Page 15 of Demon's Bluff
I nodded, wondering if he was saying I didn’t need Kisten, either. No, I didn’tneedhim, but I missed him. And if I could recover Kisten, even as a ghost, I wouldn’t need to be the subrosa. Kisten had the clout and charisma to run the city. He had when Piscary had been in prison, and he’d been alive then.
Besides, it wasn’t as if raising a ghost was unheard-of. I’d done it once myself when I’d been eighteen and tried to resurrect my dad for some desperately needed advice to my younger self. I’d gotten a witch named Pierce instead, and I’d stirred the spell so well that the ghost had been solid and substantial, alive, for all intents and purposes, until the sun came up. The coven’s spell couldn’t be that different, and if I could do it once, I could do it again. I would do it every night if needed. Kisten could serve as a figurehead better than Constance ever could. Because unlike Constance, Kisten had loved me, and he would never do anything to betray that.
“Rache, you got everything balanced,” Jenks said as he came to sit on my shoulder, distracting me from my thoughts. “You have the DC vampsby the short hairs. Constance is behaving herself—within the framework of acceptable master vampire activity. Ivy and Pike are doing the real work. David’s got the Weres. Zack and Trent have the elves. And witches…”
I shrugged, glad Jenks was with me. The witches were doing what they did best, sitting back and watching. I knew Elyse wasn’t happy about their entire population losing the ability to cross into the ever-after.Maybe that’s what she really wants to talk about,I mused as the elevator doors opened and I took a large step forward.
But I quickly scuffed to a halt when I saw Elyse standing before the reception desk waiting for me in a black suit, her hands clasped to make her appear far too young and cheerful to be in charge of an entire demographic of people. She was twenty at the most.
“Hi,” the woman said pleasantly, her straight, long black hair swinging as she came forward, hand extended as though we were thebestof friends. Eyebrows high, I met her grip, needing to shove the energy in my chi down so it wouldn’t spark to her. “Did you have a nice morning? Security called and told me you were on the way up.”
“That’s great,” I said, filing that little nugget away as I pulled from her. “I had a wonderful morning,” I added, sublimely confident she had nothing to do with Laker finding me. “I was able to spend some time with, uh, Trent’s kids.” I wasn’t sure how to define our relationship. They called me Aunt Rachel, but that was for convenience.
“That must have been pleasant.” Elyse gestured for us to go down the hall, and the woman behind the lobby desk returned to work. “I’m glad you were able to make it here with such short notice.”
“Like you had a choice?” Jenks muttered, unnoticed on my shoulder.
“We have a lot to unpack,” Elyse continued, her steps silent on the flat carpet as she led me past the closed office doors. “I think you’ll be pleased at what we have to offer you. We’ve set up in the library.”
Offer?“Ah, Elyse,” I began.
“Phew-wee!” Jenks said loudly. “Good thing you brought your good boots, Rache. The troll crap is gonna get thick!”
Elyse stopped short, her flash of ire quickly hidden. “Jenks,” she said,tone flat. “I’m sorry. I didn’t see you there. I assumed it was too cold for you to be out of the church.”
Jenks rose up, wings a shimmering blur. “Naw, I can ride in a purse okay,” he said, his hands at his waist in his best Peter Pan pose. “If you’re warm enough, I’m warm enough.”
“Mmmm.” Still not moving, Elyse stared at him. “Could I ask you to wait in the lobby?” She smiled without warmth. “Coven business.”
“No.” Jenks smiled back, his hand dropping to the hilt of his garden sword. “Where Rache goes, I go. Kind of like a curse or an STD.”
I sighed. Elyse was eyeing me as if I could tell him to stay—like he was a dog or a familiar. “Is it a problem if he joins us?” I asked, and Elyse’s smile faltered.
“Oh, for great green caterpillar turds,” Jenks complained as he bobbed up and down, dust a bright silver. “Rache, I’ll be in thelobby.”
“Great, Jenks. Thanks,” I said. “I’ll see you in thelobby.”
All of which meant he’d be watching me from a light fixture instead of my shoulder. On the plus side, I wouldn’t have to deal with his smart-ass remarks being whispered into my ear.
“Ah…” Elyse watched him fly back the way we had come, her furrowed brow saying she knew she’d made a mistake. If she had just let him join us, she’d know where he was. Now it was a crapshoot.
“Shall we?” I said brightly, but inside I was simply wanting to get this over with. I had until June to either get Brad uncursed or show her the spell, and changing a deal once struck was not only tacky but unprofessional. “I didn’t know the coven had a permanent office in Cincinnati.”
“It’s new.” Elyse gestured to a glass-walled meeting room at the end of the hall. “We recently signed a long-term lease, and we’re nearly moved in.”
“We? How many of you are staying?” Worry made a knot in my gut. “I thought the coven was based out of San Francisco.”
“It is.” Elyse seemed to have recovered most of her aplomb. “We maintain offices in many major cities in case of need. I doubt we will all be here by the end of the year, but chances are good one of us will stay.” Mood lightening, she gestured at the frosted-glass door. “Here we are.”
The glass-walled room was clearly a library, as books took up two walls and much of the third overlooking Cincy. Elyse opened the door, and the three young people and the one old guy waiting turned to us. They were standing between a circle of chairs and a low table holding an untouched tray of cheese and crackers. Napkins with the tower’s logo in gold foil were arranged neatly beside little black paper plates. Four glass quart containers of what was probably cider were nestled in ice nests. Business-casual attire aside, it was obvious they were all coven, and their expressions ranged from wary acceptance to mistrustful.
A crow perched on a bird stand at the floor-to-ceiling window between two bookracks, the animal chortling when we entered, wings lifting as if to take to the air. The plaque screwed to the stand said that his name was Slick and that he would bite if he felt like it. I caught Elyse shaking her head, and the bird settled down.Her familiar?I wondered. Better than the cat that I had assumed. Crows were wickedly smart, and the better you were at magic, the smarter your familiar had to be—hence the logic behind demons stealing people. Smart, clever people.
“Hello,” I said, managing to stop myself from making a stupid wave, but it was close.
No one said anything and Elyse pushed past me, all smiles. “Rachel, you didn’t get to meet the team last time,” she said, and my brow furrowed.Meet the team?Perhaps because they had just tried to curse an entire demographic from reality.
“I’m Scott,” the old guy said, smiling as he leaned over the cheese, hand extended. “I’m the supporting ley line practitioner.”