I'd never been to Trent's primary stables, just his foaling stables a stone's throw away. But the rough-cut boards and smell of hay still felt familiar after the Pandora charm, even if the memory had almost killed me. It made stealing from Trent really easy on my conscience. Stupid elf. I waited in the glow of the security light, feeling exposed with my back pressed against the vertical boards. There was no moon, but there was nowhere to hide either, and I listened to a sitcom come down from an open window on the second floor. Breeding racehorses, Trent forced an early April foaling, so the staff on hand here would be correspondingly small.
Ivy was a shadow at the corner of the building. Jenks, Jax, and Nick were at the window beside me, more of a door, really, where they tossed the hay in. It was locked, of course, with sensor pads. The pixies were trying to find the right amount of electricity to keep the circuit closed even when it was open. They'd been at it long enough to make me nervous. It never took Jenks this long. The entire job was being run like it was a damn committee, and I hated it.
"Are we there yet?" I whispered, and Jax's wings spilled a silver dust. Sighing, I leaned back and fingered my belt pack, holding a couple of pain amulets, the three potion vials - and Trent's dad's hoof pick. I was hoping that if I gave it back, Trent would realize that it was a game and not kill me outright. Even if Pierce hadn't melted my splat gun, I wouldn't have brought it. If I got caught, it wasn't going to be with a potentially lethal weapon on my person. Using my splat gun without the backing of a warrant would put me in jail faster than Bis could hit Pierce's tombstone with a wad of spit, game or no. Any charm I used would leave a trace that the I.S. could track right back to me. I was going in almost naked, and not happy about it.
It was almost three, right when pixies and elves were about to wake up and witches about ready to crash. Crashing sounded good. I was tired. Evading Vivian this afternoon had been harder than I'd thought it would be. We'd finally resorted to jumping stores in the mall until we all went out different delivery entrances to take the bus to one of Ivy's friends. His car had gotten us to the interstate, and from there, we'd walked in across the pastures where they couldn't use motion detectors because of the horses. Everyone had an Achilles' heel, and apparently Trent's was his horses.
"Got it," Jenks said, making a quick circle around me before darting off to get Ivy. Nick gave me a toothy smile as he carefully opened the wooden door, hesitating to allow Jax to oil the hinges with pixy dust when they squeaked. A horse nickered at the new draft, and we froze, listening as the muted conversation from upstairs continued and the laugh track exploded. The pixies vanished inside, and Nick leapt easily to the sill, disappearing soundlessly.
Alone with Ivy, I exhaled in worry. I didn't like how many people it was taking to do this, but I wasn't going to miss out, and Ivy wouldn't let Nick and me do this alone.
Her hair in a black scrunchy, Ivy vaulted easily through the black window. Her hand without the cast came out, and I tobk it, using it to find my way inside.
I felt like a thief as I landed, my dew-wet running shoes quiet on the swept concrete. The fragrant hay made towers around us, and the soft, inset lighting of the stables was enough to see by. Jax was gone or not moving, but Jenks came close, landing on my shoulder to whisper, "We've got the alarms disabled and the cameras on a loop. Ivy's going to take care of the two guys and the vet upstairs. Hang tight."
I nodded as I took the cloth that Ivy had used to wipe her shoes. Calm and confident, she headed into the aisle and to the heavily polished stairway to the living quarters. There were inlaid lights on each step, and it looked far too fine to be in a stable. Arm swinging, Ivy looked more like she was crossing a bar to get a drink than going to knock out three men without raising an alarm. But having Jenks with her meant it wasn't going to be an issue.
A horse blew at us, and after handing Nick the cloth to wipe down the floor where we'd come in, I went to calm the animal, finding he was free in a nice-size box stall. The horse wouldn't come to me, but at least his ears pricked.
For no reason I could see, the hair on the back of my neck rose, and the horse's ears went back. "How you doing?" Nick whispered, right freaking behind me.
I tried not to jump, but I figured he knew he'd startled me by his smile when I turned. "I have done this before. Nic-k," I said tightly.
He went to say something, but our attention went to the ceiling at a soft thump. I tensed, relaxing when Jenks flew downstairs, dusting a soft gold. "Remind me never to piss off Ivy," he said as he hovered before me. "She dropped them faster than a slug takes a crap."
