“I’m at the office, about to leave, I wanted to check on you.” Kaah spoke into his phone as he got his list from Rork and started to look down the list of names. He was at Reaper headquarters with Rork and Sibs. He wasn’t able to be with Jodi today at the funeral of her mother. Kaah knew she understood, but it didn’t sit well with him. He needed to make sure she was okay, she was his best human friend, and as much as was possible for the reaper, he knew he cared a lot.

“I am okay, Kaah,” she replied.

“Where are you?” He could hear voices in the background and assumed that the wake was still going on.

“At the Duck.”

Kaah’s head tilted with apprehension. “Why are you there? Is Liz with you?” Something about this made Kaah’s pseudo skin prickle, it was not a place she normally went to.

“I just needed to get some space, Liz isn’t here, but I can see Karla, and the Land of Az is playing.”

Kaah heard a male’s voice in the background calling her name.

“I have to go, Kaah, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Jodi’s voice sounded tired but like she was trying to just escape.

Kaah didn’t like this at all. “Who are you with?” he blurted out before she left.

“I’m here by myself, but this guy is about to buy me a drink, he seems nice, his name is Humphrey.”

“What?” Kaah’s voice spiked as the name registered, it couldn’t be, could it?

“He says to tell you, ‘Does Princess Sophia want to come out and play?’ It’s some movie reference, he said you would understand.”

Kaah understood instantly, Auberon was with Jodi, and he wanted Kaah to know the chase was on. “Tell him I said, ‘Krull the warrior king is on his way.’”

“I don’t understand what this is about, but I told him. He just smiled and went to buy me a drink.”

Kaah wanted to tell her to get up and leave immediately. He wanted to demand she remove herself from being anywhere he wasn’t there to protect her. Kaah also knew that Jodi wouldn’t stand for any of that, and would likely tell him where to go and hang up. So, he just told her to be careful and to make sure she texted him when she got home so he knew she was safe.

 

“What’s wrong?” Rork asked as he watched Kaah press the red button and slip the phone into his cloak pocket.

“Auberon is with Jodi.”

“Wait… what?” Rork spluttered, “How can that be?”

“I don’t know,” Kaah snapped way too harshly, and only after he saw Rork’s face did he pinch the bridge of his nose and take a few breaths. “She is at the Drunken Duck, and some guy named Humphrey is buying her a drink.”

“Might not be…”

“It is,” Kaah looked at Sibs, “the message was clear. He wants me to know, he knows I’m after him.”

“That changes everything,” Rork muttered.

“When he can get close to those I care about without me knowing? You bet your goblin ass that changes everything,” Kaah growled.

“I told you he was dangerous,” Sibs said.

“And if you tell me, ‘I told you,’ ever again, your immortality will be proven next. You hear me, kid?” Kaah growled fiercely.

Sibs gulped and nodded. “Loud and clear.”

Kaah turned to Rork, his voice suddenly low and as serious as a heart attack – should you have one that is. “This needs to be sorted, as in yesterday.”

Rork nodded. “I can’t leave, but I’ll do some tracking and hack into the Duck’s CCTV system. That way we can have some recent footage to work with.”

Kaah nodded. “Okay, Sibs?” he turned to face the kid, “Don’t stuff it up tonight, I don’t have the time, nor patience to fix more than one of your errors per millennia, okay?”

“Yes, boss.”

Kaah looked at his Mickey Mouse watch and nodded firmly. “Let’s get this done.”

 

Kaah and Sibs cloaked up and left the building with lists and scythes at the ready. Rork opened his laptop and started typing madly to find out how much danger Jodi was actually in. He didn’t want to be the one to have to tell Kaah that something had happened to her. No humans would be safe. What he did to the cattle in South Africa would be nothing to his need for vengeance should someone hurt Jodi. Let’s hope they can get to Auberon before he does something stupid. Everyone knows when you back a demon into a corner, no one is safe.