Page 89 of Demon's Bluff
Elyse groaned, eyes closing. “Please don’t do anything stupid.”
That was my line, but hope had slashed my heartache wide open. If Dr. Ophees had the charm, I could what? Save Kisten? I’d never be able to get him home undead even with the stasis curse. It would keep him from decomposing. That’s it. And even if I could, he’d be in a coma, reliant upon bottled auras for the rest of his comatose, undead existence. That’s not what he would want. The best I could do was keep him comfortable until he died, and as Dr. Ophees came scuffing out from the back room, I decided that sometimes that was enough of a win.
“I could get home faster if I walked,” Elyse muttered, beaming at the tall dark-haired woman tossing her blue gloves into the nearby trash can.
“Can I help you?” she asked, and I shifted to get her attention off Elyse. Dr. Ophees might have been going for professional in her dark slacks and pressed top, but a ratty cardigan and slippers ruined it. I couldn’t blame her. It was unlikely that anyone ever came down here unless they were picking up or dropping off. Even so, she looked eminently qualified with her glasses, trendy haircut, and perpetually annoyed expression.
“Ah, hi,” I said when Elyse cleared her throat. “I’m from the I.S., checking for unclaimed bodies to move to the city morgue.”
The tall woman’s lips twitched and she went to her desk, done with me. “I take my Does to the morgue myself. Though if you had been here onFriday, I might have made an exception.” She sat down and shook her mouse to wake her computer. “He should’ve gone there from the get-go, but rules are rules, and until their auras hit critical, they are mine. Good-bye.”
An unclaimed vampire at the city morgue, twice dead from a declining aura? He’d be there at least a month to give someone the chance to claim him. This was better than we could have hoped for, and I glanced at Elyse, thrilled until I remembered that whoever it was, he had been important to someone.
Elyse made a directive nod to the hallway, jaw clenching when I inched closer.
“Ah, when you say ‘critical.’ What is that?” I asked, worried about Kisten. “Thirty percent aura?”
Dr. Ophees furrowed her brow, suddenly wary. “Who did you say you were?” she asked, and Elyse’s grimace flicked to a smile when the doctor’s gaze landed on her.
I had a heartbeat of panic. “Stef Monty,” I said, borrowing the first name of my last roommate, and my dad’s first name for my last. “I think there’s been a mistake. I just made street runner, and hazing week sucks.” I came forward, hand extended. “It’s great to meet you. Mandy was nice enough to show me the way down here.”
“Oh. Well, sorry you made the trip for nothing.” Dr. Ophees stared at her screen, and I let my hand drop. “Have a nice day.”
Elyse cleared her throat. “I’ll walk you upstairs,” she offered as she came closer, and then in my ear. “You got what you came for, let’s go.”
True, but now I wanted something else, and I stepped to the open archway, both women stiffening when I glanced into the morgue. It was all drawers, at least ten rows, and they all were wired for audio and visual by the looks of it. “It’s only the undead down here?” I asked.
“Yes.” The chair creaked as Dr. Ophees leaned back in suspicion. “But only after they lose eighty percent of their aura. Theoretically they could recover, but by the time they reach me, they don’t have a chance.”
Eighty percent. Kisten was not that bad. Yet. “Well, there are ways around that.” I turned and leaned against the wall.
“All of them illegal,” Dr. Ophees said mildly. “Ms. Stef Monty from the I.S.”
“Not all of them.”
Elyse shifted nervously. “Ma’am, let me escort you up.” She gave Dr. Ophees a nervous grin. “Sorry to have bothered you, Doctor.”
My arms crossed over my middle, making me into an immovable lump. “Go ahead. I know the way back if you’re busy.”
Dr. Ophees met my eyes, clearly annoyed as I settled in. “You need to leave,” she said, voice hard. “I run a clean morgue. No illegal curses. They come in. I do what I can. They either wake up hungry or they don’t.”
I stifled a wince. She hadn’t come up with the spell yet.Crap on toast,I thought, recognizing her anger now as frustration.Well, maybe I was the one who taught it to her?
“It’s a spell, not a curse,” I said, and Elyse cleared her throat in warning. “Bastardized from illicit magic, but it pulls the aura from donated blood, not a living person, freely given. No harm, no foul. You can store them on a shelf, administer them like a blanket to give the undead’s body time to repair itself before a lack of aura kills them twice.”
“There is no such thing,” Dr. Ophees said with a bitter confidence. “I’d know about it.”
I shrugged. “Now you do.”
Elyse cleared her throat. “Stef, I really think we should leave.”
Brow furrowed, Dr. Ophees stared at me. “So tell me.”
Yes!I thought in triumph as Elyse stifled a groan. “You want me to simply give it to you?” I said. “For nothing? A charm that could make your entire career? I want something in return.”
The woman shook her head and glanced at her phone. “I’m not giving you a body.”
“Nope,” I agreed. “You’re going to save one.”