Ivy sauntered downstairs, her silhouette confident and slim as she tugged her sleeves down and pocketed something in her belt pack. "We've got ten minutes," she said sounding loud as she broke the hush. "They'll wake up in fifteen minutes thinking they fell asleep. Which they did." She patted her belt pouch and smiled, her fangs making me shiver. "I could have made it longer, but they check in with security every half hour."
Nick was eying her belt. "What is it?"
"It's mine," she said, shooing Jax away before the smaller pixy could get a good sniff.
Nervousness seeped up through me as if rising like fog from the earth. Whatever it was, it had been illegal. We were sliding into this criminal thing far too easily. Did it matter if our motives were good if the means were bad? Or was the real question, did I want to go to Alcatraz and get my ovaries taken out and wind up lobotomized? This was survival against illegal action, and Trent was at the root of it. Guilt could take a long walk in a short shadow.
"Okay. Spread out," I said. "We've got ten minutes to find the door to the tunnel."
Immediately Jenks took off, his wings a slow, depressed hum. Jax was hot in the other direction. It was obvious that Jax was trying to impress his dad with his backup abilities. Jenks didn't seem to care, still hurting about Matalina. I hadn't even wanted him to come, but he needed to be needed right now, not alone in a church.
Ivy started for the front of the stables, and Nick followed Jax to the back. I poked about after Jenks, checking out the opposite row of stalls. Somewhere in here was a passage under the road and back to the main compound. It wasn't on any of the plans, but if you brought up the public record of who got paid during the construction of the stables, it was obvious that there was one here. You don't write a check for the materials and equipment to make a tunnel just for grins. I only hoped it didn't go right to Trent's private quarters.
The lights were low as we searched, and the horses were getting nervous. Nick wasn't comfortable with the big animals, and Ivy was like having a panther among the herd. Me, they ignored as I tapped the walls for an echo and looked for unexplained worn spots on the floor.
"What's the time, Jenks?" I asked as I rapped my knuckle against the wall holding a dozen different saddles.
"Five minutes, twenty-six seconds," he said, skimming the floor where it met the wall.
"I've got it!" shrilled a high-pitched voice, and the horse across the way snorted, her ears objecting to Jax's exuberant call as much as mine. "I think I've got it!"
Jenks was gone in a burst of dust. Breath held as I walked through it, I followed his sparkles to the end of the stables. Ivy came even with me, smelling of vampire incense. She was enjoying this. It had been a while since we'd done anything together, and I'd missed seeing her happy.
"Good going, Jax," Jenks was saying as the pixy hovered in a double-size box stall, making the black horse in it toss his nose at the dust sifting down. "How did you find it?"
"There's a draft," he said, dropping down to show his dust being pulled under the straw. "See? There's a trapdoor right here."
The horse swung his head to try to bite him like a fly, and Jax darted out of the way, glowing a bright red as he landed on Nick's shoulder. The man was standing in the dead center of the aisle, uncomfortable. "Nice," I said, eying the horse, who now had his ears back, evil as he swung and tossed his head, daring us to come in.
"Girls like horses," Nick said, arms crossed. "One of you can get him out."
Ivy frowned. "Oh, for God's sake," she muttered, reaching for the gate.
"No!" I shouted, seeing the not-so-subtle equine signs.
The horse lunged forward, but Ivy was quicker, pulling her hand back an instant before the horse got his teeth on her. He stomped, tossing his head with his ears back. "Little sucker," she said, clearly shaken as she dropped back to where Nick stood.
Jenks smirked and flitted into the stall, not a hint of dust showing as he avoided the horse's bite and vanished under the floorboards. An instant later, a soft electric glow leaked up through the cracks. He'd found the lights.
"Did he get you?" I said, taking Ivy's hand, but apart from a bad mood, she looked okay.
A silver dust sifted over our fingers, and I let go when Jenks rejoined us. "It's a passage, all right," he said as Ivy shook her head. "It runs under the road. This is it."
Nick crossed his arms. "With hell horse guarding it? Ivy, will your drugs work on it?"
She shook her head. "I don't have enough. He's got to weigh over a thousand pounds."
