I was wide awake and sweating like a pig in my insulation when I heard Diesel come home. It was ten o’clock. Not an especially long date. He came into the dark room, kicked his shoes off, and disappeared into the bathroom. He returned in a couple minutes, and the rest of his clothes hit the floor. He slipped under the covers and went dead still for a couple beats.
“What the heck are you wearing?” he asked.
“Workout clothes. I was cold.”
“Well, you’re not cold now. You’re lying there in a pool of sweat.”
“I might be coming down with something.”
“Me, too. I’m coming down with a strong desire to relinquish my power and spend the rest of my days in the park, eating baloney sandwiches.”
“Did the date not go well?”
He covered his eyes with his hands and groaned. “Hideous. She gave me a migraine.”
“Why are you dating someone who gives you a migraine?”
“I’m not dating her. She called and wanted to see me.”
I was getting a strange feeling about this. “Are we talking about anyone I know?”
“Deirdre Early. I told you I was going into town to see her.”
“No you didn’t.”
“I yelled it to you when I got off the phone with her. You were in the kitchen.”
“I didn’t hear you.”
I wanted to get out of bed, take all my clothes off, and do a happy dance, but I restrained myself.
“What did she want?” I asked Diesel.
“Mostly information. She’s definitely after the stone. I don’t know if she’s always been after it, or if she learned about it from Reedy. She’s one of us, but she’s not in the registry, and I can’t pinpoint her power. She brushed it off when I mentioned it.”
“And she gives you a migraine.”
“Yeah. I have heightened senses, and that includes a sensitivity to power. She’s got a lot of it, and it’s all negative.” He wrapped an arm around me. “You have a lot of power, too, but it’s positive. You feel like sunshine.”
“Wow.”
He was pressed against me, his lips brushing my ear. “What do I feel like?”
“Um, solid.”
“I’m more solid than usual,” he said. “I get turned on by women in workout clothes.”
“I could take my clothes off, if that would help,”
“Not a good idea right now,” Diesel said.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
It was ten in the
morning, and Glo had Ripple’s open on the counter. “I think I found a spell that will fix Hatchet. It’s a general undoing spell. It’s like one of those programs you run in your computer to get rid of a virus.”
“Are you sure his problem is a spell?” Clara asked. “Have you considered the possibility that he needs to change his diet?”