Pale Demon (33 page)

“You going to be good?” Ivy asked Leon, and when he nodded, she sauntered out of the kitchen. I watched her, slightly concerned. She had taken care of herself yesterday and so wasn’t hungry, but fighting brought out the worst in her.

“Watch out for that dripping potion,” I warned her, and she dragged Wyatt onto the carpet before hoisting him up and dumping him unceremoniously next to Oliver. Amanda was next. At least I thought it was Amanda.

“What are you going to do to us?” Leon whispered, and my eyes flicked to his, holding his gaze. “We will be missed. You can’t just kill us.”

“My God, do you really think I want to kill you?” I said, disgusted, though chucking them out the window had occurred to me. They would just send assassins after us until I fled to the ever-after and everyone I ever knew was in jail. But he had brought up a good point. I had them. Now what?

“Why couldn’t you just leave me alone?” I said, irate. I slid aside to give Ivy more room as she pulled the image of my mother into the kitchen and let her slump over Wyatt. The woman’s eyes were twitching as the charm began to break. Oliver, too, was stirring, his wincing eyes shut as his fingers fluttered up and over his swelling cheek. Good. I had a few things to say to him. That the potions had lasted this long was a testimony to coven magic. Oliver might look stupid and slow, but he wasn’t. He was just backward as all hell.

“Do you have an anticharm for this?” I asked Leon, wanting to hurry things up.

He was still pressed into the corner, and his eyes darted to the front pocket of Wyatt’s jacket. “S-salt water,” he stammered.

“Thanks,” I said, gingerly searching the spelled witch until I found a couple of the little vials.

Only now did I take the amulet off my not-mother, smirking as the slightly chunky blond earth witch shimmered into existence. Yeah, it was Amanda. I flicked the top off a vial of salt water and dumped it on her. She came to, sputtering as she pushed herself off Oliver and sat with her back to the cupboards. Wyatt was next, glaring at me as soon as he could focus.

“If you move, I break your fingers,” I told the ley-line witch, then turned to Amanda, crouching to look in her eyes. “Hi, Amanda,” I mocked, and her lips moved, but she didn’t say anything, terrified. “Don’t worry,” I said as I straightened and backed up. “I’m not going to eat you. At least not today. If you make me go hide in the ever-after, I might have a different answer for you.”

Ivy silently handed me one of the two remaining guns before she took up a position near the wide entryway to the kitchen, blocking their exit and still having a good view of the hallway through the blown-off door. Her feet were spread wide, her hands were on her hips, and her eyes were dark. The fear and anger weren’t dissipating nearly fast enough. Sure, the coven was down, and we had their guns, but what was I supposed to do with them now? Trent would slap a forget curse on them. Pierce would probably want to give them to Al, seeing that those of their ilk had buried him alive. I wasn’t going to do either, and I was the one they called black. It just wasn’t fair. Frustrated, I tucked the splat gun in the small of my back.

“You’ll burn for this,” Oliver snarled.

I’d had enough. Angry, I grabbed his shirtfront, shaking him as he tried to get his eyes to focus. “You should have listened to Vivian!” I said, then shoved him back against the cupboard. Wincing, he felt the back of his head, not nearly scared enough.

“Well?” Ivy said. “You want me to find some friends and drain them?”

She was joking, but Leon paled.

I scowled, wondering if Vivian knew they were here and if she was okay. Maybe they just didn’t tell her what they were doing. “I have to make a call,” I muttered, rocking back to get my phone out of my bag. “If any of them move, break their fingers. If any of them speak, make it their teeth.”

Ivy smiled to show her fangs, and Amanda shrank back. Unspent adrenaline made me jittery as I found my bag and pulled out my phone. On impulse, I flipped it open and scrolled to the camera function. “Smile!” I said, snapping a picture of the four of them slumped against the cupboards, then carefully punched in Vivian’s number. Not that the press would believe a photo, but I wanted it for my scrapbook.