"Hit him over the head with your cast," Jenks said. "Use what you got."
Ivy just looked at him, and I sighed, standing outside easy bite range. "I'm not going to be stopped by a freaking horse!" I said.
The horse's ears flicked forward, and his nose toss took on a less aggressive slant. My breath caught, and Jenks landed on my shoulder. "Did you see that?" he said, and Ivy chuckled.
"Rachel, I think he likes you."
"No way," I said, but the monster's ears flicked forward again, followed by a happy step toward us. My lips twisted, and I gazed at Ivy, mystified.
Jenks laughed. It was the first time I'd heard it since Matalina died, and something eased in me. "Well, I know you're not a virgin to soothe a savage beast," he said, and I swatted at him, missing him by a mile. "Go pet the horse, Rachel."
Nick scuffed his feet. "We're running out of time here..."
"Go pet the horse," I grumbled. "Do you people know the bite pressure of those teeth?" Wiping my hand on my black slacks, I reached out, jerking when the horse hung his head over the wall and head-butted me.
"I'll be damned," Nick swore, and Jenks laughed again.
"I don't get this," I said, as shocked as Ivy appeared, her black eyes wide and wondering. My hands went up to touch him, and I looked for a halter to put on him so I could lead him out. But when my gaze fell on the nameplate, my jaw dropped. "Tulpa?" I said, and the horse blew at me, seeming to be disappointed that I didn't have a snack for him.
"Ivy, this is the horse I fell off," I said, seeing that she was allowed to touch the gate now. "It was like thirteen years ago. Horses don't live that long and look this good." My focus went blurry as I pieced it together. "You're Trent's familiar, aren't you, old boy," I said as I slipped inside the stall as if I belonged. Tulpa wouldn't hurt me.
"Tick tock, Rache," Jenks said, and I cooed at the huge animal, not caring what Nick or Ivy thought as I ran my hands appreciatively over his black coat, glistening with the first hints of silver. God, the muscles on him. "Come on in," I said as I shoved his shoulder, and the horse obediently shifted to the wall of the big stall. "Back. Back up," I said, my hand on his neck giving a soft pressure, and I smiled when the horse took two more steps off the trapdoor. At least Trent's horse liked me. I should write him a letter and tell him. It would make his day.
Ivy came in, and Jenks, eying the blowing horse as she found the lever and swung the small trapdoor open. Clearly the horse was used to it, making only a snuff at the artificial light at his feet. His head dropped as if searching for a familiar face coming up and perhaps an apple. Ivy started down the metal stairs, her vamp reflexes making it easy one-handed, but Nick was still in the hallway.
Jenks put his hands on his hips and hovered. "What's wrong, crap-for-brains?"
Her head even with the floor, Ivy hesitated. "You don't have to come."
Grimacing, he eyed me and the horse. His hand on the gate prompted a sudden shifting from Tulpa, but I pushed him back. Horses were great. Once they accepted your dominance, there was no question. They sort of seemed to like it.
"Just get down the stairs, Nick," I said, and he slipped inside, almost skating down the metal framework in his haste. Jax was with him, and it was with an odd reluctance that I left Tulpa, giving him a pat before taking the stairs and unwedging the rod that had propped it open.
"Thanks, Tulpa," I said wistfully as the door shut, inches from my head. The last sight I saw was a floppy pair of lips with bristly whiskers snuffling at the narrowing crack. I turned and went downstairs, sighing at the thumps of his hooves overhead. I'd forgotten how much I liked horses.
Jenks was waiting for me, his hands on his hips as he hovered in his black thief outfit, looking better even if his grief was just out of sight in the back of his eyes. "You really get off on the big dumb animals, don't you," he said.
"Shut up, Jenks," I muttered, pushing past Nick and starting down the long, unremarkable hallway slanting downward. I couldn't help but wonder if I had picked out of my forgotten memory the word "Tulpa" as my word to spindle energy in my head. Probably.
"Cameras?" I asked as I came even with Ivy. The walls were white and I could feel the faint brush of air vents. I still thought using the ductwork would have been easier.
"No," Jenks said, wings a soft hum, then amended, "Well, just one where the elevator is. We've got a half-mile hike."
