Ivy's eyes went a deeper black. "You son of a bitch."
"Put it back!" I shouted. "Put it back now!" Nick shoved it into a jeans pocket, where it made a small bulge. "Doesn't make a difference. Let's go."
"You idiot!" I exclaimed. "It does make a difference. I'm not here to take anything I can't return!"
He smiled from the keypad, using only half his face. "You won't get caught. Promise."
Promise? What in hell is that supposed to mean? With a satisfied smirk, he dropped his card into the reader, hit two buttons, and the doors slid open to show the first empty room.
Ivy was a blur of motion, picking him up and throwing him to slam against the closed twin wooden doors to the hall. The gadget swung from the reader, and I lunged for it before the wires snapped. Almost crosseyed, Nick gasped for air as Ivy pinned him, her cast under his chin. The hidden door started to close, and after yanking the card free, I slipped through. I had time for one glance at the hoof pick, and then the door shut. Jenks was a blur beside me, and Jax was already with Nick, screaming at Ivy to let him go.
"Ivy, we might need him to get out!" I exclaimed, dropping his equipment by the closed hall door. "I've got a spell to make him look like Trent. Don t give him a bruise you can see!"
Scowling, she thought for three seconds, an eternity for her. "We're not using those."
I touched my belt pack, my heart pounding. "Yes, we are."
Shoving him into the doors, she dropped him. "You know I don't like your magic."
The faint honking of a claxon was obvious, and my pulse was fast. It felt good, and I rocked to the toes of my feet as Nick rubbed his neck, his cocky mood now sullen as he gathered his equipment. God, I was not going to get excited about this. But it had been ages since I'd done anything even remotely resembling a run, and I was riding the high already.
"I'm carrying the picture," I said, snatching it from Nick and draping the tube over my back. "Everyone, take what I give you and swallow it. Ivy, I mean it. Don't give me any crap."
The room went silent but for pixy wings as I pulled out a vial, gave a sniff, and imagining the faint scent of tea mixing with the reek of burnt amber, I downed it. All eyes watched me as I made a face. "Tastes like lemon pop," I lied, shoving the vial away and bringing the next out.
"I'm not drinking that," Ivy predictably said, but this one smelled like horse under the burnt amber stench, and I handed it to Nick.
"Nothing happened," he said, and I made a face at him like he was being stupid.
"I've not invoked it yet." Dummy.
"Who takes the smut?" he asked as his fingers encircled the tiny vial, and Jenks bristled.
"I do, now drink it!" I said, handing Ivy the last one. "I'll invoke them together. You uninvoke it by saying the invocation word again, so don't say it until you mean it. Got it?"
Ivy hesitated, and Jenks got in her face. "Do it, you chicken-shit vamp!" he yelled, and she did.
My breath exploded out of me, and I touched the line, strengthening my grip on it. The thing was right next to me, and the hair on my arms was standing on end. Maybe the demons were watching, getting a good laugh.
I put my hands on Ivy's and Nicks shoulders, and said, "Quid me fiet!" What am I becoming? Yeah. It fit. It was a freaking demon curse. I'd made it, and I was using it.
Ivy jerked, and I held on to her, not letting her break my gaze as the magic cascaded over us together. Her eyes widened as she felt herself change, her own face going longer and thin, aging a decade or two, and her hair silvering. Her clothes, too, changed, becoming what I remembered from the last time I'd seen Dr. Anders. Dark slacks, white shirt, and a lab coat - no hint of a cast. Demon magic. You've got to love it. It was only a glamour, though, not her real body. Under my fingers, I could feel the hardened plaster.
"You're Ceri!" she said, and feeling the magic soak in, I let go of her and dropped back.
"I take it," I whispered, accepting the smut for all of them, and I stifled a shudder as I felt it lap over me, settling in like a blanket, smothering. I'd never be free of it.
Ivy turned to Nick. "You look like Trent," she said. "My God, Rachel. How long have you been able to do this?"
I followed her gaze to where Jax was flitting like mad over Nick, who indeed looked like Trent, dressed in his usual suit and tie. It was demon magic at its best, but it was only an illusion. "Not long. It won't hold up to touch. I mean, you aren't really dressed in a lab coat, and your arm is still broken. It's all an illusion that goes no deeper than your aura. Cheaper that way. Let's get out of here."
