Brow furrowed, he frowned. “How are you going to kill Constance tonight? Sleepy-time charm her to death?” he said as he reached to inspect my splat gun pellets.
Uncomfortable with him being so close, I moved to the fainting couch, sitting with my knees almost to my chin. “Weren’t you listening this afternoon? I’m not killing her,” I said, and he arched his eyebrows in a silent rebuke. “Pike is going to try to convince her to take me seriously,” I added, and Hodin blinked as if I was a fool for trusting Pike. “Apparently I impressed him with my interspecies connections. He thinks I’m a real threat, and if she believes him, she might settle down. If she doesn’t, I’ll turn her into a mouse and send her back to DC in a box.”
My eyes went to the cricket cage as an idea surfaced. “Hey, can I keep this?”
“No,” he said flatly. “It would be easier to kill her and become the subrosa. Anything less, and it will be work, work, work to keep her suppressed.”
“Killing her only looks easy. I’m not doing it,” I muttered, remembering Al saying the same thing. Even if the DC vamps had sent her here for one of us to kill the other, I’d land in jail or be forced to flee to the ever-after. No, I had to send her back with her fangs filed down, proving I could handle the Cincinnati vamps on my own so they wouldn’t just send another.
Hodin made a low growl, and my chin lifted. “This is what I’m doing, okay? I’ll pin her down with an immobilization curse and turn her into a mouse.”
Hodin grinned. “Can I have her?”
“No. She goes back to DC with the countercurse.” Yes, the woman had to be stopped, and yes, transformation was better than killing her, but still . . . Turning her into a rodent to force her compliance was . . . demonic.
Uneasy, I focused on two crickets across the room, thinking, Stabils. But as before, only one went silent, the other continuing to chirp, filling my belfry with the sound of fall.
“Perhaps if you focus the curse by directing it to the auras in question?” Hodin suggested.
Peeved, I stood up from the couch. “All right. You need to leave. Now,” I demanded, pointing at the window, and he grinned, red eyes glinting.
“I’ll leave you to your practice, then.” Hodin turned to the window.
“Hodin?” I called, and he hesitated with his back to me, clearly listening. “If I do crap out on this, will you tell Al—”
“No,” he interrupted, and then he was gone, winking out with an enviable ease.
Someday I will be able to do that, I thought, my attention going to Bis before dropping to Rex as the cat came out from between the boxes. Immediately he jumped onto the top of the dresser to pat at the cricket cage, and I lurched forward before he knocked it off.
“Hold on there, Mr. Wild Kingdom,” I said as I moved him to the floor. “If you want crickets, have your daddy Jenks find you one in the garden. These are for me to practice on,” I added as I stood on a box and set the cage out of his reach beside Bis.
I had barely gotten down before a light knuckle-knock sounded at the door. Hand to my head, I sighed. What part of “I’m in the belfry” don’t you get? “If someone isn’t on fire, go away!” I shouted.
“It’s me,” Trent said, and my grimace shifted to a smile.
“You can come in,” I said as I shuffled about for an empty splat ball hopper.
His smile was wide as he did just that, firmly shutting out the rising argument concerning popcorn salt. Looking over the small space, he exhaled in relief. “How’s it going?”
“Okay. That’s my last one.” Turning, I dropped the filled hopper into my waiting bag.
His eyes traveled over my frizzy hair, down my black tee, jeans, and running shoes. “Is that what you’re wearing?”
A faint warmth rose as I gathered my curling hair into a ponytail and let it go. “Yep.” I wanted to be able to run, and Constance wouldn’t be impressed with my best slacks and the pearls I had taken from Nash. Or maybe she would. . . . I thought, eyes going to them.
His head bobbed. “Great. So you’re ready?”
“As much as I ever am.” Stiff, I stood and stretched. “I might get something to eat, though.” I cringed as the loud, rhythmic thumping began to tremble the floorboards.
“Food. Yes.” Trent held out a hand, the pearl on his ring glowing faintly. “I have an errand to run, and I want you to come with me. We can get something to eat on the way.”
“Now?” There was a tingle as my hand fitted in his, and he pulled me into him with a little, welcome thump.
“Since you’re done,” he said, voice soft. “You need a break and something to eat besides chili and chips.”
I chuckled, my front pressing into his. “It’s good chili, though.”
“If you like chocolate in it.” He gave a tug, pulling me deeper against him, his gaze heavy on mine until the lingering vampire pheromones in the church seemed to hum against my skin. “Come with me? Burger and fries. Lots of ketchup.”
“Well, if there’s going to be ketchup,” I said, and he chuckled, letting me go so I could shove everything I wanted with me tonight into my bag. The cage I’d rigged up for Pike was already in there, and I stifled a surge of anticipation. This would work. It had to.
“Where are we going?” I said as I carefully left the door cracked for Rex, but I don’t think Trent even heard me as we hit the foyer and the noise became even louder.
Simply put, it was a mess. As quiet and empty of refugees as the church had been during my city-powers meeting, it was now that loud and noisy, full of displaced families with kids trying to cope, childless couples watching them in horror, and singles laughing at them both. David and Edden were at the baby grand with three capable-looking alphas and a fourth who was probably a witch, judging by the number of jewelry-disguised amulets. An overly bright, industrial work light made a hot spotlight on a map strewn with lines and notations, making it obvious they were talking proper deployment of people and spells.
David looked up at our dark shapes in the foyer, giving me a smile before going back to his discussion. Jenks was with them, and I winced when he rose up over it all and headed our way. Stef, who was busy applying a deep-tissue-pain charm on someone’s hammer-smashed thumb, looked up at his wing clatter, following his path to me. I gave her a wave and ducked out after Trent before I was recognized by anyone else. We’d never get out of here.
“Hey, Rache!” the pixy said as he darted out the closing door, and I hesitated on the brightly lit stoop. “You think you can just check out of Hotel Morgan and Jenks?”
“Running an errand,” I said as Trent and I took the stairs together and headed for his car, somewhere in the dark.