I baked cookies and took them to the neighbors whenever anything happened that might worry them, but two of the eight houses on our road were for sale. And last time I brought cookies, the nice lady who lived in the big gray house did not come to the door even though I could hear that she was home. It was probably a good thing that we didn’t live in a normal city neighborhood like Stefan did.
“Larry, glad you made it,” Adam said, soft-voiced for the same reason I hadn’t slammed my car door. “Tad, thanks for helping out.”
Larry nodded without getting to his feet. Tad straightened and took a couple of steps forward, his eyebrows climbing up at the sight of Adam’s battle-torn and mucked-up clothing. Tad glanced at me, but my torn clothing was tucked in a pocket where he couldn’t see it. I imagined that the bruise on my face was fully formed by now, but I’d had that the last time he’d seen me.
I answered the question on his face with a shake of my head. We hadn’t found Stefan yet.
“Don’t get me wrong, overtime is awesome,” Tad said, not inquiring further in front of Larry. “But I was thinking it might be easier if I rent your little house, Mercy. Or at least the house that is standing where your old trailer house was before it burned.”
“Adam and I were just discussing approaching Sherwood to move into it,” I said slowly, because having Tad move in might be better than Sherwood. I glanced at Adam.
“We haven’t talked to him,” Adam said. “And having you there might be a better idea. We can include rent as part of your salary.”
“There are a couple of downsides you should be aware of,” I said.
“Underhill’s gate.” Tad tipped his head toward the back of our house. “She won’t bother me. I’m small potatoes by her measures. She both dislikes and is wary of my dad. One or the other might intrigue her, but both together keep me safe until after she decides what to do about avenging herself on the rest of the fae. Dad thinks so, too.”
Larry laughed, his wide grin showing sharp teeth. “Is that what she is doing? Well, someone is going to have a fun old time when that happens.”
Tad gave him a long look, then his shoulders relaxed a little. I don’t know what had gone on between them before we arrived, but it must not have been anything too bad.
“I think they are still surprised that she dislikes them,” said Tad in a sour tone that reminded me forcibly of his father.
“More fool they,” Larry said. “I’m looking forward to the fallout.”
Tad grinned at Larry. To me he said, “I can move in Saturday.”
If Wulfe continued his stalking of me, though that seemed to be in question, would Tad be safe from him? Probably, I realized with a hint of relief, for the same reasons he was probably safe from Underhill. And if not? Tad could handle himself, possibly even better than Sherwood.
Most of the time, the half-blooded children of fae and mortal were much less powerful than their fae parent. But once in a while, the cross produced someone with unexpected and powerful magic. I would have been very hesitant to say that Tad was more powerful than his father, but only because I had no idea of the extent of the power of either of them.
There were, however, more problems with my house.
“Underhill was only the first thing. The house is also haunted by my murdered neighbor,” I told him.
“The Cathers?” Tad asked, his lips curving down. He’d known my neighbors, too. “Which one is lingering?”
“Anna,” I told him. “It’s not been very long—she still might fade. I don’t know how much you’ll see and hear, but she’s there every time I go in. She scared the pants off the HVAC lady last week.”
I had mistakenly assumed I was the only one who could see my neighbor’s ghost because that was the way it usually worked. I’d let the technician in and left her to do her work. I hadn’t gotten ten feet outside the house before she’d come tearing out as white as a sheet. I wasn’t going to let anyone else go in there without a fair warning.
Tad shrugged. “Anna and I traded casserole recipes. I’d guess we’ll still get along. I’m used to ghosts. Dad’s place is haunted, too.”
I winced. It was. It had been not much of a haunting until I accidentally paid too much attention to their ghost. Apparently, it was now knocking stuff off shelves and hiding small but important things like car keys.
“He can always decide to move out if it’s too much,” Adam told me.
“Okay,” I agreed.
“Settled,” said Tad. “See you Saturday, if not before then.” He waved at the three of us and headed for his car.
“Larry, what happened between you two before we got here?” I asked. It wasn’t idle curiosity. I needed to know if my various allies couldn’t be trusted to be alone together.
Larry shrugged. “I think he was guarding your house from me. I could have eased his mind, perhaps.”
I heard an equine snort, though the pony was not anywhere I could see. Larry grinned over his shoulder; evidently he knew where she was.
The grin was gone but a smile lingered in his eyes when he turned back to us. “Your lad seemed to be taking his job very seriously. I might have pushed him a bit to see how he handled it. You left the Iron Kissed’s son here as protection for your daughter, yes? Good idea.”