But it didn’t. I was expecting to wake up to the sound of police pounding on my door, but I slept all night in Lydia’s arms, and woke up with late morning sun warming my toes through the window.
Puzzled, I surfed to the VBC news site and saw myself third from the top, the whole rescue recorded raw on public record, captured from the drone and the officer’s POV.
I could recognize Charlie easily enough, but my own face was blurred out, until I was just a mystery man in blue jeans, wearing a bloody white shirt.
What the hell was going on?
I scrolled through the stories until I found an explanation. Everybody wanted to know who I was, but nobody could tell who owned my media rights, so nobody could tell who they had to pay for using my face.
I tried to search my own face and the error came up in red text, “Flagged by HDI Revenue.”
What the fuck? My father had spent a decade working for HDI, in exchange for full ride corporate employment that included a fancy school and an unlimited scholarship for me. I was unemployed and out of school now, so HDI didn’t technically own rights to my face, but if they couldn’t make money off me, they were gonna make damn sure nobody else could, either.
* * *
At that moment, Denise and her mother were in the potion shop, watching the same clip.
Denise turned to her mother with a smug grin on her face. “Are you glad you didn’t kill him now?” She gestured to the screen. “I bet that guy is.”
“Yes,” Cecilia said. “Your boy’s already got the bug. You were right to help him, Denise. But did he have a license to do what he just did?”
Denise Hardy’s face fell.
“Right. Your new prospective boyfriend just started a freelance hero business, and you better make some phone calls before somebody puts him in jail for it.”
* * *
I finally did get a knock on my door, just a little after noon, but it wasn’t the cops. It was way worse than the cops. It was Denise Hardy, carrying a warm plate of cookies.
“Denise, dammit! This was not necessary!”
I opened the door, and she breezed past me, setting the cookies on my coffee table.
“I know, I’m sorry to come over unannounced, but when you said you flipped a succubus, I just had to see for myself.”
Lydia had been perched invisible across from my desk, but when she heard this, she popped out, horns and all, and said, “Oh, is that what he did?”
Denise sized her up and crept toward Lydia, peering at her with witch eyes like she was assessing the threat.
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“No, I don’t think so,” she said, pacing back and forth. “This succubus is not a sport model. This is a trickster. She’s not gonna fight me. She’s ready to run.” Denise crossed her arms and looked up at Lydia. “You think you can bounce before I anchor you?”
Lydia grinned. “Oh, let’s find out.”
I jumped in and got between them. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Denise, tell me you did not come here to start a fight!”
“It’s cool,” Denise said, gesturing to the plate. “Have a cookie.”
Lydia said, “Just a moment, please” and came down from her perch, twitching her nose as she sniffed the cookies.
“Oh, really?” Denise said. “Fuck you!”
Lydia ignored her, taking another long, slow sniff before she returned to her perch and said, “They should be fine.”
“Can we all just chill out, please? I need everybody in this room to be friends, sooner the better.”
“Sorry for the ambush,” Denise said, “but there’s no way you can hide her from Mom. She’s gonna track down your roommate eventually, and when she does, me vouching for her is the only thing that might keep Mom from calling Faerie 911.” Denise looked up at Lydia and said, “Are we gonna have a problem?”
“Depends on what you’re worried about,” Lydia said softly. “Please allow me to address your concerns.”
“Do you love him?”
“Of course,” Lydia said. “I’ve loved him since he was four.”
“What do you want from him?”
“I wanted him to kill my Master, and as soon as he did that, I told him to go home, get married, have children, and live happily ever after. But he decided to rescue me first.”
“And you didn’t ask him to do that?”
“I’ve spent the last two days begging him to send me back, but we both know he won’t.”
“Did you tell him to go rescue that guy on the bridge?”
“No.”
“Did you try and stop him?”
“Yes, but I didn’t try very hard. If you’ll forgive the poetry, I think this is his destiny, and I cannot stand in the way of his destiny, even if I think it will lead to poverty, misery, and an early death. I’ve served his family for six hundred years, and the harder I push against this, the more he will dig in. Something I hope you will remember, when you take over my job.”
“Lydia, what the fuck!” But they both ignored me.
“My first loyalty is to Boston,” Denise said. “Whatever arrangement you have with him, if you become a threat to my city, I won’t wait for Mom.”
“You and your city have nothing to fear from me. Look at it this way.” She gestured to me. “I believe Timothy has already made his allegiance clear. He fights for Boston, and I fight for him, so as long as he wants to play hero, you and I are on the same side.”
“Promise me you won’t hurt anyone on Earth,” Denise said.
“I can’t promise that,” Lydia replied. “But my first priority is to protect Timothy. I will not harm anyone unless they threaten Timothy first and I will do everything I can to avoid conflicts. Is that good enough?”
Denise pursed her lips. “Give me your Word.”
“You have my Word,” Lydia said
Denise nodded and picked up the plate of cookies. She peeled the plastic back and held it up to Lydia. “Close enough,” she said. “Have a cookie.”
And to my surprise, Lydia took one and took a big bite. She curled her hand to catch the crumbs and said, “Is this Avalon wheat flour? How did you—“
“Mom has her sources.”
“And this recipe, is this Bova Strauss?”
“His great grandson.”
“I thought that recipe was secret!”
Denise shrugged. “Mom trades favors with everybody.”
“Do you know what happened to Bova?”
“We lost him in ’93.”
Lydia nodded sadly. “He was a legend. Thank you for the cookie. It’s a wonderful memory.”
Denise nodded and seemed to relax. Then she turned to me.
“But demon girl on the wall is not your biggest problem, Tim. You just saved a life without a license, and DMA already knows where you live. They would have bagged and tagged you this morning if I hadn’t called them first.”
I was stunned. “Denise, you called the feds on me?”
“Yes. And you are damn lucky I did. I told them Mom and I vouched for you and promised to bring you in. So, have a cookie, wash the demon off you, and change into some good clothes. If you want to stay out of jail today, I need to take you to see my guy.”