Page 141 of Dead Heat

“Probably Gunther. Camryn would want her shamans to sage the meeting hall before she’d be willing to enter. The chief might not appreciate her eccentricity.”

West chuckled. “Right, Cam’s the eccentric one.”

“Okay, fine. Gun can be eccentric at times, but he’s a social creature. He knows how to work a room.” And how to judge one, but that wasn’t really relevant for our purposes.

“I’ll let you know when we put the first meeting on the calendar.” West hesitated. “I’m glad we told Elena. I’ve known her for years, but I suddenly feel like myself around her, like I could drop the mask.”

“And how does that feel?”

“Better than I expected. Thank you for that.”

“Don’t thank me. It was your idea.”

“If it weren’t for you, I would’ve avoided it indefinitely.”

“You didn’t want to burden her. Makes sense.”

He was silent for a moment. “I think it was more than that. I was afraid she’d reject me as her friend, and that scared me more than anything else.”

“I understand, West. More than you know.”

“That’s the thing, Lorelei. I do know. I get it now. I getyou.”

Tears pricked my eyes. I wasn’t sure why it meant so much to me to be known and understood by Weston Davies, who was only a friend and colleague, but it did.

“Speak soon,” West said and hung up.

Kane set two cups of tea on the table. “Davies was chatty today.”

I told him about the task force. “Would you want to be on it?”

“Not unless you want me to.”

“Because of West?”

“Of course not. I only like to give time where it’s needed, and I’m not sure my voice is necessary in that group, especially if you intend to include Josephine.”

We drank our tea, and I tried not to embarrass myself by eating like I’d been stranded on a deserted island for a month. Otto’s leftovers were every bit as delicious today as when they were fresh.

Kane glanced at his phone as it buzzed. “I’m needed at the club for a couple hours, but I can come back later. Would you like my company tonight?”

“I’d like nothing more.” Except maybe a hot shower, which I could accomplish after the demon left.

His goodbye kiss promised an evening that would make me forget my problems, and possibly even my name. A power nap was required if I wanted to stay awake tonight—and I most definitely did.

One piping hot shower later, I padded downstairs in clean clothes and nearly slipped on the bottom step as a vision materialized in front of me. Three figures stood outside the gate. They were in their female forms today, complete withmatching crowns of hissing snakes. At least they’d opted not to have blood spilling from their eyes, although it was probably for their own benefit. Hard to see clearly with a river of red gushing from your eyeballs.

I walked outside to greet the Erinyes.

“Put the snakes away, aunties,” I said, crossing the bridge and stopping inside the gate. “They don’t intimidate me.”

“Does this mean you know us now?”

The familiarity of her gravelly voice startled me. For so many years, I’d believed Melinoe’s memories were wholly separate from mine. Inaccessible. My visit to my parents’ throne room in the underworld had dispelled that myth, however, and the walls between my memories and Melinoe’s seemed to grow thinner by the day.

“Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. The aunties. You acted as my caregivers when my mother was away for the season and my father was busy ruling.”

Megaera was the one most likely to fly off the handle over a minor slight. As a child, I’d tiptoed around her and tried my best not to catch her attention. Tisiphone liked to watch me build a tower of blocks and then knock them over before I managed to place the final one on top. Alecto’s voice was like sandpaper, a rough, endless sound that wore away at my nervous system. Small wonder I’d preferred the company of a three-headed monster. Cerberus was only lethal to others. The hellhound had slept by my side from infancy until… whenever I’d left. That part I still didn’t remember.

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