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Chapter Thirty Four
Anna had drifted off to sleep, curled in Josh's lap, and didn't wake until he whispered in her ear, "We're here."
She yawned and stretched as she followed him out of the car.
"Here" turned out to be the kind of hole in the wall bar they favored and when they walked through the doors one of the most handsome men she had ever laid eyes on in her life stood up from his chair, a slow smile coming over his face. She stopped behind the boys and gawked.
Far from Grizzly Adams, Jack McClaron looked no older than his mid-thirties, with a full and beautiful head of chocolate colored hair. His face was covered very lightly with a short and maintained beard... no beard wasn't the right word, it was more like a three day shadow that looked purposeful. And he had the most vivid green eyes she'd ever seen. The boys had green eyes as well, but a much lighter and less “leap out at you” shade. He was about the same height as Josh, who stood six feet two inches, with a similar lanky physique only Jack’s muscles were more apparent. Especially in his forearms.
Wuhh... she thought, they could have prepared me!
"So mission accomplished," he said clapping his boys on the back. "Nice work. I spoke to Bentley, he thinks he's found a way to get to the bitch demon.”
"Good to know," Will poured himself a beer from his dad's pitcher. "So what do you make of it, them teaming up that way? Not their usual M.O."
Jack shook his head, his smile slipping. "Definitely Dantalion we're dealing with. The Jinn are generally more self-absorbed, caring only for their own personal agendas. They use a body to indulge themselves with everything they've been missing out on, mainly fucking and fighting, until it becomes too old or infirmed. That's when they usually jump to killing as you know-when they have nothing left to lose. Since they can't inhabit a new body until they're invited into it, they use each one to the max first. But this group is not following protocol."
Anna spoke up, her tongue finally coming unglued. "But I thought they helped other demons in the persuasion of human hosts?"
Jack focused on her for the first time and cocked his head to the side, his eyes conveying that he was seeing something distasteful.
Josh answered her. "They do, that's what makes them the most dangerous. See they have a pact, a sort of “scratch my back and I'll scratch yours” thing. Then down the line when they're forced to abandon their current body they have some potential inroads for another one. But that's as far as the Jinn will go in working together."
Anna nodded and fiddled with her hands nervously, the feel of Jack's eyes still on her.
"So you aided in the rescue of my boys I hear, pretty good stunt you and your friends pulled getting them out of lockup."
She said nothing. She knew Will and Josh had invented a story involving several people taking over the jail since they couldn't exactly tell him about her invisibility trick. She'd questioned whether or not he'd buy it since the news had painted a different portrait of them busting themselves out and attacking the guard. Of course since that version wasn't true either, it did stand to reason that the news was full of shit and Jack McClaron knew this.
She forced herself to meet his penetrating gaze.
"Thanks," she responded, kicking herself mentally.
"So you're a healer?"
She nodded.
He shifted his focus to his sons. "And you boys think that it's a good idea to tote around this child in case you find yourselves in need of some medical magic?"
He definitely did not approve. In fact his expression said something along the lines of "Idiots".
She made the error of jumping to her own defense. "I'm not a burden, I have my own money and I can help....." she stopped as Will gave a firm and pointed shake of his head.
"She knows her way around a computer,” Will took over, “plus for the more harmless information gathering, her sweet, innocent appearance doesn’t hurt."
Josh was nodding, standing protectively close to her. Jack ignored his sons keeping his unnerving gaze pinned on her. "Not a burden, huh? So down the line when you get your cute little ass in some kind of trouble, my boys won't risk their necks to extract you from it?"
Cute little ass? Anna felt her temper rising. "Exactly what kind of trouble do you imagine me in?"
"Do you have the slightest idea of the kind of danger hunters continuously face? And I'm talking about men who are trained to deal with it. I didn't cut my boys loose of my apron strings until they'd been hunting with me for a decade. How old are you exactly? What experience do you have in the things that we do?"
She bit her lip.
"Dad...." Will tried, but he was shut down with a severe look.
"You need to put Annie's fanny on a plane back home. She can only slow you down or get you killed. Especially now that the demons are organizing in corporeal form. The fucks in California are not the only ones, there are rumors of it going on in different cities throughout this country and abroad. All you need is for this little teeny bopper to get picked up and used against you." He folded his arms across his chest.
She looked at the boys who were aggravatingly silent. But what could they say? If she wasn't a vampire there was no way they would have taken her with them. And since they couldn't tell him that?
"Right dad, understood. She's just hanging with us for a little bit, learning what she can, and then she's back to NY," Will answered finally.
"Define a little bit."
"I don't know, a week or so I guess."
"Hasn't it been more than that already?"
"I meant a week or so more."
"Uh huh. I'm gonna hold you to that." He gave her one more hard look before walking over to the pool table.
For the rest of the night he ran between ignoring her presence completely or making insulting remarks about her size and age. Gorgeous or not, the guy was an ASSHOLE.
Anna ended up sitting at a table outside drinking alone until Josh noticed she was missing.
He sat down beside her. "Don't take it personally, he's just worried about us and you."
She raised a brow, "Me? No, I'm pretty sure he's just worried about you, which is understandable since he’s your father. But his age is definitely showing with the whole Girls are Helpless idea. It may be true that without my abilities this would be a dangerous life to live, but it wouldn't be impossible. I could actually do the things you implied I was doing, computer stuff, batting my eyes at people while I asked them pertinent questions. And I'm not a moron, I wouldn't put myself in a position to get kidnapped."
Josh was half smiling at her, which made her stiffen.
"No, don't take it that way, I'm smiling because I can picture that. And you're absolutely right. I personally think having a healer on our team is beneficial, extra abilities or not." He sounded so diplomatic she had a feeling he was placating her. "Don't worry, dad never sticks around long, he'll be gone before the week's out, and we'll only have to deal with his disapproval over the phone. Much less intimidating."
"Right."
He changed the subject, and they fell into a comfortable conversation about her life before the “summer of change”.
Over the next few days Jack was so insufferable that Anna had never wanted to hurt anyone so badly in her whole life. He was damn lucky that she adored his sons because "little orphan Annie" would have definitely kicked his self-righteous, egotistical, condescending ass otherwise.
On the third day Josh caught her smiling wickedly and asked what was up. She told him she was fantasizing about picking Jack up and tossing him over the bar. "Can you imagine the look on his face if I did that? Bet he wouldn't think li'l orphan Annie was so helpless then." She smiled wider and Josh couldn't help but smile back.
"That would be damn funny. Too bad you can't do that." He added the last with just a hint of warning in case she was actually considering it.
She pouted, "Don't spoil my happy fantasy, party pooper."
On the fourth day Jack got a call from a couple of "hunting" buddies just back from Russia and announced that he was hitting the road. Anna literally went into the bathroom and danced a jig when she heard the news.
His parting remark to her was, "I expect you to be flying away in three days little girl, so it's doubtful we'll meet again."
She'd actually managed to get a classy dig in, answering, "Not meeting you again makes the thought of that most appealing, I assure you."
But he'd only grinned at her and saluted as he walked out to his car. Infuriating bastard.
Secretly though, she found herself craving his approval and understood exactly what it was about him that made his boys treat him with such deference. And it was largely because of him that she made the stupidest decision of her life to that point, and considering what she was and how she came to be it…that was saying something.
Generously created for me by @son-of-satire