Demons in My Driveway (17 page)

Weird. I was beginning to think there was more to Daniel than simply being Andrew’s very sweet, very hot boyfriend.

“Be careful, Andrew.” My voice shook. “If at any time something doesn’t feel right, you guys get to my house, okay? I have no reason to believe anybody would be after you. They want djinn so they can open the portals. But I still want you to stay safe. Promise me you won’t follow any leads without calling in for reinforcements.”

“I promise to be safe,” he said. “We’ll find our girl and bring her home. And whoever’s responsible will be sorry they messed with our family.”

Chapter Seventeen

Murphy O’Brian, head of the Sacramento family of leprechauns knew nothing about Kam specifically, but after a little prodding, he did reveal that a man had purchased a pre-cleansed antique bottle for the purpose of trapping djinn.

“Wait,” I said, not sure what he was saying. “It was for a specific djinn or just any djinn.”

Murphy gave a dramatic sigh. “Look, Aegis, if you’re not going to listen to what I’m saying, I have better things to do. It’s for trapping djinn. Not
a
djinn.
Multiple
djinn.”

My pulse quickened. “You can put more than one in the same receptacle together?”

“Only if it’s a specially sanctified container.”

“Which you acquired and sold to him.” The accusation in my voice was not lost on him.

“You may have shut me down in Sausalito, Aegis, but I still have a business to run here in Sacramento.” His voice was cold. “Don’t go passing judgment on me. You have no authority.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose between my fingers and tried to sound calm. These little bottom feeders had been a problem on more than one occasion. But he was right. It wasn’t my job to shut down the magical black market being run an hour and a half away. I had enough on my plate.

“Murphy, what can you tell me about the guy who bought the bottle?”

“And why should I tell you that? The market has a long-standing reputation for confidentiality. I’ve already told you more than you should expect, all things considered.” He sounded defiant and smug. I hate it when they’re defiant and smug.

All the calm I’d worked to create snapped. “Look, you little weasel. Someone I love is in trouble, and you had a small hand in that. I swear to every god your people worship, I will come down there, shut down your business and chase every one of you into the demon world where I will hand you over as slaves to the queen of the demons. Now is not the time to push me. Our last meeting didn’t end well for you. Don’t make me show you what else I’m capable of.”

Gris walked in the room as I was making this speech, and his turquoise-chip eyes grew large and round. I ignored him.

I reached through the phone with my empathy and felt the fear I’d instilled in Murphy O’Brian. I didn’t flinch at what I found there. I smiled and basked in the knowledge of my own power over this assclown. And I wasn’t one bit ashamed of it.

“I...I...didn’t wait on him personally.” Murphy’s nervousness came out in a stutter. “Let me speak to my associates. I’ll look into it and call you back.”

I sighed. “I don’t want to waste any more time with you. You’ll call
my
associate and report to him.” I gave him Gris’s number. “Don’t make me wait long.”

I hung up before he could say anything more.

Gris whistled. “You’re a little terrifying today.”

I scrubbed my face with my palms, trying to erase the feelings of anger mixed with shameful pleasure. I needed a reset button.

“Sorry you had to hear that. You know how much I hate dealing with leprechauns.”

He nodded. “I’ll deal with him from now on. What’s next?”

I was exhausted. While I was grateful that Andrew had taken a huge chunk of my list, there were certain people—like the charming Murphy O’Brian—who only I could deal with.

I’d already called Alma Dickson, head of the Sausalito City Council. She was a dreadful, horrible woman who, until I’d stopped her, had been collecting fairies in iron cages in her greenhouse.

Alma was not a pleasant woman to talk to, but my mother would be proud to know I didn’t have to terrorize her. After the role Alma had played in setting up the auction that killed so many Hidden—Iris included—she’d bent over backwards to help.

She knew which detectives on the police force were aware of the Hidden, and promised to send them out looking. Because she had so much pull in the area, she assured me their search would not be confined to Sausalito. They’d look for clues all over Marin in the hopes of finding something that would help.

By the time all the calls were made, we had human police, every Hidden in the area and every human with the slightest supernatural powers in on the hunt. Considering I was unable to leave the property, I’d accomplished a lot.

I hoped it would be enough.

Gris hopped up on the bed. “Lionel’s here with his crew. They’ve been searching the property with Maurice and Riley.”

