“You are going to try to take the city?” he said, incredulous. “I thought you were all about the letter of the law.”
“I’m not killing her, fang boy. I’m asking her to leave.” I hesitated. “Politely. At first.”
He stared, eyes wide and brown in disbelief. His phone dinged, and I looked at it, smiling. Constance had texted back: “Make her get rid of the stench at Piscary’s.”
Feeling sassy, I went to the dresser, fingering the ley line spell for a moment before pulling the pin from the ring and breaking the curse. From overhead, the bell seemed to tremble, and I stifled a shiver.
“You’d let yourself be caught so Kalamack can recover his Brimstone?” he said derisively. “He gets to sell his drug, and you get locked in Constance’s bathroom.”
“Yeah. Stupid idea. You’re probably right,” I said as I turned back around. His hair had fallen into his eyes, and I resisted the urge to arrange it. I hated it when my captors did that to me. “We have a few hours before we have to go,” I said as I stood over him. Time enough for the dewar to make some doppelganger charms and me to load a few splat gun pellets with potion. “Try to get some sleep. It’s going to be a busy night.”
“You’re going to hand me over to one of my brothers, aren’t you,” he said suddenly, and I blinked, lips parting. “Use the money to try to buy her off.”
“Is that what you think of me?” I said, truly shocked. “No, and to prove it, I’ll let you drive us to the I.S. Good?”
He stared, speechless, and in the calm, bird-filled silence rising up from my garden and graveyard, I grabbed my splat ball kit and headed out, leaving him to mull that over.
CHAPTER
22
Much to my surprise, Pike was an annoyingly nervous driver, his usual steadfast confidence utterly absent. Slow and hesitant, he wove through Cincinnati as if he was a blood virgin going through the Hollows after midnight on a dare. His eyes were more often on the rearview mirror than out the front, making me wonder if he knew Jenks was hiding in the back with a splat ball full of mouse potion. But in all fairness, there were two cars following us. One had to be Constance’s goons, to judge by their belligerent, on-our-bumper attitude. The other was probably Pike’s assassins, as they were almost two blocks back and in a nicer car.
Still, I was beginning to regret handing him my keys. That he might think I was taking him to his brothers for the bounty on his head had really bothered me. That I was currently on the phone with Edden, basically lying to Pike via an overheard conversation that we were only after the Brimstone, did not.
At least, I was trying to. Edden had me on hold, and my tongue kept worrying the splat ball/mouse potion tucked between my teeth and gum. If I accidentally swallowed it, I’d be up a creek. I didn’t know if it would pass through me unbroken, or if I’d unexpectedly find myself turning into a mouse.
“Rachel?” Edden called from my phone, and I pushed the splat ball back under my tongue. “Sorry about that. You can’t get a decent signal in the parking garage, and I had to move to where I could reach a tower. Trent and, ah, his friend are glamouring the van,” he said, clearly wanting to keep Kaspar’s name out of it. “Holy space cats,” he whispered in awe. “No wonder we can’t keep up. I’d never be able to tell that wasn’t an I.S. vehicle. Damn, even the plate.”
His voice became distant as he asked Kaspar how long it would take to turn it back after they fled the I.S. That it was an illegal, white charm went without saying. But when had one of my runs ever not dipped into the gray?
“Remind me to get you a pair of glamour glasses for Christmas,” I said when he came back. “It lets you see through just about everything.”
Pike’s eyes were fixed on the road, but I knew he was listening. As intended.
“Sounds like something I should already have,” Edden said, his voice suddenly deeper. Clearly he’d been spelled to look like Doyle. “Trent says we’re ready. We’re moving.” There was a hesitation, and then, “Holy sweet Jesus. Even my voice is different.”
I smiled as Kaspar chuckled, and I hoped Pike would assume it was Trent.
“That, Captain, is the difference between a community college degree and a Kallasea scholar.”
Yeah, yeah, whatever, I thought sourly, but Edden was clearly impressed as he said, “Never in a million years. Wait until I tell Glenn. Working with the elves to steal Brimstone. I’m going to jail. I know it.” He laughed, sounding nothing like himself.
“You won’t go to jail for stealing it,” Trent said, and I angled the phone to try to hide the conversation. “It’s the distributors who they go after. Three months, max.”
“Well, you’d know,” I said, and Edden grunted his agreement.
“See you at the church with the goods,” Edden said. “If it’s compromised, the basilica.”
“Bye, Edden.” I ended the call, and my smile faded. It still felt kind of slipshod to me.
“You didn’t really tell me your fallback positions, did you?” Pike said.
“No, of course not.” Peeved, I set my phone in the center console for Pike, seeing that as far as Constance knew, he was bringing me in, not the other way around. Reminded of our subterfuge, I dug in my bag to put Pike’s phone next to mine. We were almost there, and if he wanted to call and tell them they were about to be raided, more power to him.
But as the shadow of the I.S. tower took us, traffic ground to a halt. Amber lights flashed a few cars ahead, and when I leaned to look, I decided someone was being towed. “Great. Now we’re going to be late.”
“No . . .” Pike casually took both phones, tucking them in his jacket’s inside pocket before stretching to see around the cars. “They’re making a parking spot for us.”
“Seriously?” I leaned farther as well, eyebrows rising at the vampire directing traffic.
“Yep.” Pike sounded tired as we were spotted, and the somewhat squat vampire dressed in black made a motion for us to sit tight while he kept all the other traffic moving—as much as they could with the tow truck there.
“You won’t even need to feed the meter,” I said, and Pike frowned, his scars making deep furrows. “Is that Vince?”
His lips parted in his surprise, then remembered. “Yeah,” he said, hand touching his chest where his phone lay.
I would have given a lot to know what his thoughts were, but I was far more interested in the three blond men in suits currently bunched up at the revolving door, waiting to go in. Two vamps were behind them, their mood cocky and aggressive as they decided to go in through the pull doors instead. Our doppelgangers, I thought in a surge of anticipation. Jakob had cut off the dewar volunteers at three. We had eight vamps from the church. It would have to be enough.