I nodded, feeling the strain of matching Ivy's vampire-quick pace. Nick gave up and began to jog, which made Ivy smirk. We looked out of place among the white halls and taupe carpeting, all of us in black but Jax: Ivy and me in leather, Jenks in his silk body suit, and Nick in a faded T-shirt and dark jeans. God, couldn't the man have dressed up a little for the occasion?
The end of the hallway was almost unrecognizable until we were on it. "Dad?" Jax questioned, and I jerked to a halt when Jenks flew in front of us.
"Yeah," the pixy said as he flushed. "Give Jax and me a minute to get the doors open without triggering something. 'Kay?"
The two pixies darted around the corner, gone. Fidgeting, I adjusted my belt pack, feeling the tiny ampoules of potion through the fabric. What if I ran into Ceri looking like her? This was so illegal it wasn't funny. Illegal, but in no stretch of the imagination deadly.
The whisper of pixy wings gave me bare warning as Jenks flew back around the corner. "We're good to go. Ivy, can you get the elevator doors open?"
Nick pushed forward around me. It's always the token dumb human who gets it first in the movies. I followed to find the hall dead-ended with the familiar silver doors of an elevator. Nick was trying to wedge the dead doors apart. Muttering "damn testosterone," Ivy strode forward, and with their joint efforts, the doors slid open to show an empty shaft. Jax hovered by my ear as we all looked up, and then down.
"Down, right?" I asked, thinking that if we had had more than a day to plan this, we could have swiped an entry card or something. No one said anything, but Jenks dropped into the darkness. Nick, too, swung into the shaft, easily grabbing the service ladder. I looked up, wondering how often they used this thing. "Down," I whispered, wishing it had been up. That half-mile hike had probably put us across the road and under Trent's business complex. I hoped.
Ivy was next, trying to stick closer to Nick now that we were actually behind the walls. The metal was cold in my hands, and it felt too small as I descended.
Jenks's pixy wings clattered as he landed on my shoulder. "Hold up," he said, and I hooked an arm in the ladder and glanced down. "Nick is trying to get the door open by himself."
"Get the hell out of the way!" filtered up as Ivy pushed past him on the ladder, despite the cast. Smirking, I was slowly descending a few more rungs when a soft artificial light blossomed in the shaft. I reached for the edge and found Ivy. She extended an arm to help me in, but I still almost fell into the carpeted hallway.
Catching myself, I looked back into the elevator shaft. "Never thought I'd ever do that," I muttered, then frowned when Nick left a smeared glove print where he'd pushed the silver doors closed. Idiot.
Jax was busy with the hall camera, and if I hadn't known we were several stories underground, I'd swear we were in an upper interior hallway with the usual flat beige-and-white carpet, wooden doors, and frosted windows that looked into the offices, all of it combining to give the illusion of an upstairs office.
Jenks hovered to inspect the clean door while Ivy finished putting her tiny spray bottle of cleaner in her belt pack. "We need to move in stages," the pixy said. "The cameras down here won't stay tripped unless you're right there babysitting them, so we're going to leapfrog it. Jax will hold one camera as I scout to the next, and so on. There will be some time where you'll show, but it can't be helped. Shouldn't be too many people watching. It's between shifts."
"Got it," I said around a long exhale, then eyed the nearby camera. The only evidence of Jax was a silver dusting slipping from it, almost unseen in the bright light. I had a fleeting thought that I hoped I could trust Jax; then I berated myself.
"Give me a sec," Jenks said. "Jax will tell you when I've got the next camera."
I didn't even have time to nod before Jenks took off, skimming just below the ceiling and around the corner. Almost immediately I heard a faint, almost ultrasonic wing scrape, and I winced when Jax shouted for us to move.
"Let's go," Ivy said, breaking into a jog. Nick was quick to join me, and we loped down the empty corridors, the pixies trading off their positions as each one found the next camera.
I was starting to think that we just might be lost down here and that the pixies were leading us in circles when Jenks doubled back. A spike of fear dropped through me at the glitter of orange dust. "Back!" he said, waving his arms. "Someone's coming!"
