“Well, you know what they say—dress for the job you want, am I right?” Nessa winked at me as Tristan’s walk-talkie crackled again. “Do you plan on doing your job, or are you just going to wait around all day for the challenge you’re sure will come?”
His eyes sparked as he beheld her. “Are you picking a fight with me for a purpose, or just because you’re bored?”
She tilted her head and grinned at him. “Bored. Say naughty things to me, Daddy.”
I could feel my eyebrows lift. When she wanted to provoke him, she really went for it.
“Gargoyles are a go,” a voice said through the walkie.
“Aww, shoot.” Nessa snapped her fingers. “Too bad. I guess now we’ll have to wait until never to get back to that conversation.”
Gaze rooted to her, Tristan held out his walkie slowly. She took it with a devilish grin before he gingerly stripped off the muumuu. His skin shone in the morning sun, cut muscle and swirling ink. His carefully tended man garden was standing proud, her words obviously affecting him erotically. I yanked my gaze away quickly.
I was the only one, though. Nessa’s eyes dipped low and then lingered before she pulled them back up.
“That’s it?” she said, but the flush in her face betrayed her.
“Sometimes too much, depending on where I put it,” he said smoothly before walking out to the center of the square with swinging shoulders, a cocky grin, and oh so much swagger.
He bent into a crouch, and then his gargoyle emerged, as large as a basajaun with a hair more width. His hide shone like liquid metal as his claws elongated, glistening black on his hands and feet.
His wings extended down his back.
He straightened now, looking at the gathering crowd and letting them gawk. And then he glanced back at Nessa and held out his hand.
“What does—” She looked down at the two walkies in her hands. “Damn him. He planned that.
Well, if he thinks I’m going to jog out there like his magical assistant or something…”
She stepped forward and threw one of them, her aim perfect. The walkie arched through the sky before nearing him. He reached for it lazily and snatched it out of the sky as his mighty wings snapped open with a crack. Several people in the growing audience flinched. His knees bent, and then he catapulted into the sky, ascending at a speed that elicited oohs from the crowd.
“He can certainly put on a show, I’ll say that much,” Nessa murmured, tilting her head back to watch him. “I always wonder if one day his brain will crack, and he’ll kill me before I even get a chance to flinch.” She sat down next to me. “Do you ever wonder that?”
I stared at her mutely for a moment. “No, but if I did, I wouldn’t continue taunting him.”
“Meh.” She shrugged. “The fun is in not knowing. Okay.” She held her walkie out. “We’re just waiting on our big monster to let us know when everyone is in position, and then we’ll be rolling. Do you need anything?”
I shook my head, closing my eyes. A sea of connections lit in my mind’s eye, and I started organizing them by proximity, altitude, and other categories. I’d been painstakingly practicing this for weeks. Eventually it would be muscle memory, but I’d have to put in a lot of hard work to get to that point. I certainly wasn’t there yet.
“Okay,” I said softly. Things were about as organized as they were going to get. My gargoyle pulsed within me, sending out a shock wave. Get ready.
A voice came from close by. A man. “What are two pretty little—”
“Not now, bruh,” Nessa barked. “Can’t you see we’re working? Get moving before I kick that leer off your face. Isabelle, what are you doing? You should be running interference!”
“Got laid up.” I heard jogging as Isabelle ran up. “Some idiot tried to shove me, and I needed to break her arm really quick. These people do not like visitors.”
“Or maybe they just don’t like our type of visitors,” Nessa replied.
“Probably more likely. I’m going to call in some basajaunak. I don’t think anyone is dumb enough to mess with them.”
“We shall see.”
I wanted to tell them to shhh, but I repressed the urge. I’d need to do this in the middle of a battle while I was fighting. Quiet wouldn’t be an option. I needed to start learning that now.
“Let’s get going,” I said, focusing in on the various groupings I’d made.
Nessa radioed up to Tristan, who was hovering right above us about a hundred yards in the air.