I didn’t have time to do much over the weekend, with shoots both days and a party Saturday evening put on by one of the other models.

A nice little interlude of some kind of normalcy. Of course, I couldn’t get away with drinking at the party. I could get away with taking Kanesha. The hostess, Diana, was very gracious, and she hired good caterers.

“So, the new guy…”

“…is apparently part efreet.”

“I hope that doesn’t mean he’ll hit on Clara.”

“Seb would punch him.”

Kanesha grinned. “No. Clara would hex him.”

“Point. Seb knows she can look after herself.” I leaned back in the chair I was sitting in, relaxed, half-watching the party.

“More than, half the time she’s the one looking after him.”

I still wished I could do something about her scar, but Kanesha was right. Clara was quite dangerous when she wanted to be. She wasn’t going to get any more like that in a hurry. “Good point. Anyway…he’s in good hands with Zaid.”

“Confused, I’d imagine.”

“I think Zaid got across to him that he’s not a demon, not a monster, and doesn’t have to abandon his faith. So he should be good.”

I hoped. And I was still wondering about that fire escape. “I talked to the other guy,” I added. “Dreadlocks guy. Hunter from New Orleans. Came to check on rumors of me.”

“That’s gonna start happening, isn’t it.” She smiled. “Let’s stop talking business.” She stood, offering me her hand. “Let’s dance.”

I took it, and let her lead – for everything superior about me, she led better than I did. Smarter, a better dancer…I grinned inwardly as I started to list her good qualities. It was a habit, but a good one as far as I was concerned.

If you didn’t know all the ways the person you loved was better than you, then you loved the wrong person. So, we danced, and everything went smoothly.

I was waiting for the other shoe to drop, in terms of the next thing being a ranking demon coming after Derek.

But it didn’t that night, or the next day. No, it actually waited until Monday, and then it came in the form of a phone call.

“I know you don’t know me, but my name is Marlena.”

“Okay.”

“Derek’s mother. Can we talk?”

I knew instantly that Derek had gone to her to take up the matter of his heritage, and she’d been hiding it from him, and was mad…but why call me, not Zaid?

Unless she’d already yelled at Zaid about it and was now working down the list. “Alright.”

Or maybe she was mad about something else, like him hunting, which she hadn’t known before and was blaming on me.

She named a cafe not far from Dupont Circle. Not really in the full-blown alternative zone, but close.

I put on a nice blouse to meet her. Maybe she thought Derek had a thing for me.

But I knew she wasn’t happy and I wanted to fix that, wanted not to be the cause of conflict between a mother and her son.