Of course they knew she’d been working for a law office, but she was still irritated.“Why not?”
“Sorcery’s useful.”A flat, declarative statement.Erik touched the brake, nudged the SUV for a clear spot in the left lane, and his dark eyes narrowed.“They won’t even notice us.”
“What if they do?”And to think she’d been so focused on escape just a short while ago.Going to the cops looked like a childish fantasy at the moment.
What officer, no matter how determined, could deal with gigantic hell-squid?There wasn’t any precedent in all the law books of the world for that one.
“Then I’ll handle it.”Erik saidhandle itlike it meantkill them, and maybe it did.“All you have to do is stay near me or Jake, Liv.I’m kind of surprised you didn’t try to bolt, though.”
“I thought about it.”Which was a lie.The only thing she’d been thinking about was screaming and possibly escaping the horrible, hellishlyrealmonsters, with a heavy side helping of being glad someone else was fighting them off.“Except it doesn’t seem too good an idea now, does it.”
“Guess not.”The SUV rolled to a soft stop at a red light, spatters of tire-thrown slush dewing the windshield.The upholstery didn’t smell new; there was only that strange, almost musky fragrance of the shimmering energy Jake had used to clean them both of monster blood.
Magic.Sorcery.Nightmare creatures.All things considered, she was doing pretty well with all this, right?Her hands shook, nearly imperceptible tremors.Her body was a tired, hunted animal, and she hadn’t washed her hair at the motel.Consequently, she felt greasy and unkempt.She longed for a plain latte, for a giant cranberry walnut muffin, and for a good long bitch session with Mika.
While she was at it, she could wish for Gramma Poe to be alive again, for her father’s fatal car accident and her mother’s murder to be just a pair of bad dreams, and to top everything off she could ask for a pony, too.
One she didn’t have to clean up after.
“So you might have noticed the, uh, theoneirosdoes a few things.”His hands were precisely placed on the wheel, the ten and two o’clock position she remembered from ancient driver’s ed.“It’s kind of like a tool forlirai, and one of the things?—”
Oh, God.Panic swelled under Liv’s breastbone.“Is this more magic?”If it was, she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear it.Not right now.
“Kind of.Well, it’s sorcery.If you want to get technical.”
Oh, my God, if you start giving me a lecture on proper terminology I really might scream.“Can we get some coffee first?”
“Oh.Yeah, sure.”Now he was stealing small glances at her, as if gauging whether she was going to reach for the door and try to dump herself into traffic.“Sorry,lirai.I didn’t think about it.”
“We’re on kind of a tight schedule, right?”Now she felt even more ridiculous.If she was putting this in a day planner, how would she name it?Get up early for monster invasion.Remember breakfast.It’s leg day—run away from monsters!“I mean, if we don’t have time, I understand.”
“I think we can swing getting some java.”His shoulders relaxed—maybe he’d expected her to start screaming or being difficult again.
“Okay.”It was going to take a while before she was up to presenting any difficulty at all, Liv realized.All she felt was cold and shaky, with a giant blister of pure grade-A terror simmering underneath.How many people in the cars around them, heading to work or school or errands or whatever, knew about the nightmare things creeping through the dark?How many of them even suspected such creatures werepossible?Had anyone found the exploded SUV?Were emergency crews scratching their heads, wondering who’d been driving the car?“Why doesn’t anyone know about this?”The words shook; her tough-girl façade was cracking bigtime.
“Mostly because they don’t want to.”Erik’s calm was maddening; she wished it were infectious instead.His dark stubble was ferocious; sorcery must not be good for shaving.“Hehas his servants, of course, but they keep a low profile.”
“Why?You’d think…” Her stomach was a ball of hot acid, but she wasn’t hungry.
Liv was thinking she’d never eat again.
“Well, if everyone knew, it wouldn’t just be us guarding thelirai.Everyone else would too.”Erik glanced left, visibly considering a small, independent coffee drive-thru.He’d have to turn a few times to get to it, though, and she almostfelthim discard the idea.“Hewouldn’t be able to get through the cracks as well.”
“And you guys don’t publicize it because?—”
“Because if we did, without unveiling an easy enemy for humanity to band together against, they’d turn on theliraithe same way they do on anything different or strange.”The light changed, Erik pressed the accelerator, and Liv’s stomach turned over hard.“It’s equilibrium—neither of us wants the war to mushroom, but for different reasons.So we fight in the dark.”
“Oh.”She touched the gem’s hard, opalescent dome.It was still vivid, glowing in the weak grey sunlight, colors following her fingertip.The clouds were thickening, and even inside the car she could smell the iron tang of more snow.The news would work itself up into a lather about a winter storm warning, and everyone who’d lived in this part of the world more than a few months would roll their eyes.“So what does this thing actually do?”
“Acts like a focus for a Dreamer’s power, mostly.Some things can’t fool you with illusion when you’re wearing it; others have to assume their true form when its light hits them.”His blunt, callused fingers twitched, one after the other, counting off the possible uses.“And it… well, it’ll call me, if you need me.Or want me.”
Liv crossed her ankles.She didn’t even have a purse to put in the footwell—there was just the backpack she had never seen before last night, full of clothes that fit her and tiny trial-sized toiletries she might have liked using if not for the situation.“I could just text you.”Except you took my phone.
He opened his mouth, shot her a glance, and realized she was joking.“I guess.But anoneirosdoes lots of other useful things.”A disbelieving smile crossed Erik’s weary face for half a second before swiftly submerging.He hit the blinker, pulling into the right lane—there was a Pilgrim’s Coffee dead ahead.“Doesn’t send pictures, though.”
“Technology wins again.”The trembling was getting worse, which was ridiculous.It was daylight, and those things were gone.She stared at the coffee shop’s sign, the funny buckled hat and secretive smile on the eponymous Puritan turning into a monstrous grimace.“Erik?”
“Yes?”At least he didn’t sound annoyed, or even distracted.He was, in short, just the same as he had been at the stone house, except significantly more unshaven.
