Part 37 (2/2)
The better dressed of the two eyed me. ”Who the h.e.l.l do you belong to?”
Ambivalent, I let the door shut behind me. There was a room mirroring this one in reality. I could sense it, like an unheard echo. ”I'm Al's student. Nice to meetcha.”
The second demon smacked the first on the shoulder. ”See, I told you she was alive.”
Alive? I thought, wondering what the gossip had been. ”Toodles,” I said, blowing him a sarcastic kiss and stepping from the line and back into reality. I thought, wondering what the gossip had been. ”Toodles,” I said, blowing him a sarcastic kiss and stepping from the line and back into reality.
The noise cut off with a suddenness that almost hurt. The air was cooler. Dark. Black. In the corner, a shadow moved. s.h.i.+t, something was in here! Not a demon, Not a demon, I told myself, panicking. They couldn't just slip into reality like that. Not like I could. I told myself, panicking. They couldn't just slip into reality like that. Not like I could. This is good, right? This is good, right?
Heart pounding, I backed up into the wall I'd just walked through. Not taking my eyes off the moving shadow, I fumbled, finding the light switch. Light flickered into existence, and I sighed. It had been me. The movement had only been me, my shadow reflecting off the ornate mirror propped against the wall.
Slowly my pulse eased. Before me, large racks held old clocks, locked metal boxes with faded index cards, and slatted crates. One side of the room held a huge chest freezer. Actually the entire room looked a lot like Nick's bas.e.m.e.nt in a much higher tax bracket. If I was lucky, there wasn't a camera. I thought of the demons at their table, able to see me with their own second sight but unable to cross over, and I s.h.i.+vered. The Coffee Vault, indeed. At least I'd never be trapped in the ever-after again.
Spinning to the wall behind me, I found the thin lines of a door and the expected keypad. ”Come on in, guys,” I whispered, and hit the green b.u.t.ton.
There was the hum of machinery, and I backed up. The two panels slid apart like the doors in a science-fiction movie to show Ivy, Nick, and Jenks, hovering with brow furrowed. ”Rache?” Jenks questioned.
”We'll talk about it later,” I said, and Ivy b.u.mped Nick when he bent to pick up his stuff. Scowling, he caught himself and followed her in, immediately plugging his card into the panel.
”Cameras?” Ivy asked, scanning the room, and when negative wing chirps came from both Jenks and Jax, she went to the canvas display. ”So this is Trent's bas.e.m.e.nt,” Ivy said as she started leafing through the hanging canvases, arranged like posters in a pagelike display. Nick made a satisfied grunt and pulled the card from the reader.
”We're good,” he said, his gaze fixing on the picture Ivy had turned to. ”That's it,” he said, eyes eager as Ivy paused at a really small painting. It was hardly a foot by a foot, showing a dark background of snowy mountains and a castle, the foreground taken up by a satisfied-looking young man in a red robe and funny hat, fur around his collar and three downy feathers in his lapel. That the man looked like Trent was almost anticli-mactic.
”That's it?” Jenks said, landing on my shoulder as we eyed it. ”It's not very big.”
”Kinda ugly, too,” I said, getting a funny feeling about this. I didn't want to say this was too easy, seeing as I'd used a door neither a witch nor a demon could open, but everything was going too well.
Nick was spreading a black silk cloth on the coffin-size freezer. ”It's not the size, Jenks, it's how you use it,” he said, smirking. ”It doesn't need to be big if it looks like Trent.”
Well, it did look like Trent. Jenks wasn't laughing, his hands on his hips as he moved out of the way while Ivy took the picture to Nick. ”It stinks. Almost as bad as you, Rache,” he accused.
”I smell?” I said, flus.h.i.+ng.
Holding the canvas at the unpainted corners, Ivy frowned at him. ”You were in the ever-after,” she said, one shoulder lifting in a shrug, and I took a step back from them, feeling unclean. Great, I hadn't even noticed.
Oblivious, Nick carefully took the picture from Ivy, making a production out of rolling it up in the black cloth to put into the mailing tube he'd been carrying across his back like a sword. I couldn't help but sourly wonder if it was stamped and addressed to his latest girlfriend.
While the two of them discussed who was going to carry it, I unzipped my belt pack and brought out the hoof pick. I'd leave it here where Trent would be sure to find it. If he didn't make the connection that he was going to get the painting back, I might be in trouble.
Jenks joined me, and together we looked at the beautiful inlaid wood one last time before I set it on an open display case, bright with mirrors and lights. ”I should have done this a long time ago,” I said softly, wondering if I'd ever get my entire memory back. But who really remembered anything about being twelve?
