Chapter 8

"Why not?" Katie whined.

"Because," Hunter said, tiring of the conversation.

There was no way around the fact that Katie still had at least a semester of high school left. She was smart but she still had to graduate. Hunter concluded that her adventures with him had been an intoxicating breath of freedom and she didn't want to return to the suddenly dowdy city of Dayton. Unfortunately she wasn't ready. Hell, he wasn't ready.

He looked at her, trying to decide what her next steps should be. She couldn't speak French and she couldn't hunt. There were times when she was as much woman as he could handle and other times when she was still an obstinate, rebellious, impulsive teenager.

Hunter repeated himself yet another time.

"You have no passport, no high school degree, and you don't speak the language. You can't defend yourself, and you have no clue how to kill. You are a babe in the wilderness."

"So what am I supposed to do?" Katie said pouting. "Stay home in Dayton and go back to school like a good girl?"

"First, you will enroll in mercenary training. Ohio militias have training camps which are open to those who are willing to pay. I'm willing. I started there and so can you. There is plenty of summer left for you to learn gun and knife fighting."

""Ew," Katie said, "Do those people bathe? Do they have toilets?"

"I do believe that you are going to have to learn to wipe with your left hand," Hunter said. "After the first ten or twelve times, you become inured to the smell."

"I hate you," Katie said.

"I guess the honeymoon is over," Hunter said. "This fall you will sign up for language courses at the community college. Your high school will accept the classes towards graduation. If you are able to finish your high school core requirements this fall, then you can spend the second semester abroad for language immersion as an exchange student. Your parents can get you a passport now instead of you having to wait until you are eighteen to apply on your own. Tell them it will look great on your college applications."

"You can zap me to anywhere on the frickin' planet," Katie said. "Why do I need to learn another language? English is the international language."

"English is not the local culture," Hunter said. "English makes you stand out. Sometimes we need to be anonymous. More importantly, people like it when they see that you know their language. It's the highest compliment you can pay someone and you will get great mileage out of your efforts. Ya don't want to be a tourist of the world; you want to be a citizen. Everyone hates tourists unless they're getting your money."

"I've changed my mind," Katie said. "I don't hate you. I hate when you are being reasonable. It get's under my skin when you play a know-it-all. One day..."

Hunter snorted. That resolved one issue. He still had to deal with his brother and sister-in-law. A phone call earlier had revealed that Penny had refused to lie for him. He was going to face his brother when they returned whether he wanted to or not. Looking at his watch, he saw that he only had ten more minutes until dinnertime in Dayton. It was time to face them in person.

Hunter shifted and they reappeared in his brother's backyard. With the humidity so high it was still stifling. Hunter guided her into his brother's house, prepared for the worst. Penny had called over to Katie's parents and invited their daughter for dinner, which had bought Hunter more time.

"I can't go back to Paris with you?" she said with puppy dog eyes.

"I will come to you as often as I can," Hunter said. "The fact is you're not ready yet. I can't spend my time watching my back and yours, and hunt Children as well. Now shush."

They walked into the back of the house.

"Jeez, you guys were gone all day," Jessica said when she caught sight of them. She leaned towards them and whispered, "Mommy and daddy were fighting about you all morning, Uncle Cole."

Burt was standing by the stove with Penny. He gave Hunter a sign, pointing toward the back door. Both men slipped through sliding glass door, shutting it behind them to keep the air conditioning and the kids inside.

Hunter started to say something, but Burt held up his hand.

"What have you gotten yourself into?" Burt asked. "Hunter? Your frickin' name is Hunter? I hunt deer, what do you hunt?"

"I told you..." Hunter began and fell silent at the look on Burt's face. "Penny blabbed everything, didn't she?"

"Why did you drag Katie into it? Can you extricate her? Can you save yourself? Am I going to be burying your corpse in the near future?"

Burt was almost hyperventilating.

Hunter put his hand on his brother's shoulders. He summoned an image of their childhood home in upstate New York and they shifted.

"Holy shit," Burt said as he stared at their childhood home.