My brief high was gone, and I felt sick. I'd made the curse, taken the curse, made my friends take the curse, and then invoked it. Bad tempered, I reached for the door.
"You're not pregnant," Jenks said, and my mouth fell open. I knew I'd forgotten something!
"Shove your belt pack under your shirt," Ivy suggested, and as Jax slipped out the crack in the door to get the camera, I swung it around and did what she said. It was too big for seven months, but it was better than nothing. The picture, draped across my back, showed, and Nick had his card reader. I stank like burnt amber, too. Dead. We were so dead.
"Let's go," I said, and Nick opened the door.
Jax took the first camera. Jenks buzzed on ahead, his ultrasonic hail hurting my ears as we got to the corner. Jax was a blur, racing over our heads to leapfrog ahead.
The sight of two security people jogging down the hallway spiked my adrenaline. "Here we go, boys and girls," I said, glancing at Ivy and trying to remember if Dr. Anders had eyes that dark or if Ivy's curse wasn't covering all of her.
"Sir! Ma'am!" the one said, coming to a breathless halt, his hand on his holstered weapon. "What are you doing down here?"
I tensed. If Nick was going to betray us, it would be now. Ivy kept her mouth shut, knowing she wouldn't sound like Dr. Anders, and I jumped when Nick took my arm as if in support. "Someone got into the vault," Nick said, lifting his card gadget. "With this. I think they're headed for the upper floors." The two men stared at him. "Well, go get them!" he added, and they turned to run the way they had come, shoes clacking as they radioed ahead.
Swallowing, I looked down at the fake bulge at my middle. "That was close," I said, knees shaking as we started forward again.
"If we're not out of here in two minutes, we're caught," Ivy muttered. "How fast can a woman seven months pregnant run?"
"This one can run pretty damn fast," I said, and we jogged to the elevators, waving a worried encouragement to the occasional face that peeped out from an office or lab, wanting to know what was going on. Soon as Quen showed up, it would be over. God, what I would give for my splat gun. Good thing I didn't have it.
The sight of the elevator sent a surge of excitement through me. Almost there. If we could just get inside the workings, we'd be all but home free. Feeling like actors in a sci-fi film, we slid to a stop. As Jax kept the camera on a loop, Nick and Ivy both reached to wedge the doors apart, Ivy using her hand not in a cast.
"Come on. Come on!" I encouraged, but then the little ding of an approaching car iced through me, and the doors slid open. Six security guys were in it. All of them were looking at us in surprise. Not my day. So not my day.
"That way," Nick said, doing a credible imitation of Trent on a bad day. "They gained the vault. Check every room from here to there. Now!"
"Mr. Kalamack," one said as the others jumped to obey. "Allow me to escort you to the upper floors. I understand your interest in the vaults, and you, too, ma am," he added, looking nervous as he shot me a glance, "but Quen would have me on grocery detail if anything happened to either of you."
I breathed easier when Ivy subtly shifted out of an attack position. Down the hall, I could hear doors opening and shouts of a negative nature. Jaw tight, I silently walked into the elevator. Riding would be easier, but frankly, I didn't think it would be stopping on our floor. We'd have to get out another way, not through the stables.
As I stood pensively next to the security officer who had accompanied me in, I motioned with my eyes for Nick and Ivy to join me. See you up top, Jenks, I thought, wishing him luck. I knew he and Jax would make it okay, but my gut still tightened. How were we going to ditch these guys without knocking them out and giving it away that we were the ones they were after?
"I want an office-by-office search," Nick said as he joined me, and Ivy gave him a nudge to keep his mouth shut.
The officer seemed to be waiting for something, and Nick started patting his pockets as if for a key card. "Allow me," the man finally said, running his card and hitting the R button.
R? I thought. R for residence? Not good.
My stomach churned as the lift rose. Silence grew heavy, and I started to sweat as I noticed the officer looking at my slightly too-large middle, then the card and wire thing still in Nick's grip. Oh God. I smelled.
"Thank you... Marvin, for accompanying us," Nick said, bringing the man's attention back to him.