Nick turned to run, but it was too far away to hope to get around the last corner. I grabbed his arm to keep him from moving as Ivy kicked the handle of the nearest office door. It popped open, and I shoved him in. Ivy was close behind, and I crouched, holding the door shut with an ear pressed to the crack.
"Stay put," I heard Jenks whisper, knowing he was talking to Jax, who couldn't possibly hear him. "Just stay put, son."
The scent of vampire twined around me like a vine, and I stiffened. I glanced up to see Ivy standing right over me, tense and listening to the approaching steps. It sounded like two people, and I hoped the frame wasn't visibly damaged. Feeling my attention on her, Ivy looked down and smiled, sharp pointy canines catching the light. Just when I forget what she is.
The voices of the two people chatting grew stronger. "It's two lab guys," Jenks said. "You want their cards? They might help in getting out."
I had an image of two geeky guys tied up and shoved into a closet, scared and noisy. "No," I said, standing up and backing away from the door. "Not worth the risk."
His wings clattered in indignation. "It's not a risk."
Ivy had her ear to the door, her cast held tight to her middle. "Shut up. Both of you."
Brow furrowed, I held my breath as they passed. Ivy slowly stood. Her hand went to the door; then she froze at a sudden shout.
"Shit," I whispered, adrenaline spiking at the sudden thumping of running feet. We'd been spotted.
Ivy tensed, suddenly four feet deeper into the room and ready to hit whatever came through the door, but the feet continued on without a pause. Relief slumped my shoulders when someone shouted they'd hold the elevator.
Coming forward, Ivy cracked the door, and Jenks slipped out. She counted to ten and then pushed the door entirely open. "Let's go," she said, face grim. "We just spent all our luck."
My knees were shaking at the near miss. They still didn't know we were here. I hoped.
Nick was sober as he came into the brighter light, and after a quick look behind us, we continued forward. We found Jenks hovering at a juncture, and my heart sank. We were lost.
"That way," Ivy said, pointing to the right, but Nick shook his head and pointed left.
"No," he said, looking determined. "You're right that magnetic resonances are capable of hiding the opening to the vault, but the vault isn't where the resonances are being generated. The vault is where the line is being pulled out of its channel."
Nick pointed the other way, and I sighed. God, not again. We'd already decided this.
A dangerous glint came into her already black eyes, Ivy said, "Fine, you go that way, I'm going the other. To the vault."
"We are not separating," I said, thinking Nick would rat us out.
"Trent won't put his vault next to a magnetic resonator where people work every day," Nick said irately. "The resonator is warping the nearby ley line, and where the line dips, that's where the vault will be, not the resonator itself. Watch, I'll prove it."
He turned to me, surprising me when he said, "Rachel? We're too deep for a line, right?" I nodded, and he added, "Reach for one." My eyebrows went up, and he said, "Just do it!"
"All right, all right," I muttered, relaxing just enough to do it. We were too deep for me to reach a ley line. Three stories at least. But my breath caught when I felt the faintest glimmer of strength not that far ahead and to the left. "I don't get it!" I whispered, telling Jenks with my head toss to get the camera's looping on the left corridor, and he buzzed off. "We're too deep."
"You've got to be kidding me," Ivy grumped, but when Jenks's ultrasonic wing scrape made my eyeballs hurt, I started forward.
"It's just devious enough to be true," I said dryly. They couldn't hear the pixy signals. Lucky them.
Nick all but sauntered beside me, and Jax joined us after we turned the corner. "It's Trent's magnetic-imaging system," Nick said. "Trent is going to use magic as well as technology to keep his vault closed. And for that, he'll need the ley line, unexpectedly pulled downward by a very powerful magnet, something no one would think twice about in a facility such as this."
He was right, but how had he known such a thing was possible?
"I'm telling you Trent won't use magic to close his vault," Ivy grumped. "He doesn't like magic."
But his security expert loved magic. And his dad had, too.
The hallway dead-ended at an encouragingly formidable set of double doors. The line had to be behind them, though; they were the only doors in the entire hall. The carpet was pristine, no coffee stains or scrapes. The air, too, felt stale. Jenks was at the camera in the corner, and when Jax took his place, the more experienced pixy dropped down to hover with us as we faced the oak doors. Reaching past Nick, I tapped it with a knuckle. Thick.
