“Crap on toast,” I said as I stood to look out the window at the sunlight. “I didn’t realize it was that late. How long have Trent and Edden been back?”
“That’s kind of why I’m here,” Jenks said.
Panic washed through me, better than three cups of espresso. “Pike . . .” I said, eyes wide, and Jenks’s tiny features bunched up in amusement.
“Is fine,” he said, and I exhaled, slumping to sit back on a stack of boxes. “Trent and Edden are fine. Hell, even Zack is fine.” Jenks rose up to check on Bis, safe on his shelf. “But I don’t want Pike around when Edden and I go over the escape routes. Trent called. Said he was going to nap before coming back if that’s okay, but Edden’s been here for about twenty minutes.” Jenks dropped, right through his sifting dust. “You mind babysitting Pike for a few?”
I forced my arms down before they could wrap around my middle. “Sure. Bring him up.” I stood from the boxes and covered a yawn.
“Great. Thanks,” Jenks said, stifling his own yawn. “How much do you have left?”
“Not much.” I stretched my hands to the ceiling and groaned. I was beginning to understand why demons had kept familiars and forced them to make all their charms and curses. This was tedious. “I’ve already made the countercharm to de-stink Piscary’s,” I said, looking at the ley line amulet on the marble top. “And a couple more pain amulets.”
“Because we can always use pain charms.” Jenks’s wings started and stopped.
“I made a few more for you,” I added as I pointed them out, proud that I’d managed it. Modifying spells was tricky, and I’d been afraid I might deaden the pain to the point of stopping his heart the first time.
“Sweet. Thanks.” Jenks took his red bandana and twisted it into a bag to carry them.
“Restocked my splat gun with sleepy-time charms,” I added, very glad Edden had brought it back to me before the I.S. could tamper with it. “Brushed up on my defensive curses. All I have left is this little baby.”
Jenks rose up to land on my shoulder as I set the book I’d fallen asleep with on the dresser. “If I’m reading this right, it will solidify my aura so it can’t be modulated. Basically preventing anyone from throwing me into a line even if I’m unconscious.”
The pixy snorted, and the dust spilling down to light the page turned thick. “Cool as a newling’s ass on washday.” He rose up, wings clattering. “You want me to send him up with some lunch? Someone made a stack of peanut butter sandwiches.”
Head shaking, I scanned the room, thinking it was going to feel too small with a vampire in it. “No, thanks. I shouldn’t eat with him around.”
Jenks’s grin widened. “I forgot.”
“I didn’t,” I muttered. “I’ll hit him with that immobilization curse I got from Al if he gives me any trouble.” My gaze rose to the paper stuck to the dresser’s mirror where I’d written my emergency curses.
“The one you used to bind Landon?” Jenks chuckled. “That’s a good one. Hey, Etude is on the roof, if he tries to run that way. He’s asleep, but he’ll wake up if you shout. But seriously, everyone knows Pike’s here and is keeping an eye out. He won’t get two feet on that sidewalk before someone takes him down the hard way.”
“Thanks, Jenks. I couldn’t do this without you.” I jerked my curse cheat sheet off the mirror, folded it up, and tucked it in a pocket. “Send him up,” I said, and Jenks gave me a salute before darting through the cracked door and down the cramped stairwell.
Immediately I went to the screenless window and leaned out to see that yes, there was a huge gargoyle sleeping on the nearby peak. I lingered, half out the window to soak in the view. The church looked nice with people scattered about, playing volleyball, minding kids, bringing in shrink-wrapped firewood from a home-improvement store to keep the coals hot under the whole pig roasting at the graveyard’s new firepit. Dang, that smelled good.
Toes brushing the floor, I leaned farther, stretching until I could see the new deck foundation. It was substantial, filling the entire footprint of the demolished kitchen and back living room. Finley was out there working with a volunteer crew of eight. Rafters lay nearby, ready to raise. It looked as if they might get a roof up by tonight with the amount of help she had.
“Cool,” I whispered, then pulled myself back in. Apart from my spelling supplies, I had winnowed my day-to-day stuff to the bare minimum while living on Kisten’s boat. Even so, the small room looked cramped with open boxes of spelling and ley line equipment against one wall, my personal stuff by another. The few clothes I’d had in my closet now hung on the tiny bar set between two rafters. A long, low bookcase stood beside the marble-topped dresser under the narrow windows. Cookbooks mingled with spell primers and demon texts in what probably invited trouble, and a nagging feeling of unprofessionalism pricked me as I knelt to organize them while waiting for Pike.
“Don’t clean on my account,” Pike said unexpectedly from the stairway, and I jumped, trying to hide the motion as I turned, still kneeling. “I like a room that’s lived in.”
“Lived in is one thing, but this is . . .” I shrugged as he leaned against the doorframe and brushed pixy dust off his shoulder. He’d showered at some point, and his hair was wavy and thick, styled above his ears. He’d shaved, too, and, sensing my attention, he came in and posed for me, showing off the new slacks and dark button-down shirt. I could detect a hint of cologne, and a warning flag snapped. “Not a bad fit,” he said as he shifted to show me his other side. “It was in the back of a bedroom closet, apparently.”
“Ivy’s leftover box,” I said, gaze lingering on the small tear near the shoulder. “She didn’t take it when she moved in with Nina. Have a seat.” Hesitant, I inched closer, taking up the book I’d been reading before I’d fallen asleep, my thoughts on how soft his dark hair would be on my fingers. Damn vamp pheromones. “Everyone being nice?”
I heard him sigh as he sat on the low fainting couch. “If looks could kill, I’d be twice dead by now. You were right. I might as well be on an island surrounded by sharks.” He hesitated. “Quite a setup. And it’s all gratis. You aren’t paying them anything.”
It’s not always about money, I thought as I backed to the middle of the room. “No, I’m just giving them somewhere to park their asses after Constance kicked them out.” Speaking of which, where am I going to park my ass if he’s on the couch?
Seeing my dilemma, Pike grinned and patted the fainting couch in invitation.
“Yeah. Right,” I muttered as I sat on a box. Head down, I set the open book on my lap and looked over the aura-solidifying curse again.