17 - A Hard Days Night Searcher.doc Read Online Free PDF Page A

forty-eight hours of having her in his house, he'd had enough.
    Sitting on his couch in the basement an hour after sunset- because, quite frankly, if he went upstairs, he might kill her-he called Ephani, who answered on the third ring.
    "Come get your Squire," he said without preamble.
    Her tone was dry and snide. "Hi to you, too, Rafael. Nice to hear from you."
    "Cut the crap, Eph, and come get her before I kill her."
    "She making you crazy?" He could hear the humor in her voice.
    "You think? How do you stand it night in and night out and not lose your mind?"
    "She's a little obsessive, but-"
    "A little?" he asked incredulously. "The woman makes a serial stalker look like a Boy Scout."
    Ephani snorted. "She's not that bad."
    "Oh yes, she is. Trust me. I almost lost my head to a Daimon the first night she was here."
    "How so?"
    He clenched his teeth at the memory. "Picture this. There I am in the alleyway, sneaking up on a group of Daimons who have this college kid trapped between them. Just as I go to make my move to save the kid, the phone rings with Ms. I-have-no-purpose-save-to-make-you-crazy calling to tell me that according to the tracer she has on me it's time for me to head home so that I won't get caught out in daylight."
    Ephani was laughing so hard that he wanted to reach through the phone and choke her.
    "It's not funny."
    She kept laughing.
    Rafael let out a disgusted sigh. "Did she reorganize your kitchen and fill it up with wheat germ and shit? I tried to explain the whole I'm-immortal-I-live-forever to her, but she doesn't get it. She said that even immortals need to eat healthy foods."
    Still Ephani was laughing.
    And still Rafael wanted to kill the Amazon as well as Celena. "This really isn't funny, Eph."
    "Oh yeah, it is. Gah, Rafe. You're such a man."
    "And I'm going to take that as a compliment."
    Clearing her throat, Ephani finally sobered. "There's a few things you need to understand about Celena."
    "You mean something other than she's nuts?"
    Ephani tsked at him over the phone. "She's not nuts."
    He glanced up to the ceiling. No doubt Celena was up there right now doing something extremely odd in order to protect him, the immortal warrior. "I think I'll reserve my opinion."
    "Trust me, Blackbeard. She's not nuts."
    "Then what is she?"
    "Scared." The word surprised him, Celena certainly didn't act that way. "Have you tried to ask her anything about her family?"
    "A couple of times, but she won't talk about them."
    "That's right and do you know why?"
    "She's nuts?" This time he said it with a little less enthusiasm.
    "No . . . she's scared."
    But that didn't make sense to him. "Of what?"
    "Of losing the people she loves, so she tries to keep up walls to protect herself. If she doesn't talk about people, then they can't be close to her. But it's a crock. I know this because when her father died a year ago, it almost killed her. She still cries about him in the middle of the day when she thinks I'm sleeping."
    The news floored him. That was so opposite of the hard-nosed woman upstairs. There was nothing vulnerable about her, and honestly, he couldn't imagine her crying about anything. "Celena?"
    "Yes, Celena. And do you know why she's so anal about her duties?"
    "She's nuts?" He was back to being convinced. Anyone who executed their duties to such an nth degree wasn't normal.
    "No," Ephani said in an irritated tone. "Like Jeff she's from a Squire family. The Dark-Hunter she grew up with was killed eight years ago because he was cornered by a group of Daimons and executed. If that wasn't bad enough, the first Dark-Hunter she was assigned to died because she couldn't make it back before sunup. Celena tried to get to her in time, but there was no place for her to hide, so she turned into toast minutes before Celena got there. The Council warned me when they sent her over that she was a bit. . . traumatized by the event. Hell, if you think she's bad now, you should have seen her when she first came to work for