We sat around the porch, Nate perched on the railing, leaning back against a post, looking like a lazy, reckless teenager, but his eyes were distant, calculating, and he was twirling that coin of his again. Not lazy at all. Scheming. I let him scheme.

Claire had given Roland one of the teleportation spheres before leaving for breakfast, one that would send him to the church training room if he needed it, so I wasn’t concerned with him. It was now early afternoon, because we had sat here for a few hours, eating, debating, and discussing options, all while trying to keep specific details from my dad’s ears. The Demon, for example. I turned to my dad.

“Do you agree with Nate or me?” I asked him.

Nate slowed his coin, listening, but not looking.

My father studied Nate with a look of wonder on his face. It was one thing to mutter about someone behind their backs without knowing him, but meeting him, and learning that he was much more than the tabloids depicted, and that he had been helping his daughter had shed Nate in a new light. And Nate had spent a considerable amount of time talking to my dad about his school, the slimy bastard. My dad had eaten it up.

Then he had showed him a video on his phone on YouTube called Missouri is Awesome from a guy in Springfield. I stubbornly remained where I was sitting, but the other two laughed their asses off over it, especially when it made fun, saying that Terry was the most common male name in Missouri. Rather than offending my dad…

They now had a mild man crush or bromance that made me growl deep in my soul.

“I don’t like to run, but the way you make it sound, Master Temple, I might not be quick enough to use the glass ball to escape.”

Nate nodded, not looking.

“We changed the wards. Once we activate them, they will keep out anyone but a Regular. And I think you can handle one of them,” I smiled, motioning towards the shotgun propped against the rocking chair where he sat. “Nate and I can also pass through them, but that’s all.”

He smiled, nodding to himself, but still looked unsure. “Callie, I don’t even want you involved in this.” I began to protest, but he held up a hand. “It has nothing to do with you being my daughter, or even me doubting you. It’s just… this sounds like some heavy hitter is after you, and you’ve told me enough times that you—”

“This is different,” I interrupted, and saw Nate frowning, wondering exactly what I had told my dad in the past. We hadn’t told my dad everything, just hinted about vague monsters after me. Nothing about a Demon. “This is my city. If I don’t stand up for myself now, the monsters will attack me the second Nate leaves. They’re after me. I need to make a stand. Even if it terrifies me. I’m not trying to be stubborn. You and Nate are thinking short term. I’m thinking long term.”

“She’s right,” Claire said softly, looking at her feet. “She needs to do this, now, while everyone is watching. She’s already a target. That’s not going to change.” She looked at me sadly, scared for me, but proud. “She needs to stand on her own.”

Nate sighed, but finally nodded. “She does have a point,” he admitted. “These assholes feed on fear and weakness.” I smiled at him, but the gaze that met mine was anything but agreeable. “That doesn’t mean you need to do anything stupid. You still need a good plan. Having friends is helpful. Hell, my friends have saved my ass so many times that it’s amazing they don’t give me more shit about it.”

I met his glare, nodding. “Have you, in turn, not saved their lives countless times as well?”

He gave me a grudging nod. “Yes.”

“I rest my case. You stood your ground. Made a name for yourself. This is my turn to do the same, whether it terrifies me or not. I’ll gladly take help, but I won’t — can’t — hide behind you. We can stand together as equals. With me slightly ahead of you, of course.”

He shook his head, chuckling. “Just don’t shun help to prove a point. It’s never good to stand alone. You should always have brothers to watch your back.” He grew distant again, seeming satisfied at our compromise.

“Okay, Callie. I’ll try it your way. I’ll stay here,” my dad said.

“Thanks, dad. Once those wards go up, you’ll be the safest person in Kansas City.”

Nate nodded absently. “It’s getting late, and I need to do a few things before we meet at my hotel. Seven?” he asked me. I nodded. “Let me re-hash your plan. I’ll Shadow Walk Claire to Roland so she can check up on him while I upgrade his ward. She’ll stay there for a while, then go home. I’ve attuned one of the spheres to send her to the creek behind her house. Then she can walk inside. I’ll make sure she has the same wards as Roland and your dad. The ones I showed you,” he added with a stern look. I mocked a bow to give him credit for his ward.