Ivy stood stock-still in the corner, eyes down as she filled the car with the spicy scent of vampire. Damn, damn, damn! Stinky vampire, stinky witch, and stinky sneakers. Okay, they looked like dress shoes, but Nick's boots smelled like leather soaked in salt water and left for a year in the back of a closet. This guy had to be on some major allergy medicine to not notice the stink of burnt amber. And how were we going to get out of the residence wing? If we didn't run into Trent, we'd run into someone who'd just seen him. Maybe we should have hit the man, but then we'd have to run out of here over the pastures. This way, we might get a car.
Looking at the array of buttons, I leaned into Nick. "I don't feel well," I whispered, trying to make my voice wispy. "Trenton, I need some, ah, feverfew."
Ivy stiffened, and Nick turned to me.
"Feverfew?" he echoed as the doors opened to the familiar low-ceilinged, brown-and-gold opulence of Trent's bar, his living room and wide windows looking out onto the landscaped pool spread out before us. Into the lion's den. This was not going well, but I lurched out, at least knowing where we were. Ivy came with me, and Nick. And the security guy, of course. Damn it.
"I saw some from the car the other day as we drove into Cincinnati," I said, babbling. "Please, I need it now." I put a hand to the belt pack to shift it to the middle as I walked, making a beeline for the kitchens and the garage beyond. "It's for the baby."
"The baby!" Nick exclaimed, his pale eyebrows raised, taking my elbow as he paced beside me. "You there," he said to the faltering officer. "Call ahead for a car!"
Jeez, he was doing it wrong. Trent never demanded anything, unless it was for someone to kill me. Hunching close, Nick curved an arm around my waist, looking like he was leading as he followed my subtle motions, telling him which way to go. My face scrunched up in an ugly mask, and I would have slugged him if I could have gotten away with it. He was being too strong with the staff, thinking power and money meant you had to be a hard-ass.
Ivy stood beside us, blocking us from view from the main room. It was unlikely anyone would notice us under the bar's low ceiling, but the security officer had paused to talk to someone. I caught, "I thought he was in his office," and I moved faster.
Voices were echoing down from the unseen open walkways two stories above us. They were growing tense, and I silently prayed I wouldn't hear Trent's. "Just keep moving," Ivy said, her hand on my back, and I shivered. The twin doors to the kitchen were a relief, the empty stainless-steel counters even more so. Just fifteen more feet, and we'd be in the garage. I'd be willing to bet Nick could hotwire a car if it didn't have the keys in it.
Vm going to steal another one of Trent's cars. What is wrong with me? But really, compared to what was strapped to my back, I didn't think he'd care about the car.
"Sir?" a voice queried behind us, and Nick reached for the big door to the garage. It didn't move. Damn, damn, damn!
"Shit," he said as he tugged, his worry looking wrong on Trent's face.
"It's locked?" I hissed, and Ivy's hand left me as she tried the door.
"Sir!" the voice came again, closer, and I stiffened. "Let me get that for you. We went into lockdown. That's why your card isn't working. I've got a car coming up right now."
I turned, and his face mirrored my relief. "You're a blessing," I whispered, holding my fake middle. Ivy and Nick went one way, and I went the other, allowing the security guard to run his card in the almost invisible card reader. Nothing happened. The little light stayed red, and looking nervous, he ran it again.
This time, it turned green with a friendly little beep, and Ivy pushed the door open. The scent of cold, dark garage and the sound of a running engine slipped in, cool around my ankles. "You need to get that card looked at," Nick said, lurching after us as Ivy strode to the driver's door and yanked it open.
I held my middle and ran forward, not waiting for anyone to open the door for me. I dove in, yanking Nick after me when I thought he was moving too slowly. God, he was taking this Trent thing too seriously. He slid in with a show of irritation, and I leaned past him to grab the door and slam it shut.
"Get out, or I'm going to break your arm," Ivy said, discussing things with the driver. "Ceri needs feverfew, and as her doctor, I'm going to see she gets it." Too stunned to move, the driver stared until Ivy reached in, plucked him out, and tossed him to land ungracefully at the curb. The watching security officer ran to help him up, only now starting to look unsure.
"Before the sun goes nova?" I said, and two streaks of silver zipped into the car.
"Go, go, go!" Jenks shrilled, darting from the front to the back of the car like he was on steroids. "Communication is down, but they know what they're doing, and it will be up in three minutes! You gotta get through the gate by then!"
