Day glared at them both. “Hi.”
Sariel grimaced and scratched her ears. “I am sorry. I did not mean to wake you so abruptly. I was not thinking.”
“It’s all right.” Day’s expression softened, and she rubbed her eyes. “Mmm, how was the magic shop?”
“Creepy.” Seymour cranked the truck. “We can tell you all ’bout it on the way to our next stupid destination. Maybe they’ll have unicorns that shit out bear traps or somethin’ equally fun.”
Sariel grabbed Seymour’s shoulder. “Unicorns are very dangerous. You should not joke about that.”
Day gasped. “No! You should never joke about unicorns.”
“Fuckin’ shit! Okay!” Seymour laughed nervously. “Mental note, do not fuck with unicorns.”
“Ever.”
“All right, all right. So, where are we headin’ next?”
“The Inferno,” Sariel replied, still looking a bit concerned. Maybe he was thinking about unicorns. “It is a monster club owned by Dagobert Baumann Von Liechtenberg. He is the vampire you met at the coffee shop.”
“Goody fuckin’ gumdrops.” Seymour forced a grin. “Can’t wait!”
“Do not worry.” Sariel squeezed Seymour’s leg gently. “I will protect you.”
“So will I!” Day slapped her paw down on Sariel’s thigh. “I’m not scared of a vampire. He’s not even hopping. Hmmph.”
Seymour’s smile was genuine now. “Oh yeah? Even if he sparkles?”
Day’s eyes narrowed to hateful slits. “Especiallyif he sparkles.”
“That’s my girl.”
Seymour followed the GPS and Sariel’s own directions to navigate to the club while updating Day with what she’d missed at the magic shop. To the surprise of no one, she promised to eat Marsha for upsetting Seymour should they ever see her again.
After a short burst of irritating traffic and inadvertently teaching Day some new curses, he turned into the driveway of an old building. It was a brick car garage, but it didn’t look like it had seen customers in a few decades, given the overgrown state of the lot. The bay doors were boarded up, but Sariel directed him to drive around.
He drove to the back as if he was going in for an oil change at any regular place not potentially full of monsters, and he came to a stop in front of the first bay door. It wasn’t boarded up, but he had no idea how they were supposed to get in with no staff present to open it.
“Okay.” Seymour tapped the steering wheel. “Now what?”
“We will be granted access,” Sariel assured him. “Soon.”
“How soon?” Day asked.
“Very soon.”
“How soon is very soon?” Seymour grinned. “Like, five minutes?”
Day wiggled. “Maybe ten?”
“How do we definesoonexactly?”
Sariel frowned. “When it opens. That is soon.”
“And that will be…?”
As if on cue, the big bay door sprang to life and rolled up, revealing a giant chasm of nothing. Logically there should havebeen at least some light coming through from the doors at the front, but there was only darkness.
Very inviting.
