Ignoring her compliment, he pulled the black backpack off his shoulder and flipped his sunglasses up to show eerie, swirling silver eyes that seemed to flash in the darkness. "How long has Selena been handcuffed to the fence?"
"About half an hour. I figured I'd hang out with her and keep her from becoming a Daimon-kabob."
"I wish," Selena muttered. She raised her voice and slung her arms wide. "Here I am, vampires, come and end my misery!"
Tabitha and Ash exchanged a half-amused, half-irritated look at her dramatics.
Ash moved to sit down beside Selena. "Hi, Lanie," he said quietly as he kept the backpack at his feet.
"Go away, Ash. I'm not leaving here until they repeal their law. I belong in this Square. I was raised here."
Ash nodded in understanding. "Where's Bill?"
"He's a traitor!" Selena snarled.
Tabitha answered the question. "He's probably at the courthouse holding ice to a private area after Selena racked him and accused him of being 'the man who is holding her down.'"
Ash's face softened as if the thought amused him.
"He deserved it," Selena said defensively. "He told me that the law is the law and that I had to obey it. Screw that. I'm not going anywhere until they change it."
"Guess I'll be here for awhile," Tabitha said wistfully.
"You can make them repeal the law," Selena said, turning toward Ash. "Can't you?"
Ash leaned back against the fence without commenting.
"Don't get too close to her, Ash," Tabitha warned. "She's been known to bite."
"That makes two of us," he said with a hint of humor in his voice as his fangs flashed. "But I somehow think my bite might hurt a little more."
"You're not funny," Selena said sullenly.
Ash draped an arm over Selena's shoulder. "C'mon, Lane. You know it's not going to change anything for you to stay here. Sooner or later a cop will come by-"
"And I'll assault him."
Ash tightened his hold on her. "You can't assault them for doing their job."
"Yes, I can!"
Still he managed to remain calm while dealing with the Queen of Hysteria. "Is that really what you want to do?"
"No. I want my stand back," Selena said, her voice breaking from her grief and pain.
Tabitha's own chest was tight in sympathetic agony for her.
"I wasn't hurting anyone by having a table here. This is my space. I've had my stand right here in this spot since 1986! It's so not fair for them to make me leave because those stupid artists are jealous. Who wants one of their crappy paintings of the Quarter, anyway? They're stupid. What's New Orleans without her psychics? Just another boring, run-down tourist town, that's what!"
Ash held her sympathetically. "Times change, Selena. Believe me, I know, and sometimes there's nothing you can do about it except to let it go. No matter how much you want to stop time, it has to go forward and move on to something else."
Tabitha heard the sadness in his voice as he spoke comfortingly to her sister. Ash had been alive for more than eleven thousand years. He remembered New Orleans back in the days when it had barely qualified as a town. For that matter, he probably remembered New Orleans before any kind of civilization had claimed it.
If anyone knew about change, it was Acheron Parthenopaeus.
Ash wiped the tears from Selena's face and angled her chin so that she was staring at the building across the street from them. "You know, that building is up for sale. 'Madame Selene's Tarot Reading and Mystical Boutique.' Can you imagine it?"
Selena snorted at that. "Yeah, right. Like I can afford it. Have you any idea what the real estate here goes for?"
Ash shrugged. "Money's not a problem for me. Say the word and it's yours."
Selena blinked at him as if she couldn't believe what he was offering her. "Really?"
He nodded. "You could put a sign up right here that points people to your brand-new store where you can read cards to your heart's content."
Finally seeing a solution to her sister's temporary dementia and grateful to Ash for it, Tabitha sat forward so that she could look at Selena. "You've always said you'd like to be someplace where it can't rain you out."
Selena cleared her throat as she considered it. "It would be nice to look out from a building instead of into it."
"Yeah," Tabitha said. "You'd no longer freeze in the winter or blister in the summer. Climate control all year long. No more wheeling your cart up here and setting up the table and chairs. You could even have a La-Z-Boy in the back room and carry all sorts of tarot card decks. Tia would be jealous as all get-out since she's been wanting a shop closer to the Square. Think about it."
"You want it?" Ash asked.
Selena nodded enthusiastically.
Ash pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number. "Hey, Bob," he said after a brief pause. "This is Ash Parthenopaeus. There's a building for sale on St. Anne's in Jackson Square... yeah, that one. I want it." He offered a close-lipped smile to Selena. "No, I don't need to see it. Just have the keys out here in the morning." He pulled the phone aside. "What time can you meet him here, Selena?"
"Ten?"
He repeated it into the phone. "Yeah, and make the deed out to Selena Laurens. I'll swing by tomorrow afternoon and handle the payment. All right. Have a good one." Ash hung up the phone and returned it to his pocket.
Selena smiled up at him. "Thank you."
"No problem." The instant he stood up, the handcuff fell free of the gate and Selena's arm.
Jeez, that man had some fearsome powers. Tabitha just wasn't sure which was more impressive. The one that broke the handcuff off Selena without a scratch or the one that allowed him to drop a couple of million dollars without blinking.
He held his hand out to Selena and helped her to her feet. "Just make sure you carry a lot of bright, shiny things for Simi to buy whenever we're here."
Tabitha laughed at the mention of Ash's demon... something... Tabitha still didn't know if Simi was Ash's girlfriend or what. The two of them had a very odd relationship.
Simi demanded and Ash gave without hesitation.
Unless it involved Simi killing and eating someone. Those were the only times she'd ever seen Ash put his foot down with the demon he kept secret from most of his Dark-Hunters. The only reason Tabitha even knew about Simi was that the demon often joined them for movies.
For some reason, Ash really loved the cinema and Tabitha had been going to see movies with him for the last two years. His favorites were horror and action flicks. Meanwhile the Simi was a most unusual and discriminating being who made him sit through "girl" movies that often left Ash groaning.
"Where is the Simster tonight?" Tabitha asked.
Ash brushed his hand over the dragon tattoo on his forearm. "She's hanging around. But it's too early for her. She doesn't like to be out and about until at least nine." He slung the backpack over his shoulder.
Selena stood on her tiptoes and pulled Ash down so that she could hug him. "I'll carry an entire line of Kirk's Folly just for Simi."