“We can do that.” Cherry looked at me again, back to her normal, smiley nature. “Right, Paul?”
“Right,” I agreed.
“See, there ya go. We’ll make sure they look at that bad bite on your ass too.”
“How did you—” he started before Jackson cut him off.
“Psychic.Get with the program, man.”
I glanced at my brother. He looked quite proud of himself. Yet another thing I wasn’t going to ask about. Apparently, working on a murder investigation meant finding out all sorts of things about my siblings that I’d rather be ignorant of.
“Ah, I forgot.”
My mind was struggling to come to terms with how this guy looked. Assassins weren’t supposed to be around Jackson’s age and green around the ears. They were supposed to be stealthy and polished, faceless and enigmatic. Not…this.
“Try to stay on track,” Cherry said with a wink. “Now, to start, what made you decide to go after Jackson?”
“Apart from my charm and good looks, of course,” Jackie interrupted.
The assassin didn’t even blink. “No, that didn’t factor into anything at all.”
“Aw, don’t play coy now.”
The assassin gave Cherry a look.
“He’s not lying,” she said drolly, and my brother had the gall to look a bit hurt. “What was it, then? Surely not his sparkling personality.”
“There was a bounty placed on his head this morning. It would have been enough to get my sister out of debt and get out of this life.”
So, Cherry had been right about his motivations. Of course. Still, it did make me feel a certain way that the would-be murderer on the floor had his own story and wasn’t just a spectral boogeyman dedicated to hurting us. It felt too… real? Or was I just too disconnected from the plight of a lot of magical folks?
Hmm.
“That’s some fair motivation. Is your sister in danger right now?”
The assassin remained silent, and Cherry did the same. I was a bit surprised at that, since I got the impression she didn’t spend many moments both still and non-verbal.
“Not presently. But if she doesn’t make her payment at the end of the month…”
“It’ll be a different story?”
“To put it politely, yeah.”
Cherry’s eyes met mine once more, and I found a strange camaraderie there for someone I had only just met that day. Was this how the humans in ancient myths had felt when they ran into a deity with powers beyond their comprehension?
“Can we make sure that doesn’t happen?” she asked.
“You want us to help the family of a man who tried to kill us?” Chris bit out, and I could sense his inner wolf rising to the surface, teeth practically snapping.
That wouldn’t do. Cherry was helping us more than I could ever ask for and deserved respect. “Stop it,” I snapped, letting my own wolf rise to the surface before I turned my attention back to the captivating woman shorting out my brain. “Can you swear he will never relapse and go back into this world?”
Cherry turned away from me and stretched out her hand. “I’m going to touch you now,” she said, her voice going deeper and flatter again. “I want you to look into my eyes when you answer, and if you are lying to me, I will know.”
“I understand.”
She pressed her palm to his forehead, and the room fell silent again. Yet, I swore I felt a tingle ofsomethingon the edge of my senses. Almost like a passing wave of static, or a whisper of air, gone before I could even fully sense it.
“You want to help your sister, yes?”