He offered her his charming smile that usually worked to get his butt out of trouble. "It's my first, and I won't drive if I have any more."
She turned to Ash with the same motherly scowl that managed to be both peeved and loving. "What about you? Are you on that motorcycle of yours?"
"No, ma'am."
"Mom," Nick said, annoyed by her interruption, "what are you doing here?"
"I was walking to work and saw you two in here. I just wanted to stop in and say hi since I won't be home until late and you busted out of the house at dawn without so much as a goodbye to me." She gave him a hurt look. "Can't a mother spend five minutes a day with her son without it being a criminal offense?"
Now he felt like a total heel. "I'm sorry, Mom. I had to do a few things for work this morning and I wanted to get it done so I could have more study time."
She ruffled his hair. "It's okay, I understand."
Then she looked Ash up and down, opened his coat and sighed in concern. "I swear you're even thinner than you were the last time I saw you." She motioned the bartender over and ordered red beans and rice for Ash. "You want anything else?" she asked him.
"No, thank you."
She wagged her finger at Ash. "You're going to eat all of it, right?"
"Yes, ma'am."
Nick pressed his lips together to keep from laughing at Ash's Eddie Haskell impersonation and his mom trying to mother an eleven-thousand-year-old warrior. Only Cherise Gautier would have that kind of gall. "Mom, he doesn't need you to baby him."
She straightened the collar of Acheron's coat and smoothed it with her hand. "Trust me, Nick, he needs someone to watch out for him, just like you do. You boys just think you're all grown-up and ready to take on the world."
If she only knew...
"Now," she continued, "why don't you bring Ash over to Sanctuary tonight and let me make him some strawberry shortcake and Cajun hash browns to put some meat on those lean bones of his? You can study in the back room if you need to and keep me company while I work."
His mother would never accept the fact he was grown. To her, he would always be five years old and in need of her to watch out for him. Still, he loved his mother.
"Yeah, okay. If I don't have to work, I'll stop by."
"Good boy." She reached into her purse and pulled out two twenties, then handed them to Ash. "You can pay for the red beans and rice with that, and if you have another beer, you better take a cab home too. Got me?"
"Will do, Mrs. Gautier," Ash said as he took the money. "Thanks."
She smiled, then kissed Nick on the cheek and squeezed Ash's forearm. "You boys behave and try to stay out of trouble."
Nick nodded. "We will."
Once she was gone, Nick turned back to Ash. "Man, I'm sorry about that. Thanks for being so cool with her."
"Nick, never apologize for your mother. Just be damned grateful you have her." Ash handed him the forty dollars.
"Believe me, I am," Nick said as he pocketed it. He smiled at his mother's loving nature. She'd always had this insane need to mother the world, but then, she'd been thrown out of her father's house at age fifteen when they had learned she was pregnant with him. So, she tended to have an affinity for anyone she thought was another abandoned or neglected youth.
The bartender returned with Ash's red beans and rice.
Ash took one look at it and slid it over to Nick. "I hope you're hungry."
Nick was, but two orders was more than even he could handle. Suddenly, it dawned on him that he had never once seen Ash eat food. "Do you ever eat?"
"Yeah, but what I need isn't on the menu."
Not wanting to pursue that one, Nick frowned. "Now that I think about it, why are we meeting in daylight? How can you be out in the sun and not go up in flames?"
"I'm special."
"Ahhh, so we're back to the visibly challenged thing, huh?"
Ash shook his head.
As Ash reached for his beer, he noticed the TV out of the corner of his eye. Turning his head, he felt his body go numb in disbelief as he saw Zarek's picture on the early news.
A waiter turned the sound up.
"... believed to be the same man who murdered a woman in the Warehouse District earlier last night..."
Nick cursed. "Is that who I think it is?"
Ash could only nod as he watched the webcam pictures that had captured Zarek's fight with the Daimons and the arrival of the police.
"... the police department is offering a reward for any information on the suspect."
Nick and Ash cursed in unison as they showed a perfect sketch of Zarek's face.
"We're screwed," Nick breathed.
"Screwed blue and tattooed," Ash snarled. He pulled his cell phone from his coat and left the bar to call Zarek. The last thing he needed was for anyone to overhear this particular conversation.
Nick followed him outside. "What are we going to do?"
Ash hit the cancel button. "His phone is off. He must still be asleep."
"Are you ignoring my question or did you not hear it?"
"I heard you, Nick. I don't know. We have to keep him hidden. With those pictures, he's as good as convicted."
"Can you monkey with them?"
"I don't know. My powers are iffy at best with modern electronics. The best I can do is blow them..." His voice trailed off as he saw something even more gut-wrenching than Zarek's face on the news.
Ash let out a disgusted sigh and looked up at the darkening sky. "Are you bored up there, Artie, or what?"
"Huh? What's up?"
Ash inclined his head down Chartres Street to the two figures who were headed straight for them. Almost equal to him in height, the brothers moved like two dangerous predators, slowly, rhythmically. They looked to the left and right, scoping out everyone they passed as if sizing them up as an opponent, a conquest, or a victim.
Dressed in black, both of them wore long leather coats that swirled around their biker boots. They each had one hand tucked into the folds of the coat as if concealing a weapon.
Oh yeah, these were two of the most dangerous creatures Ash had ever known. More so because they would kill anyone who threatened them without a moment's hesitation.