“Did they find anything?” I didn’t expect any good news yet, but I asked anyway.

“Not yet. But if you’re done in here for now, Lionel would like to speak to you.”

I grimaced. “How’s his face?”

“What?”

“Nothing.” I needed to get over my prejudice. Skinwalkers were Hidden. I helped the Hidden. Swamp bogies and chupacabra didn’t make me flinch, and they weren’t exactly pleasant to be around. So the guy needed to use other people’s skin. So what? I wore leather shoes.

Unless, of course, he was the one who’d kidnapped Kam, at which point, my treatment of Murphy O’Brian would look like coddling in comparison. I trusted my people. They were family. Lionel and his people were not family. If someone we knew was forcing djinn to open portals, it stood to reason Lionel was the most likely suspect. My instincts were usually pretty good.

And I didn’t like the guy.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized I’d been trying so hard not to be icked out by his skin thing, I’d downplayed the warning bells going off about everything else. He was never far away when we needed him, despite being located all the way out in Petaluma. If something went wrong here, he and his team always managed to get here within fifteen minutes.

Petaluma was a good forty-five minutes away.

Convenient.

Of course, maybe he was always patrolling nearby because we were in danger and he was good at his job.

I totally believed in the power of coincidences. My world didn’t usually contain many of them, though.

I’d have to watch Lionel more closely and hope I could trick him into showing his hand. Not that I was very good at being tricky. Or playing poker. My poker face kind of sucked.

Lionel waited out front, hands clasped in a polite waiting gesture. He grinned at me and I made an effort to smile back.

“What have you found?”

He hunched his shoulders. “Not much. I examined the grass where it was trampled, and I’m certain nothing crossed inside the ring to get to her. My guess is an arm or leg slipped out of the barrier and the perp got lucky. He grabbed her and dragged her out.”

Hearing his description of her attack made me queasy. That was our girl he was talking about as if she could be anyone. “You got all that from trampled grass? In the dark?”

“Ma’am, I’m very good at my job.”

I
bet you are.
Whatever that job really is.

“So, you believe we’re still safe in here.” I kept my voice steady, devoid of the accusation and doubt gurgling inside of me.

“I do. But I’ve suggested to Maurice that he have the fairies reset the ring for reinforcement. My people and I will stay at least until it’s done to ensure your safety.”

I nodded. No. That wasn’t at all suspicious. But it was exactly what I needed to catch him in a lie. My plan was in place. “We’ll do it at daylight, once Darius is back. I want him inside the ring when it’s reset.”

“Good thinking, ma’am.”

“Please stop calling me that.” I cast my gaze across the yard and found Riley hunkered next to the trampled grass area. I wandered over and squatted beside him. “What do you think?”

He looked as tired as I felt. “I don’t know. Lionel says the kidnapper didn’t cross inside, but I can’t see how he could know that.”

I lowered my voice to a whisper. “Do you trust him?”

“He hasn’t given me any reason not to.” He ran his fingers over a bare spot where grass had been uprooted.

I rested my hand on his shoulder. “That’s not an answer.”

He scratched the new growth of whiskers on his cheek. “No. No, I don’t think I do.”

I squeezed his shoulder. “Good. Neither do I. He’s always nearby when something happens. It’s suspicious.”

“How do you want to handle it?”

I glanced around to make sure no one could hear us. “He wants to be here with his team when the fairy ring is reset. I think we should make a show of it to draw him out—force his hand.” I didn’t know exactly what Lionel might do, but if he was behind all this, he was bound to make a play once he thought our protections were disabled. Then we’d have him.

Riley stood and pulled me to my feet with him. “He’s got different guys with him this time. He introduced them, but they didn’t say much. I’m not sure if he’s trying to get us to reset the ring so his team all have access or if he’s just trying to throw us off his scent.”

“What happened to the other guys?”

He folded his arms across his chest. “He didn’t say.”

“Uh-huh.” I shoved my hands in my pockets while I thought about it. “How do we know he’s the same guy the Board hired? He’s had two different faces in the time I’ve known him. Seems like any old skinwalker could take over.”

Riley coughed into his fist and spoke louder than he had been. “And that’s how we can tell she was pulled out of the ring. You and the rest of the Aegises are still safe, as long as you stay inside the barrier.”

