War-N-Wit, Inc. – MeanStreet, LLC (10 page)

“I don’t know, Mom. Stacy?”

“Here!”

“Where?” I groped through the fog.

“Here!” Thank God. Her hand reached out and connected with mine.

“Somehow that wasn’t nearly as much fun as I thought it’d be,” Mom said. “Aren’t we supposed to be under the stage or
something? And isn’t that magician supposed to bring us back?”

“
That’s the idea in most magic shows, yeah. But I’m afraid not in this one.”

“And those cats! I almost had a heart attack when they
just landed right on top of us while the door was closin’! Where are they?”

Yes, where were they indeed?
The smoke dissipated somewhat, still there, but cleared enough to see we were in an enclosure of some kind. Then it hit me. A holding cell. Sort of. It was the closest I could come, anyway. A
denseness
shimmered beyond the smoke. Like walls.

I looked down. Over on the side, pa
cing restlessly in the tendrils of fog. Two black cats.

“Micah! You gotta lot of
explainin’ to do, son!”

* * *

The guys paused outside the dressing room door.

“…big idea, cutting a show that short! I
get any demands for refunds, it’s coming out of your cut!”

“Hostess was right,” Spike said. “Manager’s raising hell.”

“Not as much as we’re about to raise. You ready?” Chad raised his eyebrow.

“Let’s do this thing,” Spike affirmed.

Chad laughed shortly. “Last time I heard that, we damn near got incarcerated for life, little brother.”

Spike shrugged. “
Worked out okay that time.”

Chad reached inside his jacket, pulled his gun from the shoulder harness and nodded. Spike threw the door open and stood aside.

“
Now
what the hell’s going on?” The manager turned and glared. He threw up his hands at the sight of the gun. “Whoa, guys! I’m not in this! You want him?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“You got him. Damn shyster, knew he was going to get some of you guys on his tail and lead ‘em back here. Probably trying to count cards or something! Just don’t leave any blood in here, okay?”

Chad’s gun po
inted steadily at Damien’s head, the sights moving to keep the target lined up as the magician backed up and edged toward the wall.

“
You got it, man. Thanks.”

“No problem.”

“Let’s be sure it’s no problem, okay?” Spike handed over another set of folded hundred dollar bills. Very handy things to have in Vegas.

“
Like I said, man. No problem. At all!”

The manager
shoved the bills in his pocket and tore out the door.

“Vegas. Gotta love it,” Spike said.

Chad cocked the hammer back on the glock. Very deliberately.
Cliiiccck.
Damien’s back tried to merge into the wall. He’d backed up as far as he was going to back. The gun sight still didn’t waver from the magician’s head.

“Squawk…incoming…incoming…squawk!”

Spike’s gun appeared from nowhere. “Un-huh, sweetheart, I don’t think so.”

Irene
sat back down on the chair she’d been about to lunge out of.

“Okay, buddy.
You got to the count of five to tell us where our ladies are.”

“Uh, mate?” Harold piped up from his perch. “Little more here than meets the eye. You might want to unzip ‘em, you twig?”

“Unzip?”

“Like their skin. It unzips. They’re demons. B’lieve they called home base the Razkaal Dimension or some such. So I wouldn’t
be so bloody certain the guns’ll work on ‘em.”

“I’m willing to give it a try.”

“You told the manager you wouldn’t leave any blood,” Spike reminded him.

“I lied.”

Bob Anson stared back and forth between the two men his daughters loved. “Who the hell
are
you guys and where did my girls
find
you?”

Damien threw his arms up. “If you shoot, security’ll hear the noise!”

“That’s what silencers are for.
One,
” Chad counted. “
Three….
”

* * *

“Ari, dear, you’re talkin’ to a cat. People’ll think you’re strange.”

Trust Mom to focus on that when we were stuck in a fog bank in the middle of heaven knew where. I was pretty sure wherever we were, it wasn’t earth, not as we knew it.
And equally sure Mom’s definition of “strange” was about to undergo a major overhaul. I didn’t think it likely the starship Enterprise was standing by to beam us up, either.

I inspected that denseness shimmering beyond the smoke. It seemed to be lightening, somehow. Lifting.

Garbled noise flowed toward us, at first barely audible, gradually increasing in volume.

Xaztha
caxpthalz…rathax nax zathax..qzokatl vichilx…

What the hell? As soon as I asked myself that, I decided it probably wasn’t a good choice of words. The noises had a cadence like speech, but nothing like I’d ever heard before.

Figures emerged from the fog, moving toward us. Stick-like figures with an octopus in place of a head. And an octopus where each hand would be on a human. Approximately, anyway. And speaking of octopuses—or octopi or otopodes, for some reason I wasn’t thinking in terms of grammatical correctness at that point, go figure—an octopus sprouted at the ends of the stick figures’ leg appendages, too. All three leg appendages.

Stacy had to say it, of course.

“Take me to your leader.”

One of the figures stepped forward, away from the others.

“Human slaves. Obey or die. You will follow us.”

As greetings go, it’d never
win the Nobel Peace Prize. But it was English. That had to mean we weren’t the first humans these octopus creatures ever had contact with. Which raised all sorts of other alarming questions, such as—where were the other humans?

Stacy’d been a paralegal for years. She knew she had the right to remain silent. She just didn’t have the ability.

“Who the
hell
you think you’re talking to, buddy?”

