Her heart broke, and all her doubts from before the battle raced back into her mind. She knew he must have bailed as soon as her shield had dropped, but just to be sure, she check the area for any sign of injury. She found nothing; even their trays had been put away. He was gone, probably far away from the damaged restaurant by now.

Silent tears tracing down her cheeks, she knew she had to get away from the restaurant too, unless she wanted to be a snack for whatever monster tracked down this newest battle. She pushed her way out of the crowd and turned north, seeking only to get out of range and avoid another attack.

Setting her pace to an easy jog, she couldn't stop the tears. She had claimed him as her father for three years, even though she had never told him. They had kept in regular contact even after she graduated and moved, first to Tennessee, then to California, and the pain of the loss of their friendship rocked her as a large wave rocks a boat.

When she felt far enough away to stop jogging, she let her pace slow to a walk as she ducked her head and let the silent sobs wrack her body, no longer caring who might see her tears or that her vision was too blurry to see anything but the sidewalk in front of her.

She had no idea how long she walked like this before her sobs slowed, then stopped, quiet tears still streaming down her cheeks. A minute later, she heard footsteps hurrying behind her on the otherwise open sidewalk.

She moved over to the edge of the sidewalk, giving the other person plenty of room to pass, but the footsteps slowed, and she heard a very familiar voice.

"Girl, do you have any idea how fast you run?"

She whirled around, wiping a tear off her cheek, to find Jeff standing behind her, panting slightly from running to catch up with her.

"Why you cryin'?" he asked when he saw her face. "You hurt?" He looked at her again, then spoke up before she could try to answer. "Nah, I know you better'n that. You thought I left, didn't ya?"

She nodded, still staring at him and battling with hope that maybe he hadn't left. He had caught up with her, right?

"Now, Machaela, you ought to know better'n that. I love you like a daughter. I'd no more leave you than I would little Missy." The stray thought crossed Machaela's mind that "little Missy" should be pushing thirteen or fourteen by now, but that was beside the point as she stared at him, struck speechless. "Don't look at me like that. I mean it."

Another tear slipped out at that, not quite believing her ears when she had spent the last several minutes thinking he had left her. She wiped it away, but he still noticed.

"Oh, get over here." He stepped up and wrapped her in a hug. "I don't care if I found out you were an alien from Mars," he told her, "you're family, and nothin's gonna change that."

He waited until she had calmed down a bit before ending the hug. "You good now?" She gave him a slightly watery grin and nodded. "Good. You gonna tell me what happened back there? Like maybe how that steel beam hit the wall behind you after bouncing off the back of my chair? Or what it was that attacked in the first place?"

She chuckled a bit despite the tears still drying on her face. "Did you see the boundary around you after I walked outside?" He nodded as they started walking north again. "I put up a shield as soon as the hellhound crashed into the side of the building, and that deflected the beam. It's part of Egyptian magic. I lowered the shield when I had to chase down the empousa that was beating a hasty retreat after I killed her pet hellhound."

"I saw the boundary as you walked outside and knew you had somethin' to do with it, so when it shimmered and disappeared but you didn't show up right away, I thought you was hurt somewhere. I was at the other side o' the parkin' lot when I saw you push your way into the buildin', but I couldn't get back over there 'fore you came back out and headed north. I shoulda hollered at ya, but I figured I could just catch up—til you started joggin', anyway. By that point, you were too far off to hear me callin' for ya to slow down, then I remembered what ya said about gettin' away 'fore others caught the scent of battle."

"With no signs that you had been hurt," she told him, keeping her eyes firmly on the sidewalk ahead, "combined with how long you had been quiet after I finished answering questions, I figured you had left as soon as the boundary lowered. I could only get myself away from the battle site and hope you hadn't gone back south."

He shook his head at her. "I think I'm insulted," he told her, completely teasing and trying to get a laugh out of her. "To think you thought I'd abandoned you. That's not gonna happen."

She grinned, happy to hear him say it aloud, but didn't reply. He already knew what she thought of him.

"So," he said after a moment, "that boundary you put up. How fast can you do that?"

"Fast enough to stop a flying I-beam," she quipped.

"Fast enough to stop a flying chuck key?"

She stopped a moment and looked at him, struck by the coincidence that he should bring that up when she had been thinking about it before finally tracking down those demons. "I'm surprised you remember that," she told him as she resumed walking.

He raised an eyebrow. "How could I not? I shoulda died that day, 'cept you did somethin' with that glowin' magic o' yours that made a flyin' chuck key defy physics by two feet."

"Glowing?"

"Yep. Glowin'. After that incident with the lathe you glowed for several minutes—much like you did today, just on a lesser scale. It was hard to spot, but def'nitely there. Was it a boundary like today?"

