“Oh now, that would be fun.” Dizzy nodded. “Who are we trying to maim?”
“Darius has people clean my house and stock my fridge and stuff. I told him to stop, but…”
“Here, we can take our car.” Callie motioned me toward her “old” Merc, as she called it. It was not old by any means. The shiny Mercedes looked like it had just rolled off the lot, and could move fast enough to melt the passenger’s face off.
“I have transportation coming,” I said, checking my phone. “Any minute.”
“Fine.” Callie looked around. “This is not a great place to leave the car, though. We’ll come back to it on blocks.”
“Why would you— No.” I cut my hand through the air. “You’re not coming with me. It’s too dangerous.”
“At least she admitted it’s dangerous,” Callie said. “That’s a start.”
Chapter Eleven
“Of course we are coming.” Dizzy rolled his eyes. “There is no way you can battle a bunch of mages and a higher-powered demon on your own. Plus, this is great timing. We’ve been in contact with that little mage from the mage battle a while ago, Penny. Remember her? She lives near Seattle. We were planning a trip out there anyway. We’ll just get to it sooner than expected. Win-win.”
I ignored his travel plans for a moment. “A bunch of mages? I thought you said it was just one?” I noticed the black Town Car turn the corner. A surge of adrenaline dumped into my body. It was still light out, but my gut reaction was that it had to be Darius. That was the last thing I needed right now. Luckily, as it drew closer, I saw a normal human driver behind the wheel.
“I think this is headed by one mage,” Callie said, “but he, or she, will have followers. Dizzy and I know that from experience. Those with lesser power always flock around stronger mages. I have no idea how many there are, though.”
The driver parked and stepped out, straight-backed and professional. Moss could learn a thing or two—not that he’d lower himself to be polite to me.
“Can you please pop the trunk?” I asked, stepping off my porch. I made a circle in the air with my finger.
“I can take that for you, miss,” the driver said, coming around the car with an outstretched hand.
“Trust me, just pop the trunk. It’s heavy.” I did the finger circle again.
“If you wish.” The man did as instructed, and stood by while I lowered the bag into the trunk.
“I’ll just follow along behind, shall I?” Dizzy asked. “You ride with her, hon, so she can’t ditch us, and get the plane tickets on the way.”
“It’ll probably be sold out so close to the flight.” I waved Callie away. “Seriously, it’ll be fine. I don’t need help. And anyway, they’re paying me.”
“I find it interesting that you won’t be talked out of going, but you assume we will.” Callie pushed me toward the car. “Get in, you’re wasting time. Besides, I’ve never been to Seattle. I hear it’s nice this time of year.”
“Actually, let’s stop by our house.” Dizzy pointed at my face. “It’s only a matter of time before you burn off your eyebrows again.”
He had a point.
“Dang it. Fine. But you’ll have to take a back seat ifthere’s any danger.”
Callie snorted and pushed me again, bustling me into the car without a word. The woman had skills. She turned to tell Dizzy to hurry up, and I saw the wordBouncewritten across the butt of her velvet orange sweats.
“It’s just not right to put those sayings on girls’ butts,” I said, wisely not attaching an age to that pronouncement.
“Why? I got bounce yet.” Thankfully, Callie didn’t prove it.
After stopping at their house, dropping off their car, and getting more supplies, Callie, Dizzy and I sat in the back of the Town Car as Callie scowled down at her phone.
“I don’t see any flights going to Seattle at this time of day. Are you sure it’s not an a.m. flight?” she asked me.
“Oh. Uh…” I tapped into the email and handed my phone off.
She squinted down at the screen before shaking her head and handing it back. “That’s too small. Make it bigger.”
“Do you not know how to work a cell phone?” I did as instructed and handed it back.
