Part 28 (2/2)
”It's why most wizards don't do it.”
”Most wizards,” he muttered, pus.h.i.+ng himself up into something close to a sitting position. ”Right. Why don't we get some of those f.u.c.kers to help?”
”Can you stand?”
Since there was only one way to find out, Tony let her help him to his feet. It was a little lopsided, but it was standing. Except that Amy's date was now having hysterics on a chair instead of the floor, nothing looked like it had changed. ”How long was I out?”
”Couple of minutes.”
”You really...” It wasn't as easy to mime jumping a demon as he'd expected. ”You know, went after it.”
”You destroyed the rune that would have let it damage me back there on the street when you burned go home right across it. After that, I was safe enough. Although,” she added pointedly, ”it didn't go home. We need to get back to the studio.”
”Hang on.” He shuffled toward Amy who left her date to meet him halfway. The hug nearly knocked him on his a.s.s, but he appreciated the sentiment. ”You okay?” he asked as they pulled apart.
”Not really, but I'm faking it well.”
”This is going to need a creative explanation.”
Her eyes regained a bit of sparkle. ”I'm all about creative explanations.” ”Good, 'cause we've gotta...”
”Go. I know.” She waved a shaking hand in the general direction of the door. ”So go! Kick a.s.s.”
The demon was nowhere in sight as they emerged onto the sidewalk. There was a taxi pulling into the hotel on the corner but no other people in sight. After what had just happened, the whole area seemed strangely quiet. Strangely normal.
Totally devoid of demon.
”We'll never catch it.”
”We don't have to,” Leah reminded him. ”We just have to get to the soundstage.” She took him by the shoulders and leaned him up against the side of the nearest building. ”I'll go get the car. You wait here.”
As she ran off, Tony concentrated on staying upright. He knew why the go home hadn't worked-it had come to him just before he healed himself. Standing out on the street, blinking away the aftereffects of the demon's entry, he hadn't been connected to the universe. Well, no more than usual anyway; not in a round peg/round hole kind of way. Back in the parking lot, panic had pushed him into place. Here, just now, it had been pain. Actually, there'd been pain in the parking lot, too. Pain seemed to be compulsory.
I bleed therefore I am.
To bleed or not to bleed, that is the question.
Ultimate cosmic power! Itty bitty bandages!
This could be the beginning of a beautiful laceration.
Man, I really need a coffee...
Chapter Nine.
”CLOSED COURSE. Professional driver. Do not try this at home.”
”What are you muttering about?” Leah demanded as, with a screech of rubber against pavement, she deftly maneuvered the car around a corner at significantly more than the posted speed.
”Nothing.” The best part about the level of exhaustion Tony'd reached; he just didn't care. He didn't care when Leah ran two stop signs and a red light. He didn't care when she pa.s.sed on the right using four empty parking s.p.a.ces. He didn't care when she ignored a detour and took a shortcut through some roadwork, fighting the car through six blocks of chewed-up pavement and sc.r.a.ping the undercarriage on an exposed sewer grate. Actually, he cared about the last bit since he'd be the one paying for repairs but not enough to do anything about it.
Licking the last of the chocolate donut crumbs off his fingers, he watched the streetlights go by so quickly they were very nearly a continuous blur. If he turned to look through the driver's side window, the cracks in the gla.s.s refracted them into a thousand flares of moving light. ”When you said before you were a stunt driver... you went to stunt driving school, right?”
”Top of my cla.s.s.”
”Because you knew you couldn't be hurt?”
”That, and because I really like to drive fast.”
Previous Contents NextFor a Thursday night not long after midnight, the streets were unusually empty. Tony wondered if that was Ryne Cyratane's spell helping to keep his Demongate from dying in a fiery car crash. ”So that was a wicked move you made, back in the coffee shop when you used the demon like a vault and flipped up over its head. Where'd you learn to do that?”
”I played second bull dancer in a Greek production of The Minotaur once. Except that I wasn't in a loincloth and the demon wasn't tranked out of its little bovine mind, it was essentially the same stunt. With less ouzo, of course.”
”I thought you said the bull was tranked.”
”Him, too.”
That probably made sense in a world where he wasn't so tired his eyes kept crossing. ”Do you think we can beat the demon to the studio?”
She snorted. ”In this car?”
”Since it's the car we're in, yeah.”
”There's a chance. After all, it's not a speed demon.” Snickering, she flashed him a smile. ”Speed demon. Get it.”
”Yes.” The chance to fight back had put her in an interesting mood. Using the may you live in interesting times definition of the word. ”Please watch the road.”
With a cop's nose for contraband, Jack had found the deck of cards shoved in the back of a drawer over in the carpentry shop.
Wiping the sawdust off them, he whistled softly.
”Now these,” he said, returning to the chaise, cards in hand, ”are hard core. You wouldn't be interested,” he added as Henry stood, ”it's all man/woman action.”
”Why wouldn't I be interested?”
”I thought you and Tony were... You know.”
”We were. That doesn't prevent me from being interested in women.”
”I thought not being interested in women was the point?”
”For some men. Not for me.”
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