I shifted us directly into the living room of the penthouse suite. Pritkin ducked immediately and Tami's fist only missed him because of his lightning fast reflexes. Obviously we had startled her, which was sort of understandable, considering the fact that Pritkin and I had appeared out of thin air only inches from her face.
He quickly took a step back, holding up his empty hands to demonstrate that he wasn't a threat to her, which certainly would have worked better if he hadn't been armed to the teeth.
"It's ok, it's just me, John, Cassie's bodyguard, remember?" His voice was calm.
I had introduced him to the rest of my court a few days ago, so they already knew that he was my personal bodyguard. At least, well, officially.
"Man, you startled me!"
After Tami realized that I was here, too, she tried to calm herself down by taking in a few slow, deep breaths. She wasn't exactly fond of war mages. Given her past experiences, I really couldn't blame her.
"That wasn't my intention Miss Hodges, I'm sorry." He looked at me accusingly and ok, maybe we shouldn't have shifted into the middle of the living room, but I honestly hadn't expected that many people.
"I told you, it's Tami," she smiled at him, but didn't offer her hand. I realized, that she made sure not to touch him. She wasn't merely impolite, there was a reason for that.
Tami was a powerful magical null. Just her presence in the room must be tough on Pritkin's magic, but he certainly wouldn't appreciate it, if she touched him and thereby possibly drained his magical energy. At least I guessed that much, as he just nodded and went for the kitchen, on the other side of the large room. I caught myself staring after him for a second, before I mentally rolled my eyes at my behaviour. Luckily no one else seemed to notice.
Maybe because the whole room was a mess. At least this time it was a comfy mess, I decided.
There were kids and...things everywhere. Weird clothes, hats and other stuff, like coats and dresses in different colours were piled up on the table in front of the couch. But all of them had one thing in common - they looked old and reminded me slightly of the clothes the people wore during my last adventure. Costumes, I realized.
Rico, covered in black, with leather pants and a matching slim fit black shirt, sat on the couch next to Rhea and absently rubbed his jaw, watching her. His other hand lay on her back. Her skin was still a little pale and she wore a sweet blue scarf to cover up the red line across her throat. Her dark brown hair was a nice contrast to the light blue and it brought out her beautiful blue eyes. No wonder Rico obviously couldn't keep himself from staring at her. Or perhaps he just didn't want to.
She smiled at me and Pritkin, nodding in greeting and continued to dig through the pile of clothes, spread on the table in front of her, aided by four little girls, poking out from behind the mountain of stuff.
"Ewww, that's rusty!", Rhea said and the look on her face matched the disgusted sound of her voice. It was still a little scratchy. She held a metal helmet out in front of her and scraped with her fingernail at a dark spot on it's side.
"Oh, I don't think this is rust, I'm pretty sure it's bl-something else," Rico caught himself, becoming aware of the audience surrounding us.
"Ewww!" Rhea instinctively let the helmet fall to the floor. "That's even worse! It could be infective!" She started towards the huge medical closet besides the kitchen, I assumed to get some disinfection.
Pritkin harrumphed. "Uhm, if I remember right, I can assure you that it isn't infective." His eyes narrowed. "Where did you get it?" he came back from the kitchen, where the coffee machine audibly bubbled and stretched out his hand. Rico took the helmet of the floor and gave it to him.
It was Tami who answered. "Well, I didn't want to use the pythian court budget for the costumes, so we plundered the Casino's dressing rooms."
"Among other things, I assume?" Pritkin asked.
She nodded. "The ward was already destroyed before I took them" she looked a bit caught.
"But you drained it anyway, to make sure there's nothing left…to react?" Pritkin asked and it was clear that he had intended to say something else. I silently agreed with him, it wouldn't be a good idea to say "to make sure there was nothing left to practically run amok and rip somebody to shreds" in a room full of kids. And the armor/ ward would have been definitely able to do so. I knew by personal experience.
"Of course I did!" Tami snapped, clearly offended. "Otherwise it would be too dangerous to use the armor as part of a costume, especially for children."
"And how can you be sure it isn't infective?" Rhea's voice came from the kitchen, where she was busy washing her hands.
"It's mine," Pritkin stated matter of factly. "I'll clean it up for you," he offered and Rico handed him the matching shield, which had some more rust on it's otherwise shiny surface.
Rico raised an eyebrow.
"It had been one of those days, you know?!" I told him, before Pritkin could answer. He headed for the kitchen without further comment. For a moment I thought I'd seen a grin on his face.
One of those days. Well, it didn't really cover it, but I couldn't give Rico the whole story with the kids around. All in all it had been a painful and bloody mess most of all for Pritkin, who had gotten a mean leg wound and half his ear sliced off, during our desperate flight. Thanks to his healing abilities his ear was whole again, but it had been damn creepy to watch it reattach itself.
I tried to shake off the picture of him with blood everywhere and goosebumps spread over my arms. We had survived and recovered and it seemed like ages had passed ever since. So much had changed in the meantime.
Most of all the... situation between me and Pritkin.