"No, not a boundary," she finally answered. "Those with Blood of the Pharaohs are often born with an affinity for certain kinds of magic, which usually shows up a year or two after they begin training. I have a really rare affinity for Divine Words, which means I can channel magic using a single word or phrase in Ancient Egyptian to do what I want. Unlike most magicians, who work for years to master a couple of words, I can use almost any word I need to, and they don't use very much of my magic reserves. That day, I barely had enough time to redirect the key," she winced at the memory, even after all this time, "and even then it still got you on the arm."

"Is that why you wince every time the incident is brought up?"

She nodded. "I almost wasn't fast enough."

"Yeah, you were."

"What?"

"You were plenty fast enough. Now I understand why you were so pale as you helped me treat my arm. It grazed me, yeah, but we both know where that key woulda hit if you hadn't deflected it." He stared at her, watching to see if she would vocalize it. When she didn't, he continued. "I looked at the trajectory, Machaela. You saw me. Flyin' from the smaller lathe, towards me, that key shoulda hit me square in the back. I woulda been dead instantly."

She blushed and looked away. It was one thing to witness it and know that would have happened. It was another to hear him say so.

"Machaela, look at me." He waited until she focused on him. "Don't be afraid to acknowledge what you've done. That day hit you hard, didn't it?" Hesitant, she nodded at him. "Why?"

"When did you decide to claim me as a daughter?" she asked instead of answering.

He thought a moment. "I don't know. Why?"

"Because by that point I already thought of you as my father, and all I could see was that chuck key flying toward you. I noticed that Connor left the key in, but I wasn't fast enough to keep him from turning on the lathe. Then I almost wasn't fast enough to redirect the key. I would never have forgiven myself."

"'Almost' doesn't matter, Machaela. What matters is what did happen, and what did happen was you saved me. Thank you."

She blushed again and looked away. "You would've done the same."

She could see he wanted to push the subject, but with a glance at her he changed the subject. "So what were you doing in town? You said your college is in San Fran."

"College let out last week. My siblings and I are spending a week at Brooklyn House before we go to camp. Part of having the lineage of three mythologies is having to do training with three exclusive groups. We're working on Egyptian magic this week before we spend the rest of the summer as councilors at the Greek camp. What were you doing? Shouldn't BAG be out for the summer as well?"

He chuckled. "Today was our last day, and I told Missy we'd go to the roller rink after I got home. I'll have a story to tell her when I get home, won't I?"

Machaela shook her head. "Only if you're gonna tell her you happened to run into me. I have to ask you not to tell your kids about the gods being real. Probably shouldn't tell your wife, either. Unless they can see through the Mist, it'll only confuse them. Also, if they're aware, even if they can't see, and they make friends with a demigod, it could draw the monsters right to them. You'd be putting them in danger."

He looked askance at her. "Seriously?"

She nodded. "Egyptian demons you wouldn't have to worry about, but Greek monsters track demigods by scent. When a demigod becomes aware of their lineage, their scent increases exponentially. If your kids were aware of the existence of the monsters and made friends with a demigod, the monsters might mistake them for a demigod, and they would get attacked by something they couldn't see. I wouldn't have told you if you couldn't already see through the Mist."

He shook his head thoughtfully. "Well, thanks for the warning. Where you goin' now?"

She shrugged. "Continued north to avoid another attack. Now I'm taking a very roundabout way back to Brooklyn House. We'll probably run into Grace and Jesse at some point. Carter would kill me if I led you all the way to base, but it'll be a while before I have to break off." She looked around. "Don't you live around here?"

He pointed slightly northeast. "Five or six blocks that way."

"I'll walk you home, then," she smiled at him, and they turned at the next corner. "Have you gone back to Tennessee for a visit as you were planning last time we talked?"

"We did." He launched into a description of his trip, and couldn't resist ending with a teasing quip that started a round of bickering. They were still going at it when Machaela spotted Jesse and Grace up ahead. Machaela enjoyed finally introducing Jeff to her siblings, but found it intriguing how much Jeff seemed to be studying her sister.

She didn't bother asking. She would wrangle an explanation out of him eventually. For now, she was just glad she would have a chance to do so. Glad he hadn't abandoned her.

What was that phrase Grace liked to use?

"Family might be messy," Grace said when she asked, "but family is also eternal."

And that didn't matter whether they were family by blood or of the heart.

And here ends Of Blood and Heart. Don't forget to review! I want to hear if you liked it and if you thought I could do anything to better my writing.

Youngid: thank you for the review! As for your question, I have. Go see More Gods? and The Lost Conversation. I have another one in the works, but it'll be a while before I post that one