The security guy was fumbling with his radio, and Ivy hit the gas, maneuvering the big car in a tight circle to head for the faint patch of lighter dark that was the exit. Jax landed on Nick's shoulder, the winded pixy breathing hard and his wings drooping. Keeping up with his dad was harder than it looked. We were going to do this, and I started to laugh, taking the canvas off my back and laying it across my knees so I wouldn't squish it.
"We're not out yet," Ivy said as Nick braced himself to keep from hitting the roof when we bounced out of the underground garage and into the dark. "We have the gate to get through."
"Piece of cake," I said, remembering the flimsy gate I'd busted through the last time.
"Rachel, that was fantastic!" Nick was saying, his image blurring as the car's jostling made his aura shift. "The stuff you could do. My God, you went right through that wall!"
Sobering, I pushed back to a corner. "Yeah," I said, looking at the bump in his pocket, and his expression looked wondering at my less-than-enthusiastic response. "The stuff I can do. Is that all you see? How to use magic to steal stuff? I'm doing this to save my life. And I'm giving the picture back." My eyes went to his pocket. "I'm not a thief."
The car grew quiet. Nick's pensive features made him look even less like Trent. Jax was on his knee, the pixy with his head between his knees as he tried to get his sugar levels back where they belonged until his dad threw a ball of something at him and he ate it.
"We've got people in the road," Ivy said. "And a big gate. What do you want to do?"
Shifting to the middle, I looked. The front gatehouse was all lit up with big lights to look like day. There was a new, much more substantial gate, and a big sign warning cars to stop to avoid tire damage. Swell. Trent had gotten a new gate. I should have guessed. "Urn, stop?" I said, heart pounding as I shoved my belt pack in place.
Coming to a slow halt, Ivy rolled down the window. Nick sat quietly beside me, thinking, which was worrisome all by itself. Jenks and Jax had hidden themselves, but I knew Jenks, at least, could react in an instant. Jax was still recovering. Maybe he, at least, had learned something. The guard on duty, flanked by two more officers, came forward, each taking a door. The tension wound tighter.
"Dr. Anders?" the approaching man asked in surprise, the usual clipboard absent.
"We're going for a drive," she said imperially, sounding a lot like the distasteful woman. "Ceridwen needs a plant to stop her labor."
"I'm not in labor!" I said, earning a quick glance. Jenks buzzed a hidden warning, and I pushed myself back into the shadows.
"I need to see some identification, Dr. Anders."
Nick leaned forward. "Do you know who I am?" he asked.
The officer's eyes grew predatory. "No, sir, but seeing as I just talked to you and you were in your office, I know who you aren't."
Shit.
The click of safeties sparked through me, and I sank back into the cushions. Had I really believed I could do this? "Job's over," I breathed, seeing weapons pointed at the car. Twenty feet from us, the comforting black of the night beckoned. Twenty feet. It might as well have been the moon. We'd tried. I didn't want to give up, but I didn't want us dead either. There had to be a way, but if I brought Al into this, he'd say he'd won the bet, and it would be over.
"Out of the car, please," the man was saying, backing up to give us room, and my breath came faster. "Fingers laced above your heads. Now!"
We couldn't get through the gate. Not in the car. But maybe we could make a run for it if we got over it. Sweet, sweet adrenaline pounded into me, and my head started to hurt.
"Rache?" Jenks whispered. He, at least, would be safe.
Nick reached for the handle. "Get yourself out, Rachel," he said. "I'll take care of this."
"What are you doing?" I said, bewildered. "They know it isn't you!"
"Something I should have done a long time ago," he said, and I blinked when he leaned over to give me a chaste kiss. "Do what you need to do. I'll make a distraction so you can get away."
"What?" Ivy barked, and from outside, the security officer demanded we get out.
"I'll be fine," Nick said, opening his door. "I always am."
Stunned, I did nothing as someone opened my door and I was yanked out to the tune of Ivy fighting. A band of silver was slipped over my wrist, and I still did nothing. I felt a wash of ever-after flow out of me, but the curse was demonic, and I still looked like Ceri. Small favors.
"Rachel?" Jenks said, hovering before me.
