“Okay.” Susan brushed her hands together like she was brushing the problem away and stood. “Let’s get the salt.”
9
Jack
I stood on top of Bell Rock, one of the most famous rock formations in Sedona, Arizona, a locale known throughout the world for its stunning vistas.
Unlike all the tourists who flooded the place every year, I wasn’t at all impressed with the view. Instead of looking out at the scenery, I was staring at a vampire who’d caused me a ton of trouble in the past.
“He claims to be reformed,” Alaric, former high priest of Atlantis, said, his voice as dry as the Arizona desert.
“Even vampires deserve redemption, don’t they?” Nicholas ignored both of us and directed his question to Quinn, whom he mistakenly thought would be the more gullible target. Quinn, who was possibly the most dangerous of all four of us.
She didn’t answer for several long moments. Then she turned to me—her former partner in the rebellion— and Alaric—her current partner in life and love for, I guessed, the next few hundred years, given the longevity of Atlanteans and the magical punch Alaric packed.
“He means it,” she said, shrugging. She was a powerful empath and a dangerous fighter. “Maybe it’s a Christmas miracle. In January.”
Nobody laughed.
“Believe me or don’t,” Nicholas said. “But there are twenty-five humans in danger. Will you help me?”
“I don’t have anything else to do,” I drawled. “Quinn? Alaric?”
“We will help,” Alaric growled. “If you betray us, vampire, you will die screaming.”
I grinned. “Ah. Just like the old days.”
10
Tess
Susan took her exhausted godfather to the guest room and got him settled, and then led me to her garage and pulled the big roller door open. “The Dead End city garage was out of space, so they dropped the salt here. This has been a couple of years back.”
“The salt?”
“For the roads, in case we get a serious snowfall.”
I just looked at her. “When did we last have a serious snowfall? In Florida?”
“Exactly,” she said dryly. “Which is why I still have a hundred fifty-pound bags of salt in my garage.”
I looked where she was pointing and whistled.
“Good thing you have an enormous garage.” The pile of salt bags took up most of the left-hand bay. “Um, do you have a wheelbarrow? Fifty-pound bags …”
“I was thinking we’d carry one together and spread it around the outside of the pile of boxes. I don’t want to dump salt on everything until we get expert confirmation that it’s the right thing to do. Who knows, with magic? Salt could be a catalyst for something nasty with some of those objects. Let’s put a ring of salt around the pile of boxes for now. I’ll lock the door and keep the key on me. That should keep everybody safe from dangerous magic until we figure it out.”
So that’s what we did. I almost tripped over the dagger, twice, because the darn thing kept chasing Susan around the room whenever we weren’t looking at it.
“This doesn’t make sense to me,” I told her, bent over and pouring salt out of an oversized measuring cup in a line around the room. “Why would your granddad send you a knife that seems to want to hurt you, when his entire goal was for you to take over his, pardon me, evil ways?”
“First, it’sgrandfather. Orthat evil monster. Never granddad.” She shoved her hair out of her face, leaving a streak of salt behind. “Second, who knows? He was a bad guy. He did bad things.”
We finished laying down a thick line of salt all the way around the room, meeting at the doorway, and stepped out of the library.
“I sure hope that doesn’t ruin your rug.”
Susan looked at me and then laughed. “Tess, I gotta tell you that my rug is the least of my worries right now.”