Oliver glared at the fake sound of a shutter clicking, and he almost got up, settling back when Ivy cooed at him. She was doing remarkably well, only the faintest widening of her pupils giving away her bloodlust.

I sat on the arm of one of the chairs where I could see out into the hall and them. The propped-up door was nearby, and I kicked at it. I hadn’t let go of that broken ley line, slowly replenishing my chi and spindling it in case they tried something else.

Finally Vivian picked up. “Hey,” I said before she could even say hello. “Did you know about your friends crashing my hotel room this afternoon? They made a bloody mess.”

“No, but that explains a lot.” She was on the conference-room floor if the background noise meant anything, and I held the phone closer when I heard Pierce’s low inquiry of my state of being. “Everyone still alive?” she asked.

“For the moment. And only because they stocked their splat balls with nonlethal charms. They blew the door right off my room, and I’m not paying for it. Aren’t coma spells a little too close to black magic for you guys?”

“Your word against ours,” Oliver said snidely, and Ivy moved, threatening to hit him.

His voice was far too confident. I took a breath to tell him to shut up, but his eyes narrowed in victory and he smashed the back of his hand against the cupboard. There was a snap of glass as the stone in his ring broke.

“Down!” I shouted, and Ivy dove for cover. I cowered behind the propped-up door, but nothing happened.

Oliver was laughing, and slowly I got to my feet, embarrassed. Vivian was yelling through the phone, but Ivy was staring at me, her eyes a scared black. A second later, I knew why.

“Earthquake!” she exclaimed, and I staggered for balance as the floor suddenly became Jell-O.

“Get under a table, Rachel!” Vivian was yelling. “Get in a doorway!”

A chunk of ceiling fell between Oliver and me. I froze, not knowing what to do. As one, the four witches ran for the door. It was all I could do to stay upright, and I fell into the couch as they found the hallway and vanished. Pictures were falling, and one of the windows cracked, sounding like a gunshot.

“Rachel!” Ivy cried, then grabbed my arm and yanked me into the threshold of the door to the hallway. We stood there, holding the doorway to remain upright as the ceiling flaked and bits of plaster covered the burn marks. Finally it stopped, but I was still shaking. My eyes went to the empty hall. They were gone.

“Why do people live here?” I asked, looking at the room as if I’d been betrayed as I took the gun out of my pants and dropped it on the couch.

“Did they do that? Make the earthquake?” Ivy asked.

“Probably.” Her pupils were still black, and I shifted away from her, not wanting my own fear to tip her over the edge. I put my ear to the phone to find that the connection had been lost. Pierce was probably on his way back already, a day late and a dollar short. The damage to the room from the quake had been minimal, and the broken door from their attack could be dismissed by a paid-off insurance adjuster. I still had my photograph, though.

“And they call me a black witch,” I said as I closed my phone and gingerly picked my way through the burns and plaster dust to the window to look down and see if I could spot them leaving. I couldn’t help but wonder how many of the smaller quakes that the coast sustained were from the coven. This was just nasty. But at least I was alive.

Ivy had gone to the wet bar, and the hiss of something full of sugar and bubbles opening was loud. We
both
were alive.

“Thank you for helping me,” I said.

Ivy exhaled long and loud as she came up from her drink. “You’re welcome. Any time.”

I smiled, but my thoughts were on her last words before the coven had shown up. Ivy and I worked well together. We always had.

Too bad I’d totally screwed it up.

I
leaned forward over the backseat to look up at the tall conference hotel we were trying to turn into, feeling lost as we waited for traffic to clear. We weren’t in my mom’s car since it would be impossible to find a parking spot. No, we were still cashing in on Trent’s hospitality, and we’d ridden across town in the car his hotel had on reserve for when their most important guests wanted to go somewhere. The car was long, black, and shiny, and came with a driver. Only problem was that Trent wasn’t in it. No Jenks, either. To say I was worried would be like saying pixies were a tad mischievous.

