Page 20 of The Red Rider
“Someone made me a gift?” I asked, slipping it over my head.
“It’s Santeria. It’s called Ormosia Spp, and it’s made from peony seeds. It’s supposed to give protection.”
I fingered the red seeds. I could use all the protection I could get. I wished I could find the woman who made this and thank her.
“I hope you thanked her for me.”
Leif just beamed at me.
“I’d never insult her and not do that. We have a lot of protection charms along with food. Are you ready to leave, Ariel? We’ve done everything we can here. Dice and I are going to take you to his base in Florida, and Aeron is going to make a quick stop in Gabriel’s Haven to drop off vaccines and let them know help is coming.”
I threw my arms around Aeron’s neck. I could just lovingly strangle him for helping Gabriel’s Haven like that when we no longer needed to go back there.
“Have I told you how much I love you? Thank you for helping them.”
Aeron held me at arm’s length, and he looked grumpy again. What was it now? Was he ever in a good mood?
“Ariel, do you realize you just told me you loved me? Were you serious?”
Well, shit. Had I not said that before? And the first time I did, I did it like that? I was so bad at this. Most people tried to pick the perfect moment for this, and it just dropped out my mouth like I expected him to know it already. I grabbed Leif’s hand.
“I love both of you. I’m sorry I haven’t said it before now. And despite my protests, I’m growing rather fond of Suspender Man too.”
“I have that effect on people,” Dice said.
“You’re more like angel fungus,” Aeron said.
“Do they ever stop?” I asked Leif.
“No. It just escalates until my shit gets broken.”
“I would like to point out we vaccinated every one, and nothing got broken this time,” Dice said. “We didn’t even have to kill that gang that showed up and tried to cut in line.”
Aeron just yawned.
“I wouldn’t have been mad about killing some gang members, but there’s the whole repopulating the earth thing when this is over. Their miscreant sperm could sire children that bring about a new age. Every sperm is sacred.”
“That’s gross, Aeron,” I groaned.
“Aeron has never been able to phrase things very tactfully, but he’s not wrong. He even managed to squeeze in a movie quote to make his point,” Leif groaned.
“IlikeAeron’s movie quotes. Sometimes, they bring back memories. Monty Python, right? Miss Mabel was fond of those movies.”
“Okay, girlfriend test, didyoulove the movies?” Aeron asked.
“What kind of persondoesn’tlike Monty Python?” I asked.
“They exist, and you pretty much can’t trust them,” Aeron said.
“Ooh, look at this!” Leif squealed, pulling something out one of the boxes he got. “It’s a hand-carved wooden cross. The detail is amazing!”
Dice just patted him on the shoulder.
“You know you can’t take all this to Florida with you, right?”
Leif straight up stuck his tongue out at Dice like he wasn’t a grown-ass angel.
“I know that, dipshit. I’m taking this cross, though.”
