She whispered, “Demons don’t have to unlock gates, do they?”
He shook his head.
“Maybe we’ll get lucky enough to find the Deuce behind the demons.”
Cyn’s eyes flared with bloodlust as he searched the Yard beyond the fence.“I hope so.”
Anyone—or anything—could hide behind the thousands of items in the Yard.Her projects and investments and splurges, like the fifties toy car, could all be harboring some evil being.She and Cyn slid through the gap and walked side by side down the center of the Yard.Ruby found the old Dodge Dart and then the owner of said car, Nevin, who appeared to be painting his Cadillac Fleetwood table.She sighed in relief at the same time that Cyn muttered, “What the hell?”
“I know, it’s shocking to see Nevin working when he’s supposed to be taking time off.”Except Cyn hadn’t meant that kind of What the hell?because he didn’t know Nevin was a lackey.
Which meant he was referring to something else.
Nevin walked out of the booth several yards away, pulled down his respiratory mask, and called out, “You startled me.”He wore the same relieved smile she’d sported a moment before.“I came to pick up something and didn’t see anyone here.Figured it’d be okay if I worked on my Caddy table.”His smile drooped.“Why are you looking at me so strange?”
Not at him but at someone peering above a stack of flattened cars a short distance behind him.A stack more than ten feet tall.Ruby automatically clutched Cyn’s arm.“What is it?”she whispered.All she could see was the top of a head with wild brown hair and a hint of eyes.
Cyn was laughing, only it wasn’t an amused kind of laugh.It was one of thoseI can’t believe itkind of laughs, which she knew was not good.“A tulpa.I can smell it from here.Damn, I haven’t seen one of those in years.Get rid of the Mundane.”
“A… tulpa?”she spat out on a vehement whisper.“You didn’t tell me about tulpas!”She vaguely remembered Kade mentioning the word, and Cyn telling her “Later.”
“It’s one of those things that doesn’t emit a magick signature because it’s not real.”
The ten-feet-plus-tall human-looking creature stepped out from behind the stack of cars.Two cats scattered, but the tulpa thankfully paid them no mind… because it was focused on her.
“It looks like a kid!”Ruby whispered.“A huge, demented girl withpigtails!”She forced a smile as Nevin approached, but her gaze was on the tulpa.“Nevin, you have to go now.”
He wiped his arm across his sweating brow.“I will, as soon as I’m done.I get it now, why you’re all excited about seeing something go from junky to shiny and pretty.This is gonna look so cool.”
The tulpa pushed a stack of carburetors Nevin had been talking about welding together as an art form.He spun around as the stack crashed to the ground, his mouth gaping.
Could he see the tulpa?
“Holy heck in a handbasket, what—” He spun back to Ruby.“Did you see that?The whole stack just tipped over.What if someone had been standing beside it?You were right, Ruby.I should have done something about that before now.”
And that answered that.Nevin walked toward the stack.Ruby tugged at his arm the same way her Dragon tugged at her to Catalyze.“Nevin, it might fall more.Don’t go near it.”
She looked up,wayup at the tulpa.Theitshe was really talking about smiled down at her.There was something oddly familiar about that smile.It wore no clothes, its body a vague mass of flesh-toned substance.And yes, it smelled like a sponge that had been sitting in dirty water for weeks.
The tulpa sniffed at Nevin, then flicked his head.Nevin stumbled at the impact, his hand to his head as he looked for what had hit him.“What was that?”
Ruby hauled him backward.“Remember when I said there might be trouble?Well, there’s trouble.”
He rubbed his head, confusion on his face.“Is that what hit me?What knocked the carburetors down?”
“Yes.”She led him to the gate, looking back to see Cyn standing between her and the tulpa, trying to keep it back.In human form, he didn’t have the power he would as Dragon.“Nevin, you really have to leave now.”
“Should I call the police?”
“No, definitely not.I don’t want to involve you.And I don’t want you hurt.”
He looked pained, glancing over her shoulder at Cyn.“Ever since that guy came on the scene, you’ve been acting weird.”
She wanted to laugh.Ever since Cyn arrived, shewasweird.“Trust me, it’ll be okay.Go.Bye.”
He got into his car and pulled toward the gate.Cyn was throwing things that were awaiting restoration at the overgrown girl.A kid’s bike bounced off the tulpa’s hip.A Sunoco sign hit the tulpa’s arm and made it frown.He was goading it, leading it farther back into the Yard.Away from the fence where someone could see them Catalyze, she suspected.
“What kind of crazy-assed world did I end up in?”she muttered, locking the gate behind Nevin’s car and turning to join Cyn.