It was getting close to midnight and the conference was starting to kick into high gear. Lights from the oncoming traffic were nonstop. Pierce sat beside me, his feet spread wide as he tried to look unaffected by the crowds, but I could tell they were getting to him. He wasn’t happy that the coven had used his chat with Vivian to take a shot at me, and he’d apologized several times, thinking I blamed him. I didn’t, but the odds the demons had given me were sounding more realistic than they had.

Pierce was wearing his long coat despite the weather being too hot for it, and he held his hat like a life preserver. Dressed in brown slacks and a brightly colored vest over a white shirt, he made an odd statement—one that was probably going to go unnoticed. Just from the car, I could see three witches in traditional robes and hats. Behind them was a woman wearing wings for the ball tonight, and behind her three guys dressed like Neo from
The Matrix
. To be fair, though, there were just as many people wearing business suits as pointy hats, and the clothing of choice seemed to be jeans. Goth was still in, and almost every fifth person had a glowing bracelet with
SAN FRANCISCO
—2008 blinking from it, this year’s knick-knack of choice, apparently.

Ivy is going to fit right in,
I thought as I glanced at her, up with the driver. The turn signal of the car ticked as we sat in silence, waiting for someone to move so we could pull into the drop-off area. I leaned back into the cushions, my curiosity rising when Pierce reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a badge with
SECURITY
on it. “When did you get that?” I asked as he looped it over his head. The name on it was Wallace Smyth. Holy crap, Pierce stole it?

He smiled, teeth glinting in the light of the oncoming traffic. “This afternoon,” he said, shuffling through his pockets again to bring out two more. “Before the cowardly dogs attacked you. You can’t get past the first floor without a badge. Ivy, here is yours. I thought you’d like the black.”

Ivy took the black lanyard, looking bemused. Her badge had her name on it. “Thank you, Pierce,” she said, looping it over her neck, and he smiled.

“And, Rachel, I picked up yours, as well. It was good I did. You may have paid for it months ago, but they’d lost it and it took three people an hour to produce another.”

“I’m not surprised,” I said, feeling the cool plastic in my fingers. Mine said
PRESENTER
. Great. I was part of the entertainment.

“Thanks, Pierce,” I said as I attached it to my bag, hoping there wasn’t a bug or a charm on it. If we got stopped because Pierce had stolen a badge, I was going to be mad, but I really appreciated his picking them up. I didn’t give him enough credit, and a pang of guilt twanged through me.

The hum of my phone from my bag made it worse, and my foot started to bob as I ignored it. I knew who it was without looking. Ivy turned from the front, eying me. “If you keep avoiding him, he will think you are mad at him,” she said, clearly able to hear it as well.

“I know,” I said, wincing, thinking it curious that she knew who it was, too. Maybe I was telegraphing my body language louder than I thought.

“Who?” Pierce questioned, looking up from arranging his badge.

Ivy smiled softly. “Bis is waking up in the daylight when Rachel pulls on a line.”

The man made a surprised grunt, and I flushed. “How do
you
know?” I asked her, wishing the traffic would clear so I could avoid this conversation. In my bag, my phone continued to hum.

“
I
take his calls,” Ivy said dryly, then turned to face me fully. “Rachel, he’s older than you think. He’s not looking for a date, he’s just confused. Talk to him!”

“I’m confused, too,” I exclaimed softly, my guilt growing stronger. “I never asked him to be my gargoyle. It’s wrong. It’s slavery!”

Exhaling in exasperation, Ivy rolled her eyes to the car’s ceiling. “I know what slavery is, and this isn’t it,” she said. “He does have his own life. And don’t forget, he sought you out, not the other way around. You are something he needs, and I don’t think you have a say in it. Talk to him. He thinks you don’t like him,” she added, and I bit my lower lip, even more concerned. That was not at all what I had wanted to happen.

“He’s bonding with you? Already?” Pierce said, his eyes wide. “He’s just a kid!”

“See?” I said, and Ivy turned around in exasperation. “Even Pierce knows it’s wrong.”

