Page 69 of Immortal Unveiled

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Kim spun around, alarmed by Manus’s curse. “What?”

He pointed at her. “Your clothes… they’re stained with green demon blood.”

“Yuck!” she let out. Could anything else go wrong today? “This had better come out in the wash.” She pivoted back to the door but didn’t get far.

Manus laid his hands on her shoulders. “That’s not the point.”

“Well, it is for me.”

He turned her to face him, but she had a hard time making out his face. He’d switched off his flashlight. “Kim, I can’t make demon blood invisible.”

“Then we stay visible,” she said. “There’s not much going on out there anyway.”

“There is.” Manus let go of her shoulders and walked to the window, where he peeked through the blinds. “Police have just arrived.”

“What? How do they know?” She pointed in the general direction of Kilgore’s body. “There’s no way.”

Manus lifted his hand to stop her. “They’re not here for Kilgore. It looks like they’re here for the Chinese place downstairs. Probably a fight.” He turned away from the window and walked toward her again.

“But we’ve gotta get out of here. If they somehow come up and find Kilgore’s body, we’re screwed.”

Manus took her hand. “They won’t have a reason to come up here. But I agree we’ve gotta leave. And we can’t afford to be seen by anybody because tomorrow, when all the other businesses open again, somebody will find Kilgore’s body, and we don’t want sketches of us out there as suspected murderers.”

“But you just said yourself that you can’t make me fully invisible, not with the demon blood on me.” Her throat constricted at the thought that she wouldn’t get away.

“We need new clothes for you.”

“Are you saying you’ll leave me here on my own to go back to my place and—”

“There’s a dry cleaner downstairs. We’ll find something there.” He tugged at her hand. “Come.”

Relieved, she went with him. They walked down the stairs, Kim staying as close to the wall as possible, so if somebody looked through the glass doors into the lobby, the chance of them seeing green dots floating in the air was minimal.

When they reached the foot of the stairs, Kim was glad to see that none of the police officers outside was in sight.

“This way,” Manus instructed and hurried to a door with a sign saying Employees Only. “I’ll go through and open from the inside. But you’ll have to give me a sign that it’s clear and nobody is looking into the lobby when I’m opening the door. Okay?”

“Got it.”

A second later, she watched Manus step through the door and disappear. She heard a lock flip from the inside and quickly flicked her gaze to the entrance doors. “Still clear,” she said loud enough for Manus to hear, but not loud enough for anybody outside to register the sound.

The door opened toward her, and she stepped aside, then slid through the opening while Manus pulled the door closed behind her and flicked the lock shut.

It was dark, but they couldn’t risk switching on a light or using their flashlights because the dry cleaning business had a glass front. If one of the police officers passed the store front, they would notice the light and take action.

“Let’s go in the back,” Manus suggested and took her hand to lead her through the rows of clothing hanging from long conveyor lines, all wrapped in plastic.

When they reached the back of the business, Kim could make out a large folding table, several stools and benches as well as cabinets built along the back wall. Above were several windows located close to the ceiling, letting in some light from the street running along the back of the strip mall. Nobody could see into the building from there, and the rows and rows of clothing provided ample coverage from the other side.

“Get undressed,” Manus ordered and reached for a plastic wrapper. “Put your stained clothes in one of these. I’ll toss them in the trash.”

“Can’t we just wash the stains out here?” She pointed to a sink and various spray bottles. “I’m sure they have stain removers here. I mean, it’s a dry cleaner.”

“Sorry. But demon blood doesn’t come out.”

She sighed.