Page 131 of Demon's Bluff
“You want me to…” Elyse’s words tapered off and I followed her gaze to the open door.
“Yeah. Wheel him in.” I dug into my pocket and handed her the oversize key. “This opens the furnace itself. If you take care of him, I’ll get Kisten in a chair.”
“You got it.”
I pushed the empty morgue drawer shut, leaving it unlocked and stuffing the drawer tag with Kisten’s name into my pocket to help confuse anyone who might come looking for Kisten’s ashes.
“Hey, Rachel!” Elyse’s voice was faint. “How do you move them from the gurney and onto the rack? You just roll him over onto it? They don’t process them face down, do they?”
“Be there in a sec.” Her nonchalance was not inspiring, and I went to the drawer I’d left Kisten in, unlocking it and pulling it open with a soft rattle.
“Hi,” I whispered as I saw Kisten’s placid expression. His face was white, but you could tell he was still there, peaceful under his modesty sheet. My gut clenched. He wouldn’t make it home, but his body would, and with that demon ley line stasis charm, he would look just this beautiful. No one would care if a John Doe Vamp vanished, and I took the drawer tag and stuffed it into my pocket along with Kisten’s.
And then my head snapped up, every thought vanishing when the double doors pushed open with a little squeak and Scott stepped in, the light shining on his bald head and a purple haze of power filling his hands.
“Drop the line and step away from the corpse,” he intoned. “I won’t ask twice.”
“God bless it,” Elyse swore as she appeared at the door to the furnace. “How many times do I have to flush this turd?”
My eyes never left Scott as I reached for Kisten, skin prickling when Elyse yanked on the line through her familiar.
“You are both being detained for questioning by the coven of moral—”
“Teneo!”Elyse shouted, and I yanked Kisten from the drawer, slipping as his heavy weight pulled free. We hit the floor, most of him atop me.
Scott ducked, a short-lived protection circle snapping into place around him. It absorbed Elyse’s spell, and then it was gone. Brow furrowed, the man pulled himself to his full height, Latin spilling from him to make the very air shimmer.
This was so not good for the sleeping undead, and I tugged Kisten’s legs free from the drawer, almost losing it when he took a breath.
“Go!” Elyse stood, a weird mix of deadly skill and slovenly dress in her institutional sweats and demon slippers as she shot tiny little balls of pure energy at Scott. “Get him in the back! We have what we need. We do the spell here. Don’t you dare leave without me.”
Scott shifted from one side of the room to the other, avoiding the fiery balls from hell until one tagged his shoulder and he realized they held no magic and weren’t a real threat. “Who are you?” he shouted as he began to gather her energy like thrown apples to use for himself.
“Teneo!”she shouted gleefully, and Scott yelped, his reach for her nextenergy nugget faltering as he dove out of the way. The coven’s go-to hold spell hit the drawers and sputtered, working its way inside to invoke on whoever was in there.
She was doing my job again. Teeth clenched, I dragged Kisten to the furnace room, his toe tag making a ridiculous hiss as it scraped along. My skin tingled from the spent energy filling the room, the little rills of power racing from my fingertips to my chi demanding I do something or simply explode from it.
Johnny’s gurney was taking up most of the room, and I propped Kisten up in a corner and tugged his sheet to cover him. “Stay here,” I whispered, jumping when a thunderous boom shook the dust from the ceiling.So much for harassment charms and passive deterrents…She was going to wake someone up if she didn’t cut that shit out.
“Sorry, Johnny.” Gut clenched, I rolled the long-dead body from the gurney to the rack. The door to the furnace was heavy as I pushed it shut, but I hesitated at the last moment, taking a hair from him so he could be identified later before I locked it and pocketed the key. I had to thank his family. Tell them Johnny helped save another. It might help when his body went missing.
Out in the main room, Elyse shouted a curse…and Scott gagged, an ugly, dry-heaves cough sounding as he struggled to breathe.
“Don’t kill him, Elyse,” I whispered, and then the reek of decay washed over me, pungent and thick. My eyes teared, and I held a hand to my face, trying not to pull in the stench.Sweet ever-loving pixy piss…
“One-spell wonder, huh?” Elyse shouted as Scott gagged. “Choke on it, old man!”
I could hardly see as I pushed the buttons and got the furnace going. The burners came on with a soul-shaking thump, and I turned, shoving the gurney out into the room to make space. “Let’s go!” I fumbled in my pocket for my chalk and drew a huge circle, taking up almost the entirety of the floor space—big enough for three.
“Almost home, Kisten,” I whispered as I made sure he was safely in it. Al would frown at me, Jenks would laugh his ass off. Ivy would…
Elyse’s shriek of pain cut through my thoughts like a cold slap.
I looked up, chalk in hand. “Elyse…”
“Who the hell are you!” Scott shouted at her, and I lurched to the door.
Anger flared. Scott had her down, his hand fisted about her shirt under her chin. “Get off her,” I threatened, and he almost laughed, judging me weaker.