"Well, wonder boy," Ivy said sourly, "let's see what's behind door number three."
"It'll be there," Nick said indignantly as he slid a wired card into the card reader and proceeded to play Mr. Accountant on the attached device.
I shook my head, brow furrowed. Dropping back to where Jenks hovered, I fidgeted. Beyond the door were untold riches - my ticket to getting Trent, the coven, and Al off my case. Was I a thief if I was going to give it back? Did I care?
"Are you sure those cameras aren't recording?" I asked. Down at the end of the hallway, Jax huffed, and I tossed a strand of hair out of my eyes. "I feel like I'm being watched."
"This would be easier if it was quiet," Nick said, and Ivy frowned. Nick took his fingers from the keypad and cracked his knuckles. A slip of pixy dust dropped down to lubricate the electrons as much as for luck, and Nick hit the big green button.
The red light on the pad went out, and the green one lit. There was a faint buzzing, and Nick grabbed the card out of the reader with jaunty swiftness and turned the handle. My gut clenched, but the twin doors opened silently. "QED," he said, gesturing for me to go first.
Ivy caught my shoulder. "In my family, that means quite easily dead. I'll go first." Giving Nick a mistrusting once-over, she went into the dark room. Fluorescent lights flicked on at her presence. It worried me, but it was unlikely they'd monitor the lights when there were other ways to detect people.
"It can't be this easy," I said as I followed her with Nick tight on my heels. Jax was with him, and Jenks slipped in an instant before the doors shut.
"Maybe because it isn't," Ivy said, and I stared at the blank walls of the large room.
"Where's the vault?" I asked, then turned to Nick. "Where's the freaking vault!"
"Right in front of you," he said, and I spun, in a really bad mood. "Rachel, where's the ley line?" he added, and frustrated, I hesitated.
"Uh, right here," I said, eyes going wide. "You don't think the way into the vault is... through the ever-after?" I asked, and Nick smiled deviously. "But you can't do that!"
It was a beautiful thought if it could be done, though. The perfect door. If the magnets were unpowered, the line wouldn't even come close and the door wouldn't even exist. Closing my eyes, I reached for the ley line, shocked when I found it, bent and running through the wall just as he'd said it might. A quiver went through me. Trent's dad had gone into the ever-after with my dad and come out, not bought a trip from someone. He could shift from reality to the ever-after and back using a ley line. And so could Trent, apparently. He must really not want me to know he could if he had risked everything last summer buying our way in and out of the ever-after.
Nick's smile was wide when I opened my eyes, and he pushed himself from the wall. "So where's the door?"
Heart pounding, I scanned the empty room. "Right in front of us. Let me pull up my second sight and see what's going on." Damn it, Nick knew witches couldn't do this. But he thought I could?
It was weird, how the magnets had pulled the line deep into the earth. Weird, and really clever. But even that thought vanished when I brought my second sight up to find that instead of the expected rock and rubble of being underground, we were in an open space, with tall ceilings and flat floors, colorful banners, and the phantom sound of eighties music done instrumentally.
"Holy. Crap," I gasped, shocked when I recognized it. It was the demons' mall. Al had taken me here once when he was out of powered rock from Pompeii. My hand went to my throat as I saw the demons and familiars going about their business. I'd be unseen unless they used their own second sight. I was like a ghost, not really in the ever-after but just looking at it. I turned to the wall, blinking. It was gone, a coffeehouse catering to demons and familiars alike in its place.
"Whoa. Dudes," I said. "Ivy, you're not going to believe this. It's a mall." It was times like this that made me glad demons couldn't pop over to reality whenever they felt like it but had to be summoned. Nothing could stop them from looking, though.
Nick grunted, and I turned from the juxtaposed views of the wall and coffeehouse to see him, seemingly standing in the mall, oblivious to demons going past. Nick's aura was a lot darker than the last time I'd seen him. Jax, on his shoulder, was a spot of rainbows. "Can you get in?" Nick asked.
Feeling ill and disoriented from holding two visions of reality, I blinked, deciding that his black smut was a lot thicker. The mark that Al had given him was like a black hole, sucking in all the light around it, twin to the new one on his shoulder. Seeing him waiting for an answer, I nodded. "Probably." Witches couldn't shift realities by standing in a ley line, but I wasn't a witch. Shit.