”Oh my G.o.d,” Jenks said, eying the statue next to it. It wasn't any bigger than he was, but I felt myself warm as I looked more closely. It was two men and a woman, buck naked, doing the nasty. At the same time. One in front, one in back. She looked like she was enjoying herself, though, ample b.r.e.a.s.t.s heaving and back arched, which kind of made it hard for the guy in back, but by his expression, he didn't care. They had pointy ears, the woman sporting a cute pageboy haircut and the men having hair past their shoulders, wild and feral.
”What is it?” I said, wanting to pick it up but feeling it might leave me sullied.
”Tink's d.i.l.d.o, you're asking me?” he said with a snort, but he didn't elaborate. Not even one rude gesture or comment. The unusual restraint was clear evidence of his depressed state.
”Ivy?” I called. This was too good not to share, timetable or not. ”You gotta see this.”
She came closer, Nick trailing behind as he capped the top of the tube the picture was now stashed in. ”Whoa,” she said, nose wrinkling. ”Elf p.o.r.n?”
”It's my ticket out of this life,” Nick said, and Ivy grabbed his wrist when he reached for it.
”Hey!” I said as he twisted out of her grip, frowning at her. ”We're not here to steal a statue. Didn't you learn anything from last time, Nick?”
Expression angry, he picked it up, the small statue fitting neatly in his palm. ”I'm not walking out of here without something to show for it. And don't tell me you didn't expect me to help myself. That's the only reason I agreed to this, and you know it.” His blue eyes were mocking, daring me to say anything. Just once, I wished I could be wrong.
p.i.s.sed, I barked, ”Put it back!”
Jenks rose from the shelf, and Jax chimed out, ”Uh, Nick? An alarm just went off.”
Ivy's eyes went a deeper black. ”You son of a b.i.t.c.h.” ”Put it back!” I shouted. ”Put it back now!” Nick shoved it into a jeans pocket, where it made a small bulge. ”Doesn't make a difference. Let's go.”
”You idiot!” I exclaimed. ”It does does make a difference. I'm not here to take anything I can't return!” make a difference. I'm not here to take anything I can't return!”
He smiled from the keypad, using only half his face. ”You won't get caught. Promise.”
Promise? What in h.e.l.l is that supposed to mean? With a satisfied smirk, he dropped his card into the reader, hit two b.u.t.tons, and the doors slid open to show the first empty room. With a satisfied smirk, he dropped his card into the reader, hit two b.u.t.tons, and the doors slid open to show the first empty room.
Ivy was a blur of motion, picking him up and throwing him to slam against the closed twin wooden doors to the hall. The gadget swung from the reader, and I lunged for it before the wires snapped. Almost crosseyed, Nick gasped for air as Ivy pinned him, her cast under his chin. The hidden door started to close, and after yanking the card free, I slipped through. I had time for one glance at the hoof pick, and then the door shut. Jenks was a blur beside me, and Jax was already with Nick, screaming at Ivy to let him go.
”Ivy, we might need him to get out!” I exclaimed, dropping his equipment by the closed hall door. ”I've got a spell to make him look like Trent. Don t give him a bruise you can see!”
Scowling, she thought for three seconds, an eternity for her. ”We're not using those.”
I touched my belt pack, my heart pounding. ”Yes, we are.”
Shoving him into the doors, she dropped him. ”You know I don't like your magic.”
The faint honking of a claxon was obvious, and my pulse was fast. It felt good, and I rocked to the toes of my feet as Nick rubbed his neck, his c.o.c.ky mood now sullen as he gathered his equipment. G.o.d, I was not going to get excited about this. But it had been ages since I'd done anything even remotely resembling a run, and I was riding the high already.
”I'm carrying the picture,” I said, s.n.a.t.c.hing it from Nick and draping the tube over my back. ”Everyone, take what I give you and swallow it. Ivy, I mean it. Don't give me any c.r.a.p.”
The room went silent but for pixy wings as I pulled out a vial, gave a sniff, and imagining the faint scent of tea mixing with the reek of burnt amber, I downed it. All eyes watched me as I made a face. ”Tastes like lemon pop,” I lied, shoving the vial away and bringing the next out.
”I'm not drinking that,” Ivy predictably said, but this one smelled like horse under the burnt amber stench, and I handed it to Nick.
”Nothing happened,” he said, and I made a face at him like he was being stupid.
”I've not invoked it yet.” Dummy. Dummy.
”Who takes the s.m.u.t?” he asked as his fingers encircled the tiny vial, and Jenks bristled.
”I do, now drink it!” I said, handing Ivy the last one. ”I'll invoke them together. You uninvoke it by saying the invocation word again, so don't say it until you mean it. Got it?”
Ivy hesitated, and Jenks got in her face. ”Do it, you chicken-s.h.i.+t vamp!” he yelled, and she did.
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