“Man, you’re putting yourself all kinds of out there.” Titus grinned. “I’ll be interested to see what they ask in exchange for their markers.”
“I don’t care. You don’t know what it’s like, Ti. A year of freedom from migraines and buying charms that fail when I need them most? I’ll pay the cost, whatever it is.”
“So what do we oweyou, Mimi?” Rome asked.
“Let’s see, Grandma has a rate per minute plus fees for extra details, but we got sidetracked with a few things. And I’m only an apprentice, so that knocks some off.”
Mimi stopped talking and held up fingers one by one.
“Need my fingers, too, love?” Titus teased, hugging her from behind with one hand and holding up the other with his fingers spread.
“No.” She scowled, but leaned back against his chest. “Hmm, I’ll round down, because the information is helpful to Valhalla, too. So, let’s say seven thou and call it good. Oh, and the repair bill, whatever that comes to.”
“Seventhousanddollars?!” Mira choked.
“You want it in gold, cash, or gems?” I asked.
“Cash is fine.”
Reaching into my jacket, I took a stack of hundreds outta the inner pocket, slid off the paper wrapper, counted off thirty bills, and handed her the rest.
At the rate I’m going,I’m gonna need to dig up another loot box just for the cash,I thought as I pocketed the remaining three grand. I wonder if I should trade in some of the other stuff for money.
“Need a receipt?”
“Pfft. You’re funny.” I shook my head. “Text me the repair bill. I’m good for it.”
We exchanged numbers. Josef gave me his, too, and told me to call if we needed a healer again. He also tossed me the keys to his SUV and said to get Gigi back to our place ASAP.
“I’m not giving it to you for keeps.” He frowned when I tried to thank him. “I’ll send someone by later and swap out for one of our fleet vehicles.”
“Don’t think we’re friends or anything, Harker, but I owe you one.” Titus, looming behind Mimi, folded his arms over his chest. “And Josef and I hate those Alchemists. We only dislike you.”
“Speak for yourself, Ti.” Josef raised an eyebrow. “Harker’s growing on me. He did save my best friend, after all.”
“You can like him all you want. Doesn’t mean I have to,” Titus fired back. “Anyway, Harker, if you need help taking them down, call and the Huskarls will answer.”
#
Rome
We piled into Josef’s SUV, and Kerry drove us back to Brooklyn. I used the time to make some phone calls. We needed to pass the word along about Christopher Remington to all of our sub-teams.
And if we get any more of those, we’ll need to make a chart to keep track of everyone.
When I finished with Spin, I looked over at Kerry.
“I can’t believe you harrowed Hell.”
“Iwhat?”
“Means you rescued a righteous soul.” I held back a smile at his puzzled look.
“What are you gonna do with it?” Mira asked.
“I dunno. Hand it off to the wardens, I guess. Maybe they can get it to an Archangel who can take it home.”
“That’s what I’d do.” I nodded. “Not like that’s covered in school or our protocols.”
