Page 5 of Pike

Lavinia begged to differ. There were too many things that needed to be said between them, things he needed to hear. She couldn’t get her mouth to cooperate.

Pike stood, dusting off the ends of his leather jacket and tilting his neck from left to right.

“What do we do now?” she asked.

He took her chin and forced her to look up at him. “Now I ask you why were you looking for me. Again.”

“I had a feeling that you needed me,” Lavinia answered slowly. She bit her lower lip. “I saw a vision in my head and I came right away. I didn’t really know where to go, so I followed my intuition.” Her fingers balled into fists. “Such as it was.”

His fingers dropped from her chin with a sigh, and Pike turned away and clasped the back of his head with both hands. “How many times do I have to tell you this? I don’t need help, love. You know I don’t.”

“You may not, but my gut told me a different story. It was very convincing.”

“Your gut is obviously lying.”

“I’m sorry I got blood all over your coat. I’ll pay to have it cleaned if you want me to. I didn’t mean for things to get messy.”

“Yeah, well, I’ll add it to your tab. Along with the rest of my clothes that you’ve managed to ruin. The dry cleaner knows me by name.”

She gestured with the toe of her boot toward the two remaining bodies. “What are we going to do with them? We can’t just leave them here for anyone to find.”

“The same thing I did with the last ghouls you managed to piss off.”

Lavinia merely shrugged. “They like the taste of my blood. Or my smell.”

“You’re like catnip to them. I don’t know what to say. Except stop seeking out trouble.” Pike nudged the first body with his shoe. A single twist of his heel and at once the ghoul disintegrated into a pool of gray ash. “There. Are you happy?”

She wished to tell him otherwise, but yes. Just the sight of him made her happy. It was uncomfortable and inconvenient. “I’ll manage.”

“Go home, Lavinia. Go home to your cat and stay out of trouble. I mean it this time.”

“I don’t have a cat.”

Pike chuckled. “That’s what you choose to focus on?”

Her hands went to her hips. “You know, if you would teach me better ways to defend myself, then maybe I wouldn’t have to rely on you for a rescue all the time. I know you hate being a knight in shining armor. And it would make me feel a lot more confident if I could go out alone, knowing that whatever happens, I’d be fine.”

“If you had a better sense of self-preservation and stayed home like I told you, then I wouldn’t be in a position to always come to your aid. You aren’t cut out for this life. This world. You’re better off going into hiding.”

“Then teach me,” she insisted. “Eight years has been too long to just muddle through. I can’t do it anymore, and you seem to have managed well enough. You’re my best friend, Pike. Help me out.”

“Some things you can teach. Others are inherent. Here.” His fingertip touched the spot below her collarbone. “And here.” He touched her temple. “You’re still too human to understand.”

He made it sound like a bad thing. Her gaze roamed over the blood on her leg, staining her fingertips, the ground, and now staining his jacket too. “I’m trying to figure it out,” she said. “I can’t stay at home and do nothing. I can’t go to work and worry about walking home alone because someone, something, might attack me.” And she couldn’t do anything when the visions came, always when she least expected them. Never clear and rarely good. “I could turn the corner and find Bigfoot waiting.”

His smile was wry. “Bigfoot is a myth.”

“Out of all the crazy things in this world, Bigfoot is the one that doesn’t exist! You see why I need help.” Her hands flew in the air. Then she dropped them, wincing when the movement opened the slice on her face.

“Looks like a cut. Nasty head contusion.”

“Things like that tend to happen when you greet a brick wall face-first.” She winced when he reached out to dab the cut with the hem of his shirt. “Stop touching it. You’ll get dirt in it. Or worse, ghoul juice.”

“Fine. You okay?”

She nodded again, slower this time. “I think so. Maybe I will go home.”

“Good idea.”

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