In a world full of supernatural oddities, no one was weirder than Harper Hall.
When Gabriel walked Adrienne into the compound’s war room, her eyes immediately found her stepmother. She was kind of hard to miss…especially since she was wearing a giant inflatable banana costume.
Next to her, Harper’s friend Benny (who was a halfer—a wererat/human combo) caught sight of her and immediately started jumping up and down, waving his arms, yelling, “Yo, Adrianne!” in a shockingly great Rocky Balboa impression.
Adrianne couldn’t hold back a laugh—then a surprised grunt—when Benny flung himself at her and grabbed her in a lung-crushing bear (rat?) hug.
And next to them, looking a little exasperated, and both shocked and thrilled to see her, was her dad.
If not for the few silver strands now intermingled with the rest of his thick black hair, and the extra laugh lines around his blue eyes (eyes that perfectly matched her own), her dad might’ve still been able to pass for her older brother.
Looking at him now, she almost couldn’t believe she’d stayed away for so long. As soon as she got within a few feet of him, she launched herself into his waiting arms.
He laughed and caught her, swinging her around like a rag doll before setting her back on her feet. When she pulled back, she impatiently swiped at the tears in her eyes and smiled up at him.
“Baby,” he said in his low, growly voice, “what the hell are you doing here? I had no idea you were coming.” He turned to Harper. “Did you know?”
She shook her head. Or she shook her head as best she could, given that she was dressed as a giant banana. “I had no idea. But Haven was acting shifty this morning and worked very hard to block me from seeing what she was up to psychically. So, I’m guessing she knew?”
Adrienne didn’t bother lying. What was the point? “I asked her not to say anything.”
Her dad let her go long enough to punch Gabriel in the arm. Hard. Gabriel frowned at him and rubbed the spot where there would likely be a fist-sized bruise for a while. “What the fuck was that for?”
Riddick pointed a finger in Gabriel’s face. “Because Haven can’t drive, and you’re the only one I can think of who would’ve gone to pick Addy up at the airport and not tell me about it.”
Adrianne shot Gabriel an apologetic look that he shrugged off with a wink before turning back to her father. “You would’ve preferred I left her there to fend for herself? Maybe hitchhike?”
Riddick visibly shuddered at the thought of his baby girl hitchhiking. “I would’ve preferred picking her up myself,” he muttered. “Along with twenty or so armed guards.”
Harper snorted. “And what young woman doesn’t want her dad embarrassing the hell out of her at the airport?”
He glanced over at his wife and raised a brow at her. “Says the woman in the inflatable banana suit.”
Harper blew a raspberry at him like an agitated chimp and said, “OK, enough of father-daughter time.” Then she grabbed Adrianne’s arm and yanked her in for a hug.
Adrianne laughed, hugging her back, even though her face was squished into the plastic of Harper’s costume. “OK, I gotta ask. What’s with the banana?”
“It’s a very long story,” her dad said, shaking his head. “I’ve heard it twice and I still don’t entirely get it.”
Harper scowled at him. “I told you, Viktor was trying to serve a client’s husband divorce papers. But the guy was a vamp who could read minds and didn’t want to get served. Viktor can’t block that shit, but I can, so he asked me to serve the guy. But I couldn’t march up to the door like a dumbass and expect him to take the papers from me, so I went in as a Singing Banana—you know, the people who deliver the fruit baskets?”
Adrianne nodded like any of that made sense. She knew Viktor was a friend of Nikolai, one of the instructors here at Section 8, and Viktor had taken over Harper Hall Investigations when Harper left. But the rest of the story was still kind of…odd.
It seemed to make perfect sense to Benny, though, because he said, “Ain’t no one gonna turn away a Singing Banana basket.”
Harper said, “Right? Who doesn’t love those pineapples shaped like daises with the cherry centers? But anyhoo, I put the papers in the basket, so when he accepted delivery, he was officially served. I was going to change before coming in here, but Haven told me I should hurry, so…here I am in a giant inflatable banana costume.”
Harper shrugged like this was something that could’ve happened to anyone.
Adrianne couldn’t think of a single other person on the planet that could’ve happened to. Only Harper Hall.
They all made small talk for a few minutes after that. Benny wanted to know about Juilliard—probably so he could come up with a scam to fleece some rich kids out of their trust funds. Harper wanted to know about the job Adrienne had just been offered in Boston. Her dad remained pretty quiet through it all, but she could tell there was only one thing he wanted to know.
Why are you here?
He loved her and wanted her to be home, of course, but in the back of his mind, he knew her too well not to realize that if she was here, something was wrong.
Behind her, Gabriel cleared his throat. He was obviously impatient with the small talk and wanted her to get to the point. She would’ve at least flipped him off, but he was right. Procrastination never helped.
“My visions are back,” she blurted.
Everyone went deadly calm and silent for a moment. They all knew she’d worked for years to block her visions, and she’d gotten really good at it. So, if they were back, only something truly awful could’ve triggered them.
“What did you see?” her father asked.
She swallowed hard. There really wasn’t any easy way to say this, so she went with blurting again.
“I think I saw my own death. I was…on fire.”
Looks of shock and horror rolled around the room like sports fans at a stadium doing the wave.
Adrienne Riddick, everyone. Always the life of the party.