The Rising (Darkness Rising 3)

"Yeah." His voice was gruff, emotionless.

"Hi," I said, which was a dumb thing to say, but all I could manage. "I'm Maya."

"No shit."

Daniel rocked forward, like he wanted to cut in. He didn't, though. Not until Ashton yanked his hands from his pockets, the sudden move startling me. Daniel caught me and yanked me behind his back, then faced off with Ashton.

"I wasn't going to hurt your girlfriend." A sneer. "Damn benandanti."

"She's my friend."

"Good for you."

"Just my luck," I said. "Finally meet my twin brother and, turns out, he's an ass."

Corey laughed. Ashton looked at me for the first time, staring, as if he'd misheard.

"Oh yeah," Corey said with a chuckle. "She said that. You may have inherited the jerk genes, but Maya got the brutal honesty ones."

"Enough," Daniel said, stepping forward. "Is anyone else here? Or were you the one who sent the email?"

"It was me."

We all struggled not to look disappointed.

"So how did you get the email address?" I asked.

He turned and looked at me. Just looked.

"Great," I muttered. "Do I need to relay my questions through an interpreter?"

"That depends. Are you going to call me an ass again?"

"That depends. Are you going to act like one?"

I expected Daniel to intercede. He just stood there, arms crossed, face impassive, as Corey struggled not to laugh.

"Look," I said. "We're in trouble. Serious trouble. We reached out to the only contact name we had. You show up instead, spy on us, try to run, and now act like we're keeping you from a hot date. Somehow you got that message, knew it was your twin sister, and replied. That would make perfect sense if you wanted to help your sister. But that's obviously not the case."

"Oh, that's obvious, is it?"

"If I'm wrong, then let's start over. I'm Maya. That's Daniel and that's Corey. Is Ashton your real name?"

"Ash. Nobody calls me Ashton."

Guy couldn't even answer a benign question without attitude. This was going to be fun.

"How about we sit down somewhere and talk. Maybe grab something to eat," Daniel said.

"Umm, correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't you guys supposed to be dead? Currently being chased by two Cabals? You're waltzing around Vancouver, eating in restaurants?"

"Hell, no," Corey said. "I never waltz. I do the fox-trot sometimes, though."

"There's a cafe just a little walk away," I said as calmly as I could. "We'll get something there and find a private place to sit. It's been hours since we've had any food, and I don't know about you, but these guys eat like they're in permanent training."

"So what's your excuse?" Corey said to me as we started out.

"It's the cougar shifts," Daniel said. "They take a lot out of her."