Page 13 of Clay White
“It’s not very comfortable for me. And I like flying.”
Simple enough. If I had wings, I’d chose them over the freeways too.
Before we left, Tenrael and Charles embraced, and then Tenrael plucked a feather from his wing and handed it over. Smiling, Grimes tucked it into a pocket. It was such an intimate scene that I found myself blushing. I hadn’t thought myself capable.
Grimes owned a 1960s GTO, light blue and in pristine condition. Even the pale vinyl upholstery looked straight out of the showroom. The exhaust rumbled thrillingly, like an angry rhino, and the seating was comfortable even for a man as big as me. It turned out that zooming up the 5 was a lot nicer in this car than in an econobox.
“I wouldn’t have pegged you for a car guy,” I commented as we were passing over the Grapevine.
“I’m not. I found this one, I liked it, and I take good care of it.”
“Did you do the restoration work yourself?”
Grimes shot me an inscrutable grin. “I bought her brand-new.”
That raised a basketful of questions, but I couldn’t think how to phrase them.What the hell are you?seemed a rude thing to ask a man who was doing me a favor. I deflected my questioning to another topic. “How did you and Tenrael, um….”
“Become partners?”
“Yeah.”
“Seems unlikely, doesn’t it? Bureau man and a demon.”
I thought about it. “Dunno. Maybe not. Probably have more in common than if you’d hooked up with an insurance salesman or waiter or something.”
“Probably.” He drove silently for a few miles, neatly accelerating past some semis and an RV. “I was supposed to destroy him. I freed him instead.”
“Why?”
“I don’t think I could have lived with myself if I’d done any differently.”
I nodded in complete understanding. “What did you free him from?”
The corners of his mouth turned down. “You’re imagining monsters, aren’t you? Things with talons and fangs and scales?” He snorted. “It was humans. Just ordinaryHomo sapiens.”
“Fuck.” I believed him. While I had specialized in other species, I’d seen what my own was capable of.
“You want to know something funny? After I freed him, I left. The men who’d been torturing him for years were right there, and he could have torn them to pieces. Nobody could have stopped him, and I wouldn’t have thought any less of him if he’d done it. But he simply flew away.”
I might have had trouble swallowing a story like that before, but now that I’d met Tenrael, I found it entirely credible. “So the demon is better than the human?”
“Maybe. Sometimes. He came to me of his own free will and desire. And the more he got… under my skin, the more I thought about tracking those motherfuckers down and giving them a taste of the pain they’d inflicted on him. Ten talked me out of it.”
“An ethical demon?”
“A practical one,” Grimes answered. “He didn’t want me to go to prison. Anyway, for a long time now I’ve had the satisfaction of knowing they’re moldering in their graves while Ten and I are still kicking. Kicking together.” He smiled.
Grimes stopped twice to get gas and once for a late lunch. While I had a burger and fries, he ate apple pie. I didn’t ask him about his unusual diet.
Without offering to stop at my place—and I didn’t ask him to—Grimes crossed the Bay Bridge into the city, which he seemed to know well. He had no trouble maneuvering through heavy traffic and down meandering streets, and he finally pulled into a garage beneath a little hotel across the street from Sutro Heights Park. I waited in the garage, leaning against the warm metal of the car, while he checked in. He came out glancing at his watch. “Ten’ll be here soon.”
I hadn’t been a part of the discussion about where Tenrael would meet us, and I was frankly curious as to how he’d flap down unnoticed. I understood better after I’d followed Grimes across to Lands End and up a trail that overlooked the Pacific as it entered the Golden Gate. Eucalyptus and other trees grew tall there, and a foghorn made its mournful calls. We sat on a bench and watched as a fog bank swallowed the sunset and crept forward to engulf the city. I was glad for my jacket.
Tenrael’s approach was silent, perhaps muffled in part by the sound of the ocean beneath us. I startled wildly when he landed, but at least I didn’t go for my gun. He wore dark pants, and with his bronze skin and black wings, it was hard to see him clearly. But Grimes didn’t hesitate to fold him into a quick, hard embrace. “Good flight?” I thought Grimes sounded wistful.
“Hmm.” Tenrael nuzzled at Grimes’s neck.
I found myself wondering where Marek was.