It all sounded good. I wanted to talk to Nate about those spheres. Able to teleport at whim… that was an incredible tool. I was sure that even Roland didn’t know how to make something like that. In fact, I had never even considered making items that held magic. I had assumed that was just a stereotype from movies and novels. Well, Roland did have the tattoo thing, I guess.

The fact that Nate could simply change the destination of his marbles was fascinating. Of course, he couldn’t make it work to send her straight home, because the wards would incinerate anything with even a hint of magic, and she would be traveling by magic. He had set them up to send her just outside the wards. All she had to do was run a dozen feet or less to cross the line.

“We’ll hit the bears tonight, see if they have a piece, because if not, we’re fresh out of suspects. We really need to come up with something about this Demon, too. I can have Othello check the security feed from the auction, maybe find out what this girl looks like in human form, see if we recognize her.” He threw this in casually, giving me the opportunity to shoot it down, which I appreciated.

“That would be very helpful, but don’t put her in danger.”

Nate chuckled. “She’ll be fine. People are scared of her boyfriend.”

I frowned at that, but that only made him laugh harder, as if at an inside joke.

“I’ll see you in a few hours. Does anyone have any questions?”

No one did. Nate clasped hands with Claire — who was holding the spear piece — and they both disappeared without the cracking sound, this time. I blinked at that. He must have used a spell to silence the sound. Interesting…

I gave my dad a hug, and then walked out of the porch.

“What about his car?” my dad asked.

I smiled. “He’ll be back for it. But after all this is done, we’ll take it for a spin.”

My dad shook his head with a tortured frown. “Figures. Fancy sports car in my driveway and I can’t leave. Fuck the world,” he muttered. I burst out laughing, and knelt over one of the wards. I glanced behind me, scanning the street to make sure no one was near, not that they would notice anything if they did see me, but it would be odd to see me squatting on the lawn for a minute or two, staring down at the grass. Seeing no one, I closed my eyes and focused. Nate and I had spoken at length, debating back and forth until we had come up with a ward he said he had some experience with.

I placed the small stone griffin he had given me on the ground, not quite understanding why I had agreed to that part, or if it was necessary. He had told me that the piece had been made with protection in mind, but it had sounded like a ridiculously elaborate lie. But he had similar carvings for the other two sites, so I believed him.

I closed my eyes and focused, resting my hand on the small carving as I wove the spell Nate had shared with me. Moments later, I felt power building deep in the grass beneath my knees. I said the last words, and cracked open my eyelids. A bar of light erupted from the griffin figurine, shooting high up into the sky, and then, like a chain of dominos, more beams of power erupted from the earth, surrounding my father’s house in a ring of bars of light, like a prison cell.

Then they faded away, but I could still feel the ground humming with energy, like I was standing beside a power-line. The griffin was cool under my fingers, cooler than it had been. But I couldn’t help smiling as I slowly extended my hand closer to where the bars of light had been.

I felt warning crackles of power tingling against my fingertips as the ward sensed my magic, but I pressed with greater force, and my hand finally crossed the line. Although uncomfortable, it didn’t hurt me.

But I could tell that Nate had been right. This thing would obliterate any Freak trying to force their way through. It felt like the ones Roland had shown me, but on steroids.

Nate had shown me how to deactivate it, just in case, but I wasn’t going to do that anytime soon. The griffin sat within the ring, small enough to be overlooked under the taller grass. I reached for it and felt the same pressure, confirming my belief that someone couldn’t simply walk up to it and take it, destroying the ward. My father was watching me from the porch. I gave him a thumbs-up, and his frown stretched wider. The faint scent of sulfur had disappeared the second the ward went up, making me feel much better, as if it had proven the skill of the ward.

“That’s it? No peals of thunder or anything?”

I shook my head. “Afraid not, daddy.”

He sighed. “Lame.” Then he turned to head back inside, taking his shotgun with him.

I was going to go take a nap, because tonight was going to be a long night.