Page 52 of Made

Good.Someone had come up with something constructive in the form of a starting point. Who would’ve guessed it would be the vampire?

“Honestly? It was so fast. There wasn’t enough time to form an impression. I can only say there were two women with shaved heads wearing saffron robes like Buddhist monks.”

“Nuns,” John David said.

“What?” I blithered.

“If they were female, they’d be Buddhist nuns, not monks.”

Keir looked thoroughly confused. “Why would Buddhist nuns want to steal Esme?”

“No idea, Keir,” I said. “Oh! Wait. I remember something. Their robes also had pink panels.”

Everyone looked at me like I was an idiot. I suppose that wasn’t especially helpful, but what can I say? I notice clothes.

“Rita, your phone is ringing,” Keir said.

“How do you know? I left my purse.” I looked around. “Oh. Over there.” It was in the corner on the seat of a velvet chair. “You can hear that?” His nostrils flared slightly likeI’d insulted him. “Of course you can hear that. What was I thinking? Sorry.”

I rushed to pick up, if it wasn’t too late, because it was the kind of night when all calls must be answered. My favorite photo of Evie at twelve displayed cheerfully without regard to my current state of mind.

“Evie. Is everything ok?”

“All considered, I think so. But your hobby horse… What did you call him?”

“Thunder.”

“Right. Thunder is here.”

It seemed that it would be a night for numbskull responses. “Where?”

“Here. In our bedroom.”

“Evie. Come on. There’s too much going on for…”

“I’M. NOT. KIDDING!”

“Oh.” For no explicable reason, I said, “She’s not kidding,” to Keir even though he had no context. Unless he could hear the other side of the conversation. With his ears, that was a possibility. Someday, if things were ever normal again, I’d have to ask.

“I was just about to drift off with Rhiannon in my arms when Diarmuid let go with a string of Irish curses that, well, fortunately, I don’t yet speak Irish well enough to know what all that meant. Probably just as well.”

“Who brought him to your bedroom?” I asked.

“NOBODYBROUGHTHIM. Mom, are you paying attention?”

“I know you’ve been through a lot tonight, but try to remember I’m your mother.”

“Alright. Sorry. It’s just, like you said, been a night.”

“That’s ok. It has been.”

“Let me start over. Nobody brought him. He walked. Or trotted. Or materialized. I don’t know.”

“Wait a minute. You’re not saying my Thunder has come to life!”

After a brief pause during which I imagined her summoning patience, she said, “That is what I’m saying. Yes.”

Diarmuid was close enough to Evie that I could hear him in the background. “Tell her he used his front hooves to knock down castle doors that have been there for as long as Eire has been ruled by my family. In other words, forever.”