Page 94 of Guarded By the Nightmare

“Nah,” he said, waving a hand. “We’ve got things.”

Somehow, I doubted that. “There were easily a hundred deaths out there.”

“Those were just the ones you saw,” he said, shaking his phone at me. “Members of that fraternity died on planes, and in cars, causing accidents—deaths that we clearly were not responsible for—and you’re forgetting there was a pit full of corpses on the site. The second after my people had taken down all of their security cameras and traced their servers to wipe them clean, I called reporters to come in and investigate. You saw that place, it looked plenty evil. I’ve already spun it that they were performing human sacrifices, and their magic backfired on them, which isn’t that far from the truth. It’ll be on the front page of every newspaper in America tomorrow, and no one’s going to give a shit about things actually went down.”

“Tell your reporter friends to hit that cellar with luminol and a black light,” Mina said, as the van pulled into a parking spot, wiping her face with a hand. She looked tired and I felt a spike of fear, for her sake, and the baby’s.

Maybe Roycewasright.

Not that I would ever tell him.

“So what are you going to do after this?” Sirena asked, sitting up.

I wasn’t entirely sure. Stay with Mina, for certain. But past that?

Somehow live a life?

“I’m asking because we try to avoid wet work, whenever possible. That said...the need for it does come up, from time to time, and we pay very competitive rates,” she went on, pulling a business card out of her pocket.

“Give me that,” Royce said, intercepting it to read. “Co-owner of my branch of Monster Security Agency?”

“I didn’t come out of the ocean to sit behind a desk all day, Dad,” she said, and rolled her eyes—missing his prideful smile.

“Well, I suppose someone has to take over the family business,” he said, turning her business card over to me, and I took it from him. “So if you’re looking for some work in the future, call us.”

“He won’t be, for a little while,” Mina said, unbuckling her seat belt. “But—thank you all. A lot. You can’t even believe how much,” she said, beaming all around. I phased outside, opening up the van door to give her my hand, as she stepped out.

“Good luck with everything!” Omara called out to us, and as I made to close the door, I heard Sirena again.

“Thanks, Daddy.”

“You’re welcome, sweetheart.”

71

MINA

I stoodwith Sylas at the bottom of the stairs leading up to my apartment—there were some mysterious stains on them, but I knew better than to ask questions.

“You ready for this?” I asked him, taking his hand.

“What?”

“Unrelenting normalcy,” I said, bouncing up a few steps and turning back to face him. “Boring things. Like jobs, and grocery stores, and taxes.”

“How could anything be boring with you?” he said with amusement in his voice, soaring up a few steps past me.

“Ooooh,” I groaned, like I was gut-shot. “That just earned you so many points, Mister Smoke.”

“You should know in advance, I will be winning this game forever.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” I said, trying my apartment’s key.

But the door was alreadyunlocked.

Sylas rushed in ahead of me, and then returned at once. “Close your eyes, Mina.”

“There'd better not be a fucking surprise party,” I muttered, but did as I was told, and let him lead me in—until a familiar squeal made me open them.

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