Page 86 of Demon's Bluff
She tossed her damp hair from her eyes. “That only leaves the problem of getting a stasis curse that lasts longer than three days, because there is no way I want to show up at Eden Park with a two-year-old corpse.”
I had to work hard to stifle my urge to walk out. I mean, she was right, but she didn’t have to be so callous about it. The man was lying right there.
I must have looked kind of pissed, because she was staring at me. “What?” she finally asked, then her expression shifted. “You said you could get one. You can’t, can you. You’re going to leave me here?”
“I know where one is. I’m not leaving you here,” I said sourly. Though it would make my life easier in the short run. “We simply have to go get it.”
Unsure, Elyse ran her fork over the paper plate to get the last of the cheesecake. “I thought it was in the demon collective. You can’t just say the words and poof?”
I shook my head, trying to decide how much I wanted to say. “It’s not demon. It’s an elven ley line charm stored in a circle of metal. Pre-coven, older than even the collective. Probably medicinal, so I’m guessing it holds minimal smut.” I took a slow breath, reluctant to admit this next part. “It’s been used, but it still has its invocation pin and I can probably rekindle it.” Even if the charmwaselven, it would dovetail with my demon spell to get home. The two schools of demon and elf magic were practically interchangeable—not that either would admit it.
“It’s used?” she predictably blurted. “You can’t rekindle ley line charms. Once they’re done, they’re done!” And then Elyse sort of froze. “Youcan rekindle ley line charms? Is that a demon thing?”
Wincing, I traced my nail over the etched pentagram. “Yes, and yes. It’s in Trent’s rare-item vault.” Two-years-ago Trent would be pissed if he caught me, ah, borrowing it. Getting it would be hard, and she was going to have to trust me. I was going to have to trust her.Oh, God, can I survive trusting her?I glanced at Kisten, wondering how he could have gotten it so wrong. I was sitting beside a coven member scrambling to survive, not direct the course of events. “I’ve been helping Trent catalog his artifacts and I remember seeing it there. Our best chance to break into the vault is when he’s getting married tonight. The wedding is after sunset so the undead can attend. We have loads of time to prep.”
But in all honesty, I’d spent the last two years prepping to break into his house. I knew all his passcodes, his SOPs, everything.
“You want to steal it? Merlin’s mangos. He’s an elf!” Elyse exclaimed. “You don’t steal from elves! And sure as hell not one of their ancient artifacts.”
I stifled a shudder at the memory of dogs baying for my blood. Under my gaze, Kisten took a slow breath, then went still. “I intend to give it back, so technically I’m borrowing it.” But local-time Trent wouldn’t see it that way, and I totally understood her alarm. “He’ll never know it’s us,” I insisted.“You’re in coven camp and I’ll be arresting him at the time of the, ah, borrowing.”
Elyse’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “And you can reinvoke it?”
“I don’t see why not. It’s elven. They used to put people into long-term storage all the time.” I went to the table to sort through my bag. I was dead tired but not sure I would be able to sleep. I wasn’t really stealing anything so my ethical concerns all revolved around invading Trent’s space. I’d promised I wouldn’t do it again, but I actually hadn’t made that promise yet. Either way, he’d never know, seeing as he would be busy not getting married—and that he would never know seemed the most important consideration. “The hard part will be getting into his labs,” I added as I touched the glamour stone around my neck.
Her gaze fixed on the innocuous-seeming amulet. “Labs that don’t exist.” She hesitated. “He keeps his rare-item vault in one of his labs?”
“In a manner of speaking.”Robe, hat, sash, splat gun, forget charm, lethal-detection charm…“The vault is accessed through a ley line pulled into the earth with a magnetic resonator. It’s really a two-person job. You up for it?” I doubted she’d stay here with Kisten.
“He uses a ley line as a door? He’d have to go through the ever-after to use it.”
I nodded, satisfied she understood the danger when she stiffened, her expression shifting from gratitude that I wanted her there to suspicion that I’d use and lose her when things got tight. “Wouldn’t miss it,” she said flatly.
“Great.” I stood before her and continued to go through my bag, but all I really needed was a smile and my new glamour stone. I already knew all Trent’s SOPs and codes. “Once we get the magnetic resonator going, I could use someone to watch my back. I won’t have a clue what’s going on while I’m in the ever-after.”
“My God. You’re serious,” she said softly, and I glanced up from my bag.
“Two steps, and then I’m back in reality and in the vault.” I hesitated. “We good?”
“No, we are not good. But I can get myself out of anything you get meinto.” Again her gaze went to that stone. “We’re going to use that curse again?”
I shrugged. “I suggest we access the grounds around sunset. He should be gone by then.”
Because once I arrested Trent, Quen—his security advisor and best man—would be too preoccupied to do anything but delegate any action taken at the estate.
“Okay, I’m excited about this,” Elyse said sourly. “When do you want to get a body to put out on Kisten’s boat? Before or after?”
I looked at the racks of books as if I could see through them. She had agreed to help, but I didn’t know if I could really trust her. I knew she wouldn’t do anything to get me caught, but I had a hard time working with someone who might turn on me the moment they felt safe.
Still, I didn’t have much choice. I doubted she’d sit with Kisten while I found a body. “Later, but I wouldn’t mind seeing what’s available so when we’re ready, we can move fast.” I closed my bag and draped it over my shoulder, and Elyse chuckled as she cleaned the last off her fork.
“You don’t need to plan picking up a body. You go, find, and shove into a van.”
She was sounding like me, which meant I was sounding like Ivy.Good.I yanked my phone from the charger and pocketed it. “Yeah, but I’d feel better having culled one from the herd. I suggest we check the hospital morgue first. They’re not busy during the day, and I know how to access the undead area. If they don’t have what we need, we will hit the city morgue.”
Elyse stood, patting her pockets for her nonexistent phone or wallet. “And then?”
“Once we locate a body, we get him and Kisten in the same room, glamour the John Doe Vamp, and move Kisten’s doppelganger out to the boat to be found by the I.S.” I glanced at Kisten slumped in the cart. It was so undignified, but he wouldn’t care. “The I.S. will move John Doe Vamp to the morgue on Tuesday thinking it’s Kisten. We break in, pop the man into the crematorium before they do a positive ID. Ivy gets his ashes. We go home.”