She was silent, but I could see she was clenching her jaw. Frustrated, I took out my phone. It wasn’t humming anymore. A soft depression had taken me, not all of it from the upcoming trial. “He is, isn’t he,” I said softly as I looked at the tiny screen, more of a statement than a question.

Pierce’s hand touched mine, and I jumped. “There is nothing improper about this relationship,” he said seriously, making me all the more uncomfortable. “This is not a bond of love, but of necessity. You need a gargoyle to teach you to jump the lines, and in turn, you will give him a holy place to live, safe from demons.”

“Safe from demons,” I said, and the driver shifted uncomfortably, the back of his neck stiff. “Yeah, right.”

But I slipped my phone into a tiny pocket in my bag, hoping I didn’t miss his next call. Hell, I should just grow a pair and call him back while I still had a chance. I was running out of time. My stomach hurt, and I ran my hand over the smooth bumps of the French braid my hair was now in. Outside the car, people were moving quickly, their excitement making their pace fast and their words high-pitched. A spot finally opened up and the car pulled into the drop-off area. Pierce was out of the car even before it stopped moving, coming around to open my door. Ivy dropped her head and searched her purse for a tip, and I gathered myself to get out, glad to put off my chat with Bis for a few minutes more. The scent of exhaust-tainted wet cement mixed with the sound of hushed tires and loud conversations over engine noise.

Was Bis bonding with me? It sounded so…demonic.

“Rachel?”

It was Pierce, and he had his arm out to escort me. Giving him a worried smile, I looped my arm in his and together we went to the curb. I felt like I was in a spotlight, but no one was looking at me despite my wearing enough leather for a small cow. I’d left Al’s purple sash at home—and the cap. I didn’t care if I was the only one who would know purple was a sign of demon favor. It felt like a leash.

Ivy’s door shut with a solid
thunk,
and the car took off, immediately replaced by another just like it. “Ready?” she said as she joined us, her eyes bright and her motions quick. She was wearing her boots, and they clicked smartly on the pavement.

“As much as I’ll ever be,” I said, turning to the twin set of double doors. Pierce’s hand landed on mine, and with him on one side and Ivy on the other, we went in, my high-magic-detecting amulet sputtering a hazy red. I wasn’t surprised when every last erg of painstakingly gathered ever-after washed out of me. Hotel security. You can’t have a group of witches this size without some kind of leveling field. Pierce’s hand left me, and he shifted his coat on his shoulders as if trying to fit into a new skin.

Our pace slowed, as much for the people clustered near the door as for the sound of a hundred conversations beating on our ears. Single file, we passed among the groups of people gathering here to either step out to make a call, have a smoke, or just use the front as a place to meet their friends. I followed Pierce with half my attention, more interested in the huge chandelier that stretched up six stories, dominating the entire interior cave. The ever-after draining out of me when we had crossed the threshold had been caused by something and I was betting it was this. It looked a lot like the device Lee had had on his boat, but a whole lot bigger.

My dropping gaze landed on a black-suited man with absolutely no expression on his face. He was wearing sunglasses and staring at me. Nervous, I set a hand on Pierce’s shoulder, anxious not to lose him in the crowd.

“I see them, too,” Ivy said from behind me.

Them? There was more than one?

Pierce turned, waiting for us to catch up with him as we finally got through the worst of the crowd. “I walked the place this afternoon,” he said, glancing first at the man I had noticed, then to another by a bank of elevators. “Registration is that way. Food is that way. Rest areas are on the first and third floors.”

I was guessing he meant bathrooms, and a sudden urge to cross my legs and do the little-girl dance took me.
Relax, Rachel.

“I should have been doing that,” Ivy muttered, and Pierce nodded, ticking me off. Ivy had been there to help me beat off the coven. He had no right to make her feel guilty.

Still not undoing his coat, he led us across the lower floor. “You were a mite busy keeping Rachel’s body and soul together,” Pierce said, then pointed up to the overlooking second story. “The common entry to the auditorium is up there. There is an entrance on the ground floor, but it’s guarded. Coven members only.”

