Demon Retribution (Shadow Quest Book 3) by Kiersten Fay Page B

wouldn’t hold up if she’d
forgotten to take her mother’s ashes. Maybe no one would question
it, but there was that small chance. “We’ll have to take her with
us.” She tucked the urn under her arm. It was lighter than she
expected.
    Incredulous, Cale eyed the silver container.
“She’s imprisoned her mother in there?”
    Kyra raised a brow. “Are you serious?”
    “ Uh. No?”
    “ Man, you are new to this planet.
Where are you from, the dragon clans?” She recalled that the
witches who resided on the outskirts of the dragon clans could cast
such a binding spell.
    “ Mm.” His gaze darted
toward the front window. “Is there some place we could go where I
can grab a bite to eat and catch up on some sleep? We have plenty
of time to get into the details later.”
    She agreed, leading the way out to the
street. They walked at a leisurely pace, so as not to draw
attention. The moon was bright tonight, and looked to be nearly
full.
    Passing a few bars, Kyra stopped in front of
a small pizza shop where the line to order wasn’t too long. “Feel
like a slice?”
    “ If it’s edible, I’ll take
it.”
    A bell announced their entrance. “I suppose
you don’t have any cash, do you?”
    Cale dug through his pockets and produced a
few wallets. One plain looking and black, one brown and fat, and
the other—
    “ Oh, god, is that Gucci?”
She flipped it open and read the name on the license to herself.
Paula Cellino. “Put these away,” she growled. “Did you steal
these?”
    “ No. I asked for them
politely.”
    She scanned his urban biker-gangster image.
“Did they hand them right over, or did they throw them at you and
run?”
    He shrugged.
    “ Just get rid of them, and
no more stealing. I’ve got plenty of money. If you need anything,
just ask me.”
    By his expression, he didn’t like the sound
of that, but the wallets disappeared into the trash. She cringed.
Gucci lovers everywhere were crying out in pain.
    After ordering four slices—one for her,
three for him—they claimed a corner table. As she always did, she
bit off a piece of the too hot pizza and blew in her mouth, trying
to cool it fast. Cale had already downed half of his without even a
flinch.
    Three police cars and a fire truck barreled
past.
    “ So I guess we can go back
to my place if you need some sleep,” she said, ignoring the sirens.
“Where’ve you been staying anyway?”
    “ The park.”
    She paused, mid bite. “The park? Like a
bum?”
    He took another huge bite, not answering at
first. “Like I said before, I’m here to protect you. The park
provided adequate cover.”
    “ So you were just camping
out, watching me?”
    “ Pretty much.”
    “ First of all, creepy.
Second, why?”
    “ Did you miss that part
about protecting—”
    “ I mean, why didn’t you
ever approach me? Let me know you were here and tell me what’s
going on?” She paused. “What is going on, exactly? I’ve been here
for so long with no word from home. This whole time thinking—” She
couldn’t say it out loud. That she’d been thinking her family had
been destroyed. Then she realized he hadn’t said a word about her
family, she’d just assumed. Sitting back, she said in a guarded
voice, “Please tell me my father sent you.”
    He shrugged, starting on a new slice. “In a
roundabout way, I guess he did.”
    “ You guess?”
    “ Just so you know, you
repeating everything I say is getting annoying.”
    “ Maybe if you said
something that made sense,” she spat.
    “ Well, I’d rather not get
into it here.” He gestured to the humans dining around
them.
    Taking a calming breath, she lowered her
voice. “I’m not a trusting person by nature, and before I take you
back to my home I’d like a little explanation as to why you”—she
flung her hand toward the direction of Little Jitters—“and they are
here.”
    He cocked his head. “I thought it would be
obvious.”
    “ I am about two seconds
away from shoving the rest of