“Are you done?” I asked when he got to his feet again. A snarl was my only answer.
I rolled my eyes and walked away. Stupid man. If he wanted to throw himself against the equivalent of an unmovable wall, he could be my guest. I wasn’t sticking around to watch.
I stalked back to my apartment, repeating the laborious climb up.
“Did you distract him?” Inara asked as soon as I reached the door.
“Does it sound like I distracted him?” I asked just as there was another loud crack.
We both looked down at where Liam was picking himself off the ground, giving no sign that he was tiring. I was actually surprised his antics hadn’t attracted any onlookers. It was the early morning hours, but the noise should have drawn some attention.
Inara sighed. “What does he think he’s going to accomplish?”
I shook my head. Her guess was as good as mine. Vampires couldn’t enter a home unless they were invited. It was one of the very weird myths that turned out to be true. Not to mention, I strongly suspected that Niall and Cadell had their place warded to hell and back to prevent any uninvited guests.
“Where are you going?” Inara called after me as I left the door and headed further into the apartment.
“As amusing as this is to watch, I have better things to do,” I said.
Before I made it more than a few steps, I heard a sound beneath my door. I backtracked and watched the edge, poised to attack if a golem or anything Fae appeared.
A hand landed on the threshold and Caroline pulled herself up, panting. “You really need to do something about those stairs.”
“What are you doing here?” I asked her, rushing forward to help pull her into the apartment.
She stood and dusted her hands off. “Thought I’d update you on my progress.” She jerked a thumb at the door. “You know tall, dark and handsome is throwing himself against your neighbor’s door, right?”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, he’s not exactly rational at the moment.”
“You do have a way of driving people out of their minds,” Caroline said, looking around.
“Thanks, friend. It’s always so good to hear what you think of me,” I said, heading back toward my room. Caroline followed me, throwing herself onto the bed as I rummaged through my dresser.
“Do you want to hear what I found?” she asked.
It took me a moment to remember what she was speaking of. It felt like months had passed since I asked her to look into the golems and the Wild Hunt.
“Regale me with your knowledge, oh smart one,” I said in a dead pan voice.
Her smile was quick and sly before it faded. “A whole bunch of nothing.”
I paused and looked over at her. She could have called and told me that.
She chuckled at my expression and sat up. “I’m not lying. Golems are mostly associated with early Judaism. You can even find a couple of references of them in the Bible. Most versions I found said they have a written Hebrew word inscribed on their heads, which when removed destroys the golem.”
“That doesn’t describe what came after us,” I said. None of those had writing on their foreheads. I would have noticed.
She nodded. “You could say they’ve been improved upon since the first golem’s creation. Nowadays, anyone with enough juice can make one. All they need is a focus to which they affix their magic and then you’ve got an army of inanimate mud at your beck and call.”
“The pebbles,” I said.
“Yup, I took a look at the one I had. There are small symbols inscribed on it. Runes similar to the language of the witches,” she said.
That wasn’t exactly nothing. Unfortunately, it didn’t tell me much that was new.
The periodic booms from outside told me Liam was still preoccupied with trying to get at Niall and Cadell.
To my not so surprise, I found what I was looking for in a drawer of my dresser. I picked up the book that now had the titleDangerous Waters Ahead - Turn Back, Stupid.