If Riley’s fake conversation hadn’t alerted me, the sound of feet crunching on gravel behind me let me know that Lionel was coming toward us.

“Good news!” he said. “I spoke to Maurice, and he said the fairies should be able to reinforce the ring at sunup.” He stood beside me, and as he spoke his skin made a soft squishing sound, as if his face didn’t fit well.

I tried not to show how thoroughly icked out I was. “That’s great. Thanks, Lionel. It’s a good thing you’re here.”

Sarcasm disguised as sincerity wasn’t my best skill, but he didn’t appear to catch it. Riley, on the other hand, knew me well enough to give me a warning pinch on the back of my arm. I bit my lip and didn’t flinch.

Riley stepped forward and held his hand out to shake Lionel’s. “I really appreciate your help here tonight. You and your team.”

“Just doing my job, sir.”

The
aw shucks
of it all made me want to vomit.

Riley led Lionel away, and I took the hint to head back to the house. On the way, I ran into Maurice.

“He wants us to reset the fairy ring.” His voice was deadpan.

“He thinks that way the fairies can reinforce it. Make it stronger.” I said it without judgment, hoping to get Maurice’s gut reaction without influencing him.

He rubbed his forehead. “You know that doesn’t make any damn sense, right?”

I should have known Maurice wouldn’t trust the guy either. He was a better judge of character than anyone I knew—other than his choice of wife. “So, what do you think?”

He gave me a long, serious look, yellow eyes blinking in the porch light. “I think we should do what he wants.”

My eyebrows rose. “You do?”

He nodded. “If we’re right about him, we can catch him.”

“Dropping the fairy ring, even for a few minutes is dangerous. But it’s kind of what I was thinking too. I don’t like it though.” I rubbed my arms with my palms to ward off the shivers his words gave me. “You know I’m an idiot and will throw myself in front of speeding cars and hungry lions if that’s what it takes. But I won’t risk Mom or Julia and Annika.”

He put his long skinny arm over my shoulders. “We don’t have to. I have a plan.”

As we walked into the house, I rolled my eyes. “Why does that scare me more than the idea of zombies?”

* * *

I managed a few hours of sleep before the sun came up. The last thing I remember thinking about as I drifted away was how utterly devoid of awkwardness my exchange with Riley had been.

Were we finally growing past the sad breakup stage? Or were we drifting back to the way things used to be? And if that were the case, was it because there was so much danger?

Would we have come together in the first place if I’d never been in danger?

I knew the answer to that one. We were attracted to each other the moment our eyes locked across a busy street. Right before some guy walked in front of a bus and got killed.

But there
had
been those first weightless seconds when everything around us was ordinary and we wanted to know each other. So, yes. We still would have come together, even if we were both average and normal.

At dawn, the activity outside my window would have woken me, even if I hadn’t set my alarm. People shouted instructions to each other like construction workers at a work site.

I’d slept in my clothes, so I pulled on a sweater and a pair of boots, then wandered outside.

Sara waited on the porch, leaning on the railing. She shoved a cup of coffee in my hands. “I heard you moving around. Figured you’d need it.”

I blinked. “Didn’t you go home last night?”

“What, and miss all this?” She waved her hand at the yard.

I frowned. “What are they doing?”

The fairies had made a protective ring around my house twice in the past. The first time was to protect me from Sebastian the incubus. The second was to widen the circle and include more of my land, plus some of the woods and Aggie’s house.

Neither of those times had looked anything like this.

The guys had recruited Aggie to lead their show. Fairies flitted around her as she walked the circle, jingling her bracelets over the ground every few steps. After four stops for theatrical jingling, she turned three times, arms to the sky, hopped, then continued the pattern. The fairies followed her every move, spinning and twirling in the air, a high-pitched singing coming from their tiny throats.

I sipped my coffee, trying to keep my face serious. Every time she stopped to do her little spinning hop, I nearly choked. “Surely she’ll break a hip doing that. You know she’s over a hundred years old.”

“The old gal has some swanky moves in her.” Sara pulled me to a rocking chair and we each took a seat. “Relax. Give yourself a minute to wake up. Nothing’s going to happen for awhile, I’m guessing.”

I rocked. I sipped. I fretted. “Where is everybody?”