Page 125 of Demon's Bluff
Elyse wove through the potholes, her sluggish motions holding a hintof wariness as she wheeled the truck around and parked facing the boat. Eyes on the rearview mirror, she cut the engine.
“I could sleep for two days straight,” she said as she undid her belt…and then sat there.
I studied her, reading her fatigue, her relief that after cremating Johnny, we’d be on our way home. “Ah, hey. I’m sorry I said you lacked finesse. I’m sure you have what you need to rekindle a ley line charm.”
Her attention flicked to me. “Apology accepted,” she said, and then her gaze went to the tarp-wrapped body. “Still want to do this?”
I stifled a little huff. “It’s a little late to be worried about the laws we’re breaking.”
Elyse smirked, but her attention was on the mirror again. “Please. That’s not what concerns me.”
“Well, it worries me.” Uncomfortable, I gathered our trash and stuffed it into a bag. Yes, I had repleted his aura from a faceless donor who liked cats, and if Dr. Ophees used the curse I’d given her enough, he wouldn’t starve from aura depletion, but he was still going to die twice somewhere along the way home. If not for the ley line stasis charm I’d rekindled, I’d arrive with a badly decomposed body with which to raise his ghost.Is this worth it, Rachel?
Suddenly concerned, I squinted at Elyse. “You’re not going to forget your promise to show me the curse to raise Kisten’s ghost, are you?”
Gaze on the road behind us, she shook her head. “It’s yours. I can’t believe you really want to use it, though. I mean, Ivy is your friend. She’s remade her life and you are going to make her deal with this again? Every night? She can’t be his scion and Nina’s both. Who is going to feed him? You?”
“No,” I said quickly. “He’d be a ghost. He won’t need anything.” At least I didn’t think he would.
Elyse’s gaze flicked from the rearview mirror to me. “You’d have to stir the spell every night. It’s a lot of effort for a questionable result. Who are you really doing this for? Kisten? He’s fine with being twice dead if it means you and Ivy are okay.”
Maybe, but I wasn’tfinewith it. Kisten had just begun to find himself,and Piscary had killed him to solidify his grip on the city. “I’m doing this for Cincinnati,” I said, well aware that I might be dumping Ivy back in the morass of heartache we’d worked ourselves out of once. “If you get sacked and I have to go into hiding, Kisten can keep Constance in line and the DC vampires out. I vowed to keep Constance safe. This would do it. Ghost or no.” I sighed. “Kisten was very popular, and he was Piscary’s chosen scion before he died.”
Elyse’s brow furrowed. “I told you,” she muttered, “I’m not pursuing that anymore.”
A bitter scoff escaped me. “And I told you that one voice out of six will not keep my ass out of Alcatraz. Without that mirror, I go into hiding come June.”
I reached to open the door, hesitating when Elyse didn’t move. She was still staring out the rear window via the mirror. “What is it?” I said, turning to look as well.
“Nothing.” She opened her door and got out.
That’s what she said, but I wasn’t sure I trusted it. “Then why are you so edgy?”
Elyse slammed the door shut. “I’ve got a dead vampire disguised as Piscary’s scion in my back seat, that’s why.” Her brow furrowed as she scanned the open scrub. “Maybe I just miss Slick.”
That I understood, and I got out of the truck. I might not have a familiar, but I had a veritable village of people who made up for it—and I couldn’t wait to see them again: to listen to Jenks bitch about something or other, see Ivy’s eye roll at my lack of planning, sense Al’s increasingly thinly veiled pride, feel Trent’s arms about me.
I glanced at the ring he’d given me, the little ruby glittering dully. My hand fisted. Leaving the trash in the truck, I opened the rear door, grabbed Johnny’s shoulders, and pulled.
“Elyse?” I called, and she came back from her study of the road we’d come in on, slipping between Johnny’s feet and grabbing his knees. “Got him?” I asked, and she nodded, pushing me into a shuffling, awkward motion.
My sight alternated between the boat, Johnny, and my feet, and I frowned when I realized I was walking on my own prints. “We’re making a lot of in and out traffic,” I said, arms aching.
Elyse huffed, her face red with strain in the morning light. “I have a cleansing spell.”
Of course you do,I thought sourly as we reached the dock and I hiked Johnny’s weight into a more secure hold. Such a spell would make it tons easier to work around the law. “You ready? I’ve got a big step here.”
She nodded and I made a lurching stride that was more faith than anything else. My foot landed on the oiled teak, and I exhaled as the boat lightly shifted, waves lapping. I inched down along the seat, unable to step down into the cockpit until Elyse took the long step over the water and onto the boat as well.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” she exclaimed, and suddenly I was floundering, having taken all of Johnny’s weight.
The heavy man slipped from me, and both of us swore as the corpse hit the floor of the cockpit. Embarrassed, I jumped into the recessed seating area and bent almost double to scoop my arms under Johnny’s shoulders.
That’s when the black ball of magic hissed over my head, little trills of energy prickling through my aura as it hit the water and bubbled into an ugly froth.
“Down!” I lurched to grab Elyse as she half slid into the lowered cockpit with me. We were under attack by someone who fought not dirty but smart. A pro. Whoever it was had waited until we were over the water. I couldn’t tap a line. Elyse might, through Slick, but I only had what was in my chi. Maybe one good pop.
“You see anyone?” I questioned as we peeked over the seating to scan the low scrub and tall weeds.