Has he found it already? I told you he was good.”

“He's been working tirelessly, but no luck yet.”

Father Carrow picked up his hose and continued spraying around the base of the flower bed. “Oh, I'm sorry. What's the update?”

“Well, I found out that the description of the talons was wrong. Remember how I told you that it had two sets of arms?”

“Yes, and long talons on all of them.”

“Turns out the talons might be glass.”

“Glass?” He raised his floppy hat and scrunched up his face at me.

“Or a glasslike substance.”

“That's a new one for me, dear. I've never come across anything like that before in my studies.”

Rats.
He finished working on the flowering shrub, then moved up a couple of steps to water three hanging baskets on his porch. They were in a precarious position, and he was having trouble reaching them. “Here, let me do it,” I offered, setting my purse down. He relented and perched on the steps while I watered. I began telling him how one of the talons might be missing.

“Extracted like a tooth, supposedly. What Lon and I have been puzzling over is why. I mean, if the demon was just injured, then the talon would be broken, right? It seems like if someone or something pulled it out from the root, then they might have wanted it for some reason.”

What I refrained from saying was that Lon and I really couldn't figure out why someone would remove the talon and use it to kill when they could just command the demon to kill for them. The good Father hadn't yet asked exactly why I needed to find the albino demon, so it was probably best that I omit any gory details regarding murder.

He thought about my question while he removed his hat and fanned it to cool his face. “I've never heard of a demon talon being a sought-after object. Still, it does remind me of the old fairy tales in children's books. Have you ever heard of
Struwwelpeter
? It's a famous German children's book.”