“We might want to consider a store,” I pointed out.

“Store? Food doesn’t come from a store. It comes from restaurants or a personal cook, and I doubt any of you are up to my chef standards. The last time we were here, we ate microwave food. Microwave. You may as well circle that monstrous machine with the River Styx and call it the life-sucking Hades that it is.”

“And what did you do before there were restaurants?” I asked, torn between patience and drawing my sword again.

“I had nubile maidens to feed me grapes, and muscular men with honey-covered . . .”

I went to see if Cal needed any help in the bathroom.

That evening, we sat in Rafferty’s comfortable but definitely suburban living room, finishing off Chinese takeout. Robin, horrified and bemused by the bright orange sauce with the consistency of Jell-O that dripped from his chicken, was shocked into an uncustomary silence. Cal sat on the floor with his egg rolls, letting the rest of us have the couch and chairs. Xolo . . . Xolo had a talent for disappearing into the background. I sharpened my attention and caught a glimpse of his sweatshirt and hairless head through the doorway in the kitchen. He was looking raptly out of the window.

“Cherish, does he see anything?” I asked.

She turned her head, then shook it. “No, he’s a simple perrito; pat his head, play with him, and he is easily entertained. He just likes to look.”

“You did bring goat’s blood, right? He’s not going to start gnawing on our legs or anything, is he?” Cal said.

I saw the effort she made not to give him the look that so many others did, as if he were a bomb seconds away from exploding into metal, violence, and death. Unfortunately, Cal saw the effort it took as well. He didn’t say a word, only stared back at her without expression. “No,” she said. “No more than you would. And I brought what he requires.”

“No more than I would, huh? You have a lot of faith there suddenly.” He pushed the white carton aside and lay on his back, hands behind his head, to stare at a spackled ceiling instead of stars.

“I behaved badly before. I apologize.” She exhaled, “So many apologies. I’m turning respectable, Madre.” She smiled at Promise. “Who would ever have thought?” Then she added, “But I was startled. I had never seen an Auphe before.”

“You haven’t seen an Auphe yet,” I said flatly.

Eyes identical to her mother’s started to darken, but Promise stopped her with an upraised palm. “Don’t. Niko is telling you something important. You have not seen an Auphe, and if you assume they will in any way look like or act like Caliban, then when you do see one, you will freeze and you will die.”

“Chances are you’ll die anyway,” Robin offered morosely as he let the possibly radioactive chicken fall back into its container. “We all will. Death by Auphe or MSG; both are too hideous to contemplate.” He waved an arm at the brown faux-leather couch and the carpet, worn to the nap. “Much like this furniture. This house. This Cordon Bleu-free land of minivans, tricycles, and polyester. This isn’t Hades. It’s worse than Hades. No. No more.” Abruptly, he pushed up to his feet. “I am going home. Now. Where are my keys?”

I’d seen this coming since we’d crossed the midway point on the Verrazano. I pulled the glittering silver metal from my pocket and twirled the key ring once around my finger. “Sit.”

“As if I need those to start a car,” he sneered.

“True. And I could slice the tires with my katana, or remove the steering wheel, but then you could call a cab. I’m aware.” I tossed the keys to him. “This is only for the night. Tomorrow Cal and I have to meet Mickey and see what he’s learned. Come and go as you please then. I know we can’t stay together as one, not and accomplish anything, not anymore. But let’s have one last night where we all have a chance at a good sleep. Watch split five ways is better than two or three, or you up all night at your orgy of choice.”

“Then this is our safe house.” He made the keys disappear, reappear in the other hand, then vanish altogether. “Not my prison.”

“Yes. This is a good place for Cherish to hide temporarily, but it’s not a permanent answer. Everyone has Cal’s cell number. As with the ccoa attack, we’ll come if you call.” “We” because he would not be opening any gates unless I was there. He would not be going anywhere unless I was with him. The Auphe weren’t taking him from me, not again, and not for a reason so horrifying I could barely think it. I looked down at him. “Can you do that? Open another gate?”

He propped up on his elbows and shrugged. “Hey, it’s only sanity.” Behind the dark humor I saw his recognition of my trust in his control—that he ruled the Auphe blood, it did not rule him.

“It’s not so bad, kid.” Robin told him, suddenly cheerful at the thought of freedom. “Think about it. Without the gates and travelling you’d just be another cranky asshole with a gun.”

“Don’t go home until this is over, if you can help it. Stay elsewhere, but avoid your usual haunts. And try to never be alone even during the day,” I went on dryly to Goodfellow. “But I don’t think that will be a problem for you.”

“And the Auphe?” Cal sat all the way up, the humor gone.

“They have forever, little brother. We don’t. As long as we have our phones, you can gather us in a matter of seconds.” With the Auphe, seconds was often all they needed, that was true, but the “forever” was true as well. “We can’t only react to them anyway, to only expect them, not if we hope to win. Just as with Oshossi, we need to be more proactive. We need to take this war to them.” Although how, I didn’t know, with Tumulus out of the running. We couldn’t go to them. We could only wait for them to come to us.

But Cal seemed more confident. And of all of us, he did have the best chance of thinking of a way. Not because he was Auphe, but because he’d been held prisoner by them for two years. He knew them, subconsciously at least, in a way the rest of us couldn’t begin to. “Okay, you’re right. It’s done,” he said simply. He didn’t elaborate, lying back down on the carpet with arms folded across his chest and eyes closed.

“Considering they’re the most murderous creatures on the planet,” Robin drawled dubiously, “how do you plan on that?”

“I’ll tell you when I know,” he responded.

“But if you’re going to spout such outrageous claims, I think that . . .”

Eyes still shut, Cal held up his forefinger and thumb as if his hand were a gun and pointed it up at Robin, his aim unerring right between the eyes. “I’m a cranky asshole with a gun and superpowers, remember? Try giving me a day to work on it, at least, before you start bitching.” Although I imagined he’d been working on it all along, just as I had. I hoped he had more success than I was having.

Robin settled back into his chair. “A day is asking much even for one with the patience of Job. Speaking of Job, the real Job, did you know he single-handedly destroyed the concept of property and health insurance in its infancy? If not for him, you would’ve had HMOs two and a half thousand years earlier. But he broke the First Uzite Health and Home Insurance Company in its first year.”

“You are so massively full of shit.” Cal folded his arms again.

“Why do you think all insurance companies now exclude acts of God?” he countered smugly.

He had a point.

The next morning Cal and I stood on the cracked concrete of Rafferty’s driveway as I said to Robin, “You’re not coming back here tonight, are you?”

He bounced the keys again and evaded, “As you said, we can’t live this way forever.”

“You think I’m having the time of my life out here getting my ass kicked in cards by something that looks like he’s one step away from drinking out of the toilet?” Cal said sharply. “Suck it up.”