Part 15 (1/2)
”Sorry.” Scooping the cat up in one hand, Dean dropped him gently on the seat and slid in after him. ”What happened, then?”
”The possibilities wouldn't let me through, but the others are fine, so don't sweat it.” An emerald eye turned briefly toward Dean. ”That was sort of a joke. Is there any water in here?”
After their last visit to the vet, Claire'd begun keeping a bottle of water and a small bowl in the glove compartment. It was tepid, but Austin drank almost all Dean poured.
”Are you okay?”
”Give me a minute.” The cat sat up, rubbed a paw over wet whiskers, and sighed. ”Ever notice how much a group of teenage boys resembles a dog pack?”
”Uh, no.”
”So that was some other guy doing all that alpha male posturing?”
Dean thought back over the encounter and frowned. ”I didn't . . .”
”You didn't sniff their b.u.t.ts, but other than that, it was all big dog, little dogs. Don't get me wrong.
If it weren't for my whole dogs-are-an-accident-of-nature belief system, I'd have been very impressed.” He folded himself into tea cozy position. ”Well?”
”Well, what?” Dean asked, still working his way through the dog thing.
”Well, why are we still sitting here? I have some serious napping scheduled for this afternoon and I'd like to get to it.”
”We're just going to leave, then?”
Austin sighed. ”Yes. I don't like it any more than you but that's the way it is. We leave. They stay. They save the world. We go home and you feed the cat. At least now you also have vital and important duties to perform.”
”Right.” Dean fished his keys from his pocket and started the engine. ”Don't be taking this the wrong way, but I'd be happier if you were with Claire.”
”Likewise.”
”You know, I'm starting to think this isn't the actual anchor. That it's just the tip of the iceberg.”
”Mixed metaphors aside, I think you're right.” Claire straightened up from examining a display of remarkably realistic stone garden gnomes. ”I also think they're using a basilisk, so keep your eyes peeled.”
”That would explain the stone guy with the stone net and the wet stain on his stone trousers,” Diana acknowledged, crossing toward her sister. ”I was wondering why they'd only stock one of such a guaranteed big seller. Where do you think it is?”
”The basilisk? Hopefully, not here.”
”Not the basilisk, the anchor.”
”It's got to be close. It's not in the store. It's not in the storeroom . . .”
”It's probably behind the construction barrier,” Sam yawned. He closed his mouth to find both Keepers staring at him. ”What? It's covered in danger, keep out, authorized entry only, this means you signs. It seemed kind of obvious.”
After a moment, Diana sighed. ”He's right.”
”You say that like you're surprised,” the cat protested.
”Only because I was,” she told him rea.s.suringly as she shoved him off her backpack and heaved it back up onto her shoulders. ”Let's get a move on. They've got to know we're here by now.”