People were shouting - mostly Ivy - and someone shoved me to the ground. My arms went out instinctively, and I caught myself. Staring at the shiny shoes to my right, something ignited in me. It was not going to end like this. I tensed, playing passive, hearing Ivy resisting.
"Rachlel!" Jenks cried again. "What do you want me to do?"
There were only two people watching me, the rest occupied with Ivy. "Tell Ivy to give them hell and meet me on the road," I said, and he darted away trailing silver dust.
Face scraping on the pavement, I looked the other way. Nick was on the ground, men screaming at him. I mouthed the words "Thank you," and he smiled. His attention went up, and I followed his gaze to Jax, looking like a silver mote high above it all. As I watched, the pixy dropped something.
"Ivy!" I shouted, clenching my eyes shut. "Down!"
I heard her drop, and the grunt of someone falling on her.
A boom of sound ripped through the night, shaking the ground I pressed into. My ears went numb, and I looked up, my hearing muffled. The two men watching me had collapsed to the pavement, out cold. Dust hung in the air, and what movement there was, was scattered.
I got up, awkward and clumsy. Ivy was pushing men off her, knocking them senseless as they tried to figure out what had happened. "Let's go!" I shouted, not hearing myself. People were starting to get up. We had seconds.
Staggering, I reached her. "Let's go!" I shouted again, almost getting hit when she didn't recognize me right off. Then I shrieked when she grabbed me and threw me over the gate.
I screamed, landing hard on the road. "Son of a bitch!" I said, only to be jerked to my feet by Ivy, her cast not slowing her down at all. "Are you trying to kill me?"
Her eyes were black, and without a backward glance, she started hauling ass, dragging me until I found my pace at her side. Damn it, the painting was still in the car. But we were out and running. Memories of being chased by Trent and his hounds slammed into me, and I ran faster. The pavement seemed to rise up to hit my feet, every strike felt clear through my thin-soled running shoes. We couldn't make it back to Cincy, but the alternative was not pretty. I prayed Jenks was okay. My hearing was coming back. I could hear a claxon honking behind us, and someone was shouting to get the gate open, but I'd bet the circuitry was dead. I felt a surge of hope and started to angle into the woods, but Ivy grabbed my arm, stopping us.
"Car," she panted, and I looked up into the glow of approaching headlights.
"You want me to lie down in the road, or should you?" I said, only half kidding, freezing when the car swerved to the right, spinning in a wobbly, terrifying half circle around us. I could have cried when I saw Pierce in the front seat, covered in pixies. He was saving my ass again. Even so, I swear, if he did any black magic, I would give him to Newt myself.
p>"Get in!" he shouted, the squeal of pixies and their darting shapes adding to the mess.
I opened the front door, shoving Pierce to the passenger side only to have Ivy shove me to the middle of the long front seat of my moms Buick. "How did you know we were in trouble?"
"You're always in trouble, Rachel," he said, fixing his hat firmly back on his head.
"You'd think she wasn't glad to see you," Ivy said, pushing the accelerator down even before her door was shut.
Pierce only grinned as he leaned me upright. "No magic, Rachel. I promise. I opine I can make a fist of saving you without any at all."
Jenks dove in the open window as we tore down the road, all of his kids shrilling in excitement. My hands went over my ears, and I cowered. "Jenks!" the hyped-up vamp shouted as she waved her hand in front of her face. "Get your brats under control! I can't see!"
A sharp whistle reverberated through the moving car, and I gasped. Crap, we were headed for a tree! "Look out!" I screamed, and Ivy jerked us back on the road.
"Holy shit!" Jenks shrilled. "Watch where you're going, Ivy! My kids are in here!"
"Really? I hadn't noticed!" she said, rolling the window up with one hand as she awkwardly drove with the one in a cast.
My elation shifted to dread. "Nick," I said, turning to look behind us at the fading glow of Trent's guardhouse. "We have to go back!"
"Are you nuts!" Jenks shouted.
"Quid me fiet," I said, touching Ivy's shoulder, and I shivered as our curses untwisted and we became ourselves again. "We have to go back for Nick," I said as Ivy turned off the lights and we drove in the dark. God, I hoped her night vision was better than mine. "He sacrificed himself to save us. You heard him!"