Page 13 of Last Call at the Doghouse

“I doubt his ex had anything to do with this.” Duncan walked to the other side of the room to stand by the dart board. She’d been thinking about starting a league to bolster business on at least one weeknight, but at the moment there wasn’t enough interest to support that. Soon, maybe, unless word of Carton’s violent death scared off all her customers. She shouldn’t even think that; it shouldn’t be a consideration. But looking to the future of her business was preferable to continually picturing what had been left of Carlton not far from The Doghouse front entrance.

Duncan capped his water bottle and placed it on a nearby table, then he plucked three darts from the cork board. He looked at the darts, tossed them up and down in his hand, then spun quickly. He moved fast, throwing first one dart and then another directly at her. Reacting instinctively, Armi plucked each one from the air and tossed them aside. A third dart came her way. She caught it in midair and whipped it around to send flying back in Duncan’s direction. He caught the dart as she had and then, with his left hand, threw the almost-full water bottle at her. She caught it, too.

And then he smiled, a tense smile with no humor in it. “Did you know you could do that?”

She looked at the bottle in her hand, then the two darts on the floor. Her heart wasn’t even beating hard; her breathing was even and steady. “What the hell?”

Duncan walked toward her, pausing only to casually throw the dart she’d sent back in his direction at the target. Bulls eye.

“Your time has come,” he said as he reached the bar.

“That sounds…” Insane. There was no other word for it.

“Magic has been let loose on the world, and with it comes darkness,” he said. “Where there’s light there’s always darkness. With dark magic comes chaos. Violence. Fear. Someone needs to protect the innocent.”

“I’m not innocent,” she snapped.

“You’re not the one who needs protecting.”

That stopped her. Was he suggesting…

After a taking a long, deep breath and releasing it, he said, “This is going to sound ridiculous. It certainly sounded ridiculous to me when I first heard it.” Again, a long, deep breath. “A shield has been sleeping inside you since the day you were born, and it’s awakening because it’s time. It’s your time, Armi. The world needs you.”

Now her heart pounded. “I’m pretty sure shield is the name of a feminine product I haven’t needed for a couple of years, now.” The mention of her early menopause would surely send him, or any other man, running.

“Don’t make light of this…”

“Don’t be a psycho!”

“I wish I was psycho!” he shouted. “Do you think I wanted to leave everything behind to come to this backwater town to be guard dog to a woman who will soon have a target the size of Kansas on her back?”

Two things flitted through her head simultaneously. He’d had a life before this? And who the hell had put a target on her back? “I’m fifty years old. I should be knitting and drinking wine at book club, not… what exactly am I supposed to do, anyway?”

“Fight,” he said, some of the anger gone from his voice. “And stop throwing your age around like it means anything. You’re a warrior, and you’re in your prime. Don’t let anyone tell you different.”

She held up one hand in a stilling motion. “I knew there had to be something wrong with you. You’re crazy.”

He took another step closer and shook his head, slowly but with a certainty she could not deny.

Still, she tried to deny. “You’ve lost your marbles.”

Again, that shake.

“Even if there was a touch of truth in what you’re saying, and goodness knows I’ve seen enough weirdness in my lifetime to know that anything is possible, I don’t want to be a shield. I sure as hell don’t want a… a guard dog. And if I do, I’ll get an actual dog.”

He smiled at that. “There’s more.”

“Of course there is.”

“I’m not just here to watch over you, I’m here as your teacher, your protector, your…” He swallowed hard. “Your servant, if it comes to that.”

That got a reaction out of her. She took a step back, trying to create some distance, to claim some safety and reclaim her own sanity. “There’s no such thing, not in this day and age. Dammit, I don’t want a servant!”

“I don’t particularly want to be one, but there you go.”

She tried to put the pieces of this weird puzzle together. Okay, so maybe she wasn’t entirely without abilities after all. That was possible, she supposed, she did have Springer blood. But shield? Protecting the innocent? A hunk as teacher and servant?

Armi sighed and after a long, uncomfortable pause she said, “Dammit, we need to talk.”