I gave Pike a weary look, but the lead guard had already decided I was the one to talk to, seeing as I was standing confidently passive and not throwing a hissy-girl tantrum. “I told you,” I said, letting a little impatience show. “I’m Rachel Morgan. That’s Pike Welroe. We didn’t mean to come here. All we want is to leave.”
The guard looking into Al’s takeout bag frowned in confusion. “It’s a hamburger,” he said, and the lead guard’s eyebrows rose. “And fries.”
“Ralph asked me to bring one by the next time I was in the area,” I smart-mouthed. And then I gasped as a heavy, wet wash of salt water hit me from behind, almost knocking me down.
“What the fuck!” Pike exclaimed, now dripping as well, but I totally got it. It was to break any earth charms we might be under, exposing us if we were trying to escape by impersonating someone who wasn’t supposed to be here.
“Oh, for little green troll turds,” I said, disgusted as I looked at the guard with the empty bucket. I was wet again, and the breeze off the bay was suddenly cold in the setting sun. “I took a wrong jump from a ley line and ended up here by mistake. We aren’t here to break anyone out!”
But one of the guards was staring at me, snapping his fingers in recognition. “I know that hair,” he said, and I slumped, not sure if that was good or not. “That’s Sunshine.” He turned to everyone, face cracking in a rude smile. “Sunshine! Remember?”
“Your jail name is Sunshine?” Pike chuckled, using his shoulder to wipe the salt water dripping from his chin.
I felt myself warm despite the cold water running into my underwear. He was laughing at me. At least until one of the guards gave him a shove and told him to shut up.
“You know . . .” I inched closer to him as they tried to decide what to do with us. “Rachel. Ray. Ray of sunshine?”
“The one who escaped while talking to the coven’s high priestess?” the lead guard said.
Yeah, Brooke had been pretty pissed, but I’d had Bis with me, and Ivy had summoned me out. Bis was now comatose, and you couldn’t summon a demon anymore. I had to get out of here on my own. The Goddess? I wondered, then dismissed it. Way too risky when I hadn’t exhausted my true talent of talking myself out of trouble. But if that failed, she might be the only way to access magic on an island with no ley lines and surrounded by salt water. And wouldn’t Al be pleased?
“You escaped Alcatraz?” Pike said, clearly impressed, and I shrugged. He had flicked his head to get his dark, wet hair out of his eyes, and it looked bad-boy nice.
“Yep,” I said as the guards moved in. “So clearly I’m not supposed to be here.” Shit, they just kept getting closer, and I backed up into Pike. “I was pardoned!” I exclaimed, adding, “Stop shoving,” when they pulled us apart and gave me a push to the door. “Damn it back to the Turn, I was pardoned. I didn’t mean to come here! Give me my phone and I can clear this up.”
But they weren’t listening, hemming us in and herding us to the yard’s gate. According to the news coming in over the radio, everyone had been accounted for, and they didn’t know what to do. That could be good, or really bad.
“We should put them in the warden’s office. Let him figure it out,” one guard said.
“I’m not getting salt water on his carpet.” The head guard flicked his arm out to look at his watch, adding, “Put them in the lunchroom. He can talk to them there.”
I leaned toward Pike. He’d fallen into a sullen silence. Maybe he didn’t like his threats not being taken seriously. Welcome to my world, bud-dy. “Trust me. It’s better than a cell,” I said, then stopped stock-still at the door and the wave of sour redwood that poured from the opening. Fear bubbled up from nowhere, and I shoved it down, almost panicked when Pike gave me an inquiring look. He’d smelled my fear.
“Move,” someone said, and Pike stumbled, shoved from behind.
“Easy,” he said, eyes dark and knowing as he caught himself. “I’ve got a stab wound.”
“Did Lenore do that?” one of them asked, but I was concentrating on my breathing, trying to convince myself that I was not walking into a jail cell. We’d talk to the warden, explain things, and if he didn’t listen, I would call on the Goddess to sink this rock into the sea, because I was not going behind bars again.
Pike turned to give me a shitty grin as he willingly went through the door, seeming to be pleased he’d found something that scared me. “No,” he drawled, and I forced myself to follow him into the dark, cold, stone and metal ugliness. “I’m not supposed to be here.”
There was a chuckle from one of the cells we were passing. “None of us are,” a man behind bars said, then spat at the guard who ran his wand over the metal and told him to shut up.
And still, my gut twisted as we were paraded into the lunchroom. I’d had one meal here. It had been breakfast, ending with egg in my hair and me in solitary. The only reason they hadn’t lobotomized me was because Brooke wanted to talk to me first, offering me a way out that required me to become a baby factory and Brooke’s private soldier at need.
“Sit,” someone said, giving me a shove forward.
But that’s not what is going to happen here, I vowed as I went to the nearest table. Satisfied, the head guard walked out, presumably to brief the warden.
Pike sighed, somehow managing to be graceful as he sat down with his hands cuffed behind his back. His eyes were fixed on the guards pawing over our stuff two tables away. Apparently Pike’s pistol had a few modifications that weren’t legal. My ring was of little interest, and a sliver of relief washed over me when the woman guard who tried it on couldn’t get it over her pinky.
“Your prison name is Sunshine?” Pike said, his long face creased in amusement.
My eyes jerked from my ring. God, my head hurts. “I’ll take care of this. Don’t worry.”
“Worried?” Pike beamed, showing me his sharp canines. “One call and I’m out of here. You, though.” He paused. “Kalamack will get you out eventually, but not until Constance well and truly has Cincinnati. You, Morgan, are the small bite at the end of a big meal.”
Vampire idiom? I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant, but it didn’t sound flattering. My attention shifted at the sound of clicking shoes. The guards stiffened, and, as one, they quit messing with our things and came to stand obnoxiously close. It was the warden, obviously, and I gave Pike a look to stay quiet so I could hear what was being said.
“Everyone has been individually accounted for. Twice,” the guard was saying as he and a man in a suit strode in. “They were de-spelled in the yard. Neither of them were charmed. Sir, I think it’s really her. We’re still waiting for a positive ID on the man.”