“Good, an escalator,” I said, stifling a shiver.

“Since when are you afraid of elevators?” Ivy said as she got on before me and Pierce got on behind me, his hand on the small of my back, steadying me. I’d take offense, but I was ready to bolt and my knees felt like rubber.

“I’m not,” I protested, pulse quickening.
God, it’s about to happen. My entire life is going to change in the next hour.
“I’m—”

“Thinking about the coven taking a last potshot at you. I know.” Ivy came back even with me as we passed a group of harmless-looking witches on their way down. I dropped my gaze so I didn’t have to make eye contact, adjusting my badge on my bag. If I held my arm just right, it would be obvious I had a badge without making it easy to read my name. I didn’t want to be recognized, but I think I was by the amount of whispering and pointing going on. Unless it was my dress.

Ivy was first off, and I found myself exhaling as I followed. Pierce bumped into me, and looping his arm in mine, he almost pulled me to the set of double doors across from the wide, low-ceilinged, lobbylike area. People were clustered here, too, and I felt myself pale as the conversations stilled and faces turned to us. I heard the click of a phone camera, and I shook myself.

“Chin high,” Pierce said softly, but I was nauseated. I’d been running from this for what seemed like a lifetime.

His fingers touched mine, and I felt a tingle. He was wire tight, but it was the faint pulse of cracked ever-after in him that caught my attention. “How are you tapping a line?” I said as we settled in at the back of a short line to get in. They were checking badges, and I was doubly glad Pierce had picked up mine.

Pierce curled his fingers to take a stronger grip on me, and my shoulders eased when I felt the warmth of a masculine-tasting energy fill me. “I borrowed an amulet from a security member,” he said, shooting me a sly glance, then looking dead ahead. “And his badge. Don’t worry. Wallace never reported it. He’s being entertained.”

From Pierce’s wry expression, I had a pretty good idea of how Wally was spending his evening.
Oh, man. That is going to look great if they find out.

Beside us, Ivy chuckled, and I felt tons better as Pierce funneled energy into me, slippery or not. It would leave as soon as I let go of him, but in the interim it was nice. “You are a cad,” I whispered, leaning in to smell his redwood scent mixing with a woodsy cologne.
When did he have time to shower?

“But a smart one,” Ivy said. “Good thinking.”

Pierce pulled his gaze from the head of the line. “I won’t let harm touch you. If there’s trouble, I’ll be there, and as soon as we get through security, I’ll give you the amulet.”

I could see the sense in that, and I nodded as my headache began to ease. The line moved forward, and I took the pen after checking my lethal-amulet detector. It wasn’t working, but old habits die hard. As the bored woman behind the table talked to her neighbor, I signed the paper, adding a period at the end of my name to break any psychic connection. I handed it to Pierce, who immediately gave it to Ivy.

“I’m her security,” he lied to the woman, taking my bicep a little more firmly.

I eyed Pierce, letting him manhandle me since he seemed to enjoy the excuse and I couldn’t protest without causing a stir. A flash of interest broke across the woman’s face, and she looked from the paper Ivy was signing, to the badge pinned to my bag, to me. In one breath, her expression went from pleasant to disgusted. “Oh, it’s you. You have a reserved seat up front.”

Oh, it’s you? Nice.
“Thank you,” I said pointedly as Ivy pushed the paper back toward her. “Do you know if Trent Kalamack is here yet?”

“No.” She was breathing fast, and the ladies to either side of her were silent.

My gut twisted. Black witch. They thought I was a black witch, and they could hardly stand me. “We’re going to need one more place,” I said, indicating Ivy, and the woman shook her head.

“She can’t go in.”

I’d had it with women who thought they had ultimate power because they’d been given a tiny task, but I exhaled, trying to relax. “Why not?” I asked, voice level as I hitched my shoulder bag higher.

“Witches only.”

Pierce looked up, scanning the crowd behind us as someone began calling “Yoo-hoo!” in a loud, demanding voice.