Nick bobbed his head. "There should be a panel on the other side. Just hit open. You've probably got thirty seconds to get me in so I can enter the code to disable the alarm."
"Alarm?" Ivy said, probably thinking that's why I looked sick. "You didn't say anything about that before."
He turned to her. "And you thought the vault was being hidden in a magnetic resonator. Roll with it, vamp. Or can't you function without a plan to blow your nose?"
"Uh, Rache?" Jenks interrupted, looking worried. Rainbows spilled from him, his aura falling like pixy dust. He knew what it might mean if I could do this, and I hoped he'd keep quiet about it.
"Just... let me see," I said, then faced the blank wall, shaking out my hands and trying to find a sense of calm. This wasn't like trying to jump from one line to another. I simply wanted to slip into the ever-after through a ley line. Just go into the ever-after, walk three paces, then get out of the line. Right into a demon coffeehouse. Great. And hope that when I reappear in reality, I'm in an open room and not buried in dirt. If Trent could do it, maybe I could. I'd never be trapped in the ever-after again, either, provided I could find a ley line.
"Rachel," Nick said, bending close. "There is a room behind the wall. Why have a lock on an empty room? I trust you. You can do this."
I eyed him and his smutty aura, and he took his hand off me. How come he knew I was different? This didn't smell good at all.
But closing my eyes, I strengthened my second sight. Once more, the red-tinted burnt amber smell enfolded me. The ley line ran right through the wall. Best to take two steps maybe.
"Rachel?"
"I'm fine, Ivy," I said, my voice harsher than I had intended. "Jenks, don't even think about it." Just do it, I thought, and then I stepped into the line and let it take me.
The smell hit me, jerking my eyes open. Noise jangled, a hundred conversations, arguments, loud gossip. Shit, I'd done it. I didn't know if I should be happy or depressed. It sounded like Takata being piped in. It was hot, and sweat threatened to break out. Pushing my hair back, I took a shallow breath. I was what I was. The door to the coffeehouse was ahead of me, THE COFFEE VAULT painted on it in big silver letters. You ve got to be kidding. It was too obvious to ignore. Grasping the handle, I pushed open the door and went in.
Two demons looked up, the laughter of their joke still showing on their faces. Dressed in leisure suits I wouldn't be caught dead in, they looked me up and down, assessing how high I was in the familiar hierarchy. I felt naked without Al, and I gave them a bunny-eared kiss-kiss. "Hey, hi," I said, feeling stupid. "Just passing through." Damn it, I shouldn't be able to do this.
The better dressed of the two eyed me. "Who the hell do you belong
to?"
Ambivalent, I let the door shut behind me. There was a room mirroring this one in reality. I could sense it, like an unheard echo. "I'm Al's student. Nice to meetcha."
The second demon smacked the first on the shoulder. "See, I told you she was alive."
Alive? I thought, wondering what the gossip had been. "Toodles," I said, blowing him a sarcastic kiss and stepping from the line and back into reality.
The noise cut off with a suddenness that almost hurt. The air was cooler. Dark. Black. In the corner, a shadow moved. Shit, something was in here! Not a demon, I told myself, panicking. They couldn't just slip into reality like that. Not like I could. This is good, right?
Heart pounding, I backed up into the wall I'd just walked through. Not taking my eyes off the moving shadow, I fumbled, finding the light switch. Light flickered into existence, and I sighed. It had been me. The movement had only been me, my shadow reflecting off the ornate mirror propped against the wall.
Slowly my pulse eased. Before me, large racks held old clocks, locked metal boxes with faded index cards, and slatted crates. One side of the room held a huge chest freezer. Actually the entire room looked a lot like Nick's basement in a much higher tax bracket. If I was lucky, there wasn't a camera. I thought of the demons at their table, able to see me with their own second sight but unable to cross over, and I shivered. The Coffee Vault, indeed. At least I'd never be trapped in the ever-after again.
Spinning to the wall behind me, I found the thin lines of a door and the expected keypad. "Come on in, guys," I whispered, and hit the green button.
