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Jai was the only man she wanted

Consciously or subconsciously

Whichwith her Her eyes narrowed in the dark as she drew her knees to her chest He was sending her a otten

22

The Fragile Ordinary

The sun was out, flooding Sandford with a little bit of waro, it’d been raining and Ari had been standing under a tree, hiding in the Cloak, atteh the s of his home

Five minutes after the sun caive up, the back door opened Two little boys, about seven and nine, ran into the backyard with a soccer ball

They earing worn jeans and T-shirts and ioal, one with the ball

"Make sure the grass isn’t too wet

They’ll ruin it," a female voice called from inside

"They ruin it, they ruin it What else is it for?" the familiar voice of Derek Johnson answered back seconds before he appeared in the doorway He’d been frowning but as soon as his eyes took in his two kids, he grinned "You letting Teddy be goalie this ti to?"

"I’ Derek chuckled

Ari hadn’t expected to feel so much at his appearance Theirs had been an exceptionally co but careless Derek’s less-than-brilliant parenting strategy had er, soh in desperate need of it She’d made some crappy decisions based on that desperate need

For the longest time, Ari had tried to work out how she felt about Derek Sorateful

Now, despite the ache in her chest, Ari guessed she was just happy he wasn’t alone He had a family, he had kids, and she hoped to God he loved theh, she tread carefully away from the backyard until she had so the fla into the Cloak in the Creaghs’ front yard

Ari blinked in surprise at the sight of CharlieShe felt a flicker of residual jealousy that cas much older than they really were However, that flicker quickly disappeared, and Ari stepped toward the house in curiosity The couple stopped kissing and the girl pulled back to snize her but she was pretty in a fresh-faced innocent way Ari approved

"I’ht have an issue with us irl bit her lip in a srinned and brushed her hair off her face "Babe, I’irl laughed and snuggled closer to him "Do you have to work to?"

"Unfortunately, I put my name down for overtime But I’ll make it up to you Pro sloay It had been four oodbye to Charlie and she’d pro of protectiveness wasn’t going away any time soon She needed to knoas okay

Apparently, he was nized that look in Charlie Creagh’s eyes He was falling in love with his shy brunette

Even though he couldn’t see her, Ari blew Charlie a kiss She turned and strolled down his fa Folks were out in their yards, pulling up to their houses with the weekly shopping Ordinary sounds, sounds of life--laughter, conversation, and the sounds of dogs co filled the street A beautiful, untouched ordinary And it was now Ari’s job to make sure it stayed that way She hunted, she killed, and she captured, just as she’d done in helping the Aissawa Brotherhood exorcise and trap Beau/Nick/Stalker in the Secretu Beau back to his life after he’d missed months of it was harder because … well, they didn’t have time to help him assimilate They pretty much dropped him off, back to his real life, to let his family deal with the memory loss It sucked But it would have sucked more if he’d been possessed for the rest of his life

With a quick glance around, Ari turned down a path to a shadoay between houses and used the Peripatos to take her ho a flinch of surprise from Trey or Glass This was a Jinn world, after all Fla out of the ordinary

"Hey, guys," she said as she grabbed a soda froave her a chin lift in answer

The two of the at the breakfast table, obviously deep in conversation about so you off," Glass said

Trey sighed "It’s a standard rate"

It occurred to her they were probably discussing the gallery co show, and he and Glass see this conversation a lot lately

"We can do better"

"Glass …"

Ari left them to it and wandered up the stairs where she sensed Jai She found hiainst the doorfra very lucky that she got to return holanced up at her

"Did you check in on the fine"

She sirlfriend It looks serious"

Jai frowned "How do you feel about that?"

She shrugged and sauntered casually toward hi her soda on top of his bookshelf to free her hands Jai watched her with hooded eyes as she moved his book, careful to not lose his spot With a smile, she placed a knee on either side of his hips and settled on his lap Her hands drifted over his chest until they rested near his heart

Jai’s hands hs to rest on her hips

"I feel happy Relaxed It’s been four months since Lilif, and three since we had to deal with anything major