“
Silence, human! You will learn!
” The creature’s hand octopus shot toward her face like a Cat O’Nine tail. A ferocious rush of power tore past me and hit Octopus Man square in the chest. He flew backwards and into the three Octopodes behind him. They all crashed to the ground in a tangle of flailing tentacles.

“Way to go, Antsypants! I’ve been wondering when another power or two was gonna pop out with you!”

She shook her head.
“But I didn’t do it!”

“You didn’t?
Then who—”

We both stared at Mom. She stared back, wide-eyed in wonder, like a child who’d single-handedly demolished a whole house.

“Did I do that?”

Chapter Fourteen

“
Five!
”

Pfft.
Shards of drywall exploded over Damien’s shoulder. “Next one takes your hand off, buddy. And you got lots of body parts after that.”

“Okay, okay!! Don’t shoot again!”

“Start talking!”

“They’re—not here!”

Pfft
. Another bullet exploded from the silenced gun. Damien’s hand turned into a mass of waving tentacles and tentacle parts. The parts gushed fishy-smelling green slime. Damien squealed.

“Wuss!”
Irene spat. “You sound like a sissy girl!”

“Well,
blimey!
” Harold blinked. “Guess bullets work after all.”

“Tell me something I don’
t know, Demon Boy. I got lots of bullets.”

“I sent ‘em through!
They’re in my dimension!”

“Bring. Them. Back.”

“I can’t! I would if I could but I can’t! The other side’s got to do it!”

“Then send us through.”

“Uh, mate?” Harold flew over and landed on Chad’s shoulder. “Maybe you should check in with the big boss first? I know we haven’t been formally introduced but Harold’s the name, the Council’s my game, you twig?”

Over by the door, Bob announced to nobody in particular, “This isn’t happening. I know this isn’t happening.”

“Oh, I
twig
, all right! This has
Council
written all over it.” Chad switched to a one-handed gun hold and reached down to his phone clip. “Don’t try anything, buddy. I’m
real
good at multi-tasking.”

He glanced down at his phone. Damien lurched forward and two
pffts
sounded simultaneously, one from Chad’s gun and one from Spike’s. Tentacles and tentacle parts gushing that fish-smelling slime waved around in place of Damien’s other hand. Damien howled.

“Told you I was good at multi-tasking. But thanks for the extra cover, little brother.”

“Yeah, I’m good at multi-tasking, too. Un-huh-huh, sweetheart,” Spike warned Irene. “Gun was only off you a split second. It’s right back on target now.”

Chad hit the phone screen.
One ring and the call went straight to voice mail.

“Yo, whut up? Outta pocket right now, leave a message and I’ll get back to you.”

“
Shit, damn, hell, fuck!
” Chad fumed as the automated answer program wound its way to the requisite
beep
. “G, you son-of-a-bitch! You set us up! You knew damn well this thing wasn’t some low-level magic con! They’ve got the girls, G! They’re in some damn demon dimension! Now you get your ass in gear and answer this!” He shoved the phone back onto its clip and turned back to Damien.

“Okay. N
ow you get
your
ass in gear and
send us through!
”

* * *

Gabriel and Michael moved through darkness, backlit by a reddish glow that erupted now and then into full-blown flame.

“Where the hell’s Rafael? Stupid idea, him splitting off like that! Why does he think he can find the back
way in if I can’t?”

“You’re so damn full of yourself it’s a miracle you got room to breathe, Mike, you know that? Rafael’s in the same hell we’re in. And he might find the back way in when you can’t because you’ve got no damn patience! For you, it’s full battle attack mode or nothing.
Shit!
” Gabriel came to a full stop and grabbed at his shirt pocket. He pulled out his cell phone and groaned. “
Damn!
I didn’t feel it vibrate till it’d already gone to voicemail!”

“We’re on a freakin’
stealth
mission and you’re gonna stop and listen to a
voicemail?!
”

“I am this one. Damn straight.
Deal with it.”

Gabriel held the phone to his ear. Chad’s voice blasted
into his eardrum.

“Oh,
hell!
” Gabriel’s face paled. He hit the call-back button and muttered impatiently as he waited. “
C’mon, c’mon, c’mon!!
”

“G! ‘Bout damn time, you double-crossing son-of-a—”

“
Squawk…
wasting time, mate, get to it!” Harold’s voice cut in. Chad obviously had the phone on speaker.

“I never intended the girls to go through alone! I can’t
believe
you actually let that happen!”

“Wouldn’t have if you’d played straight with me, G.
I should’ve known better but it’s a mistake I’ll never make again. Can’t even trust the Guardian Council. We deserve better than that.”

“
Yeah, you do. I’m sorry. So the first thing is to get to them. Ari
and
Stacy went through?”

“And Grace.
You know, Mom.”

“Their
mother?
”

“Ah, the light dawns!”

“Oh, crap! Well, that might work out better’n you think. Grace’s been in denial her whole life. The three of ‘em might be more than the Razkaal demons banked on. ‘Cause if there’s one sure-fire way to bring a person of power out of the closet, it’s a threat to somebody they love. Look at Spike. He didn’t surface till he met Stacy. And the girls are Grace’s babies. Oh, yeah, she might kick ass.”

“Grace? What does she do?”

“Grace. She’s a very powerful telekinetic. She can move things with her mind. She just don’t know it. Ari’s mind control’s a variation of that, I’m hoping to hell Stacy got some variance of it hidden in there somewhere. Harold, you know where Micah and Mia are?”