Novels2Search
GodHunters
Chapter Sixty

Chapter Sixty

Dinner was not going great.

Bentley Blufton was about what you'd expect for a town captain. He talked a lot, used both hands to shake your hand, and was starting to get soft around the middle. His wife was nice enough, and still pretty, but Rafferty thought she was trying too hard to look younger than she actually was. They had a teenage son who seemed impressively bored with the whole affair, except for whenever he could get a look at Katrin's legs. There were little twin girls, too, about eight years old, and Rafferty thought they were definitely growing up to be murderers.

Mostly, thought, it was just that Rafferty wasn't very good at any of this.

Not like Katrin. Katrin, who walked gracefully in her flowing white dress and high heeled boots. Katrin, who had everyone hanging on every word while she told the table about the time she and Brianna had been stuck in a canyon battling two Class Twos at the same time. Katrin, who punctuated an intelligent comment about the wine by crossing her legs with a flourish that was clearly appreciated by both father and son.

Rafferty, on the other hand, kept having to back up when she tried to tell the Zeros story. She was pretty sure everyone was thoroughly confused. Katrin had to end up finishing it for her, and she wasn't even there.

Rafferty tried to laugh at all of Mr Blufton's jokes, like Becka had ordered, but once she had misjudged it, and laughed when he wasn't telling a joke. Of course, they had all asked what was funny.

"Oh, I was just picturing Blaspheme falling in mud," she said, trying to save it.

That earned her plenty of strange looks.

"It's a tradition," she said, desperately reaching for one of Becka's approved words.

That had not cleared up the confusion.

The dramatic pre-dessert hair change hadn't gone much better. She tried to flip her hair the way Becka had showed her, and ended up flicking her hair right into Mrs. Blufton's face. The woman had screamed, just a little, when a mane of oddly colored hair had assaulted her from an unexpected angle.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

It got even better when Mrs. Blufton pulled one of Rafferty's hairs from between her teeth, held it up, and exclaimed with great delight, "Hey, it's two different colors!"

That got everybody laughing. A lot. Maybe, at future events, other girls could picture Rafferty smacking a stranger in the face with her hair when they needed to laugh at jokes that weren't funny. That could be her contribution.

The meal was mercifully over. Max and Lady Cyclone were in the corner, chatting with Mrs. Blufton. Rafferty noticed that Lady Cyclone was touching Max's arm a lot. Katrin had the Blufton boy's attention, as well as their two bodyguards. She was pointing to a scar above her elbow while they looked on intently and asked lots of questions. The twins were looking out one of the windows, probably plotting the deaths of everyone in the world.

Mr. Blufton had just finished discussing something with Nathan, the head of the Engineers, and was refilling his wine glass. Deciding to get on with her part of it as quickly as possible, Rafferty walked up to the guest of honor and tapped him on the shoulder.

He turned and looked at her.

"Do you wanna see something cool? I'm not really supposed to, but…" she said, trying for a little hint of a smile.

His eyes lit up, and soon he was following Rafferty as she pretended to sneak out of the room. A quick jog up a deserted stairway took them to the roof, her companion panting a bit as they stepped into the night air, which was still quite warm.

Rafferty realized that Bentley Blufton was a bit drunk, and more than a bit out of shape. She actually was going to have to be careful not to let him fall to his death. At first, she just tried to stay between him and the edge, but she kept having to nudge him back to safety. Eventually, Rafferty grabbed his hand and guided him to the giant God's head.

"Is it real? It's not a replica your Engineers made up?" he asked.

"No, it's the real thing," she said.

Blufton placed his palm above the left eye. He closed his eyes, and held it there for a long minute. Rafferty figured she wasn't supposed to say anything here, so she just stood in the sultry breeze and waited for him to be done.

When he opened his eyes, he asked another question.

"You brought this in all by yourself?" he asked.

"Yep." she said.

He looked at her. He knew there was a story there, and he clearly wanted to know what it was. She didn't know if she was supposed to brag, or if she was supposed to seem contrite for bending the rules. Becka hadn't said anything either way, but somehow Rafferty felt she would have an opinion.

She had an idea.

"Cutbacks," she said, with as straight a face as she could muster. "It's why donations from people like you are so important."

Bentley Blufton blinked, and then laughed a big, hearty laugh. Like he had just seen someone fall in the mud. On their face.

This is great. I got him up here. He didn't fall to his death. He's laughing and having a good time. I did my job. Now what I need is a way to get out of this moment without actually saying anything else, so I can't screw it up. But I can't just walk away. Right? That's not allowed? Um….

Rafferty looked past the edge of the roof. She wasn't wearing any of her gear, but it wasn't that high….

She looked at him, again trying for little hint of a smile.

"You know, if I take these boots off, I'm pretty sure I can flip in the air, and land on the ground on my feet. Wanna see?"

Of course he did.