Rob Thurman - Grimrose path

"Oh, he's speaking volumes in his own way," Griffin said wryly. "I'm lucky his pen ran out of ink. But I deserve it. He also took my car keys, not that I remember where my car is, and I heard him trying to talk a security guard out of his handcuffs in the hall at breakfast."

"Trying?" That didn't sound like the Zeke we knew.

Wriggling his foot out from under the sheet, Griffin lifted it to show where his ankle was cuffed to the rail at the foot of the bed. "Since they took the catheter out, bathroom breaks have been difficult."

I was about to grin-Zeke learned his lessons differently than the rest of us, but he did learn them-until Leo said, "Handcuffs. Now that is the best idea I've heard today." That was enough to have my momentary slice of happiness fading, but worse yet, it was enough to catch Zeke's attention.

He accepted that the aide was gone, moved his gaze to Leo, who still stood just inside the door, and then turned to give me the same searching look, that expression he wore when he read someone's thoughts. "You showered together? And you didn't have sex? Why would you shower together and not have sex?"

"Oh God." Griffin covered his eyes with one hand and pulled his foot back hard enough to rattle the cuffs, but there was no getting out of them… or the room, as much as he might want to. As loudly as Leo was growling, I knew he wanted to.

"Oh." Zeke's attention was back on Leo. "She didn't notice?" His eyebrows knit, perplexed as his scrutiny dropped about three feet down Leo's body in an attempt to puzzle out the situation. "Huh."

"Oh God." It was repetitive, but that was understandable. Griffin couldn't get out of the bed, but he could turn on his side and shield his head with the pillow, which he did. I carefully put the spoon down on the table as he disappeared beneath white cotton.

"Spying, Kit? That's rude. That is very rude." But this was Zeke and while you did tell him when his behavior was not acceptable, you also made allowances for his differences… his uniqueness. That's when you went to who was truly accountable in the situation. Leo. "You were thinking it loudly enough, he could hear it through your shield?" I charged. Normally no demon, angel, or peri could penetrate our shields unless we weren't being careful or we were all but screaming in our heads. "Unbelievable. Do you want demons knowing things like, 'Oh, I'm not quite a god anymore' along with 'And my penis is this big'? Do you want Eligos to kill you? Bagging Loki would make his eternity. Besides, it was almost three hours ago. I said I was sorry." I hadn't, but I made it a principle to never apologize when a lie will do. "Let it go already."

Now suddenly instead of one set of male eyes on me, I felt the heat of three, a highly unhappy heat. Griffin had given up the protection of his pillow to join forces with his comrades, and Zeke said disapprovingly, "That was not appropriate, Trixa. I'm disappointed in you."

Zeke thought I was inappropriate. Zeke. And he was right. Insinuating that a man's penis was no big deal, accidentally or not, wasn't definable. The dictionaries held no words strong enough to label that mistake. Catastrophic fell miles short of covering that error. I hadn't lived as long as I had without learning the massively sensitive issue all males, human, paien, or gods, shared. This simply wasn't my day. I couldn't lie well and I couldn't avoid a mistake so basic a high school cheerleader could've taught me a course on it on this miserable day-who had a PhD compared to me when I couldn't figure out how to open the door to the damn school. No doubt because the handle was phallic shaped.

I apologized, throwing my principles out the window. I did it quickly and hurriedly buried my attention back in the Jell-O. That was the best thing to do when you inadvertently or carelessly… semantics… didn't show the mighty penis the respect it deserved. Get past the moment as expeditiously as possible so everyone could pretend it had never happened. Leo, of course, wouldn't let it go. He'd gone on and on. This day wasn't getting any better. When you've been beaten up by a demon in your own bedroom and that was the high point, it was one seriously bad day. Finally I'd told him to either kill me or wait for Eligos to do it; I couldn't stand the guilt trip anymore.

"I'm going down to the chapel," he said. It's difficult to speak without moving your lips or unclenching your teeth, but he managed.

"And who are you going to pray to, Loki?" I snapped back. I was sorry, but I was getting less sorry all the time.

"Myself, and you'd better hope I'm not listening." He slammed the door behind him.

I snorted. Men. Gods. Gods-on-hiatus. All the same.

"You're in trouble." Zeke was grinning.

Griffin looked amused as well until I threw him under the bus without a second thought when I asked Zeke with all innocence, "Aren't you pissed at Griffin right now?"

"Oh yeah." Zeke by now had supplanted me in my position on the edge of the bed, and had been automatically wetting and wringing a washcloth in the basin to pass back and forth to his partner. Griffin was working on getting all the dried blood out of the creases of his hands and the raw patches of scraped skin over his knuckles. It reminded me how fortunate we were he was still around. Taking on demons without backup wasn't conducive to that. Zeke was as aware of that as I was. He had been momentarily distracted, but he was back on the scent now. "You are never getting out of the house again. Ever. Ever. If I can find a goddamn hamster ball big enough to put you in, I will. You're an idiot. A selfish, clueless idiot. Eden House thought you could guide me? Thought you were smart enough to partner up with me? Hell, the demons probably didn't even set a trap. I'll bet you tripped and fell into one's open fucking jaws. Maybe it wasn't even demons. Maybe a pack of poodles mauled you."

Tickling the bottom of his foot through the sheet, I said to Griffin's betrayed expression, "He's speaking to you again. That's something, isn't it? You can thank me later."

That didn't happen.

I wasn't surprised. Those thrown under buses aren't often grateful, but with those who jump under them of their own accord, that's not always true. But I didn't find that out until later-when Rosanna showed up.

We took Griffin and Zeke back to the bar with us. AMA-against medical advice-but since medical advice hadn't cured him, and Zeke had, it hadn't been much of a deterrent. While Griffin had finished cleaning up, he'd also told us about his solo demon hunts, every detail. He'd found new hunting grounds we hadn't known about-some bars, some hotels… and one in particular that hosted pageants for people who wanted to dress up their four-year-old like a ten-dollar hooker. The poor kids couldn't sell their souls to get a normal childhood, but their mom could sell hers to ensure her little Savannah won that crown. I hadn't thought of that one. Griffin had been clever, too clever, but now we'd know where to look for him if he did something this suicidal again. There had been five of them, the demon safaris… The sixth had been the trap. Five solo demon killings-he'd had every reason to look exhausted in the past week or so as it was catching up with him. He didn't have every reason to be alive, however. He was good, but fate is capricious. If he'd been trolling alone and come across Armand before Armand had been turned into a demon-flavored milk shake on my floor or had run into another higher-level demon like Armand, there was every chance Griffin wouldn't have been around long enough for the demons to bother with a trap. That Eli had saved Griffin might not classify as a miracle in the holy sense, but it was wholly unexpected and I didn't want to depend on it again. As for assuming most of the demons would wise up and stay in Hell and out of Cronus's reach… First, they couldn't stay there forever. Eventually they'd run out of souls to eat. Second, lower-level demons weren't that intelligent. They didn't know when they were profoundly outclassed or they didn't have the brain cells to believe it. They wouldn't hide long.