“Oh. Yeah, let’s do this.”
Gwyneth shrugged the bag off her shoulder and let it lay in the alley. “Don’t you want me to go alone first?”
Morgaine gulped and shook her head. “No. I can do this.” She squared her shoulders, closed her eyes, breathed deeply a few times and went into a trance. She let her spirit soar above herbody. Her body still held Gwyneth’s hand, and she inserted her energy into the building.
Now inside, she stood in a hallway with a view of the front door and a banister to the right. A door on her immediate right probably led to the cellar. It was set up much like her building, except narrower. Probably only a single-family home with a basement apartment.
She moved through the door to the right. Suddenly Morgaine froze. She was in total darkness. Her throat constricted.
I…I can’t do this!Morgaine ripped her spirit out of the building and back into her body so fast, her head spun. She tried to run, but her feet wouldn’t move. Somehow, she lost her balance, let go of Gwyneth’s hand, and fell on her ass. “Dear Lord and Lady!”
“I do declare!” Gwyneth stood over Morgaine as her cousin breathed into a paper bag. She had helped her over to the next apartment’s concrete steps, and they were partially hidden from the maker’s apartment by a parked car.
Her breathing finally slowed, and she said, “I felt a panic attack coming on. What did you want me to do? Lose my shit in there?”
“You wasn’t even in there. Not for real. It woulda made a mess in your panties though.”
Morgaine rolled her eyes. “It’s just an expression.”
“Just tell yourself it’s not real.”
“It was real enough. Look, sometimes I have panic attacks for no goddamn reason at all. Suddenly I’m in a vampire lair in total blackness and, surprise, surprise, I freak out. You would’ve too.”
“Nope. I didn’t inherit the freak-out gene. Didn’t you say your mamma thought she was goin’ crazy a few times?”
“Yeah.” Morgaine hung her head. “That’s why she moved to a big city. Too many small town people knew her business.”
Gwyneth sat beside Morgaine on the steps. She patted her arm as if comforting a child. “Don’t pay it no never mind. We are perfectly safe. Ya hear?”
“I—I guess so.”
Gwyneth let out a big sigh. “So, this is kind of a pickle. If all went well with the astral projection and there was no magical alarms or booby traps, we was plannin’ on going in for real.”
“I don’t think that’ll happen.”
“Why not? I can understand you not wantin’ to, butIcan still go.”
Morgaine grabbed her wrist. “You can’t go in there by yourself! That’s reallycrazy.”
“I’ll be fine. As long as it’s daylight, he’s dead to the world…so to speak. Plus, we lugged all these supplies down here. Flashlights, candles, matches, a wooden stake, a camera…”
“So? We’ll just take them back home.”
“Do you really want to give up on Sly? Cause if you do, I doubt his maker—or V. Malvant as we now know he’s called—will give up.”
Morgaine braced her elbows on her knees and covered her head with her hands as if she were expecting bombs overhead.
Gwyneth sat quietly and let that sink in for a bit.
At last, Morgaine sighed. “I’d still like to help Sly, but…”
“But what? You are a powerful witch, Morgaine. If anythin’ V. Malvant should be afraid ofyou!”
Morgaine chuckled. “Yeah, and a few minutes ago the big, powerful witch was breathing into a paper bag.”
“Look, you can stand outside with the door open, and I can go inside. If anything happens you can hear me. But nothin’s gonna happen!”
“I can’t let you go alone.”
