“What is the urgency, my beauty?” Darius asked after bowing formally to me and nodding to Stark.
“Kalona showed up in Z’s dream warning of danger. He told her to read Neferet’s journal. We did. It’s as bad as you might imagine. Now we’re going with Z to Woodward Park. Hopefully shit is not going to go wrong. Which would be the first time. So, I sent out the Bat Signal, and here you are. The end.”
I watched as several emotions flashed across the Warrior’s face—surprise, fear, anger. He glanced at me. I nodded. He sighed.
“And I was naively hoping the emergency was that the dining hall had run out of champagne.”
“That would be more on the lines of tragedy than emergency,” Aphrodite said.
“Has Neferet truly begun to stir?”
“We don’t know.” I spoke with much more bravado than I felt. “But we’re going to find out.”
“Tell me why we decided to walk again?” Aphrodite said as she leaned on Darius, lifting up her foot to study the red sole of her Louboutin stiletto boot. “OMG, gum? I stepped in some Neanderthal’s gum?”
Stark and I were walking ahead of them. I glanced over my shoulder. “We’re walking because it’s a beautiful December night—not too hot and not too cold—and midtown is all dressed up in holiday lights. Aphrodite, it’s pretty. I wanted to enjoy it.” I didn’t add, While we can, because if Neferet somehow gets loose we’ll probably all die, but my unspoken words hung over us.
“We told you to put on sensible shoes,” Stark added.
“Last season’s Louboutin’s are as sensible as I get,” she said as she scuffed down the sidewalk, trying to get rid of the last of the gum.
“Check out Utica Square. I love how it looks all lit up for the holidays. It reminds me of a giant snow globe,” I said.
“I’m averting my eyes,” Aphrodite said.
“Is she still boycotting Utica Square because of Miss Jackson’s closing?” Stark whispered to me.
“Yes, I am,” Aphrodite answered. “Fucking barbarians. Do they expect me to shop at Saks? Like the rest of the upper-middle-class people?” She shuddered. “No. I’ve resorted to online Nordstrom purchases.”
“But, my beauty. You just returned from a shopping trip to Dallas. You said the Nordstrom there was a paradise,” Darius said.
“Hyperbole,” she muttered. “Sad, sad, hyperbole.”
At the corner of Twenty-First and Utica, we turned left, crossing the street and walking past festively decorated office buildings and the yummy McGill’s restaurant. There was a little rise in the road and then we were looking down at Woodward Park.
“Ah oh,” I said.
“What the hell?” Stark asked.
Aphrodite and Darius caught up to us, and we all stared at what should be a dark, deserted park lit only by the vintage-looking streetlamps. Currently it was anything but deserted and dark. There was a large crowd of what appeared to be reporters, complete with a big Channel 2 News van and several cameras surrounding a woman who was standing in front of a podium (Podium? At Woodward Park? Huh?) facing the throng of people. Camera lights flashed, but we were too far away to hear what was being said.
“Oh, for shit’s sake. That’s my mother.”
The three of us gawked at Aphrodite. Then our gazes swiveled back to the park scene and, sure enough, now that I was looking closer I could see that the woman was indeed Aphrodite’s beautiful, hateful mother, Frances LaFont.
“I wonder what she’s up to?” Stark said.
“Nothing good,” I said. “That’s for sure.” I glanced at my friend, who was staring at her mom with a kinda shell-shocked expression, her face washed the white of a porcelain doll. “Have you talked to her since your dad died?”
“No. I called her after we beat Neferet. I thought she’d want to know that I was okay. I don’t know why I thought that, but still. I called. Her PA passed along Mom’s message to me, which was that she is ‘permanently not available to talk to the person who used to be her daughter,’” she air quoted. “That was last year.”
“She is consumed by anger and ambition,” Darius said, sliding his arm around Aphrodite’s shoulders and holding her close. “That is what you escaped, my beauty.”
“Hey, Stark and I can go down there. Go back to McGill’s and order a glass of wine. We’ll do some recon and meet you in a few,” I said.
Aphrodite shook her head. “No. She said it. I’m not her daughter anymore, so she doesn’t get to fuck with my life anymore.”
Darius touched her cheek gently. “Bullies seldom stand when confronted by those who aren’t weak or alone. You are neither.”
“Yeah. Especially not alone.” I took her hand and squeezed.
“And definitely too hateful to be weak,” Stark said, his smile making it the compliment he intended.
Aphrodite blinked several times and then drew a deep breath and stood a little taller. “Okay, let’s go see what kind of shit she’s stirring now.”
Closing ranks around Aphrodite, we followed the sidewalk down, crossed the street, and moved slowly to the outskirts of the group of people just as a familiar voice from the crowd called out a question.
“Mrs. LaFont, the next mayoral election isn’t for almost a year. Why announce your candidacy so early?”
Aphrodite sucked in a shocked breath.
Mrs. LaFont’s cerulean eyes searched the crowd until she spotted the reporter. “Chera Kimiko, so lovely to see you. I was afraid we’d lost you to marital bliss. Glad to see you’re back with the news, though I do prefer Fox’s sensible politics to Channel 2.”
Aphrodite made soft kiss-kiss sounds.
“Thank you, Mrs. LaFont,” Chera said without losing a beat. “And I think reporters should report the news and not fabricate it. Would you like me to repeat my question?”
“No, dear. I remember the question perfectly well. I am announcing my candidacy for mayor of Tulsa early because I believe the good people of our fair city need to be given hope.”
“Hope? Tulsa’s unemployment rate has fallen 1.5 percent over the past year, and is currently at its lowest since the oil boom. Housing sales are up. We’ve finally raised teacher pay competitively, and the construction on Harvard Street has actually been completed.” Chera paused as the crowd laughed softly before concluding. “What does Tulsa need to hope for?”
“Do you remember the Biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah?” Mrs. LaFont said, an icy smile on her perfect face.
“Oh, shit. Here we go,” Aphrodite murmured.
“Those twin cities thrived, too, even as they were rotting from within. I’m sure their unemployment rate was down, as well. Just before God, in all His wisdom, smote them for harboring vile sinners. If you recall, angels of the Lord couldn’t even find ten righteous men to save the cities.”
“I’m sorry, Mrs. LaFont. I don’t understand. Are you saying Tulsa is harboring sinners and you need to save us from them?” Chera asked.
“Well, I didn’t say that. You did. And since you did, let me explain. I don’t think it does any of us good if we gain wealth, but lose our souls in the process.”