He tosses his head. “Great. You do it.”
My mouth dangles. “Me?”
“You said you can crack it open, and there’s what passes as currency inside.”
I shake my head. “No, I can’t crack it open. I thought maybe you could use your walking-on-water powers to do it.”
He grabs my shoulders and spins me around, pointing over my shoulder.
My heart hammers so loudly that I swear I can hear it in my ears. Why’s he still touching me?
“If I can do it,” he whispers, “then you can do it too.”
Is that true? Can I do everything he can do?
“Not everything,” he whispers. “And usually I can’t make out your thoughts this clearly either. It’s irritating, since I can read most everyone else’s. I’m not quite sure how you’re able to block me when you’re awake. The bond should make that even harder for you.”
I turn my head then, peering at him, our faces so close with him hunched over my shoulder that our mouths nearly touch. “You can read my mind when I’m sleeping?”
Color floods his cheeks, and he straightens. “Just try and get the money out.” He points at it with his mouth. “Now, or I’ll get us what you say we need in another way you might not like as well.”
I want to groan. Every single thing I suggest, he counters with some new way for me to try and use my powers as his champion, and I guess it would be really cool, except I know he wants me to learn them so I can help him massacre people. Only. . .for the first time, I realize that maybe I could use them against him. I’m not sure whether I can, but I can’t know until I’ve mastered their use.
So I focus on the stupid ATM, and I know that nothing will happen, but then, instead. . .bizarrely, I can feel it. I can feel. . .its guts. “This is so weird,” I say. “It’s metal. There’s so much metal inside it.”
“Steel.” Xolotl’s still leaning over me, almost touching my face.
I take a step away, reaching toward the ATM.
“Are you guys going to get cash, or what?” The woman behind us has a card out in her hand, and she’s glaring. She’s really pretty, with perfect raven hair and striking green eyes. She looks like men don’t tell her no very often, and when we turn toward her, she smiles.
Right at the death god.
Xolotl glances toward me, and then he turns back toward her to glare. “Go away, unwanted female.”
Her eyes bulge.
“What he means is, we’re, um.” I clear my throat. “This ATM isn’t working, and we’re here to do some service on it.”
The woman arches one eyebrow, her eyes taking in my red dress and black boots. “You don’t look like you work for the bank.”
“Subcontractor.” I force a smile. “Hopefully we’ll be done soon, but maybe go to the window inside instead.” And with that, we’d better hurry. If she goes in there and tells them someone’s working on the ATM outside. . .who knows how long it’ll be before someone comes out to check?
Speaking of them coming places, I glance up and see not one, not even two, but three security cameras. “Hey, Lotl.”
When he turns to face me, his eyebrow is arched. “Did you just call me Lotl?”
I maintain a carefully straight face. “I like it. I think that’s what I’ll call you from now on.”
“I forbid it.”
That just makes me like it more. “Can you kill those three cameras?” I point. “It’ll make our life easier over the next few days.”
It takes a bit, but I explain what I want, and then I smile as I watch them start to smoke.
“Now you do your part.” He drops his meaty hands on my shoulders and turns me toward the ATM again. “You should hurry, or more useless humans will come and interrupt us.”
I should’ve picked a smaller ATM, but I read once that the ones in the middle of nowhere have no money in them. I focus on the metal inside the machine, and I sense that part of it’s a drawer or something. I reach for that metal, and I sense the sliders and a small catch, and then I pull.
