I was sitting on my couch, freshly showered and in blissfully clean clothes, when there was banging on the front door, and I heard an aged voice hollering, "Livvy?"
Betty.
"In here!" I called out, too tired to even think of getting up to answer the door.
"Liv?" Betty came into the living room and looked at me, her hand over her heart. "I swear to god, if I survive this, I'm going to kill you. I am too old for this, Livvy."
She made her way over to the couch and sat next to me, pulled me into a hug, then pinched my cheek, kinda hard.
"Ow!"
"That's what you get for scaring the hell out of me." She leaned back on the couch, hand over her heart. "I need a drink."
"What happened?"
She turned her eyes to me. "Ginny Boyle told us that you were there when Peach got attacked, and then I called and called and called and all I got was voice mail."
"Oh, yeah, sorry," I said. "I turned my phone into a bat."
"So, I came here last night to check on you, and you weren't here." She picked up my cell phone, which was still charging on the coffee table where I'd left it two nights ago. "I left you a thousand messages. Where were you?" Before I could answer, she said, "Oh, god, Stacy!" She flipped open her phone, hit a number for speed-dial and then said, "Stacy, I've got her. Yes, she's ... fine." She eyed me warily as she said it; I guessed I didn't look quite fine. "Okay, come by in the morning, and you can yell at her then." She tucked her phone in her pocket and sat next to me, grabbing my hands in hers. "Honey, you look awful. Do I smell bacon?"
"Oh. Yeah. Um..." I hesitated for a minute, wondering how to explain why Cain was in my kitchen cooking for me, but I was too tired to explain, so I just said, "Cain's making eggs."
Betty froze and her voice went low. "Cain?"
"He's okay," I said. "Davina tried to steal my magic last night. He saved my life."
Betty opened her mouth, then closed it, then looked at me, her face all confusion, but I had to give her credit - she didn't argue, and she didn't say I told you so. "And now he's making you eggs?"
"Everything's in the wash," Tobias said, stepping into the living room. "I set it to cold, like you said. Hey, Betty."
He sat down in the floral love seat across from the couch, and Betty raised a brow at me.
"One man cooking for you, another doing your laundry." Betty smiled at me. "How do I get your job?"
I managed a half-smile, and Tobias cleared his throat stiffly. Betty looked from me to him, then back to me. Her expression softened as she picked up on the not-too-subtle tension between me and Tobias; her response was to squeeze my hand gently.
"Now eat this slowly," Cain said, coming around the corner into the living room, a plate in his hand. "Little bites. If you hurl, I'm not cleaning it up."
Cain paused for a moment when he saw Betty, then walked over to stand across the coffee table from me. Betty stiffened, making it clear she was not happy about Cain's presence in my house. Cain, either not noticing or not caring, handed me the plate and a fork and repeated himself, as though I was a third-grader. "Little bites."
"Betty ... this is Cain." I said, motioning toward Cain with my fork. "He's a conjurer, a..." I hesitated, choosing my words carefully, "... friend of Holly's. Cain, this is Betty. She's my boss. Also, she makes magical pastries."
Cain gave a brief nod, and Betty shifted closer to me on the couch. I poked at the food on my plate and my stomach protested, so I turned to Betty.
"How's Peach doing?"
"They let her go from the hospital this morning," she said. "She had a minor concussion, but other than a few bruises, she's okay. Nick's with her next door. Neither one of them can remember what happened." Betty looked at me pointedly. "I'm assuming you know."
I sighed and put the fork down. "Millie. Walnuts. Only it wasn't just Millie. She was surfing Davina's power."
"She'll tell you about it later," Cain said, picking up the fork and putting it back in my hand. "Right now, she needs to eat, and then she needs to rest."
Betty shot an annoyed look at Cain, and turned her attention back to me. "So, I take it Tobias knows ... everything?"
I nodded. "He's Magical security. Holly sent him to watch over me, a year and a half ago."
Betty straightened in surprise and looked at Tobias. "ASF or RIAS?"
"ASF," he said.
"What's that?" I said.
"Allied Strategical Forces," Tobias said. "Name of the firm."
"Better than RIAS," Betty said. "You can't trust those bastards. They get ahold of you, no one will ever hear from you again."
"RIAS?" I asked. "What's RIAS?"
Tobias looked at me. "Regional Initiative Action Services."
"Oh." I thought for a beat. "So, Magicals are as fond of bullshit acronyms as everyone else, then?"
Betty looked at me. "We're Magical, but we're still human."
"But Tobias is with the good group, the ... whatsit?"
"ASF," Tobias said.
Betty let out a huff of disgust. "To say they're good is a bit of an overstatement. They're better than RIAS, but that's a pretty low bar." She looked at Tobias. "No offense."
"Trust me, none taken." Tobias stood up and looked at Cain. "I'm gonna take watch out front."
Cain nodded, and Tobias left without looking at me or Betty. I watched him go until the front door shut behind him, and it took a moment before I realized someone was saying my name.
"Olivia."
I pulled myself out of my distraction and looked up at Cain, who motioned toward my plate. "Eat."
"Right." I took a few bites, chewing slowly and swallowing carefully, until the thought of taking another bite made my stomach turn in protest. I handed the plate back to Cain; it looked as though I'd barely touched it.
"I'm sorry," I said. "I can't..."
"It's okay." He took the plate back, and Betty said, "So, Cain, you were friends with Liv's sister?"
There was ice in her voice when she said his name, but I was too tired to defend him, not that he needed me to; I got the sense that if Cain was comfortable with anything, it was hostility.
"Yeah," he said simply.
"So..." Betty put effort into covering her distrust with sympathy. "Can you tell us what happened there? And what it all has to do with Liv?"
After a moment of assessment, Cain finally sat in the chair across from us and leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees.
"Davina's got one MO; come to town, pretend to be a friend, take what she wants, and step over the bodies on her way out."
Betty reached out and took my hand, but kept her eyes on Cain. "Well, you stopped her. She didn't kill Liv."
Cain shook his head. "Davina's no quitter. She's gonna keep coming at Liv until she gets what she wants."
"So ... what are we gonna do?" I asked, my voice sounding feeble even to my own ears.
Cain looked at me and said, "Right now? You're gonna sleep and heal up. I got a plan, but I need you strong to make it work."
"What's the plan?" Betty asked.
Cain picked up my picked-over plate of eggs, and stood up. "We'll talk about it tomorrow." And then he walked back into the kitchen.
As soon as he was gone, Betty spoke, her voice low and panicked. "Liv? What the hell is going on? Wasn't he trying to kill you twenty minutes ago?"
"No," I said. "That was Davina. It was always Davina. Cain was trying to stop her, not hurt me. And then, after the attack with Peach, I just wanted the magic gone, so I called Davina and..." I let out a bitter laugh. "God, I was so stupid. I offered her my magic. It was exactly what she wanted. She set that whole Millie attack up just to get me desperate enough to turn to her, and I fell for it."