There was the hum of machinery, and I backed up. The two panels slid apart like the doors in a science-fiction movie to show Ivy, Nick, and Jenks, hovering with brow furrowed. "Rache?" Jenks questioned.
"We'll talk about it later," I said, and Ivy bumped Nick when he bent to pick up his stuff. Scowling, he caught himself and followed her in, immediately plugging his card into the panel.
"Cameras?" Ivy asked, scanning the room, and when negative wing chirps came from both Jenks and Jax, she went to the canvas display. "So this is Trent's basement," Ivy said as she started leafing through the hanging canvases, arranged like posters in a pagelike display. Nick made a satisfied grunt and pulled the card from the reader.
"We're good," he said, his gaze fixing on the picture Ivy had turned to. "That's it," he said, eyes eager as Ivy paused at a really small painting. It was hardly a foot by a foot, showing a dark background of snowy mountains and a castle, the foreground taken up by a satisfied-looking young man in a red robe and funny hat, fur around his collar and three downy feathers in his lapel. That the man looked like Trent was almost anticli-mactic.
"That's it?" Jenks said, landing on my shoulder as we eyed it. "It's not very big."
"Kinda ugly, too," I said, getting a funny feeling about this. I didn't want to say this was too easy, seeing as I'd used a door neither a witch nor a demon could open, but everything was going too well.
Nick was spreading a black silk cloth on the coffin-size freezer. "It's not the size, Jenks, it's how you use it," he said, smirking. "It doesn't need to be big if it looks like Trent."
Well, it did look like Trent. Jenks wasn't laughing, his hands on his hips as he moved out of the way while Ivy took the picture to Nick. "It stinks. Almost as bad as you, Rache," he accused.
"I smell?" I said, flushing.
Holding the canvas at the unpainted corners, Ivy frowned at him. "You were in the ever-after," she said, one shoulder lifting in a shrug, and I took a step back from them, feeling unclean. Great, I hadn't even noticed.
Oblivious, Nick carefully took the picture from Ivy, making a production out of rolling it up in the black cloth to put into the mailing tube he'd been carrying across his back like a sword. I couldn't help but sourly wonder if it was stamped and addressed to his latest girlfriend.
While the two of them discussed who was going to carry it, I unzipped my belt pack and brought out the hoof pick. I'd leave it here where Trent would be sure to find it. If he didn't make the connection that he was going to get the painting back, I might be in trouble.
Jenks joined me, and together we looked at the beautiful inlaid wood one last time before I set it on an open display case, bright with mirrors and lights. "I should have done this a long time ago," I said softly, wondering if I'd ever get my entire memory back. But who really remembered anything about being twelve?
"Oh my God," Jenks said, eying the statue next to it. It wasn't any bigger than he was, but I felt myself warm as I looked more closely. It was two men and a woman, buck naked, doing the nasty. At the same time. One in front, one in back. She looked like she was enjoying herself, though, ample breasts heaving and back arched, which kind of made it hard for the guy in back, but by his expression, he didn't care. They had pointy ears, the woman sporting a cute pageboy haircut and the men having hair past their shoulders, wild and feral.
"What is it?" I said, wanting to pick it up but feeling it might leave me sullied.
"Tink's dildo, you're asking me?" he said with a snort, but he didn't elaborate. Not even one rude gesture or comment. The unusual restraint was clear evidence of his depressed state.
"Ivy?" I called. This was too good not to share, timetable or not. "You gotta see this."
She came closer, Nick trailing behind as he capped the top of the tube the picture was now stashed in. "Whoa," she said, nose wrinkling. "Elf porn?"
"It's my ticket out of this life," Nick said, and Ivy grabbed his wrist when he reached for it.
"Hey!" I said as he twisted out of her grip, frowning at her. "We're not here to steal a statue. Didn't you learn anything from last time, Nick?"
Expression angry, he picked it up, the small statue fitting neatly in his palm. "I'm not walking out of here without something to show for it. And don't tell me you didn't expect me to help myself. That's the only reason I agreed to this, and you know it." His blue eyes were mocking, daring me to say anything. Just once, I wished I could be wrong.
Pissed, I barked, "Put it back!"
Jenks rose from the shelf, and Jax chimed out, "Uh, Nick? An alarm just went off."
