Page 36 of Concluded
“I’m grateful for that, and also for the help you’ve given to my agent.His work is important to me.He’simportant to me.So thank you.”
Maybe this was all just a load of political sweet talk, but Grimes’s words warmed Achilles’ heart.He was important.
Tenrael reached into the SUV’s back seat via an open window, pulled out a paper accordion file, and held it toward Jackie.“A gift for you,” he said with another bow.He was very good at bowing, managing to be graceful, powerful, and respectful all at once.The wings helped.
She took the file but seemed puzzled until Grimes explained.“That contains the contact information for a lawyer who’ll be sympathetic to the pack’s cause.She’s a shifter herself, in fact—dog.The Bureau rescued her and several others from a really bad situation when she was a pup, and although she’s never been an agent, she works on our behalf now and then.”
“Dogs aren’t bad,” said Jackie.“We’ve had a few join the pack now and then.My cousin married one.But I dunno about lawyers.”
“I understand.This is just in case you need an attorney.If encroachments on your land become intolerable, maybe she can help.The folder also contains some relevant paperwork about your land.Our tech guy was able to download it before we got shut down.”
Yay, Becker, Achilles silently cheered.The guy could work wonders.
Now Jackie clutched the folder to her chest.“That’s real nice of you.”
“We owe you a great deal.The lawyer’s fees are paid in advance, by the way, so no worries about that.”
She smiled widely, and several members of the pack quietly expressed their approval as well.Achilles was impressed with the chief’s ability to get this gift accomplished in a short period of time while so much else was going down.Or maybe it had been Tenrael’s doing; he was an efficient demon.
Afterward there was a short conversation between Jackie and Grimes, mostly about how the pack was doing.Achilles lost the thread of it.Despite a decent night’s sleep and good food, he wasn’t in anywhere near top shape, and all of him hurt.Especially his feet.He wobbled a little and might have fallen if Tenrael hadn’t darted forward to steady him.
Grimes looked slightly chagrined.“Sorry, Spanos.Ma’am, we’re going to get out of your hair now.But thank you again, and good luck.”He sighed.“We may need to call on your help again sometimes.”
“We’ll be glad to give it.”
Achilles and Dee had just a moment or two to give their own thanks before Tenrael and Grimes herded them into the SUV’s back seat.Tenrael took the front passenger spot, although he didn’t seem especially pleased about it.Car seats were likely uncomfortable for people with wings.
It wasn’t until they were out of the little valley and winding down the other side of a hill that Achilles realized that, aside from good-byes to Jackie, Dee hadn’t spoken.And Grimes hadn’t addressed him at all.Dee was folded in on himself, his gaze on the floor rather than the scenery, his expression bleak.Achilles wanted to talk to him about it… but not with their front seat audience.
“Where are we headed?”he asked Grimes instead.
“Not far.A temporary refuge where we can debrief and you can get some rest.”
That sounded good, if not very specific.Then Achilles asked a question that had been haunting him since the previous evening.“The other agents….Everyone else….Are they safe now that the Bureau?—”
“Nobody’s safe now,” Grimes interrupted.“But we’re not in any more danger than we were before.The Bureau has always operated with minimal direction from Washington.We mostly took their money.And luckily, Townsend stuck a lot in reserve.”
Of course he did.The former chief always seemed three moves ahead of everyone else.Until he got killed.Achilles suspected there had been something strategic about that as well.
He slumped in the back seat.He didn’t like strategizing and wasn’t good at it, as evidenced by his inability to get himself out of the recent mess.If Dee hadn’t decided to help him, Achilles would still be in Dunn’s talons, experiencing torture or worse.He might even have given in eventually and agreed to help her side, although he hoped that wouldn’t have been the case.
“Are you ill?”Tenrael asked.He’d twisted in his seat to stare at Achilles with his intense red eyes.
Realizing that he was shivering again, Achilles tried to get hold of himself.“No.Just….Sorry.”
“You have been through great difficulties lately.”
“You could say that.But, I mean, so have lots of people.”Achilles couldn’t meet that gaze anymore and turned to look out the window instead.But he could still feel Tenrael’s scrutiny.
“Do you know the circumstances under which I met my master?”Tenrael asked.
“No.”Bureau agents liked to gossip, so Achilles had heard plenty of stories about Grimes and Tenrael, but didn’t know which—if any—were accurate.New recruits tended to be weirded out by the two of them, not to mention by the nature of their relationship: Tenrael referred to Grimes as his master and preferred to kneel at his feet when possible.But to Achilles, the devotion between the two of them had always been obvious, and he figured that if Tenrael and Grimes were comfortable with their bond and its power arrangement, then the hows and whys of it were nobody else’s damn business.
“When my master found me, I was also undergoing great difficulties.I’m very old, Agent Spanos, and I have endured many things, but those years were….”Tenrael swallowed.But then Grimes murmured something to him that Achilles didn’t catch, and Tenrael smiled and continued.“Those years were worth it for the joy I have experienced since then.But the point I wished to make is that I was changed by the things that happened to me.I am no longer the same being I was before.But this can be a good thing, yes?”
Psychological counseling from a demon—that was a new thing for Achilles.And he wasn’t at all confident that he’d been improved by any recent events.However, he also didn’t want to argue the point, so he simply shrugged.“Maybe.”
That seemed to satisfy Tenrael, who faced forward again.But then Dee cleared his throat.“Um, excuse me?I don’t know if I’m being rude by asking this, but whatareyou?”
