“You’ve got things figured out,” he said, waving his hand and cigarette at me. “You’re ready to go find a job. May I suggest you shoot for something that pays better than a food server.”

He was ignoring my question, and I didn’t need his opinions on my next job. “How long have you been watching me and why?” I said, in what I thought was a very intimidating voice.

He sighed as if that question was silly. Instead of answering he took another pull from his smoke stick. He either wasn’t going to answer me or he was taking his own sweet time just to be annoying. I opened my mouth to attempt at being more demanding when he pointed off to my left. “This is about to get interesting.” I followed the direction he was pointing to see a black Dodge Charger coming our way in the otherwise almost vacant parking lot.

“Do you know them?” I asked, not sure if I should be worried for whoever was driving that car or concerned because I was about to be outnumbered. I didn’t take my eyes off the car trying to prepare mentally for whatever scenario that was about to go down here.

“I believe you do,” was his reply.

The rising sunlight hit the front window as the car pulled to a quick stop to our left. It was a face I didn’t want to see for many reasons but right now I didn’t want to see him because this wasn’t safe. I was dealing with a psycho warlock who had some strange obsession with me, and Rathe was no match for him.

“Shit,” I muttered under my breath then did the first thing that came to my mind. “et oblinito ianuam” I said holding my hand out as if to physically hold the door closed then dropped it quickly and turned to glare at the warlock in front of me. “Listen, get to the point. Why are you here? I don’t have time for this or patience for games.”

He laughed with the cigarette still between his lips. “You locked him inside the car. Fucking hilarious.”

“Sure, this is a riot. Just one more thing I have to deal with today. Talk or go away. Just don’t vanish. I can’t explain that away when Ra- he sees it,” I replied, bitterly catching myself before I could say Rathe’s name. He may have hurt me, but I didn’t want him in danger. He was no part of this. The fact he was here had to be Margo’s fault. She and I were going to have a talk about this tracking stuff she was doing. Better yet, I would block her from seeing my location.